Quoted message said:I would not worry about it, Andrew. The far majority of people are
honest,
Quoted message said:ethical beings. Home Depot knows that there are a few that abuse their policies but they also know
that a Happy Customer will return to spend money. Wannagofast may one-day need a lawnmower, for
example, and he will probably return to HD because he's happy with them. HD is trying to enter
into a healthy life-long relationship with each of its customers and most likely will not [censored]
a customer over one transaction only to never see this person's money again. They do have checks
and balances in their
system
Quoted message said:to catch people who excessively abuse their system.
There's more to it than that. Most LBSs try to give their customers the best-possible service but,
unlike Home Depot, don't have the clout with their suppliers to return product that's not obviously
defective. Thus handling returns has a direct effect on the bottom line.
Now, when people like Wannagofast buy product, use it and return it (and use, I've seen it happen at
our shop, nearly always with tools), it does two things. First, it costs us money, and second (and
more importantly) it causes us to have to question whether a customer is being straight with us or
not. That's a really terrible thing... and you know that saying how one customer with a bad
experience will tell at least ten other people to stay away from your shop? It works the other way
around too. One customer trying to rip off a shop may create changes in policies and attitudes that
affect hundreds of other customers.
In the real world, being a business owner, I often have to "put out fires." Often that's taking care
of a situation where something didn't quite go right and a customer is upset. But just as often it
involves having to calm staff down because somebody came in and did something to try and take
advantage of us (returning something stolen or bought elsewhere, or claiming an employee said
something that wasn't policy and clearly wasn't the case because *I* happened to have overheard it,
etc). And so you have to explain (to staff) why we're here, that 99.999999999999% of our customers
are the most wonderful people in the world, and that this isn't something to lose sleep over or
change policies.
Home Depot has probably done various cost/benefit analysis and determined that it's acceptable to
not only tolerate customer abuse of their system, and that they'd rather have Wannagofast rip them
off on his home-made "borrowed" tools... so that he'll buy a lawnmower down the road. I suppose I
shouldn't say this, but *I* wouldn't want that person as a customer. I'll bend over backward to give
somebody the benefit of the doubt, but Wannagofast & his or her friends are not the people I'm in
business to help.
Aw heck, I'm not done yet. Home Depots return policies are a reflection of something very bad in
this world- an attitude that there's little inherent value in anything, and nothing is to be
repaired, just thrown away. In the old days, you didn't expect something that had broken to be
replaced, or thrown out- you repaired it. But that's way too much hassle unless you have people
intelligent enough to understand the product (and maybe to explain its use so somebody doesn't break
the "defective" product in the first place, via mis-use). The world is not a better place because
Home Depot (and others) would rather not ask questions when things go wrong. It's a worse place.
When a customer comes into the shop wanting to return something, I always ask if there's something
wrong with the product, what happened, etc. And often it turns out they're simply not using it
correctly, *or* they were sold the wrong thing etc. Both of those situations are hurt, not helped,
by a no-questions-asked return policy. Plus, there are the exceptionally-rare situations like
Wannagofast that it encourages.
Sorry for the endless ramble & retail drivel. I should *not* hit the "send" icon on this one!!! But
I will. But not before saying that I have exceptionally few customers like Wannagofast, and look
forward to taking care of my customers every single day. They're great people, all
99.999999999999% of them. Just keep me away from Wannagofast.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗
"onefred" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:"A Muzi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:>>"wannagofast" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
>>"]news:[email hidden]...
>>>I used the same approach and since I only do a headset every few
years,
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:>>>I just return the parts to Home Depot as there was really no wear.
Quoted message said:"A Muzi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
>I wondered, do you think that's acceptable behavior? I don't. I've never been in a Home Depot,
>I meant, just in general, to purchase something, use it, and return it.
onefred said:No, I don't think it's ethical, but I ain't his momma either... You can try to punish him if
you feel it's your place, but I believe
this is
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:an issue for Home Depot and wannagofast's momma. If you really want
to
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:help, try to visit Home Depot more often to help make-up for people
that
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:abuse their liberal return policy. None of this changes the fact that Home Depot is the
DIY'ers paradise!!! Woohoo! Radio Shack is the DIYers nightmare. Unless you need an RCA patch
cable
Quoted message said:or
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:'Shaq' doll, they never have [censored] on their shelves! Boohoo.
No, I went no farther than to express my opinion in hopes that someone else would expand on the
issue, which Sheldon did. I'm not even interested in chastising Mr Wanna. But I am interested in
character-slip in the culture at large -in that such behavior becomes more acceptable to more
people - and thought that merited attention.
I would not worry about it, Andrew. The far majority of people are
honest,
Quoted message said:ethical beings. Home Depot knows that there are a few that abuse their policies but they also know
that a Happy Customer will return to spend money. Wannagofast may one-day need a lawnmower, for
example, and he will probably return to HD because he's happy with them. HD is trying to enter
into a healthy life-long relationship with each of its customers and most likely will not [censored]
a customer over one transaction only to never see this person's money again. They do have checks
and balances in their
system
Quoted message said:to catch people who excessively abuse their system.
Dave
