Thoughts on the American Consumer

We all know that the economy is in a downward spiral at the moment, and that this is causing most consumers to tighten their purse strings a abit, which needless to say hurts those of us currently employed in the world of retail like myself.  However, poor economy or not, I continue to see othewise intelligent people (although these are just my own assumptions based on the fact that I work in an affluent area where most of my clientel make well over six figures a year) make completely irrational demands.

Ask anyone with a background in a customer service related field and I’m sure that they will have a few doozies to tell you about a “customer,” “client,” or “guest.”

A few insights that I feel the need to share as the person behind the counter.

- Read your coupon before you attempt to use it.  It clearly states what the exceptions are and when it expires, understand that at the store level my hands are tied as to how many and what exceptions I can make as predetermined by my POS system.  You only look like an asshole when you bitch about saving a few coins and hold up the line.
- Returns and Exchanges, this policy has been almost identical at every retailer I have ever worked at, so don’t insult my intelligence by telling me that any other store would allow you to return the broken item that you bought back in 2005.
- Extended Warranties, some people have had good experiences, some have had bad experiences…I have always been fortunate enough to understand the ins and outs of these programs in order to make them work for me.  Be smart, don’t just assume that the sales person is being entirely truthful.  While they won’t lie to you (ethical reasons-duh) they may not give you the full truth as they are trying to make a sale and many/most sales associates while no longer on commision are still held accountable for performance levels around such programs.  You wouldn’t buy car insurance without reading about coverage would you?  How is reading into what your service plan would cover any different?
- Do not, do not, do not go off on the cashier or associate helping you just because you may not like what they have to say (Re: any of the above) company policy is company policy and they are just doing their job, if you want to yell, yell at the people who make the policies (the corporation) or if you are dissatisfied with a product’s performance (the manufacturer).  Yelling at the person in front of you may give you temporary satisfaction, but will not help you get what you want, it may in fact get you escorted off the premises.

Shopping is a necessary and sometimes fun activity, but just because you’re out running errands doesn’t mean that you should flick the off switch on your ability to have rational thoughts.  Be a smart consumer, do your research in advance-expecting the associate to know every little detail about the thousands of products carried in their store isn’t realistic-they’re people not computers, and on top of everything they have going on in their own lives they can’t remember the write speed of your disk drive that you bought 3 years ago off the top of their heads.  This doesn’t mean they’re an idiot, it means that they are human.

The educated consumer, who treats the store staff as they would want to be treated if their situations were reversed are the ones who are going to get the best service everytime.

So before you yell at the 16 year old kid behind the counter for not letting you return that hard drive you bought a year ago and forgot about, remember that they are just doing their job and its not their fault that you neglected to follow the return policy clearly printed on your reciept.  Besides, theres always eBay…or Craigslist.