A variety of problems and complaints regarding merchandise and credit come to me. The complaints I get take me all over the store. Letters and calls are directed to me. In each situation I ask myself, ”How would I feel if this were my complaint? How would I react?”
I work 9 to 5. But If I`m asked to stay until 8 or 9 o`clock, I stay. If my superior tells me she needs me Saturday or Sunday, I`m here. If I have a volume of letters stacked up on my desk, of course I`m going to come in on a Saturday.
It`s letters today more than phone calls. An average of five customer complaints come to me a day. In a week I`m seeing about 25 or 30 letters. Females still do the complaining because they`re managing the households. I`m always amazed to receive the calls from men. It`s still unusual.
About 95 percent of the complaints are legitimate. You have nondelivery and unsatisfactory merchandise. It happens. Take furniture. On delivery, it may get scratched or damaged, or a leg might break.
I do have those customers who rant and rave and scream, demanding their money back. I`ll tell you something: If I pick up the phone and a person is just screaming or shouting the four-letter words, I intervene and say: ”I have your phone number. I`m here to help you. Please calm down. I`m going to hang up and will call you back in 10 minutes.” They`re screaming because they want to get their way.
You can return merchandise within a reasonable amount of time. Ten days. There isn`t any item we won`t take back if it has a manufacturer`s defect. I don`t just pass over it and say, ”This customer`s crazy.” I`m concerned. If you purchase a bathing suit and the colors bleed the first time you go in the water, we can`t refuse to take it back.
I know my job. And it has always bothered me when anyone insults my intelligence. Like people who try to return clothing they`ve worn but put the tags back on in the wrong place when they return it. Most of the time I`m able to determine if a garment`s been worn by taking a look at it. There`s not always perspiration. But a suit will be creased in the bend of the arm if it`s long-sleeved, or in the underarms and back seam. A man`s suit will be creased in the crotch area. I tell my customers, in a diplomatic way, that we do not sell used clothing. I ask, ”How would you feel if you found out that you purchased a suit for $100 and later found out that Mrs. Jones had worn it?”
They don`t come out and say, ”You`re right.” They act huffy and say: ”I don`t want it anyway. I`ll give it to charity.”
Obviously, if you don`t pay your bills, you`re going to get dunning letters. I have problems with credit at least three or four times a week. I find problems with the affluent ones, who take off for Florida in October or November and return in February and March. The maid sends the mail, and it arrives past payment-due time. They resent getting that dunning letter. And it`s always: ”I`ve been a customer for 20 years. Why aren`t you looking at my past payment history?” When billing, we don`t look into past histories.
People take the trouble to return earrings that are 99 cents a pair. The funny part is that they`re spending 75 cents or $1 each way to return the item.
Quite frequently I get calls from people who just want to talk, particularly old ladies who are housebound with no relatives or friends to talk to. I have a couple of elderly women that I`ve kept permanent files on for the last 8 to 10 years. They call daily and say, ”Miss Banks, I have a problem.” They`ll ask about merchandise. But they`re really just calling up to chat. They`re lonely. I do talk to them.
John Q. Public is very smart. You really have to get eight hours of rest to keep up with him. We have a customer who attends all of our warehouse sales, and her little tricky thing is that when she purchased the furniture, there wasn`t a scratch on it. When it`s delivered, it`s ”nothing but junk, gouges and scratches.” She demands new merchandise. Now a warehouse sale doesn`t have used furniture. It`s discontinued items. Maybe a scratch here, a tear there. But that`s noted on the sales tag. When she purchased it at our warehouse sale, there was a scratch. But when she received it, there were not additional scratches or gouges. What she`s doing is demanding something in better shape than what she bought. The most fascinating part of my job is knowing what little game a customer like this is playing.
Here`s an unusual situation: We had a China promotion fair down at Navy Pier a few years ago. There were beautiful things-satin jackets, hand embroidered. They retail for $500. After the fair a young lady, about 21 or 22 years old, came in and wanted to return two of those jackets. She told me that she bought them for her mother. When I asked her why she bought a size 14 and a size 16, she said that she wasn`t quite sure of her mother`s size. She had no receipt. I asked if she had any identification. All she had was a green welfare card. Using a little common sense, I was convinced that she had stolen the items to get the refund money. How in the world could this young lady have purchased two such expensive jackets on welfare money? I looked at her and said: ”My dear, I`ll give you mother`s advice. Two and two will always equal four. You`re stretching it. I cannot give you a refund. If I send you to security they`re going to keep the jackets, and we`re going to have to report this to your social worker.” That was the end of her.
I`ll never forget one unusual case. A while back I received a call from a young lady who sounded as if she was pleading when she asked to make an appointment to come in and see me. Through a pane of glass in the door I saw a face that looked very pale, like a ghost. I opened the door and asked, ”How may I help you?” She said, ”Fifteen years ago I worked for Carsons.” She started crying. When I asked what was wrong, she said: ”I stole three items. I`ve been bothered ever since from time to time. I`m here today to pay for those dresses.” She pulled out price tags that were obsolete. She told me that she was a born-again Christian. I called one of our attorneys, who said: ”Let`s be generous. If she`s had them on her conscience for all these years, we`ll accept 50 percent off.”
There`s a mystery I`d love to solve. Every spring we get calls from customers stating that they have received calls from a man who says, ”Carsons is having a lingerie promotion, and your name was pulled. What size bra do you wear?” The man says that he works for the company that`s going to supply Carsons with the underwear. Our female customers are quite concerned. We don`t know what`s going on. Apparently, the man gets the names out of the telephone book.
When I started with Carsons in the adjusting department, I had a very fine manager. He always stressed that when a customer has a problem, ”Make the decision, right or wrong. Make it.” I learned to make definite decisions and not to take my problems home with me.
Whenever a customer calls and has a major problem and I can get all the pieces of the puzzle together and solve it, it`s very, very rewarding.
