Is this Barnes & Noble crazy or am I?

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bengangmo

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Sorry I missed the edit window, I don't have to "cloak it in fairness".

I quite genuinely feel that its not quite right or kosher. I would be pissed that the customer has "gamed the system"...not about the money so much, but that they took me for a fool, frand used a policy that is genuinely aimed at those that make a mistake to instead "reserve" items ahead of a sale - if I wanted to take reservations on a sale, I would put that policy in place. I don't want it done through the back door.
 
bengangmo said:
No worries, but do note (if I read correctly) the OP took the last piece of each title. Which is probably why I would "hold the line" so to speak.

if there were a bunch more on the shelf, then functionally it makes no difference at all and to save myself work I would close one eye.

And (to me) anyway, a return policy is there to help the customer that (for whatever reason) made a mistake, not to save the customer money...

But what the hey - I don't live in the US, I don't manage a CD store and I am not really likely to at all...
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He took the last, though, during the original sale, right? (At this point I'm muddled on the facts myself)

But I just still don't get what you're going to accomplish to your wider customer base by letting them know that Customer X won't be getting his price match, oh no, just so we can be fair to the one person who happened to be in the store when the sole remaining copy of Product X was re-shelved :)

And he did make a mistake - he paid too much for the product when he later discovers that you would've sold it for 50% less to him :)

But, I can seee your perspective on this. I think, looking at the bigger picture, it's an attitude which has guided the US retail market in the last 20 years or so (not suggesting your opinion is old hat). Mom and Pop stores didn't have these cushy sales deals with the manufacturer like the big box chains do - so they can't offer as generous return policies as BigBox does. Which puts them out of business. You guys still seem to be in Mom & Pop mode, probably due in large part because a lot of your goods are imported and it's not a large enough market where the manufacturer is willing to take them back or lose your (the retailers) volume.
 
I know. Some of you are saying it doesn't have to be an either/or issue.

Barnes & Noble was having a sale on DVD's last month. If you bought two, you got a third one of equal or lesser value for free. Which is essentially a third off if you pick them right.

I bought six DVD's last week that happened to all be Criterion DVD's. After I checked out the clerk told me that they would be having a sale on Criterion DVD's the following week with all of them being half off.

I was a little annoyed he waited until after I had checked out to tell me the items that I had just bought were going on sale the following week. But I figured it was no big deal. I just left all of the DVD's and the receipt in the bag in my car.

Today I went back to the same Barnes and Noble. I confirmed that I could return them all for the price I had paid for them. So I said I wanted to return them all and then buy them all back at the sales price.

And they said I couldn't do that. I went through three levels of managers and they all refused.

They all agreed I could return the DVD's and get my money back. And they obviously agreed I could buy DVD's at the sales price. They even agreed that if I returned the DVD's I had bought they would just reshelf them and put them back for sale. But they said I couldn't buy back the same DVD's I returned.

Obviously I could have gotten around this. I could return the DVD's and then sneak back into the store in disguise a few hours later and buy them back. I could return the DVD's at one store and buy the same movies at another store. I could give somebody else the money and have them buy the DVD's for me.

But this was just so stupid. Can anyone come up with any reason why this policy would make any sense? Right now I'm half way tempted to return all of the DVD's after the current sale ends and keep my money. "There, you didn't sell them to me for a third off. You didn't sell them to me at a half off. You didn't sell them at all."
 
I wasn't talking about you, specifically. Just responding to spark240 on how long they should honor future price adjustments.

I agree with you - I think they're nuts and way wrong. I would also agree with the other poster that thinks this is just employees fucking with you, or, my own read, is that maybe one manager really wanted to get his hands on some criterion collection that you happened to clean them out of.
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And my post was not addressed to you. It's other people who seem to feel the refund was in question.
 
I think they're saying that they can't sell you back the DVDs until they reshelve them, correct? They weren't saying that you couldn't go right back into the store and pick up new copies of what you just returned, right?

If so, it makes sense-ish. They probably have internal policies that mandate certain protocol when examining and rehabilitating returned goods to make sure they are fit for sale.

Yes, they could have overlooked these polices since you wanted to immediately re-purchase, but they didn't.


(you should have just purchased second copies of the DVDs, then returned the previously-bought ones in a separate, later, transaction)
 
bengangmo said:
Sorry I missed the edit window, I don't have to "cloak it in fairness".

I quite genuinely feel that its not quite right or kosher. I would be pissed that the customer has "gamed the system"...not about the money so much, but that they took me for a fool, frand used a policy that is genuinely aimed at those that make a mistake to instead "reserve" items ahead of a sale - if I wanted to take reservations on a sale, I would put that policy in place. I don't want it done through the back door.
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Yeah, see, I don't think return policies are genuinely aimed at anything. They're generic blanket policies that apply regardless of the reason - as they should be. I don't want uncertainty when I buy a product, only to discover that I can't return it due to the vagaries of this particular clerk or manager.

The other part is that running return policies like this give retailers an edge, too. As was mentioned upthread, even though you're giving this policy to 100% of your customers, only (say) 66% of them may actually follow through with making the trip to get the price adjustment. Those that don't, it's pure gravy that they paid the extra $ under the belief that they were going to get their money back, and those that do, you're still profiting.
 
hazel-rah said:
Read the back of your receipt. It's fourteen days. Has been for about a year now. Of course, the general return policy is irrelevant to your purchase. Read up on the terms and conditions of the in-store Buy 2 Get 1 Free DVD/Blu-Ray promotion. During said promotion, and for 14 days following it, there are NO REFUNDS on DVDs purchased as part of the promotion. This has been the case for the last four or five years that the sale has taken place, and the signage states this. Not clearly, but you're an American consumer and the concept of fine print is surely not new to you.

If a manager agreed to give you a refund on your DVDs, they were making an exception for you. This would have been clearly communicated to you during the refund procedure, but for some reason you don't mention it in the thread. If your dilemma really involved "three levels of managers" there is simply no way the "no refunds" aspect of the Buy 2 Get 1 Free promo would not have been (gently) pointed out to you.

I'm also curious as to how you managed to work your way through three levels of managers when there are only two levels of management in a B&N retail store, assistant managers and the store manager. If for some reason there was a district manager present who was involved with your customer service issue, they would have caved instantly to all your demands and apologized profusely to you, because they have that kind of power.

I'm skeptical. I think you're not telling the whole story.
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Ahhhhhhh now these details make a difference. If it says in the promo that there are no returns for that sale then you are out of luck even if you didn't see it. Then it's a matter of a specifc promotion detail overriding the general return policy. Happens a lot because customers tend not to read the details, which incidently, is not the stores fault.
However, if they made the decision to bypass that promo detail and allow you to return them it's petty to not go the whole way and argue that you can't buy them again. Maybe that was payback for being a pain. I understand that to.
 
Jackmannii said:
High voltage ran through your body?
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I hate* to tell you this, but the literal meaning of the word "shock" has nothing to do with electricity. One might say the origin of the word ("collision") precludes its modern definitions from being literal, but if so, there's no question that "electric shock" is figurative.
 
No not really, since it is simply someone puffing out their chest and writing their fantasy of how they'd like to teach a retail store some sort of lesson. The only way you'd have free time to do all that would be if you didn't have a job.

In your dreams.
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I'm hoping you stick around El Prez. Because I can tell you're going to be fun.
 
Quite possibly - I dun really know.

But Banquet Bear and myself are remarkably close on the issue, like her (I think BB is a she) it wouldn't even occur to me to go ask for a further discount. Either buy or not..simple.

But it would be groovy (for the customer) if we followed your customs.....although I still say that its some kind of abdication of something by the consumer, but if I can use the policies like that to my advantage then I would be stoopid not to...and not many people call me stoopid.
 
The level of pig-headed stupidness in this thread is mind boggling. If nothing else, B&N has received a boatload of badwill over a few bucks, in addition to be willing to incur the extra cost of re-shelving items rather than turn around and selling them again immediately. Why in the world would anyone defend this policy? Brick and mortar stores are fighting for their lives. They don't need to shoot themselves in the foot at the same time.
 
bengangmo said:
Quite possibly - I dun really know.

But Banquet Bear and myself are remarkably close on the issue, like her (I think BB is a she) it wouldn't even occur to me to go ask for a further discount. Either buy or not..simple.

But it would be groovy (for the customer) if we followed your customs.....although I still say that its some kind of abdication of something by the consumer, but if I can use the policies like that to my advantage then I would be stoopid not to...and not many people call me stoopid.
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I always thought it was silly to have policies and then look for reasons not to follow them if you might lose a buck. Special circumstances like close outs are fine but other than that, follow your own policy with a smile. If you think you're being taken advantage of, change it.
 
El Presidente said:
No not really, since it is simply someone puffing out their chest and writing their fantasy of how they'd like to teach a retail store some sort of lesson. The only way you'd have free time to do all that would be if you didn't have a job.
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How long do you think it takes me to threaten those actions at B&N? All day?

Well, maybe for you, since your charisma would be holding things up.
 
I think they're saying that they can't sell you back the DVDs until they reshelve them, correct? They weren't saying that you couldn't go right back into the store and pick up new copies of what you just returned, right?
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Nope, they were clear that if I returned them, I was never supposed to buy those DVD's. Their policy seemed to be that I had one chance to buy them and having used that chance I didn't get a second one.
(you should have just purchased second copies of the DVDs, then returned the previously-bought ones in a separate, later, transaction)
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I considered that possibility. But they didn't have that large a Criterion section. Most of these DVD's were the only copies in the store.

That said, what I'll probably end up doing is returning them all to the store and buying copies of them online. It seems sort of petty - we're talking about less than fifteen dollars. But at this point I almost feel obligated to figure out a way to thwart their stupidity.
You know your credit card may have price guarantees?
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Mine doesn't unfortunately.
 
Rumor_Watkins said:
Yeah, see, I don't think return policies are genuinely aimed at anything. They're generic blanket policies that apply regardless of the reason - as they should be. I don't want uncertainty when I buy a product, only to discover that I can't return it due to the vagaries of this particular clerk or manager.

The other part is that running return policies like this give retailers an edge, too. As was mentioned upthread, even though you're giving this policy to 100% of your customers, only (say) 66% of them may actually follow through with making the trip to get the price adjustment. Those that don't, it's pure gravy that they paid the extra $ under the belief that they were going to get their money back, and those that do, you're still profiting.
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I doubt that it's gravy. Margins in retail are pretty slim because of competition. Often sale items make no profit , in hopes people will buy other items or just get to know the store.

I once had a customer ask to get last weeks sale price on an item and I said no. His rationale was that if we can afford to sell it last week for $50 less then we can this week too. Still no. Sales aren't designed to maximize profits through selling the sale items.
I've noticed what an item is worth is often a matter of perception. Once a customer fixes a price in thier mind they decide that's all it's worth. Sales used to create a perceptoin of money saved. It's worth X but it's on sale for less. Still works a bit I guess but I think now a lot of people just won't buy unless it's on sale and the altered perceptiopn is it's only worth the sale price.
 
Rumor_Watkins said:
Why, as a business or a representative of the business, do you feel you ought/should be able to play Constable of Morality and Fairness - Retail Products Branch?

A sale is a sale - what do you care if it's sold back to the returning customer or not? You don't, rationally. (frankly, it has risk to it, even if it is on sale, because you're not guaranteed the sale by re-shelving it - so it's extra specially irrational - unless you get your jollies from sticking it to customers?)
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I think this is the easiest route but I also think it's fair for the store to say.

"It takes us a day to process returns. Would you like to come back tomorrow and chance that it's still here, or would you like to keep it at the sale price you already paid" to prevent future sales reservation purchases.

Most major retailers have a policy of not telling the customers that a specifc item will be on sale next week. We want to sell it today.
 
Why didn't you just return them on the spot and come back for them later? Sorry if this was already covered; not flipping through four pages of a thread on something so trivial.
 
Little Nemo said:
.If this policy exists, the store employees I spoke with are apparently unaware of it. They all agreed I could get a refund if I wanted one
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. The question is, did anyone explain that your purchase was part of a special promo and not part of the standard return policy?
The fact that they eventually agreed to give you a refund is understood but my question is did you know either before the sale or when you came back, that the sale you had taken advantage off had the added detail of NO Returns. THat makes a difference. Did you have to talk to several people just to get them to agree to accept the return?

In retail management sometimes the inexperienced cashier would tell a customer they could and would do something that they shouldn't be doing. A simple mistake. Occasionally a customer would argue that since an emplyee said they would do it I was somehow bound by their offer. It's not true.
If you knew it was a no return deal and asked if they'd make an exception because you didn't know or whatever that's fair and reasonable. If you badgered several of them into accepting a refund and they decided to repay your badgering by not selling them back to you I have some compassion for them.


Can't think of any important details I've left out.
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How about the ones I just mentioned. Did you know at any time that the sale you took advantage of had a no returns add on?
Did they immediately immediately agree to take them back or was part of your talking to several people getting them to agree to take them back and override the specific sale policy.
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