Had an interesting situation occur during our black friday sale today I thought I’d share. My e-commerce stores return policy is you can return for any reason within 30 days of purchase. We also had our Black Friday sale today which had a pretty substantial discount on certain products. Some of my more conniving customers realized that they could request a return / price adjustment for their item they purchased up to 30 days ago as my return policy states they have 30 days to return the item.
I’m of the mindset I should just take the L on this. Based on the rules I set they are allowed to do this. And customer service / public perception is important. I find the situation both annoying and amusing. I can’t blame them for doing this but I do think there’s something to be learned here. Part of me wants to implement some kind of restocking fee in the future, but also people expect returns to be free these days.
As i’m curious, what would others do in this situation? Suck it up? Try to weasel out of the obligation? How would you craft a return policy in the future to avoid this kind of thing?
This is a classic example of how to business … ALWAYS focus on customer satisfaction … in such cases, hands down offer a price match with no questions asked. It will ensure they can trust you to be there for them and will lead to more word of mouth promotions. Also learn for the big guys! Best buy offers price matches from October all the way to January to cater to those who are resistant and will FOMO over Black Friday and boxing day sales. ALWAYS put yourself in a customer’s shoes regardless of what you sell and how much you sell for. I put Black Friday discounts on from Nov 1st and encourage clients to buy reduce my traffic volumes and for them to get whatever they want before it sells out.