Archived OPU Guest

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Zde1991

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Hello All!

If this isn't posted in the right forum, I apologize.

I was curious about this situation.

We have this one guest who CONSTANTLY does OPU's (I'm talking 6-8 separate orders at a time). Then she will bring EVERYTHING back in like 3 weeks and return it all. It is literally 2 03 cart fulls everytime. She is also known to do this with delivery items as well. We are all pretty sure she stages homes and once the homes sell she returns everything.

Basically, we have become a Rent-A-Center/Personal Shopper for her.

Not only is she wasting time of the OPU TM's, but when she makes theses returns, she ties of a Guest Service TM for at least half an hour and we have to find a second TM to put over there until she is gone. THEN we have to get all the returns back out to the floor. Very time consuming all around.

What are your suggestions for dealing with this type of guest. How do we tell her enough is enough when she technically isn't breaking any of our policies?
 
Talk to your AP or ETL-GE, but I wouldn't expect much to change. She's exactly the type of guest who would make a stink as far up the chain as she can and they may not decide its worth the potential aggro, even if she does cost them in time.

I don't even know if it's possible to put people on amended return policies or block them from OPU.
 
IWishIKnew said:
Talk to your AP or ETL-GE, but I wouldn't expect much to change. She's exactly the type of guest who would make a stink as far up the chain as she can and they may not decide its worth the potential aggro, even if she does cost them in time.

I don't even know if it's possible to put people on amended return policies or block them from OPU.
Click to expand...

Yeaaaa we have home stagers. It's always an internal groan when one of them walks in to return an entire house.

Edited: I hate typos.
 
You could start calling her on it: "Did the house sell?"

"I bet you had to sell it at a loss, if you're returning all of this."

"You must not be a very good real estate agent if you can't find better stuff than Room Essentials"

"You know, these things would work for multiple stagings"
 
"Most unopened items in new condition and returned within 90 days will receive a refund or exchange." Quote our return policy to them. Tell them that we are doing a favor to them by allowing to return their merchandise that is clearly used and that per our policy we are not required to return anything. Explain that that most of the items are throw away [like the guest knows the truth] and that Target loses money when they do a return. Suggest that they try selling their items on craigslist or FB market place. Once you start being that strict they stop...
 
Nokiddiegloves said:
"Most unopened items in new condition and returned within 90 days will receive a refund or exchange." Quote our return policy to them. Tell them that we are doing a favor to them by allowing to return their merchandise that is clearly used and that per our policy we are not required to return anything. Explain that that most of the items are throw away [like the guest knows the truth] and that Target loses money when they do a return. Suggest that they try selling their items on craigslist or FB market place. Once you start being that strict they stop...
Click to expand...
This would never fly in my store.
 
Nokiddiegloves said:
"Most unopened items in new condition and returned within 90 days will receive a refund or exchange." Quote our return policy to them. Tell them that we are doing a favor to them by allowing to return their merchandise that is clearly used and that per our policy we are not required to return anything. Explain that that most of the items are throw away [like the guest knows the truth] and that Target loses money when they do a return. Suggest that they try selling their items on craigslist or FB market place. Once you start being that strict they stop...
Click to expand...

oof I wish I could tell that to a guest
 
1. All you can really do is partner with your ETL-GE and AP.
2.Nic-pick the returns for any noticeable wear or repackaging.

I have encountered these guests years ago at my high volume store within a metro suburban area. These guests, and it would always be the same ones, would return multiple whole bedsets and towel sets all at once. Everything still had tags, no wear, and repackaged neatly. My store nicknamed them Seasonal Shoppers by returning everything within 90 days.

My management at the time said check and nic-pick everything, and always inform them of policy if they complain.
 
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At my old company we actually blackballed a customer because they would order and purchase to return. Customer service told the customer it was clear that we were unable to meet their needs.
 
At my store if you have HBA on a gift receipt you’re denied. It all depends on your leadership and how much they care
 
That's a tough situation to handle. For the most part as long as they have the item, the packaging, and the receipt, they can return the items if it's still within the return period. Yes, our return policy does state "most, unopened items". Feel free arguing that with your guest. You're going to spend a hell of a lot of time dealing with them, calling your GSTLs, and ETL over. For someone like that costing the business ready, I would willingly stand there arguing with them and turning them away. However, I can't think of many ETLs that would so the same.

Honestly, I think your best bet would be to call them out and explain how you can't re-sell the opened merchandise. Hopefully she'll become too embarrassed to continue that at your store.
 
Logo said:
At my old company we actually blackballed a customer because they would order and purchase to return. Customer service told the customer it was clear that we were unable to meet their needs.
Click to expand...
Back when target.com returns were given steep markdowns to get them out of the store, we had a woman who would order things from .com, cancel them after they'd shipped, raise a big enough stink at service desk that they'd refund her shipping only to have her wait until the item was marked down steeply & sent to the floor so she could buy it for a fraction of the original cost.
Our GSTM finally got an interested ETL who had us take it back & refuse to refund her shipping.
He then had us keep it off the floor for several days.
After a while she gave up but the steep markdowns were also on their way out.
 
redeye58 said:
only to have her wait until the item was marked down steeply & sent to the floor so she could buy it for a fraction of the original cost.
Click to expand...

Not gonna lie, this is...kinda brilliant. Annoying AF, but not a bad money-saving strategy.
 
LearningTree said:
That's a tough situation to handle. For the most part as long as they have the item, the packaging, and the receipt, they can return the items if it's still within the return period. Yes, our return policy does state "most, unopened items". Feel free arguing that with your guest. You're going to spend a hell of a lot of time dealing with them, calling your GSTLs, and ETL over. For someone like that costing the business ready, I would willingly stand there arguing with them and turning them away. However, I can't think of many ETLs that would so the same.

Honestly, I think your best bet would be to call them out and explain how you can't re-sell the opened merchandise. Hopefully she'll become too embarrassed to continue that at your store.
Click to expand...
About half the returns at our store are opened and out of the package. We are told to attempt every return.
 
IWishIKnew said:
You could start calling her on it: "Did the house sell?"

"I bet you had to sell it at a loss, if you're returning all of this."

"You must not be a very good real estate agent if you can't find better stuff than Room Essentials"

"You know, these things would work for multiple stagings"
Click to expand...

Part that really gets us going is she did it when threshold came out. Now it’s all opalhouse.
 
Zde1991 said:
Part that really gets us going is she did it when threshold came out. Now it’s all opalhouse.
Click to expand...

We have people that do that here, but its multiple transactions ... they don't know which item is on which receipt, and they took the tags off of random shit. Usually amounts to like 500 bucks. Freaking irritating.

Our recognized OPU guest gets multiple orders every week (sometimes in a day), and let's them expire so she can try to get free stuff. We had to seriously crack down on making sure GS went through and returned stuff to the floor as the orders expired so we could prevent loss.
 
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