Archived Returns - What's the point of a policy if we are told not to follow.

[Flow Warrior]

To be fair, our directives from corporate are clear, attempt every return. We are supposed to use our empowerment to provide an "amazing" experience for every guest. You can "have a backbone" and make your own rules when you own your own company. I work for Target, though so I'm going by company policy. I may not agree with it, but I chose to work for this company.
No. I don't work at corporate.
No. I'm not a suck up.

But also you are responsible for the profit of your store. If the two policies decide to crash into each other, profit always wins.

Our store doesn't accept:

1. No receipt returns
   
2. Items that have no file on them
3. Items that have obviously been used.
4. electronics over 15 days and anything over 90. (expect target brands)

Huge policy sign on the wall that we point to. Yes there is attempt to make a return but if you think you can cheat us, its not happening. We rarely see target brands returned because well most people don't have year old receipts.

 

[Flow Warrior]

They returned it because the policy is shit and GSTLs have no spine. This is why everyone takes advantages

Also both Flow and BR do more work than you


Apple is a real company that has stores everywhere that can often replace your phone on the spot, or at worst, give you a loaner for a day or two

No one is going to ship out 20 dollar earbuds and wait god knows how long for a replacement when you can go to target and do it in 3 minutes

Then you eat that 20. Welcome to corporate america and stop buying those headphones.

 

[Flow Warrior]

I know this is corp policy, so much of this is not enforced because of the fear of a bad survey.

Right. I gather you have never watched what happens when Corp is following around the DTL and a bad return is done. Bad survey fear gets you fired if you break policy deliberately.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Right. I gather you have never watched what happens when Corp is following around the DTL and a bad return is done. Bad survey fear gets you fired if you break policy deliberately.

A lot of the return policy is broken because of the fear of a bad review.

 

[ISMike]

But also you are responsible for the profit of your store. If the two policies decide to crash into each other, profit always wins.

Our store doesn't accept:

1. No receipt returns
   
2. Items that have no file on them
3. Items that have obviously been used.
4. electronics over 15 days and anything over 90. (expect target brands)

Huge policy sign on the wall that we point to. Yes there is attempt to make a return but if you think you can cheat us, its not happening. We rarely see target brands returned because well most people don't have year old receipts.

How do you readily get away with #4 given the official, stated return policy is 30 days for electronics?

 

[Badjedidude]

How do you readily get away with #4 given the official, stated return policy is 30 days for electronics?

I agree. Trust me, I want to avoid return fraud as much as anyone, but... 15 days seems a bit too extreme.

 

[leo443]

OP - I agree with you completely!! "Guest Service" at my store has become "Yes Service". Even when I suspect a return is fraudulent, the guest demands to speak to a manager, who will typically accept the return and do everything they can do "make it right", which usually means doing a thousand overrides. But at the end of the day, I'm not the one losing money, Target is!!

 

[leo443]

There was a time when we didn't, but I am seeing it happen again.

My store does overrides on maxed out ID's as well!!!!

 

[Frontlanegirl]

OP - I agree with you completely!! "Guest Service" at my store has become "Yes Service". Even when I suspect a return is fraudulent, the guest demands to speak to a manager, who will typically accept the return and do everything they can do "make it right", which usually means doing a thousand overrides. But at the end of the day, I'm not the one losing money, Target is!!

It does affect you because lower sales mean less payroll and small raises.

 

[leo443]

It does affect you because lower sales mean less payroll and small raises.

Still, at the end of the day, I'm not the one allowing it, MGMT is.... not like they were giving huge raises anyway

 

[redeye58]

Guests scream for 'managers' because they know they don't have anything to lose at that point except to go for broke & most leadership is too wussy about survey scores so they'll cave in, which in turn rewards bad behavior.
Welcome to retail.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

How do you feel when you have a screaming kid who wants a toy and then the parent gives in. Same thing with guests and management. Kid learns he can get what he wants with his bad behavior.

 

[HRZone]

Still, at the end of the day, I'm not the one allowing it, MGMT is.... not like they were giving huge raises anyway

Management doesn't get their hours cut like we do. Ever since my stl instituted the no receipt, no return policy we for the first time have flex hours since I've been at this store.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Management doesn't get their hours cut like we do. Ever since my stl instituted the no receipt, no return policy we for the first time have flex hours since I've been at this store.

And the less hours there are the harder we need to work.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

do other stores do "no same day different store"?

 

[Yetive]

Yes.

 

[Anelmi]

Yes and it gets people heated.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Yes and it gets people heated.

oh trust me i know

 

[Frontlanegirl]

No

 

[SilentCrow]

With the introduction of MyGuest expect stores to get soft with return policies. I'm a GSTL and I had this argument/discussion the other day. What is the point of having a policy if you don't follow it? Trust me the TLs that are just doing the returns are probably just doing what their ETL tells them who is just doing what their STL tells them, who is doing what their DTL tells them. You get the point.

So with MyGuest you can see every guest complaints and compliment. You can see who is a detractor and who is a promoter of your store based off of the survey. Now if the person is a detractor and written in a comment the GE has to contact that guest before a certain time or else it goes up to the DTL. It's simply ridiculous. This creates panic and that turns into "just make the guest happy".

The thing is they should be focusing on sales growth, and efficiency of processes. Yet they're focused on bad surveys. Most people don't fill out surveys unless things don't go their way. All those people who have great service isn't worried about filling out surveys. Those few who can't get what they want will. It's the loud minority and Target is bending for them.

 

[redeye58]

Re: MyGuest - My STL had to deal with a lady who chased him down in the store to complain about a $1.50 bag of popcorn she said was 'stale'.
He said to just give her a free bag next time she comes in; except that she complains about every bag she gets after eating about a third so she hasn't paid for popcorn for awhile.
She also expects us to pop her a fresh batch each time.
Fortunately she only comes about every couple weeks but all this crap over a $1.50 popcorn.

 

[SilentCrow]

That's just ridiculous. It always amazes me hope people find time to do things like that. $1.50 you don't want to pay so you create this elaborate story/scene.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

With the introduction of MyGuest expect stores to get soft with return policies. I'm a GSTL and I had this argument/discussion the other day. What is the point of having a policy if you don't follow it? Trust me the TLs that are just doing the returns are probably just doing what their ETL tells them who is just doing what their STL tells them, who is doing what their DTL tells them. You get the point.

So with MyGuest you can see every guest complaints and compliment. You can see who is a detractor and who is a promoter of your store based off of the survey. Now if the person is a detractor and written in a comment the GE has to contact that guest before a certain time or else it goes up to the DTL. It's simply ridiculous. This creates panic and that turns into "just make the guest happy".

The thing is they should be focusing on sales growth, and efficiency of processes. Yet they're focused on bad surveys. Most people . fill out surveys unless things don't go their way. All those people who have great service isn't worried about filling out surveys. Those few who can't get what they want will. It's the loud minority and Target is bending for them.

And this is my issue with the surveys. I had a guest yesterday who was upset with a policy that is out of my control. Of course, she was going to contact corporate and then our front end would get dinged for a bad survey. Anyone know how the surveys are broken down? If a guest has an issue with finding an item on the sales floor and can't, then fills out the survey does that survey count against the front end?

 

[HRZone]

And this is my issue with the surveys. I had a guest yesterday who was upset with a policy that is out of my control. Of course, she was going to contact corporate and then our front end would get dinged for a bad survey. Anyone know how the surveys are broken down? If a guest has an issue with finding an item on the sales floor and can't, then fills out the survey does that survey count against the front end?

Surveys judge the store as a whole. Doesnt matter if its a cashier or sales floor who pisses them off.

 

[SilentCrow]

And this is my issue with the surveys. I had a guest yesterday who was upset with a policy that is out of my control. Of course, she was going to contact corporate and then our front end would get dinged for a bad survey. Anyone know how the surveys are broken down? If a guest has an issue with finding an item on the sales floor and can't, then fills out the survey does that survey count against the front end?

Depends on how they take the survey, but yes guest service can still get dinged in that situation.

Surveys judge the store as a whole. Doesnt matter if its a cashier or sales floor who pisses them off.

New(ish) system breaks it down now. There is overall, order pickup, returns, registry, and I believe a few others I'm missing. It's a cool system, "MyGuest", because you can use it to figure out where most of the complaints are about, but still some things is out of your control.

For example: You'll see a complaint and low rating for order pickup however, it could have been a mess up by the FF team. That complaint is still going to fall on guest service. Yesterday me and my GE had to respond to a complaint ("detractor") from a guest that at least aknowledged that it wasn't GS fault and they treated her well. They did what they could to fix the problem, but it was a Target.com screw up.

However, it was still classified as an order pickup complaint and technically it affected our metrics.