I agree with this.

I had a customer say she could get "wild bird" seed cheaper at Target, I immediately began backing out her sale.

From my point of view, there is no way to determine accurate size and brand exactness with something like Bird Seed, so she can get in the car and pay the gas and time, and fight the 14 stoplights that are between me and Target.

I offer convenience and service to my customers, if they cannot perceive or are not in a budgetary situation that can allow appreciation of that, then I just politely let them go. But never, ever do I consider that particular person a "bad" customer, just not my customer on this particular item of interest today. They are potential future buyers of wares that I do have a comparative advantage on, and I never want to forget that. Add to the fact, that a really pissed off customer, is 5 times more deleterious to your business, than a single very pleased and satisfied customer.

It also annoys the chit out of me when a customer buys a dog house when it is raining, then wants to return it, scratched, and muddied after the storm has went by and say, "My dog won't go in it". They won't even bother to clean the mud out. 20% restocking fee is an absolute mandate for that situation.

At the very minimum, make no enemies. At the maximum, make a friend.



I also encountered a clever little deal once with an automatic water return. A customer brought in an Automatic water fount that had obviously been in use for months if not years due to the vast amount of hard water deposits that had collected on it. He claims that he bought it less than a month ago and it is a lousy product and wanted a refund. A receipt was produced that backs up his claim on the date of purchase and item purchased. It was obvious what happened. This customer bought the same item about a year or so ago, then when it wore out, got the bright idea on how to replace it for free. Just go buy a new one, save the receipt for about a month, then return the old one with the new receipt to get paid. Momma didn't raise no dummy, so he didn't get paid. Sorry folks, but this is the same as stealing in my book.

So tell me again, why is it that you are providing jobs that are the income to Denver Broncos season ticket holders anyway?

I check all of my job applicants for cooking spray, and if they're covered in it, they don't get hired.

Though I guess I can see one possible type of policy exception for a cooking-spray covered applicant...

That's no shit. I spent 13 months in Krea an never saw a dog other than the K-9's on the base.

I had the "privilege" of standing behind a guy at the return counter at Cabela's (a sporting goods store). They have a very generous return policy, and this guy was taking full advantage.

He was "returing" a pair of boots that looked like they'd been worn to mix concrete in every dang day of their long life.

The associate even pointed out in the catalogs how these boots must be at least 6 years old because of how many digits the product number was.

They paid him $40, I believe. I always see these old dogs of boots in the bargain section, wondering who in their right mind would have the balls to return them.

Now I know.

I wasn't quick enough to think of a way to publicly humiliate him for indirectly driving MY prices up. I'll be ready next time.

I'll bet you saw plenty of dog, just in unexpected places....

This is just another reason Wal-Mart is kicking everybody's ass. Theyhave the most liberal return policy I've ever seen and I don't see them having these problems.

It's because Best Buy is a bunch of self righteous pricks.

They'd rather you not buy high ticket items there unless you also buy the high profit margin items like cables, extended warranties, and other bullshit.

I asked my banker why Wal-Mart kicked everybody's ass. He said "better management". I would certainly agree with that in this case.

I argued with him for 5, talked to a CSR for 5, and spent approx. 2 minute typing a complaint letter. I made $15.00 in twelve minutes...or didn't lose it depending on your perspective.

I don't make $60.00 an hour so to me $15.00 for less than 15 minutes of my time is time well spent. Especially since I spend more time than that reading stupid posts like yours for FREE.

Actually Walmart is losing money relative to the way they have been making it. They have also tightened their return policy and you could argue perhaps the two are not a coincidence.

Costco, OTOH, has an insanely liberal return policy and they seem to be making money and growing at a nice rate...at least last time I checked.

There's no reason to be rude about it even though soldiers fought for your right to do so.

I have owned small businesses all my adult life and I have what I call my 2% rule. There are 2% of your customers that you do not want. They cause 25% of your customer problems. Let your competitor spend his time trying to please them. Just make sure you identify the 2% correctly.

Well, I work as a district manager for a retail clothing store, and the things people do are pretty ridiculous sometimes. We have a very loose return policy that people really seem to try to take advantage of. I constantly have people bring in jeans that they say they've never worn that have mud on the bottom of them or stains on them. They think I can just throw them away or something. THey don't realize that it doesn't work that way, I would need to sell those to another customer-now who could feel good about that?

We also have many customers who have returned more than they buy, or very close to it. Like a lady comes to mind that last year bought $1200 worth of clothes, but returned $1280 worth. Once you figure in payroll in helping her out, and the clothing that she bought then returned later that will sit on the shelves because it's older, then there are less margins and we will lose money having her as a customer.

We also have a 60 day return policy. But the thing is, when the product first comes in, we have decent margins, and it is going to sell because it is new. At 60 days, if that same thing is returned, lots of times it is a last size that we have left, or a sale item. We could have sold it ten times 60 days ago, but instead, it just ends up sitting there and a lot of items, we LOSE money on by the time we sell it.

If every customer shopped like this, no one would be in business.

I'm not a big price buyer. If I like it enough, want it and can afford it I can't see travelling all over to save a few bucks. Exceptions are big ticket items up to a point.

But what I do, is scoop up something I like so it's not gone...then continue shopping. If I see something I like more....I reserve the right to return it. But I don't ever wear it if it's clothes.On home stuff, sometimes I wanna see how something looks or if it will fit. Often things don't work out. I'm very fussy about design and color. It has to look right.

Don't ever buy from Burlington coat factory though. I did that for some home stuff and went to return just a few things outta of a big sale and they wouldn't let me return the few items that didn't work out for me. NEVER even shopped there before.

Good lord, though if this becomes common. My kid hates shopping. So I do hers and buy in several colors and sizes. Then she tries them on at home. I return the rest.