You work part-time at the customer service desk at a home improvement store in y

Question

You work part-time at the customer service desk at a home improvement store in your suburban town. It is late September and in walks a man who firmly but politely presents his receipt and insists on returning the barbecue he bought in June for a full refund. He explains, “it does not work as well as it should.” For your part, it is clear that this man bought the barbecue to enjoy summertime grilling, and now that the summer is over, he no longer needs the barbecue – at least until next summer. Your company’s policy is to take back any product within 90 days or purchase with a receipt and within one year if the product is defective. What do you do?

What is your immediate reaction to the scenario? How would you feel if you were the person this situation was about?
How could this situation have been avoided?
What approaches to resolving this conflict are appropriate?
What are some things that, if done, would make this approach successful?
What are some things to avoid when attempting to resolve this conflict? Why?

Explanation / Answer

1. The immediate reaction thay I would have to the issue would be to gently repeat the process and customer rules and regulations of the companyand therefore explain it to him, that their terms and service simply do not allow the product to be returned when they have been used.

2. The situation could have been avoided by the company if they had allowed the processes to have a clear understanding and have well defined shipping and return policies and terms of use. This would in turn allow the company to safeguard itself from having to return a product that bad been used.

3. The best way to resolve this conflict or issue would be to create a clear set of policies and regulations which allow a clear process of evaluation of the product before they can be processed for return which would mean that the products which have been used extensively can be clearly identified and then accordingly processed for either return or be ineligible for return.

4. Rectifying the policies and the rules that the company operates on and clearly mentioning them to the customer at the time of the purchase saves the company from having to deal with situations like these especially in in the cases where the customers play on the fact that the company does not have proper return conditions and requirements in place, that only defective products can be returned after a set amount of time.

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