I created this whole blog originally as a rant against corporate America, specifically the largest big box retailer with the initials W.M. I had made it a point to shop there as little as possible, but as I've said in this blog many times, it is often the only game in town for finding some products. In recent months with the loss of my freelance income, and the closure of many stores here in our town that I often went to in lieu of shopping at WM I've been forced to retreat on my pledge to not go there. Often it is the least expensive choice for groceries, although I'm trying to be more diligent about shopping the two other smaller chain groceries for sale items. But the fact of the matter is, I've slid badly.
So yesterday I went in to return a children's book that I had purchased for a friend's birthday (one of my kid's friends). The boy in question had received not one, but three of the same book for his birthday, so I volunteered to return the one I bought. I had the receipt and when I took it to the return counter was told by the very rude person who was working there who apparently was annoyed that I was disrupting her gossip session that "books have to be returned in 24 hours, that's WM policy." The book was slapped on the counter back at me and the receipt slapped on top. She then turned her back to me and continued on with her gossip. I picked up the book, and of course, felt the anger starting to rise in me at the rudeness of this person, and at the lack of a reason as to WHY WM has this policy. I walked away, and reviewed my receipt. Nothing was on there about not being able to return a book. In fact, there was NO information about returns because WM is notoriously easy to return merchandise to...that's part of why I purchased this book there to begin with.
I went to get a few other items I had gone into the store to pick up, and the more I walked around the store, the madder I got...mostly at the dismissal with no explanation I had from the employee. I walked through the book section and saw no signs or notices saying that books couldn't be returned after 24 hours.
So when I was checking out I had already decided I was going to go back to the returns desk and ask to speak to some other employee, or the store manager about this. In the checkout line I saw an employee who I know casually from another friend. I asked her who I should talk to and she called over one of the floor managers. I had just begun to explain the problem to this manager, and she did almost the same thing...cut me off in mid explanation, and said "It's corporate policy...we can't exchange it." Again, the tone was condescending, and just on the edge of being pissy. I asked her what the reason was, and she said it is copyright law. Hmmmm...I'm thinking. You can return books to online vendors like BN and Amazon, can't you? And what a screwy law...if you wanted to photocopy a book you could do so in less than 24 hours if you so choose. I told this floor manager that I was really frustrated by their lack of information about this. I could have returned the book the same day had I known..the only reason I didn't was that I had the kids with me and we were all tired so we went home after the birthday party. (I didn't tell her all that). I said, "why don't you put that on the receipts?" and her response was that it was all out of the main office, and they had no control. I also asked her why they didn't put some sort of sign with the books about this and she looked at me with genuine contempt and said, "If we put up a sign about every rule in this store you wouldn't be able to see the merchandise." The more I thought about that particular comment after she left, the more I wish I would have laughed in her face when she said it...how 'bout taking down some of the self-congratulatory "Low Price, Every Day" signs? The store is literally already reeking with signs!
Ultimately my anger wasn't so much over basically throwing away $10 on a book that we didn't need, and now needing to buy another gift for this boy, but on the way I was talked to. THIS is why so many businesses are failing. WM clearly isn't, but this is why so many other businesses are losing money..they have lost the ability to deal with customers in a civil manner. This is just one of many situations I've encountered like this in the last year...where I clearly have a legitimate complaint or concern with my bill or product, and have been told by a low-level employee that it is "corporate policy" and they have no way around it.
So my distaste for WM has been reignited, and I will try again to avoid the place. I'm not saying that customer service is any better at other stores...it usually isn't but I'm just not able to walk into WM without being uncomfortable that I'm feeding the corporate dragon...and that was true even before I had this experience this week.
I'll keep you posted as to whether I'm staying on the wagon or not.
And the book? Given to another friend who hadn't read it yet. Happy ending, there.
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jeez- I wish I could've raised the banner of "corporate policy" when a woman returned some twice-baked potatoes last week. they had been in a plastic bag in the trunk of her car all weekend and she brought them in, mold and all, to tell me she wanted her money back because her husband didn't care for them. such diligence for $4.99! If it were me, I would've eaten my loss after forgetting about the food all weekend rather than bring in a bag of rotten food, but hey, that's me. she got her money back with an apology. I think she was a little embarrassed when I had to take the food out of the bag to scan the tag, though.
in other news, I just got back from an open-book finance seminar in michigan that really made me wonder why the whole country doesn't operate on this system. in open-book, you have a weekly meeting with your staff- everyone from the janitor to the head accountant- to show the company's numbers for the week and make informed decisions about what to expect in the future. everyone "owns a line" which means that jared the janitor could be responsible for putting up the week's numbers on, say, toilet paper usage while the accounting team sits back and watches how toilet paper use has gone DOWN because someone started paying attention to ordering, distributing and using TP. it's the same with the total sales for the company- someone tracks the numbers, puts them up on the board as a line, and discusses with the entire staff what they can do to increase the number. make sense? everyone becomes interested in the company and it shifts from being top-down management to listening to what the janitor has to say about saving money in the supply closet.
just think of how corporations would change if they started doing open-book! first of all, WM would self-implode when the workers saw how the money was being spent (not on them). more idealistically, the WM store manager might know why there is a 24-hour limit on book returns!
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