Horrible retail experience and question for those in retail

[Newyearkiss]

I took something back to a well-known high street store yesterday, and the young girl behind the counter had to call her manager over. There was a slight query on my return and her manager was totally hostile, to the point that I actually walked out of the shop shaking after (eventually) getting a refund. I don’t know if she was running on the adrenaline of the sales and was taking a ‘no-nonsense from customers’ approach (it was heaving in there and had a jumble sale in January type vibe), but I don’t think anyone has ever made me feel so awful. I was mortified as well in front of this young girl. The manager was just so abrasive and aggressive. I’m normally quite able to hold my own but she totally blindsided me.

I was actually thinking I might put in a complaint although I signed my name on the returns receipt. Does anyone know what happens to those bits of paper at the end of each day? I would prefer this woman not to be able to access my name and potentially trace me online.

Really?🙄

Unfortunately we cannot do much about someone looking up our profiles (I guess we have all done it out of curiosity) but it's not something she should be doing with a customers details. If she used your details for anything other than work purposes that would be a massive breach of GDPR which could land the company with a huge fine. With regards to what happens to the slip they would be filed so auditors can check paperwork against any refunds and make sure everything adds up. When I worked in retail it wasn't unheard of for a member of staff to be fraudulently putting refunds through the till and pocketing the money. Not sure how easy that is for them to do now as technology has changed.

If you are concerned about the store having your details I would definitely speak to their h/o and also make a complaint about the way you were treated if you still feel upset about it.

It doesn’t matter if you complain, everyone will just think you’re being a difficult customer (when you weren’t). Also ex retail manager here.

They asked me to go to customer services never said why. Was because I had left my debit card at customer services. I paid on my phone so not really a big deal. Hope that explains it no need for rudeness.

Their sizes are crazy too. A regular size 16 would be equivalent size 20 in Zara and not wearable.

They are filed away for a year and then shredded

What is it about thermal receipts that make them fade so fast? My local Tesco are faded straight from the till!
I found a receipt in my folder that was completely unreadable.

I work full time in retail. I have people complain about everything and anything. Literally everything is our fault from food prices to how hot/cold the shop is. The queues are too long? again, our fault. Sold out of something? Our fault. Something has been moved? Our fault.
People that don’t work in retail at the moment have no idea how hard it is. If you don’t stand with a huge smile on your face whilst a customer is tearing into you, you are rude and may have a complaint put in about you.

I’m always polite and helpful to customers. I’m never rude. I have to say though, that the pressure on retail staff is becoming unbearable. Companies are cutting back relentlessly on staff, and this will have a huge effect on customer service. We are now expected to do the job of three people during our shift. I challenge anybody to do that and not feel the stress.

Yes Op, the staff member wasn’t very friendly. Was it right? No. Does she deserve a complaint put in about her? No! You picked her up on her attitude…..isn’t that enough? Let it go. Don’t shop there again if it bothered you that much.
Total over reaction. Tbh if it was me, I would have said something about how busy she must be, as the shop was so manic. You know, treat her like a human??!!

I don't find this at all Maybe it depends on the attitude and demeanour of the customer(s.) Everyone who ever serves me in a shop, supermarket, or restaurant - or anywhere - is nothing but pleasant to me. Occasionally I get one who doesn't talk much, (if at all,) apart from 'that's £9.60 thanks,' and 'goodbye,' but it's not a crime - or rude - to not spend 2 minutes chatting.

If a customer is snooty, arrogant, ignorant, and rude, I feel the person serving has a right to be too. But some customers think they can do no wrong, and can talk to someone in retail or hospitality, like they're a piece of shit. Then if the person serving retaliates, or gives a similar attitude back, it's like 'oh noes, I'm so offended at how the women on the checkout spoke to me....' 😱

.

I've worked in retail and hospitality and have never been rude or supercilious to staff in my life, and you still get the odd member of staff with a bad attitude no matter how effusively polite you are.

Returns have to be easy, when they are within whatever parameters the shop sets. And particularly when you are exercising your statutory rights to return a faulty item. I just wouldn't bother to shop anywhere who makes it more difficult than it needs to be whether it's an online or bricks and mortar shop, and I don't return much, only when I order two sizes for a coat or shoes.

I’m not trying to be difficult here, but I’m struggling to understand what you mean by some of the terms you’re using. Could you clarify a few points?

When you describe the manager as hostile / abrasive / aggressive, what specific words or actions are you referring to?

You say there was a “slight query” with the return what exactly was the query, and why do you consider it slight rather than a normal policy issue?

As you did receive a refund, is your complaint mainly about how the interaction was handled rather than the outcome itself?

You mention leaving the shop shaking do you see your emotional reaction as evidence of wrongdoing, or separate from the manager’s actual behaviour?

You suggest the manager may have been running on adrenaline or taking a “no-nonsense” approach what makes you think that, rather than them simply enforcing store policy?

You refer several times to the assistant as a “young girl” why is her age relevant to the situation?

When you say you were blindsided, what exactly was unexpected the policy, the tone, or the fact that the return was questioned at all?

Finally, what do you think the manager should have done differently while still following store policy?

given i just read this : Given that the receipt was faded in parts, seems you were lucky to get any kind of refund,

You just didn’t get your way. That’s all. She did her job. Move on

right, so part of the problem is that your receipt wasn't clear. That is something you can avoid in future by taking a photograph of all receipts and saving them in a folder on your phone, as well as keeping the paper receipt.

The issue with the sale price, if there was 4 pounds difference i get why you accepted that in the circs, but you need to point out that the price on the receipt is different. That 4 pounds will show up when their accounting team do their month end processes. They need to explain that internally (you don't have to care about that)

But if you are an anxious sort of person, you ought probably to avoid going to places when they are likely to be very busy, and/or take someone with you to either advocate for you or just be a silent support. That is something you might think about working on.

Why would she want to trace you online!? She probably couldn't care less who you were and by end of the day will have completely forgotten who you were.
Don't flatter yourself

It’s a very long time since I worked in retail and I can’t actually remember what happens to the signed returns receipts… but what I can tell you is that there is zero chance that anyone working in the store has even the slightest interest in ‘tracing you online’. You’re massively over-estimating your importance here. She won’t even have given the interaction another second of her headspace, let alone be ruminating on it and planning to look you up and plan a vendetta against you.

You’re being a bit weird about what was essentially a completely routine customer service transaction.

Customer services used to be a lot better in this country. It's a shame how this place became such an unfriendly place.

Write a review on google reviews, trustpilot, etc. Hopefully, companies will take notice.

I have previously worked in retail and the company I worked for offered a 28 day refund policy. The only time I had a very difficult customer with a return was because she had not told me the whole story about her return. I had to contact another store manager for back up about store return policy and the customer was rude to her as well. Once I got rid of the angry customer I actually ended up in tears.
As far as the store I worked in was concerned the policy was to lock all return slips in the safe and then send on to head office weekly for financial reconciliation. I can assure you that staff didn't have the time or inclination to look up customers online.

I had a rude girl in Costa, I don't use the app so had a voucher and a free sweet treat, she said can you scan the app, I said where do I find that she abruptly showed me how to do it with an attitude, I knew how to use my voucher but just not the app. I thanked her for showing me and I've worked in retail so know how stressful it cab be, it seems to be these coffee shops, I realise it's stressful but this one wasn't that busy even with a drive through.

100% all this

You're over thinking this, as an ex retail manager, I had people taking the piss on the daily, if you were in the right, and got your refund so what?
I worked on a posh store that sold weird gadgets one of them was a nutmeg grinder, it had a label on it stating as such. A customer came back saying this pepper grinder did not work and she wanted her money back, I iterated it was nutmeg grinder and she had used it by putting peppercorns in it, so no I wouldn't be giving her money back, we went back and forth and she threw the fucking thing at me, twat,so I kept it, but nutmeg grinders are a waste of time so I chucked it, was dear too 😂
To conclude, she will have had people trying it on for refunds and you were the last in a long line probably, forget about it.

Refund forms are for showing what & who the refund was for; this for accounting purposes. No body ever looks at them again. I doubt the manager even thought of retaining the name address though. It sounds like everyone was having a bad time which is not to excuse any bad customer service.

When I worked in retail if a customer brought back an item without a receipt, or a clear readable one we could only offer an exchange/credit note at the current price. So ‘you can either refund in full or you don’t refund at all’ isn’t true.

Let me guess. Zara?

Gift voucher. I'm beginning to smell compo vibes here.