Retail Musings: Terms and Conditions
I’ve recently had an experience that goes to show how some customers foolishly believe that old adage, ‘the customer is always right’. To anyone reading this post who happens to believe that, I am not sorry about bursting your bubble. Rest assured, the customer is not always right. They are always right in matters of taste, but there are certain objective truths to retail, sales, administration, and indeed every customer-facing industry that rubbish the idea the customer is king or queen.
As a case in point, there was a recent experience with a customer who wished to exchange a product. This in itself is not a problem. What is a problem is when someone tries to return something after they’ve destroyed the packaging, going as far as to throw away all the internal packaging material, before deciding the item they’d received was incorrect.
Their argument? They were never informed about the size of this product. It was allegedly never explained to them. Whether my colleague spoke directly about it to them is not something I can confirm, but the item and its size were detailed on both 3D renders (which I know the customer was sent), quotations prior to placing an order, and on order documentation sent well in advance of delivery. On top of that, the difference in size is not discrete; the customer could have and should have noticed the size difference upon receiving the order.
The customer’s argument that we could, as a company, repackage the item ignores a crucial detail. How are we supposed to get it back to the warehouse safely? It will get damaged – and potentially damage other items – whilst in the van. It’s not secure. Minus its packaging, it cannot be secured. Additionally, we don’t keep internal packaging laying about at the warehouse! All of this adds up to the customer not wanting to take any responsibility for their series of errors, and responsibility is the key word.
Of course it’s frustrating to be told ‘no, you cannot have your way’. No one likes hearing ‘no’. However, it would be financial suicide for companies to accept back products in any condition, simply on the customer’s whim and say-so. Terms and conditions exist for a reason. They make it perfectly clear that if you want to bring something back, it should be in a resellable condition (obviously this doesn’t apply to broken or defective items).
If the customer was somewhat assumptive in her posture, her husband was arrogant and conceited. He called up, arguing that no one really reads Ts & Cs (perhaps they don’t, but that doesn’t make them go away), and accused my employer of refusing to accept responsibility for the matter. Well, how about you and your wife take responsibility? Sending the showroom selective emails to create false narrative that throws my colleague under the bus isn’t going to fly. Talking down to me won’t make me bend to your will. A haughty, lofty attitude isn’t going to break me.
To summarise a bit, imagine you’ve bought a TV, had it delivered, opened it up, chucked away the packaging, and then decided ‘ooh, it’s too big’. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, having had order confirmation details and the details of the TV printed on the packaging, that you bear some responsibility here? It’s a similar situation. Attempting to bully your way into getting what you want for your mistake isn’t going to make me want to help you. It may make me more resistant though.
‘Kat Comments