In the December issue of Cosmo, there was a section entitled "Tis The Season...To Be A Little Bitchy." In this section, Cosmo gave advice how to more or less get your way with only a little bit of attitude. Some of the advice was good, like "How to make a cheap gift look chic" or "how to score the in-demand parking spot." However, there was a section about "how to return without a receipt" which really, quite frankly, pissed me off. As you know I work in retail, which is hard enough already. But when I read their "advice" I flipped.
Their advice more or less said (not verbatim):
1. Don't say anything about not having a receipt. See if the clerk will do the return anyway.
2. If they ask for the receipt, ask if you can just get store credit.
3. If the clerk still won't comply, raise your voice and say "Well, I spend a lot of money here, but if you won't help me out, I will bring my service else where." This way, the clerk will most likely comply due to not wanting other customers to get upset by the confrontation.
I normally never write to magazines. But I couldn't help it this time. This is what I wrote:
"In this month's issue of Cosmo, in the section entitled "Tis The Season...To Be A Little Bitchy," I was shocked by your advice on how to return something to a store without a receipt. As someone who has been working in retail for almost 4 years, I was angry that you were telling customers to raise their voice in order to get what they want. The reason stores have such strict return policies is because of theft. If you do not have a receipt, how are we at the store suppose to know that it wasn't stollen? It happens all too often. We are just trying to do our jobs, and if you don't have a receipt...well..tough luck. Either try the garment on in the store, organize your receipts better, or if you get it as a gift, ask for a gift receipt. It's not fair to us who work hard in retail when a customer thinks that they deserve to get money (or even store credit) when their is no proof of the purchase. It's our job. Please don't make it any harder for us."
So please everyone, be nice to people who work in retail. It's not an easy job, and yelling at us will only make you look like a jerk.
