- Joined
- Jun 10, 2003
- Messages
- 26,250
- Real Name
- Josh Steinberg
I have no idea if it’s still the same way but when I was working retail at chain stores 20 years ago, there was always intense pressure from corporate to take as few returns as possible - they would count a return as a loss and charge it to your specific store and possibly even on your own record as a manager. It didn’t matter if the return was 100% in compliance with the stated company policy and the customer was 100% in the right - you as the store manager are going to end up getting an earful from your district manager about it.
I can’t imagine that corporations have gotten nicer to retail workers in the time since. And those jobs don’t pay particularly well or provide good benefits (if any).
So I would imagine it’s one of those things where the manager isn’t getting paid enough or given enough latitude to address it on his own, that there’s little consequence to him from upsetting a customer, but a potentially major consequence from his boss.
I really think it’s one of those race to the bottom scenarios where the company isn’t paying people enough to retain them or make it worthwhile to properly train them or give them any real autonomy, and the amount of profit on an individual sale isn’t enough to justify the effort into providing customer service to retain the customer, and the scarcity of retail options puts the customer in the position of being stuck patronizing a limited number of vendors even if the service is bad.
I can’t imagine that corporations have gotten nicer to retail workers in the time since. And those jobs don’t pay particularly well or provide good benefits (if any).
So I would imagine it’s one of those things where the manager isn’t getting paid enough or given enough latitude to address it on his own, that there’s little consequence to him from upsetting a customer, but a potentially major consequence from his boss.
I really think it’s one of those race to the bottom scenarios where the company isn’t paying people enough to retain them or make it worthwhile to properly train them or give them any real autonomy, and the amount of profit on an individual sale isn’t enough to justify the effort into providing customer service to retain the customer, and the scarcity of retail options puts the customer in the position of being stuck patronizing a limited number of vendors even if the service is bad.