Terminalcoffee discussion
Politics / Business / Economics
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Retail Return Privacy
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I'm agreeing with you. However, I think it should depend on what is being returned and they should also consider the holiday times. I'll admit, I'm guilty of being a day-after-Christmas return shopper. But I'm sorry, I'm almost 20 years old, in college, and there is only so much I can do with CDs I already own and cheap bath sets.
So on that note, those kind of things should be taken into consideration.
On the other hand, I know how hard it can be to work places like retail. My aunt and I both work at Elder Beerman and its ridiculous. People (at least in our area) that shop there are insistent on using every coupon they get. No joke. They come in, buy hundreds of dollars worth of product, use their coupons, leave, and then the next day, they come back in and return half of the stuff they bought the day before. Most of the time they return all of the Yellow Dot products which are the ones that's are 40-70 percent off. It's annoying and I hate working the day after the sales. It's times like that when I hate my job. *end rant*
So from that perspective as well, I agree with their return policies. It hurts the corporations when there are ridiculous amounts of returns.
Usually a retailer won't ask for this kind of information if it is a receipted return. They already have the information unless you paid cash.The no receipt return has been a red flag in loss prevention for decades. 40 years at least as part of basic customer service training.
Tracking not only of purchases and returns, but of other activity is a time tested marketing tool. How much 'traffic' in a store has been exploited. Many of those security devices that make sure the security tag (active RFID device) has been deactivated when you leave, also count how many people pass through them both entry and exit. Thus answering the time honored question, "Do you enter through the out door?".
The data collected (and there has been a lot) has been analyzed to a level of sophistication that includes being able to determine pregnancy. Don't believe it?
See this article, or just Google for Target Store Tracking and glance through the articles!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhi...
It is a Brave New World.
I'm okay with it. I use store credit cards for coupons and deals, and I understand they are tracking my purchases. I think it makes it easier for a legitimate return. Kohl's for example has a no hassle return policy, that probably allows them to hassle the serial returners.
I could care less. Anyone forced to track me, my transactions and/or communications is going to be very bored...
As a retail manager back in the day (Egghead Software), I once had to terminate an employee for theft. He was my assistant manager (I didn't promote the asshole, he was assigned to my store by the district manager).This guy ran the store on Sundays and Mondays, while I was off. He had two scams going. The first was stealing evaluation copies of software provided to us by vendors. The second was taking product off the shelf, giving it to friends, and having them return the stuff when he was in charge.
I caught him because I noticed a pattern of returns on those days, especially Sundays. When I updated our loss prevention department, they told me NOT to fire him. Two days later, an LP rep was in the store interviewing the thief. The rep got him to write and sign a statement of his actions, and to sign over his final paycheck back to the company. It was the middle of December, so merry fucking christmas, Mr. Thief.
So why post all this? Because if Egghead had put in place a return tracking system, things like this could have been detected sooner. I also wanted to point out that employee theft is HUGE!
Indeed employee theft is a huge concern, Phil. I'm shocked that you were told not to fire this guy. Merry fucking Christmas thief is right. Bah humbug on that note.
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But the next day when I checked my email, there was at least one, maybe two emails from the company asking why I had abandoned my shopping cart. I never gave this company my email address, have never done business with them, had never heard of them. I was beyond creeped out. I didn't respond, just unsubscribed from them.
So how the fuck did they get my email?
Lobstergirl wrote: "Well speaking of being tracked. The creepiest thing ever happened to me. Someone I follow on Youtube recommended a shoe brand. I wasn't interested in buying, but just curious about the shoe and how..."If you have a Gmail account, YouTube has access because that's Google. If you accessed youtube through any social media that you have an account with and were logged in, they had easy access.
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Do you return much? Are you put out when a retailer asks for your name and address, or swipes the magnetic strip on your ID?
J.C. Penney, Best Buy Customer Data Collection Stirs Privacy Concerns
Personally, I'm with the retailers on this one. Loss is a huge bite into their profits and they need to take reasonable steps to prevent it. Discovering, and cutting off, "serial returners" seems quite reasonable to me. After all, those are the people who ruin the retail experience for the rest of us.
Your thoughts?