The poor little old lady cried to me and there wasn’t really anything for me to do. I remember her coming in a little while back and she was helped by one of my employees.
She said she was fitted for a product, and when she went to pay the guy wend to the back and swapped it and she never checked it until just now and it what she has doesn’t work for her at all. She asked her husband if it was his but he said “no” and that she got them from my store. She says she ONLY buys from us and has been that way for years.
I wanted to help her but the thing is the product was a brand we’ve never carried. I know everyone makes mistakes but no way did my guy give her this item. She was quite upset and told me about some other troubles she’s had lately and insists that someone’s pulled one over on her. I said I was sorry but there’s no way it came from us and I couldn’t take them.
I really don’t think she was trying to scam us or anything. She was confused and frustrated, and understandably so. I felt bad for her.
Yea dealing with the public you’ll get some outliers and anomalies
any chance you have camera footage from that day?
His store doesn’t even carry that brand she’s trying to return.
True, but I think what he’s trying to say is camera footage to show that she didn’t purchase that item the day she claims
So you’re going to show her an entire day’s worth of footage showing that she’s not there?
We had a woman who couldn’t find the product she bought from us and was sure she left it here. She didn’t, but she looked very distressed and embarrassed as there were several other people at the store. We ended up giving it to her, and if she found the other to bring it back. We never saw her after that, but we now have a joke that we are dementia friendly, lol Obviously, your situation is different, and you can’t do that, but I thought it was a relevant story. Unfortunately, all you can do is be compassionate and act with kindness.
Work in a field where I deal with mostly old folks.
Yes, she is trying to scam you. Not in the same way some meth head would though.
She just knows 99% of folks will give a crying old lady what she wants. That’s all. She’s at an age where she doesn’t have any advantages, and she is using one she has.
Proof of the pudding is in the eating. You don’t sell the product, yet she wants to return it. You’re being gaslit.
Something like half of all people over the age of 70 are experiencing cognitive decline. They will sound perfectly normal and like they are all there, too. This can be something that starts in their 40s even and isn’t even noticed.
Send her a hand written letter saying you hope she got it resolved and sorry she went through that. No ask.
Just your name and company.
Will likely pay big dividends
I worked at a Walmart years ago and would get so annoyed when I would be putting up my department returns and find items with a competitor store price sticker on it (that business was literally at the opposite end of our parking lot). When I brought it to the store managers attention, he told me about how people spend something like 30% more than the amount they are given on store gift cards, so its whatever to them. I’m not suggesting you take back an item you can’t sell, but that stuck with me for 20yrs now lol
This depends entirely on how profitable you are and how much of a good person you want to be and can afford to be and if there’s any chance at all that one of your employees might be running his/her own scam.
Personally, I’d give her a refund, donate the item to charity or throw it out, then make a special effort to keep an eye on the employee.
This wouldn’t be the first time and employee was running a scam like this.
I once had a customer come to try and return something they bought from the tire shop that used to be where the shoe shop I worked in was. Or maybe they had the address wrong. At any rate, we did not sell tires and no, I could not take a return for something from a tire shop.
How big is the purchase? If it’s not a lot of money, earn some karma points and help the lady out.
No, she’s trying to scam you. Don’t feel bad or give her money.
The best thing you can do for her is advise her to start running / high intensity cardio, fasting, sauna, and getting plenty of choline (eg eggs) in her diet. Will take quite a bit of tact unless you know a family member of hers who you can be casual in conversation with. She may have early onset, and either is in denial or does not realize it yet.
Honestly, she probably has dementia. I would not refund her but I would show her a lot of compassion.
it’s possible your customer is in the early stages of cognitive decline. You should never accept “returns” of something you have never stocked.
Would you go to Starbucks to “return” a beer from a local brewery?
Age related mental decline affects everyone. This lady is at the, “it couldn’t possibly be my fault, I still have all my marbles” phase. Returning items is super common because there’s no way she could have made a mistake, it must be your mistake. Stand your ground, those tears are not your fault.
My dad (whose family has a history of Alzheimer’s) is in that phase. Its basically comes down to just biting my tongue and letting it pass, or trying to correct it, it blowing up into a big fight, and me just having to remove myself and go home angry.
I’ve gotten to the point of just biting my tongue.
It affects everyone, but not everyone will have mental decline with aging.
Its possible that family has already noticed it at home…and she has been told and corrected before. Sucks, but OP should stick to his guns.
More like probable. These things go on for years before a single event or crisis forces action by the family. The stereotypical getting lost while driving to a place they go to daily is usually it. I had a great aunt that put the entire ice cream container on the stove to cook it and started a fire. This was at Christmas dinner. I’m sure her kids had been patching holes in that shop for months but on that day it finally sank for all to see. She passed about a year later in full blown dementia.
Is she actually a recurring customer of yours? I’m very customer-focused, so I would try to help her or convert her to a customer while holding that we didn’t make the mistake.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this. This is 100 percent from another store, but I want to help you resolve this. If we offered you this item at with XX% rate, would that be helpful?”
This is basically the sort of policy that Nordstrom became famous for. They actually accepted a return of TIRES once because that’s their policy. (Or was once upon a time). That’s how much they value their customers—they’ll make it right. (Again, or did. I don’t shop there or try to make weird returns so things may have changed in the last 20 years lol)
They actually moved away from the “take anything” return policy around a decade ago. They’re still very liberal about items they could have sold you, but it has to be something they could have sold you.
Really, that’s amazing, but why have that policy if you didn’t sell it? Looks ripe for manipulation by scammers