Well, we are finally here, at the promised story that I have been alluding to for a couple of weeks now. Unlike the last couple of entries, this annoying situation had nothing to do with theft, though it did kind of feel like it after it was all over.
It all started two weeks ago, on a Friday before our regular FNM (Friday Night Magic), and Eddie was away on his vacation. I came into work at about 6 pm, which is the normal routine lately. One of my grade school friends Andy was volunteering for us that morning while Ed was gone, and a few of our other volunteers / customers / owners were around as well.
A couple came in that morning while neither Ed or I was there, and they requested to return their new Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook that they purchased from us. Apparently, Andy and the other volunteers did not receive that information well, and after some bickering, they were told to come back when I was in, but that I probably would not grant the refund.
The reason that they wanted to return the book? Well, because they found it cheaper on Amazon. From what I was told, they basically treated my volunteers like thieves, like we screwed them over for selling the book to them at the retail price. This is actually a big issue with stuff like DND books, because while the MSRP is $50, the price through distributors is much less. Whereas we need those margins to keep the store open, online retailers through Amazon have no such need, and are fine with getting a very small return by reducing the price drastically. Wizards tries to make up for this by offering the books to brick and mortar stores a few weeks earlier than Amazon, but eventually they will be available for cheaper online.
Anyways, back to the story. I finally arrived at Gamers Link, expecting to get our FNM rolling, but my peeps were all chirping about the crazy couple who wanted to return the book because they found it online cheaper. I was like, "fuck that." The couple were told to come back, so they were not there when I got in, and once I heard the stories from various people, I sat down at the computer and got to work. I have stuff to do, so I did stuff.
Oh, and Andy had made a make-shift sign about a no-return policy and taped it to the desk, which will be important in a second.
Eventually the couple did come back, and pretty much everyone who was still around from earlier (Andy had left by the time I got there) pretty much scattered. It was like a wild west type thing where some mean hombres show up, and everyone scatters... except me, because of course it was my duty to deal with the situation. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a huge fan of dealing with social situations, and this was a handicapped match (2-on-1).
The first thing they did when they came in is notice the sign Andy taped to the desk, which of course made them angry before we even started speaking. "That wasn't there before!" That sort of thing. I apologized and took the sign down, (I meant to earlier, but you know, stuff). Then we started to talk about their issue, and how they wanted to return the book because they found a deal where they can get a whole bundle for $60-some, whereas its around $100 MSRP to get the whole thing through us.
I was like, "Come on, dude. Why would I refund it for this reason? They sell it cheap online to undercut our stores." There was a lot of back and forth in there, and I was starting to feel the double team. Mostly, the woman was very angry and threatened me a few times with boycott type wording. She said Target would take it back, and she worked retail for 15 years, and how we have to post our return policy or we have to take everything. The dude was much more calm, though he was also getting upset because I was definitely getting upset.
At one point the guy mentioned that he supports small business and all, but the price difference is too vast to be fair. That was when I explained the 'undercutting business' bit, and basically flat out told him that he was not supporting small business at all. She told me they were good customers who brought in some other friends, and if $50 was worth losing a lot of business. I didn't know these people at all, but that doesn't mean much because I haven't been around as much the last couple of months. Ed later verified that these people were customers, and that he did sell them a PHB. My point is that I had no way of even knowing at the time if that was true, but I assumed it was at the time.
After I pretty much took all I could, I basically gave the woman the hand, and asked her to stop talking for a second. She was of course not happy with that, and said she would stand aside before she got really angry. This allowed me to talk to the guy in a more calm manner, and we kind of argued back and forth about their treatment from my volunteers earlier, and then I countered by mentioning that I was told they were rude to my people, and were referred to as crazy. I told him this is what I walked into work to - my people telling me a crazy couple came by.
He then gets understandably mad that I was inferring he was crazy, which is not what I was actually doing, but it sounded like it with my terrible social skills. He then tells me I called his pregnant girlfriend crazy, which was news to me. I didn't really notice her being overly pregnant, but I am not a terribly observant person sometimes. Him saying she was pregnant made a lot of sense, and actually explained most of the surreal experience I was having. I certainly didn't know she was pregnant when I gave her the hand, and I was pretty much immediately disarmed by that revelation. As a father of two who was with his wife for the whole pregnancy, I immediately understood the whole situation, and I apologized, and gave them their money back. They left with what they wanted, but of course not in a good mood about it.
It wasn't my proudest moment, and I suspect Ed might have handled it a little differently, but maybe not. It is hard to tell what was a personality flaw on their part, what was some residual anger from whatever happened between them and the volunteers earlier, and what was pure volatile pregnancy emotions. (Hormones are real for mom and dad during pregnancy, trust me, I know.) It felt like the whole ordeal lasted an hour, but was probably closer to 20 minutes. I thought of all sorts of things I could have said to maybe defuse the situation, (and save us the trouble of re-selling a slightly used PHB), but I usually am not great at doing that sort of thing on the spot. Once they were gone, all the people came back out of their shells, and were like, "Damn, that was fucked up."
Since then, we posted an official return policy, which was always our unofficial policy anyways. As I mentioned, Ed reviewed security footage and confirmed they were actual customers. I wasn't sure if the situation was just being warped in my memory, but everyone else who was observing from the hiding spots felt like they were kind of abusive... again, I don't know what actually occurred between them before I got in.
I tried to put the story here as honestly as I remember, and I suppose it is up for everyone to judge for themselves what was going on. I felt like it was a case of buyer's remorse, and I somewhat doubt that $50 bucks went back into a DND product. I definitely did not buy any DND books while my wife was pregnant, or really much of anything. I am not even saying that he bought it, and she got mad or something Homer Simpson-esque, I am just saying that sometimes you realize you needed that $50 more than you thought you would.
I kind of wish they had come at me from that angle instead of the Amazon one, because I would have been okay with returning a book for that reason. "My girlfriend is pregnant... help!" That sort of thing I would get.
Or maybe I am wrong, and indeed that paid for most of their sweet ~$60 DND bundle. That would be a bit more of a bummer, but who knows?
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