Many Happy Returns

Today I went to the mall to return a sweater that I bought several weeks ago.

I purchased the sweater as part of a "buy one get one 75% off" promotion. One such sweater fit perfectly. The other fit as if I had purchased it at the Baby Gap. This despite the fact that they were the exact same style and size. I guess this speaks volumes about the shoddy craftsmanship of modern day clothing.

At any rate, I fully expected to be refunded only the 75% reduced rate for the sweater since I had kept one. This was fair enough, I figured.

The line at the store was huge, of course. The woman to whom I presented the return and the receipt was dumbfounded as to how to perform the return. She got all stressed out. I assured her that I was in no hurry and that she should take her time and ask her supervisor what to do.

She patiently waited for her manager to finish a transaction and asked her how to conduct the return. The manager agitatedly told her, "Ring in the non-sale amount, then subtract 75% and give her the difference." Fair enough.

The poor girl returned to her register and started the return process. She rang in the official amount (pre-sale) and then stood there in further confusion. She asked me, "If I have to figure out 75% of 30, I just take 75 cents off, right?" I said, (and no truer words were ever spoken), "I'm hardly a math expert. Ask your manager."

With this, she looked toward her manager who, once again, was crazy busy, and decided that, yes, all she needed to do was take 75 cents off and then give me the full price minus 75 cents in a return credit.

Who was I to argue?

Where I should have had 5 dollars credit on my card, I ended up with 30. Hey, you could call me immoral. I would reply, "Hey, if they can sell an allegedly 30 dollar sweater for 5 dollars in the first place, aren't they the ones stealing from me??"

Ha!

Take advantage of store craziness to conduct your returns!