Is this Barnes & Noble crazy or am I?

[Hampshire]

I remember people trying to game the system with Black Friday ads. They'd get the ad ahead of time (can usually be found on-line a week previous) and buy the doorbuster item at full price.
On Black Friday they'd wander in around noon after the doorbuster items had been long gone since 6 a.m. and want their price match. I'd kindly show them the disclaimer in the ad stating "sales prices not valid on previous purchases".
"AHA!" they'd say "then let me return it and I'll just buy it again."
They became pretty disgusted with me when I told them they were free to return it but it would not be available to re-purchase until the next day once the sale was off again.

 

[BCHH]

You were happy with the price at purchase, you were happy with the product, you don't get to return it just because we are selling later at a lower price.

Are you nuts? Do you shop at all? As others in this thread have already said, this is a VERY common practice. I have never been denied a price adjustment, anywhere.

I don't know this for fact but I suspect the practice was invented by the retail chains to keep consumers coming back. There are 5-10 chain "department stores" within five miles of my home, all in direct competition with each other. They all want your money and they will go to great lengths to get it and keep you from going somewhere else.

It's not at all unusual (around here, at least) to find store "A" selling something for less than store "B", and have "B" match the price just by asking them.

 

[Doreen]

I've faced idiocy similar to what the OP experienced at Babies R Us. Their prices are generally not great, but they do have good sales. Numerous times I've brought an unopened item with the sales receipt within the full-price exchange period and asked to get the price difference back. Sometimes the returns clerk will happily do it. Sometimes they don't want to, but after explaining to them that I can simply return it for the original price and buy it again they do the adjustment.

And several times they've refuse. So I do what I said I would--I return the item for the price I bought it for. They've never stopped me from buying it again. Why would they? They have the sale because they want to move that product. I think the problem is more likely to be a lazy or ignorant employee than store policy.

Don't fight them on the price adjustment. Return the product. Make them fight you on buying it again. What kind of manager would stop a customer from buying an item? Not one who wants to keep his job.

I'm not so sure it is idiocy on their part. Sure, they've might lose you as a customer if you have to return it and then go find it and buy it again, but stores that do the price adjustments may lose me, or at least the ability to attract me with their ads. One too many times, I've arrived the morning the sale was to start and found the store out of stock. Eventually,an employee told me I should come the day before the sale starts - they were out of stock because people who get the Sunday circular on Saturday bought out all they had and would return later for the price adjustment. I still go to some of the stores where that happened- but I certainly don't make a special trip because something is on sale . And that's the real purpose of advertising a sale- to get someone to the store who wasn't coming anyway and hopefully sell them non-sale items. ( I don't just go on Saturday because for all I know other newspaper carriers deliver the circulars before Saturday and the store is sold out by Friday)

 

[cckerberos]

So if, say, you bought a Kindle and the next week they reduced the price by sixty bucks you wouldn't contact them and ask for the lower price? (That's what happened to me, and they happily issued a refund for the difference.)

As I said, the idea that (in the absence of a specific store policy saying otherwise) such a request would ever be granted would never have even entered my mind. Now that I've learned that this is apparently a common practice I guess I would ask, but it would feel strange and I wouldn't be upset if they refused.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

And those customers have to put up with you. It appears they're getting the worst of the deal.

Maybe you should consider a new career which doesn't involve contact with human beings.

Quite the opposite. If you tried pulling this on me at Barnes & Noble, I'd not only tell you no, but using my charisma I'd charm you into buying 5 more DVDs and a couple of paperweights and have you leaving thinking you got the deal of a lifetime.

 

[Justin_Bailey]

That doesn't seem ridiculously high for someone buying for a family. Groceries, a large electronic item every so often, clothes, housewares, lawn products, oil changes, toiletries, etc...

I'm not saying its impossible, I'm just saying that it is very unlikely that most Wal-Mart customers are that devoted to the store. In areas with few shopping choices, sure. But in a world where Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, those weird west coast big box chains and a variety of regional grocers spread the money too thin.

 

[cosmosdan]

I remember people trying to game the system with Black Friday ads. They'd get the ad ahead of time (can usually be found on-line a week previous) and buy the doorbuster item at full price.
On Black Friday they'd wander in around noon after the doorbuster items had been long gone since 6 a.m. and want their price match. I'd kindly show them the disclaimer in the ad stating "sales prices not valid on previous purchases".
"AHA!" they'd say "then let me return it and I'll just buy it again."
They became pretty disgusted with me when I told them they were free to return it but it would not be available to re-purchase until the next day once the sale was off again.

Most companies I worked for was very careful not to release Black Friday's add until just before the day. Then I noticed a shift to things not being put out for sale until late afternoon. A lot of the sales were only from opening until noon so if they came back after noon with a return they couldn't get the sale price anyway.

One trick I noticed is that many companies had mail in rebates for a couple of months before a permenant price drop. Especially in technolgy. So a hard drive, that was $70 might have a $30 mail in rebate before the price droped to $40.
Customers would find out who was already selling it for $40, come in and want us to match that price according to our policy, so that they could also use our $30 mail in and get it for $10. Nice try if it works, but usually we would say, ours is already price matched with the rebate, and not do the discount. Occasionally somebody would want to stand around and argue the point, or act like we just screwed them out of $30 because their master plan didn't work.

 

[Rumor_Watkins]

I'm not saying its impossible, I'm just saying that it is very unlikely that most Wal-Mart customers are that devoted to the store. In areas with few shopping choices, sure. But in a world where Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, those weird west coast big box chains and a variety of regional grocers spread the money too thin.

That's the entire point of distinguishing yourself by having generous return policies and generally not upsetting your customers, though.

Given the amount of shit that average people buy, and given that there are large chunks of people that don't live close to "power strips" of mega mall box chains (meaning that Wal-Mart's numerical superiority makes it their only viable source of many of these goods), I'm not going to doubt Wal-Mart's metrics on this. (ok, maybe +/- a moderate %age, but it doesn't seem that out of whack)

 

[BCHH]

The OP was in the Movies & Music section, which typically only has one or two registers.

Still, was it possible to "hold up the entire store"? With potentially two registers right there and probably four more at the "main" checkout, I doubt it would have been a real huge inconvenience to anyone else.

 

[cosmosdan]

I'm not so sure it is idiocy on their part. Sure, they've might lose you as a customer if you have to return it and then go find it and buy it again, but stores that do the price adjustments may lose me, or at least the ability to attract me with their ads. One too many times, I've arrived the morning the sale was to start and found the store out of stock. Eventually,an employee told me I should come the day before the sale starts - they were out of stock because people who get the Sunday circular on Saturday bought out all they had and would return later for the price adjustment. I still go to some of the stores where that happened- but I certainly don't make a special trip because something is on sale . And that's the real purpose of advertising a sale- to get someone to the store who wasn't coming anyway and hopefully sell them non-sale items. ( I don't just go on Saturday because for all I know other newspaper carriers deliver the circulars before Saturday and the store is sold out by Friday)

Although it's not illiegal to be sold out it's baaad to be caught that way. If it's a hot item stores should hold some back until the sale starts. Especially if they have run into this problem several times.

We would have people get the ad on Saturday and come in on Saturday and want to buy it for Sunday's sale price. When they found out they couldn't they were pissed at us.

It clearly says "Sale Starts Sunday" and it's a very common practice.
Yeah but I didn't notice that before I drove 30 minutes to get here.
I realize that and I'm sorry.
Sometimes it was late in the day and we'd cut them a breal. The problem is once you start making exceptions then people think they can do it all the time and it's some kind of unwritten policy.

ONe of my favs was the lady who showed up to buy a computer when we first opened. We had just recieved notice that the ad was an error and the price was $50 below the real sale price, {which was pretty good} Since I hadn't posted the correction yet I gave her the advertised price. She got an excellent deal.
She called a couple of hours later and asked me if she got any extra discount because we had made a mistake. {you know., like at the grocery store}
No Maam , You got a great deal and an extra discount but there's nothing else.
Couldn't you ask your manager?
I could but I'm sure there's nothing else
Well please check for me
I tell my manager I'm asking him and we both laugh.
I call her back to tell her there's no additional discount.
Well I can still return it then can't I?
Yes Maam you can. You got it for $50 less than an already excellent sale price , but if you'd like to return it and start over, that's up to you. In fact I have a customer that would love to have it at at the advertised sale price so they'd appreciate it if you did.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I also raised my eyebrows over the "three levels of management" deal but let it go, Now I'm curious:

The guy I was speaking to said he was calling his manager and I talked to the guy who showed up. That happened three times. Maybe they were just calling in other people who had the same title. Heck, maybe they called in a clerk from another department. I assumed they were calling in somebody at the next level because that's what they said they were doing.

So, you really didn't talk to "three levels" of management. If I have this story straight, you spoke to:

1. The clerk (probably with several people in line behind you patiently waiting to make their legitimate purchases)

2. The "guy who showed up" after the clerk made a call

3. The "guy who showed up" after the clerk (or the first "manager") made a second call

4. The "guy who showed up" after the clerk (or Manager 1 or 2) made a call (there's no female managers at Barnes & Noble, apparently)

So, in other words, after the first manager said "no", you made these poor bastards call for three other managers at the same level? Or your just assuming that Manager #2 outranked 1 and 3 outranked 2?

How many levels of management can there possibly be at one Barnes and Noble? I need more details, this sounds obtuse.

How long did you hold up the entire store over this? I imagine the now, probably 20 other people in line were getting pissed at you about this.

 

[hazel-rah]

Still, was it possible to "hold up the entire store"? With potentially two registers right there and probably four more at the "main" checkout, I doubt it would have been a real huge inconvenience to anyone else.

If there had been other customers wanting to buy DVDs or CDs, it would have held them up. You can only purchase those items in the music/DVD department, which these days will generally only have one register open. Once managers are present, however, they will tend to take over the return transaction, freeing the music seller to ring up other customers.

 

[Little Nemo]

That would illegal. And is completely different from not having a price adjustment policy on previous purchases, which B&N doesn't seem to have.

Expecting them to honor a policy they don't have is like those assholes who bring an unpriced item up to the cashier and expect it to be free. The first clerk last week was wrong. It sucks that you went back to the store and wasted your time, but c'est la vie.

They have a policy of refunding purchases. And they have a policy of selling things. And those are the only two things I wanted to so. So what policy did they lack?

It seems odd that they would have a sale right after another sale on the same items, unless it was being clearanced.

The sales weren't identical. The first sale was "buy two, get one free" on all DVD's. The second sale was half price on all Criterion DVD's. They just happened to overlap in my case because the DVD's I bought in the first sale were all Criterions.

 

[Rumor_Watkins]

I'd rather pay a cheaper price as well. But if I buy something one week, and then next week its on special, the last thing on my mind would be to use a company return policy to get a discount. And I can't think of a company over here that would allow this transaction to take place.

...in general, over here in NZ anyway, you can return something under the consumers guarantee act (the goods are not acceptable quality, cannot be reasonably repaired, are not as described, or do not comply with what was promised), but most stores do not have open return policies: especially for DVD's.
.

Typically, you don't get refunds on opened "copyable" media (although if you know what you're doing with software, you can) here, either. The OP didn't open them up, though.

Why is it so odd to you that the transaction would take place? And, of course they would in NZ, even though you may not think about it in those terms. There's nothing that prevents you from returning the item "because you didn't like it" and then immediately walking back into the store and buying it anew (I mean obv's you have to be a bit discreet about it in some cases). Which is why most stores won't parse that out and will just do the price difference.

As for the opened items receiving a price discount, think of that as customer service. I would hazard a guess that the US retail market is far, far more competitive than the NZ market, so they are almost forced into doing this stuff to keep customers happy (and it's not like they lose on the deal, anyway, I'm sure sales prices still give them profit)

 

[Little Nemo]

Would you mind answering in the question I asked in post 114 I think you already did but I'm a little slow.

So, as far as you know, there was no "no refunds" stipulation for the buy two get 1 free sale? You weren't aware of it when you made the purchase, and nobody mentioned it when you asked to return them?

I was told I could return the DVD's.

 

[Munch]

Anyone been in a B&N lately? He could have been at that register for an hour and no one would have been inconvenienced.

 

[Justin_Bailey]

They have a policy of refunding purchases. And they have a policy of selling things. And those are the only two things I wanted to so. So what policy did they lack?

A price adjustment policy is different and you know it.

 

[Rumor_Watkins]

Quite the opposite. If you tried pulling this on me at Barnes & Noble, I'd not only tell you no, but using my charisma I'd charm you into buying 5 more DVDs and a couple of paperweights and have you leaving thinking you got the deal of a lifetime.

If you tried doing this to me as a customer, you would be threatened with a lawsuit for violating the terms of the sales contract you had with me, a call to the State Attorney General's office, and a letter to your corporate office detailing the above which would probably yield me a coupon or trinket gift card (no comment on these special provisions that apparently no one knew of in this particular transaction, and that were apparently verbally modified by the clerk in the first transaction when he said that they could be returned)

That's because they realized you were scamming them.

what exactly is a "scam" about a customer utilizing the return policy to their maximal benefit?

 

[hazel-rah]

I don't see why people are assuming there was some deceit involved here. I wasn't lying to anyone in the store and, as far as I know, nobody in the store was lying to me.

hahaha, because this is the Dope, home of many skeptics, and the story is unusual. I've worked in the music department of a B&N for six years, and the behavior of the employees you describe (especially the managers) just doesn't make sense. Forgive my obvious bias, but generally it's the customer who does crazy inexplicable shit, not the employees. Simply put, they can get away with it; we cannot.

If you had your receipt and the DVDs weren't damaged in any way, I just cannot imagine a manager refusing to sell you the DVDs at the lower price after refunding the original purchase. Even though accepting a return from the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale is against stated policy, managers routinely make the exception in the interest of keeping you as a customer. And the idea that they would then refuse a sale, especially at this time of the year, especially in this economy, is utterly bizarre behavior unless there was some kind of extenuating circumstance.

I told them the truth that I was returning them to take advantage of the new sale.

Yeah, despite what some other posters in this thread are saying, this happens all the time and isn't really outrageous behavior at all. As far as customer requests go, it's downright logical. Especially when the Criterion 50% Off sale follows B2G1 Free.

So, once again, I'm not saying their policy was deceitful - I'm saying it was irrational. And I wasn't trying to trick them - I was trying to make them see reason.

Again, for them to refuse you the sale, you must have done something that really, really set their alarm bells off. Nothing in your story as you present it here warrants that kind of behavior. Maybe you have found the crazy B&N. If so, I kinda want to work a few shifts there. I think I would enjoy it.

 

[Astro]

...is this another one of those bizarre American-centric things? Let me get something straight: you bought something on special, found out that it would be cheaper next week, bought it anyway, then went back the week after to get a bigger discount?

There is no guarantee that the item will be available then the sale hits as people tend to swoop in when an item goes on sale. Buying it in anticipation of a sale then going back and getting the difference credited back to your credit card if it goes on sale within the return period is something millions of Americans do, including myself WRT non-food retail items, if the amount is worthwhile. To me anything over $ 10 - $ 20 is worth doing this. Virtually all retailers have their cash registers set up to handle these transactions as a matter of course.

Let me understand that retail is different where you are. If an item goes on sale within the return period and you can save (say) 20 euros by getting the difference back, that people where you live will not do that?