Hit my 500th refund at the return desk today and I need to vent

I work customer service at a big box store in Cleveland and today I processed my 500th refund since I started 8 months ago. The lady brought back a blender she clearly used for months with old smoothie crust still on the blade. She said it was 'defective' because it wouldn't blend frozen fruit anymore. I mean I had to hold back from laughing when I opened the box and smelled it. The worst part is my manager made me process it no questions asked. Has anyone else hit a weird milestone like a number of returns or complaints that really surprised you?

3 comments

3 Comments

danielmason23d ago

Is it just me or do the "defective" returns always come with the most obvious signs of use? I swear, the lady with the blender could've at least rinsed it out, you know? I work at a grocery store and we had a guy try to return a half-eaten watermelon because it "tasted funny" - he'd literally carved out the middle with a spoon. The worst part is my supervisor just gave him store credit, like we're running a tasting room or something. It makes you wonder if stores secretly budget for this stuff, like they know people will abuse the policy so they just build it into the price of everything.

logan20523d ago

Honestly, have you thought about keeping a tally of the most ridiculous excuses people give? I bet the 'defective because it won't blend frozen fruit' lady could be topped. Like, I had someone return a rug that was clearly chewed up by their dog, and they swore it 'came that way.' The worst part is when managers just rubber stamp it, like we're all supposed to pretend the crusty blender is brand new. It makes you wonder if the store even cares about losing money on this stuff, or if they just want to avoid a scene in the aisle.

daniel85723d ago

Read an article saying return fraud costs stores billions, so yeah, they probably just shrug it off.