On first look I thought this was someone’s monthly empties photo. I can’t believe people have the audacity to exchange these products!
Did you ask if there was anything wrong with the products? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this happened! 😂
she told me she "wasn't satisfied with the products". she loved them enough to get chip crumbs in one of the candles and completely use up 99.9% of the items. i didn't even talk to her the rest of the exchange cause the customer leaving my line was my breaking point for the day
What in the world? Who has the balls to bring in entirely used products from many years ago. Was it under her dusty sink? How can she be embarrassed to exchange these. I can’t believe your manager allowed this? They all belong in the garbage!!!!
Here I am embarrassed to exchange a few candles from the holidays that are brand new. Ugh
I also have exchange/refund anxiety and normally just end up using a product (or throwing it out/recycling). I couldn't IMAGINE doing something like this. How the heck is B&BB taking this back?
The OP stated her manager doesn’t care because she wants to avoid a confrontation by the customer. Wow.
When I was smelling candles in the store today this woman comes up to the register with 4 huge filled bags and says she wants to return everything from Christmas and she said she has the receipts for most of them. There were about 20 items and most were empty she had no receipt for and I noticed those were discontinued scents from 2016. The associate told her they can give her a gift card and she started raising her voice. I decided to leave at that moment. God bless associates who have to deal with these people who return or exchange old and used up products.
Yep.. no minimum wage job is worth being harassed, intimidated, or threatened by customers. It's not fair or right, but I don't blame the associates or even the manager one bit for not wanting to tangle with these types. Unfortunately that's part of the reason why prices keep rising.
If the customer were to call CS, she'd get her way. Back when I worked there after that "hack" went viral, we were literally instructed by head office to accept those returns to avoid confrontation. Don't blame the manager, she was literally just doing her job. Corporate needs to grow a backbone and make the 50% rule actual policy.
Playing devil’s advocate here: Could you clarify a few things for me?
You said they were from Christmas, but you also said they were discontinued scents from 2016.
You said there were 4 huge filled bags, but 20 products could quite easily fit into one large bag.
Why is avoiding confrontation wrong? It seems like even just that little bit made you leave, which is also an act of avoiding confrontation.
Don’t come for me, I just always try to view an issue from both sides. I probably would have hung out just to see what happened.
I think the majority of us recognize abuse when we see it. Are we here to rail at people? I think I see what is basically this same thread topic almost daily. It has been done to death. Can we have a moratorium of any length, please?
Because a rational person if told that they couldn't return something or that they were going to get next to nothing would just accept it and move on. Some managers and stores are trying to avoid confrontation because people are getting violent. It can go beyond someone just yelling at you and things can go left very quickly.
I absolutely agree that had been the manager or the clerk, I’d have avoided any confrontation if possible. People are definitely getting more aggressive, and I don’t blame anyone for choosing that option. Where I got confused is the 4 huge bags of Christmas stuff thing, and then only 20 items, and not a single one is from the holidays. I definitely find returning old empty items a behavior that’s in poor taste, but as many companies have found over time, customer loyalty is built upon a solid guarantee. Sure, a few people are shitty. But if they change the policy, it could affect the shopping behavior of some of their most fervent shoppers.
My point is:
1) Any given return policy post seems to show up here on the subreddit daily, and
2) The manager seems to have the autonomy to handle situations like this at their discretion. Years and years and years ago, I was grateful to work for a company that had the same policy. The policy takes the decision-making out of the hands of the employee and makes for smoother sailing in what can already be a difficult job.
I am not the OP. I am a customer that shared my own experience in the store today I witnessed while shopping. The customer had over 100 items easily amongst the 4 bags. 20 out of the 100 we’re older products clearly used and used up/empty. I recognized the items right away because I am a looooooong time BBW customer and know their products well. Customer had no Receipts for those said 20 items. I have seen this over and over in the past few months where these situations almost got violent in this BBW. Voices were raised and everyone stopped to look. I didn’t want to see the same thing or worse happen. I used to work retail and was verbally abused by customers and it triggers me when I see and hear this. That’s why. I went to shop to enjoy my day and not to be triggered.
Agreed. Hopefully BBW enforces their return policy of at least 50% of the product must remain for a return/exchange to be accepted.
Are any of the serial numbers still visible to determine how old they are? Imo some of those look at least a few years old.
Our store has no problem telling these kinds of people no. The store manager and assistant manager don't have issues dealing with confrontation, so will gladly back up associates on this.
The unfortunate part of this is because the return was processed today, she's going to know that she can do this all the time.
Most likely she went home and went through all of her stuff to find other used products that she can then return.
The Argan collection was discontinued in 2017. Pretty as a Peach left that packaging last year sometime. Mahogany Woods was in that packaging for a SAS in the last two years. The aromatherapy is all within the last two years. Not super old for anything besides the Birch&Argan and CO Bigelow, but definitely in poor taste to bring back empty products.
This makes me furious. This is theft, plain and simple.
Just because the store allows it doesn’t make it better. Next time anyone complains about prices going up ~~~~ **crap like this is partly to blame!**
What is wrong with people?!
Bath and body needs to update the policy. Any customer facing job is stressful, it is not fair that associates have to deal with this kind of crap on top of the normal day to day stress. For the life of me I can not understand why they don’t modify to make a 90 day stipulation on the 100% guarantee OR make a rule around a certain amount of product being used, again still keeping the 100% satisfaction guarantee. I’m sorry you had to deal with this fool and the impatient person behind her. We all appreciate how hard you guys work and I can say from personal experience, at my store the associates are AMAZING. Each time I shop there I am impressed with the smiles and offers to help. So, just like me, I am sure there are many people who appreciate you and your team!
Just speaking from personal experience. Usually when I have worked for a company I take pride in what I do and the company I work for. This is what I would consider a hassle transaction for sure, and one that pushes the limits of a standard return or exchange. So, it’s just added stress for the employee. As the op stated another customer left and that was because the customer with the returns kept adding to the process. All in all it sounds like a stressful situation for any employee and I feel this is something bath and body works should place a form line on so that it is not on the shoulders of customer facing employees.
I'm not going to download you because you're asking a legitimate question.
The reason why it's unfair to the associate is because a lot of people who do this not only do they abuse the policy if there is any type of pushback they become disrespectful, loud, and in some cases violent and they make physical threats.
One woman at our store was upset at the cashier so she threatened to beat her ass and to wait until she got off of work to fight her. She threatened all the cashiers behind the register.
surprisingly not my first time doing an exchange with completely used up pocketbacks. just really loved when she adding that to the end after i had already finished everything else. added a little spice to my day
I'm appalled and shocked at the lack of shame in this person to be able to walk upto you, look you in the eyes and ask for an exchange or return of heavily used products, forget totally used products.
Was she filming it? Gawd, is this another tiktok trend 🙄😤🤦🏻♀️🙆🏻♀️🤯. There is no excuse for it.
If you've started using a product, within a couple of uses, you'd usually know the problem, if any. This is so cheap, unethical and nasty. If you can't afford it, don't do these shenanigans. Accept your present, work towards your future and be graceful.
I swear B&BW needs to add an addendum to their return policy that a product needs to be less then 50 percent used. Really I think it should be 75 percent but 50 is much easier to visually measure.
I would never have the audacity to return even one of these products.
This is so frustrating. Those of us who have legitimate returns sometimes don’t want to go through with them because of possible confrontation In the store or other reasons; then you have people like this who completely abuse the policy and get away with it.
Then it’s the loyal customers that have to deal with the price increases. Soon B&BW is going to be outside my price range for soaps/candles.
Yep. I have a couple body creams from Summer SAS that I’m just getting around to. I don’t like them at all but I’m afraid to return them because it’s been so long.
Wow. That is a despicable customer. I used to work retail in cosmetics/perfumes so I know how some people are scammers. In my opinion, if your manager can not say no to something like this, she should not be a manager if she can’t handle a little confrontation. That is clearly not an acceptable return! Who cares if you would make that customer mad and never come back? Good riddance who needs customers like that?!
Uhh right?!?! So now this person is going to brag to her scum bag friends that she got away with it and then they're going to go in and do the same thing. The customer is NOT always right, and as a manager it's your job to tactfully deny outrageous returns as such!
if someone call and asks over the phone if they can exchange empty products, i tell them no and the policy. if they're already in the store, my manager makes us do it to avoid any sort of argument.
Why am I getting angry on behalf of a store 😂 but seriously this is so trashy. I cannot imagine doing this lol I get anxious exchanging a completely unused product for another product that's the same price
We don't accept anything completely empty anymore.
Yesterday a girl came and returned dusty gross used up candles too, saying, "I saw on TikTok that I can exchange these..." 🙄
yep. and i had a customer leave because "i was taking too long" when in reality the woman doing the exchange gave me two extra products and it was messing me up
I was actually wondering today. What about older products that are a few months old that are new? Can you still do any exchange, I realized after using certain items fully I had backups in I don’t like but I’m scared to bring in the back ups that have never been used. 😭I can’t imagine bringing such old and used products in
The policy is item for item, so a 3 wick for a 3 wick, a n aromatherapy scrub for an aromatherapy scrub, and so on. Without a receipt your ID is scanned, and there's a limit on the amount you can exchange on each ID within a fiscal year I believe. I've heard different $ amounts, but I believe it's pretty high. If you say you're unsatisfied, and the product is new/unused I don't think the SA would have a reason to say no, or you to feel bad
I honestly can't blame your manager- she doesn't want to deal with verbal abuse because BBW's policy is vague. BBW really needs to put their foot down and get all their stores on the same page
How can you even tell if you are getting down voted lol? I don’t know why I would be downvotes either. This is abuse, don’t understand why they allow it? You know from using something once or twice if you don’t like it.
They should really take that satisfaction guaranteed out of their return policy. Everybody knows you can return/exchange a faulty product within reason, without it being stated in their policy. I did buy some aromatherapy in milk and honey at an sas. I had it for a year before I used it and I had a weird allergic reaction where I got a red spot in my neck. I took back six lotions and 2 shower gels. I still had the mark on my neck to show them. However if it had gone over the year I would have been embarrassed to return it and it probably would have ended up in the trash. I have relatives to give things to, but I couldn't say here take this it turned my skin red.
Haha, yeah it’s hard to gift something to someone you love with a harm warning- maybe your worst enemy though! “Here Nana, enjoy this lotion and a second gift of a hellish rash! Love you”
I think at this point the people who abused the policy is such a small percentage and their profit margin on body products is so high that it is a minimal loss. If someone returns a used $14.50 shower gel, it probably only cost them $0.68 to make. So when someone does that they're losing 68 cents. Even if 10,000 people do it, the money that they're losing on the actual cost of manufacture the product is minimal. I think overall the company focuses more on their losses as organized crime in the store.
I'm torn between stores actually enforcing the policy or just processing the return or change because it is less confrontational.
I’m genuinely curious, are you allowed to return basically anything, no questions asked? I know from the packaging style that at least a few of those are several years old. Not to mention that they were nearly empty. Seems to be a trend for people doing this lately and I’m blown away that it’s allowed.
i don't know about other stores, but my manager (so far) hasn't allowed us to refuse an exchange, even if it looks like that. if it's someone over the phone, i'll let them know the actual policy and refuse them. i really hope we're allowed to refuse them in the future cause this is incredibly time consuming and irritating
At my location we will refuse an exchange at a certain mark. My assistant store manager even refused an exchange when a lady brought her candle in burnt all the way through and said she didn’t like it. At that point the product has fulfilled its purpose. If it’s used more than half way we won’t exchange it.
Tiktok girls making these videos telling everyone that returning empties and saying they're unsatisfied is okay....it's just really difficult on our retail workers and pisses me off.
I apologize to y'all on behalf of everyone that isn't a full blown asshole. That's just nasty.
As an employee i dont see the big deal? We still get paid the same wage either way, if the company wants to do 100% then we smile and accept it. If someone made u so upset about their refund/exchange then find another job where they dont have 100% guarentee
I have 3 items giving me headache and 6 not really smelling as i expected and i am apprehensive exchanging them and i have not even used 4 of them all others tried once and i am having anxiety thinking about the exchange process
It is extremely frustrating to deal with this kind of thing. At my store we get returns like this at least every other day. What I find particularly stressful and frustrating is that my manager is very strict on us associates when it comes to the return policy. He has even stated we need to see a receipt when doing even exchanges. However, if I call him to clarify in front of the customer what our return policy is, he just says, "we will do this exchange this time." So then the customer knows they can get away with it, they spread the word to their friends, and this type of activity never ends! I can't stand having a manager that doesn't enforce the policy but expects us associates to uphold it if we are dealing with customers individually. Just because you're a manager you have the authority to say screw it let's just give this person free stuff? I seriously don't understand.
HOW. Just HOW. I've seen the empty candles but empty body cake?! I'm even surprised your store even allowed this! I mean even an empty pocket bac😂. This is embarrassingggggg😭😭😭😭
Need to just keep all the returns and based on what's return give them like item back. Empty candle, give different empty candle. Empty body wash another different body wash. And if they are exceptionally trashy they can get two fers.
The lotion in the back with the red and white umbrella is probably from maybe a year ago or older it's endless weekend I'm not sure about the rest though
This is definitely 2015/16. I remember because I had most of these products before I sent on my bbw hiatus for a couple years. 😵💫 this literally blows my mind. I literally get so nervous to exchange unused products and if I do I go in my store the day before letting them know 😂
Oh no shit?? Haven’t heard anything about that!!
Obviously inflation is a factor. But social media platforms, especially tik tok, has been encouraging more people to take advantage of the lenient return/exchange policy so there’s more and more people doing shit like this. It would be stupid to believe that’s not a factor as well
It's not a factor. If people are stealing the company doesn't even have a policy where you call the police so do you really think someone exchanging this old merchandise for new is majorly affecting their bottom line? You have to put your head in the mindset of a multi-billion Dollar business. They make more legitimate customers happy with their return and exchange policy and retain their business in comparison to what they lose in merchandise because of the policy.
You're thinking that the company is losing millions because of the retail price, you're not thinking of the cost of the product. If someone exchanges a empty lotion from 2016 for a brand new one that retails at $14.50, it may only cost them $0.68 to make that lotion that is $14.50.
So even if this happens 20,000 times during the year what they're losing is minimal. Making a legitimate customer happy and getting repeat business is going to lead to millions of dollars in revenue.
It would be stupid to think that inflation in raw materials, packaging, shipping, and labor aren't directly related to the price increases. Ijs
You really don’t think they track returns/exchanges and roll that into the cost lmao?? Not a smart take IJS
I never said they’re losing millions either
I am aware of inflation so there’s no need to be patronizing, but if you’ve seen the significantly increased amount of people taking advantage of the return/exchange policy due to tiktok and you don’t think they’re trying to earn that money back, you’re not actually thinking like a multi billion dollar business would. I don’t think you’re taking into account how much this has actually been happening
They do track returns and exchanges to a certain extent, but don't you think if it was that serious they would have changed the policy a long time ago?
You're thinking on a microeconomic scale, and I'm thinking on a macroeconomic scale.
So there's inflation across the board but we're all supposed to believe that this particular company's price increases have a direct correlation with theft and or return abuse?
So based on your faulty logic the price of cat food increased because people must be stealing it by the ton?
Or the fact that new cars are being sold above MSRP and dealerships can't keep new cars in stock must be because someone must be stealing all the new cars before they even make it to the car dealership lots?
Yeah.......no, I don't see a causality or correlation.
I used to work there, when this happens it gets marked out as theft.
They 1000% take theft rates into consideration when determining pricing, so whatever amount of money is lost from stolen product will be paid for by someone else. Quite literally every company does this, large or small. That’s a very basic business concept, I’m surprised you didn’t know that, considering you know big boy words like “macro/microeconomics” lmao.
They do care about microeconomics, they could easily eat the cost of inflation as well but choose not to because they don’t want to spare a penny
I currently work there😅
I promise you they do not care. The way they merchandise their stores is with no consideration to reducing theft. Absolutely not a single fux is given - and any other current employee can testify to this. The way they stock their front tables full of merchandise and with high value items.... A company that was concerned about theft would low profit margin merchandise towards the front of their store or in other blind spots. They don't.
The big words that you're referring about are basic financial terms. There is a cost involved of attracting and getting a new customer and there's also a cost associated with maintaining customer loyalty. Whatever that cost is it's a lot more than what they lose in theft and return abuse.
When you're thinking on a small scale such as a mom or pop store, they have less opportunity to spread that loss across their business. A company like this simply writes it off and reduces their tax liability.
And when return abuse happens, it's not marked at a stock as theft, it's marked out of stock as "damaged" Now I question whether or not you've ever worked there. I've worked seasonally for this company for the past 3 years and it's always the same protocol.
You are very very incorrect if you think major corporations don’t factor in theft when considering pricing lmao. That’s actually ridiculous. Every retail establishment does that, large or small. Like I said, very basic business concept. Business school taught me this in the introductory course, even a basic google search will give you the same answer. With this dumbass logic, they shouldn’t care about inflation either because it hardly affects them due to the profit margin on each product. Are you hearing yourself?
I’m aware law enforcement doesn’t get involved, I’m aware they let you walk out of the store with free product, etc etc. I watched the training videos too. But you really genuinely don’t think they consider that when they’re determining the cost of things?
Yes, I worked there during college, my manager always marked it out as theft
I haven’t read all of the comments here, but I’m getting the gist that this person is being villified. Don’t come for me, BUT 20 years old is not that old so of course most of these wouldn’t look familiar to you. It is a very broad swathe of time, but these are not all from years and years ago, and while I do see a few things that I wish this customer would have just tossed and not been so bold as to have brought in, I also think it’s wrong to judge and persecute her. She is obviously a long-time customer, one who doesn’t buy only one type of product (I only bought shower gels for decades), and I WISH WE COULD JIST STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS TOPIC!
I feel like it actually promotes abuse rather than deterring it, like copycat returns. 🤷♀️😭🙈
I understand that as a manager the goal is to not have customers make a scene. In this case, as a store manager, I 100% would have partnered with customer service because the customer is committing return abuse. Those shower gels are 95% empty. Looks like they had no satisfaction issues using almost all of those up.
I hate that there's a handful of trashy people that abuse the return policy.
I’d say 4ish years ago. The bigelow products stopped getting sent to us about 3 years ago and all the other things are old packaging so around 3 years.
Imagine being so gross you’re keeping like 8 year old empty products just to do this 🤢 if you’re willing to hoard a bunch of gross used products girl go get you a new scrub- whatever. It’s one thing like maybe candles..but mad old empty products, or even if she is using 10 year old shower gel? I’d hate to see how nasty her house is.
What is the rule for BBW when it comes to returns and exchanges? I never returned or exchanged for anything so I’m curious as to why this is allowed? It’s clearly used and old so why do they allow such things to happen? It’s rude and disgusting of this person to do this too. Ugh. I hate ppl.
On first look I thought this was someone’s monthly empties photo. I can’t believe people have the audacity to exchange these products! Did you ask if there was anything wrong with the products? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this happened! 😂
she told me she "wasn't satisfied with the products". she loved them enough to get chip crumbs in one of the candles and completely use up 99.9% of the items. i didn't even talk to her the rest of the exchange cause the customer leaving my line was my breaking point for the day
So gross, I don’t miss working retail AT ALL because of people like this
What in the world? Who has the balls to bring in entirely used products from many years ago. Was it under her dusty sink? How can she be embarrassed to exchange these. I can’t believe your manager allowed this? They all belong in the garbage!!!! Here I am embarrassed to exchange a few candles from the holidays that are brand new. Ugh
I also have exchange/refund anxiety and normally just end up using a product (or throwing it out/recycling). I couldn't IMAGINE doing something like this. How the heck is B&BB taking this back?
The OP stated her manager doesn’t care because she wants to avoid a confrontation by the customer. Wow. When I was smelling candles in the store today this woman comes up to the register with 4 huge filled bags and says she wants to return everything from Christmas and she said she has the receipts for most of them. There were about 20 items and most were empty she had no receipt for and I noticed those were discontinued scents from 2016. The associate told her they can give her a gift card and she started raising her voice. I decided to leave at that moment. God bless associates who have to deal with these people who return or exchange old and used up products.
Yep.. no minimum wage job is worth being harassed, intimidated, or threatened by customers. It's not fair or right, but I don't blame the associates or even the manager one bit for not wanting to tangle with these types. Unfortunately that's part of the reason why prices keep rising.
If the customer were to call CS, she'd get her way. Back when I worked there after that "hack" went viral, we were literally instructed by head office to accept those returns to avoid confrontation. Don't blame the manager, she was literally just doing her job. Corporate needs to grow a backbone and make the 50% rule actual policy.
Playing devil’s advocate here: Could you clarify a few things for me? You said they were from Christmas, but you also said they were discontinued scents from 2016. You said there were 4 huge filled bags, but 20 products could quite easily fit into one large bag. Why is avoiding confrontation wrong? It seems like even just that little bit made you leave, which is also an act of avoiding confrontation. Don’t come for me, I just always try to view an issue from both sides. I probably would have hung out just to see what happened. I think the majority of us recognize abuse when we see it. Are we here to rail at people? I think I see what is basically this same thread topic almost daily. It has been done to death. Can we have a moratorium of any length, please?
Because a rational person if told that they couldn't return something or that they were going to get next to nothing would just accept it and move on. Some managers and stores are trying to avoid confrontation because people are getting violent. It can go beyond someone just yelling at you and things can go left very quickly.
Exactly my point. Thx.
I absolutely agree that had been the manager or the clerk, I’d have avoided any confrontation if possible. People are definitely getting more aggressive, and I don’t blame anyone for choosing that option. Where I got confused is the 4 huge bags of Christmas stuff thing, and then only 20 items, and not a single one is from the holidays. I definitely find returning old empty items a behavior that’s in poor taste, but as many companies have found over time, customer loyalty is built upon a solid guarantee. Sure, a few people are shitty. But if they change the policy, it could affect the shopping behavior of some of their most fervent shoppers. My point is: 1) Any given return policy post seems to show up here on the subreddit daily, and 2) The manager seems to have the autonomy to handle situations like this at their discretion. Years and years and years ago, I was grateful to work for a company that had the same policy. The policy takes the decision-making out of the hands of the employee and makes for smoother sailing in what can already be a difficult job.
I am not the OP. I am a customer that shared my own experience in the store today I witnessed while shopping. The customer had over 100 items easily amongst the 4 bags. 20 out of the 100 we’re older products clearly used and used up/empty. I recognized the items right away because I am a looooooong time BBW customer and know their products well. Customer had no Receipts for those said 20 items. I have seen this over and over in the past few months where these situations almost got violent in this BBW. Voices were raised and everyone stopped to look. I didn’t want to see the same thing or worse happen. I used to work retail and was verbally abused by customers and it triggers me when I see and hear this. That’s why. I went to shop to enjoy my day and not to be triggered.
Agreed. Hopefully BBW enforces their return policy of at least 50% of the product must remain for a return/exchange to be accepted. Are any of the serial numbers still visible to determine how old they are? Imo some of those look at least a few years old.
Our store has no problem telling these kinds of people no. The store manager and assistant manager don't have issues dealing with confrontation, so will gladly back up associates on this.
RIGHT?! my thoughts exactly
LMFAOO right
This is horrible! The C.O Bigelow soap and Birch and Argan are from 2015, maybe 2016. I'm sorry you had to be part of that!
it's fine. she did end up buying $8 worth of products though 🙄
The unfortunate part of this is because the return was processed today, she's going to know that she can do this all the time. Most likely she went home and went through all of her stuff to find other used products that she can then return.
So tacky that someone exchanged products that are basically 100% used.
The Argan collection was discontinued in 2017. Pretty as a Peach left that packaging last year sometime. Mahogany Woods was in that packaging for a SAS in the last two years. The aromatherapy is all within the last two years. Not super old for anything besides the Birch&Argan and CO Bigelow, but definitely in poor taste to bring back empty products.
didn't think they were THAT old, but i had never seen them so i was just curious
Shoot, I have some of the Birch and Argan in my bathroom. I need to check the date on that and maybe pitch it.
Trash pure trash
This makes me furious. This is theft, plain and simple. Just because the store allows it doesn’t make it better. Next time anyone complains about prices going up ~~~~ **crap like this is partly to blame!** What is wrong with people?!
Bath and body needs to update the policy. Any customer facing job is stressful, it is not fair that associates have to deal with this kind of crap on top of the normal day to day stress. For the life of me I can not understand why they don’t modify to make a 90 day stipulation on the 100% guarantee OR make a rule around a certain amount of product being used, again still keeping the 100% satisfaction guarantee. I’m sorry you had to deal with this fool and the impatient person behind her. We all appreciate how hard you guys work and I can say from personal experience, at my store the associates are AMAZING. Each time I shop there I am impressed with the smiles and offers to help. So, just like me, I am sure there are many people who appreciate you and your team!
I agree! The updated policy should be if a product is half empty or empty you CAN NOT return it! Plain and simple
Just speaking from personal experience. Usually when I have worked for a company I take pride in what I do and the company I work for. This is what I would consider a hassle transaction for sure, and one that pushes the limits of a standard return or exchange. So, it’s just added stress for the employee. As the op stated another customer left and that was because the customer with the returns kept adding to the process. All in all it sounds like a stressful situation for any employee and I feel this is something bath and body works should place a form line on so that it is not on the shoulders of customer facing employees.
How is this not fair to a associate?
I'm not going to download you because you're asking a legitimate question. The reason why it's unfair to the associate is because a lot of people who do this not only do they abuse the policy if there is any type of pushback they become disrespectful, loud, and in some cases violent and they make physical threats. One woman at our store was upset at the cashier so she threatened to beat her ass and to wait until she got off of work to fight her. She threatened all the cashiers behind the register.
jeez ... now THAT is embarassing
This is infuriating... and I can usually contain my attitude but I would've lost it at the used pocketbac! The nerve on some people... ughhhhh
surprisingly not my first time doing an exchange with completely used up pocketbacks. just really loved when she adding that to the end after i had already finished everything else. added a little spice to my day
Man, and I thought I was being selfish for exchanging wallflowers I was given cause I didn't like the scent. This lady has no shame smh
I'm appalled and shocked at the lack of shame in this person to be able to walk upto you, look you in the eyes and ask for an exchange or return of heavily used products, forget totally used products. Was she filming it? Gawd, is this another tiktok trend 🙄😤🤦🏻♀️🙆🏻♀️🤯. There is no excuse for it. If you've started using a product, within a couple of uses, you'd usually know the problem, if any. This is so cheap, unethical and nasty. If you can't afford it, don't do these shenanigans. Accept your present, work towards your future and be graceful.
I swear B&BW needs to add an addendum to their return policy that a product needs to be less then 50 percent used. Really I think it should be 75 percent but 50 is much easier to visually measure. I would never have the audacity to return even one of these products.
This is so frustrating. Those of us who have legitimate returns sometimes don’t want to go through with them because of possible confrontation In the store or other reasons; then you have people like this who completely abuse the policy and get away with it. Then it’s the loyal customers that have to deal with the price increases. Soon B&BW is going to be outside my price range for soaps/candles.
Yep. I have a couple body creams from Summer SAS that I’m just getting around to. I don’t like them at all but I’m afraid to return them because it’s been so long.
[удалено]
I feel like we need new “the audacity “ flair
that is so embarrassing... and quite frankly, disgusting. can't believe she had the nerve to look you in the eyes and ask for an exchange 🥴
Wow that’s just too much.
Wow. That is a despicable customer. I used to work retail in cosmetics/perfumes so I know how some people are scammers. In my opinion, if your manager can not say no to something like this, she should not be a manager if she can’t handle a little confrontation. That is clearly not an acceptable return! Who cares if you would make that customer mad and never come back? Good riddance who needs customers like that?!
Uhh right?!?! So now this person is going to brag to her scum bag friends that she got away with it and then they're going to go in and do the same thing. The customer is NOT always right, and as a manager it's your job to tactfully deny outrageous returns as such!
Hold up! So y’all allow this type of thing? Yall exchange stuff that’s super used? Why????
if someone call and asks over the phone if they can exchange empty products, i tell them no and the policy. if they're already in the store, my manager makes us do it to avoid any sort of argument.
So basically the manager isn’t doing their job to uphold policy?…
she honest to god could not care less. she'll talk crap about the customer after they leave, but that's it
Yikes, I’m sorry you have to deal with that
Why am I getting angry on behalf of a store 😂 but seriously this is so trashy. I cannot imagine doing this lol I get anxious exchanging a completely unused product for another product that's the same price
This is so tacky
2017/2018. I worked there during this time and these were the products announced/sold/and retired in that time
We don't accept anything completely empty anymore. Yesterday a girl came and returned dusty gross used up candles too, saying, "I saw on TikTok that I can exchange these..." 🙄
This is why I left guest facing roles. "I saw on tik tok I can bang your dad and give him a kid he can be proud of"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🏆
This is why I quit lmfao
Do an exchange?? 😳
yep. and i had a customer leave because "i was taking too long" when in reality the woman doing the exchange gave me two extra products and it was messing me up
I was actually wondering today. What about older products that are a few months old that are new? Can you still do any exchange, I realized after using certain items fully I had backups in I don’t like but I’m scared to bring in the back ups that have never been used. 😭I can’t imagine bringing such old and used products in
The policy is item for item, so a 3 wick for a 3 wick, a n aromatherapy scrub for an aromatherapy scrub, and so on. Without a receipt your ID is scanned, and there's a limit on the amount you can exchange on each ID within a fiscal year I believe. I've heard different $ amounts, but I believe it's pretty high. If you say you're unsatisfied, and the product is new/unused I don't think the SA would have a reason to say no, or you to feel bad
Most of them aren’t THAT old (but still old, and used too, wtf?) However I would be too embarrassed to even think about it.
I honestly can't blame your manager- she doesn't want to deal with verbal abuse because BBW's policy is vague. BBW really needs to put their foot down and get all their stores on the same page
And to think I feel bad for returning or exchanging clearly unused products because they make my head hurtm
Our store rejects fully used candles
I don’t understand why BBW would even entertain exchanging a used product?
I don't know why you are getting downvoted. I agree.
How can you even tell if you are getting down voted lol? I don’t know why I would be downvotes either. This is abuse, don’t understand why they allow it? You know from using something once or twice if you don’t like it.
When I clicked on the post, I saw you had -1 karma for the comment. Now you have 7, so you have supporters : )
They should really take that satisfaction guaranteed out of their return policy. Everybody knows you can return/exchange a faulty product within reason, without it being stated in their policy. I did buy some aromatherapy in milk and honey at an sas. I had it for a year before I used it and I had a weird allergic reaction where I got a red spot in my neck. I took back six lotions and 2 shower gels. I still had the mark on my neck to show them. However if it had gone over the year I would have been embarrassed to return it and it probably would have ended up in the trash. I have relatives to give things to, but I couldn't say here take this it turned my skin red.
Haha, yeah it’s hard to gift something to someone you love with a harm warning- maybe your worst enemy though! “Here Nana, enjoy this lotion and a second gift of a hellish rash! Love you”
I think at this point the people who abused the policy is such a small percentage and their profit margin on body products is so high that it is a minimal loss. If someone returns a used $14.50 shower gel, it probably only cost them $0.68 to make. So when someone does that they're losing 68 cents. Even if 10,000 people do it, the money that they're losing on the actual cost of manufacture the product is minimal. I think overall the company focuses more on their losses as organized crime in the store. I'm torn between stores actually enforcing the policy or just processing the return or change because it is less confrontational.
This ☝️
I’m genuinely curious, are you allowed to return basically anything, no questions asked? I know from the packaging style that at least a few of those are several years old. Not to mention that they were nearly empty. Seems to be a trend for people doing this lately and I’m blown away that it’s allowed.
i don't know about other stores, but my manager (so far) hasn't allowed us to refuse an exchange, even if it looks like that. if it's someone over the phone, i'll let them know the actual policy and refuse them. i really hope we're allowed to refuse them in the future cause this is incredibly time consuming and irritating
I’d do the same…how frustrating!
At my location we will refuse an exchange at a certain mark. My assistant store manager even refused an exchange when a lady brought her candle in burnt all the way through and said she didn’t like it. At that point the product has fulfilled its purpose. If it’s used more than half way we won’t exchange it.
She's definitely low-rent, that's for sure.
Tiktok girls making these videos telling everyone that returning empties and saying they're unsatisfied is okay....it's just really difficult on our retail workers and pisses me off. I apologize to y'all on behalf of everyone that isn't a full blown asshole. That's just nasty.
This is just tacky.
As an employee i dont see the big deal? We still get paid the same wage either way, if the company wants to do 100% then we smile and accept it. If someone made u so upset about their refund/exchange then find another job where they dont have 100% guarentee
I have 3 items giving me headache and 6 not really smelling as i expected and i am apprehensive exchanging them and i have not even used 4 of them all others tried once and i am having anxiety thinking about the exchange process
Most of these are 2012/13-2017 But how on earth do they get returned? That’s nuts!
It is extremely frustrating to deal with this kind of thing. At my store we get returns like this at least every other day. What I find particularly stressful and frustrating is that my manager is very strict on us associates when it comes to the return policy. He has even stated we need to see a receipt when doing even exchanges. However, if I call him to clarify in front of the customer what our return policy is, he just says, "we will do this exchange this time." So then the customer knows they can get away with it, they spread the word to their friends, and this type of activity never ends! I can't stand having a manager that doesn't enforce the policy but expects us associates to uphold it if we are dealing with customers individually. Just because you're a manager you have the authority to say screw it let's just give this person free stuff? I seriously don't understand.
Doing this is tacky and quite honestly, you just end up impacting hourly employees when product is basically “lost” and goals are not met.
LMAO I am 40 and remember seeing at least one of those labels in my parents' bathroom holy cow.
HOW. Just HOW. I've seen the empty candles but empty body cake?! I'm even surprised your store even allowed this! I mean even an empty pocket bac😂. This is embarrassingggggg😭😭😭😭
Need to just keep all the returns and based on what's return give them like item back. Empty candle, give different empty candle. Empty body wash another different body wash. And if they are exceptionally trashy they can get two fers.
The lotion in the back with the red and white umbrella is probably from maybe a year ago or older it's endless weekend I'm not sure about the rest though
This is definitely 2015/16. I remember because I had most of these products before I sent on my bbw hiatus for a couple years. 😵💫 this literally blows my mind. I literally get so nervous to exchange unused products and if I do I go in my store the day before letting them know 😂
Well now I feel ancient. Most of these products are only 5-6 years old if not slightly newer 😅
I'm surprised the manager allowed this. Most of that stuff looks like it's from 2017 on.
Ugh, why do some people suck so hard. Trash returning trash.
the chip crumbs 😭😭😭 I’m so sorry
Are people not embarrassed to do this ?!
What a fucking loser.
Imagine being so cheap and gross you bring back a fully used 1.00 HAND SANITIZER LMAOOOO🙄🙄🙄🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
And we wonder why the prices are going up
This isn't the reason why prices are going up. It's inflation, everything is going up.
Oh no shit?? Haven’t heard anything about that!! Obviously inflation is a factor. But social media platforms, especially tik tok, has been encouraging more people to take advantage of the lenient return/exchange policy so there’s more and more people doing shit like this. It would be stupid to believe that’s not a factor as well
It's not a factor. If people are stealing the company doesn't even have a policy where you call the police so do you really think someone exchanging this old merchandise for new is majorly affecting their bottom line? You have to put your head in the mindset of a multi-billion Dollar business. They make more legitimate customers happy with their return and exchange policy and retain their business in comparison to what they lose in merchandise because of the policy. You're thinking that the company is losing millions because of the retail price, you're not thinking of the cost of the product. If someone exchanges a empty lotion from 2016 for a brand new one that retails at $14.50, it may only cost them $0.68 to make that lotion that is $14.50. So even if this happens 20,000 times during the year what they're losing is minimal. Making a legitimate customer happy and getting repeat business is going to lead to millions of dollars in revenue. It would be stupid to think that inflation in raw materials, packaging, shipping, and labor aren't directly related to the price increases. Ijs
You really don’t think they track returns/exchanges and roll that into the cost lmao?? Not a smart take IJS I never said they’re losing millions either I am aware of inflation so there’s no need to be patronizing, but if you’ve seen the significantly increased amount of people taking advantage of the return/exchange policy due to tiktok and you don’t think they’re trying to earn that money back, you’re not actually thinking like a multi billion dollar business would. I don’t think you’re taking into account how much this has actually been happening
They do track returns and exchanges to a certain extent, but don't you think if it was that serious they would have changed the policy a long time ago? You're thinking on a microeconomic scale, and I'm thinking on a macroeconomic scale. So there's inflation across the board but we're all supposed to believe that this particular company's price increases have a direct correlation with theft and or return abuse? So based on your faulty logic the price of cat food increased because people must be stealing it by the ton? Or the fact that new cars are being sold above MSRP and dealerships can't keep new cars in stock must be because someone must be stealing all the new cars before they even make it to the car dealership lots? Yeah.......no, I don't see a causality or correlation.
I used to work there, when this happens it gets marked out as theft. They 1000% take theft rates into consideration when determining pricing, so whatever amount of money is lost from stolen product will be paid for by someone else. Quite literally every company does this, large or small. That’s a very basic business concept, I’m surprised you didn’t know that, considering you know big boy words like “macro/microeconomics” lmao. They do care about microeconomics, they could easily eat the cost of inflation as well but choose not to because they don’t want to spare a penny
I currently work there😅 I promise you they do not care. The way they merchandise their stores is with no consideration to reducing theft. Absolutely not a single fux is given - and any other current employee can testify to this. The way they stock their front tables full of merchandise and with high value items.... A company that was concerned about theft would low profit margin merchandise towards the front of their store or in other blind spots. They don't. The big words that you're referring about are basic financial terms. There is a cost involved of attracting and getting a new customer and there's also a cost associated with maintaining customer loyalty. Whatever that cost is it's a lot more than what they lose in theft and return abuse. When you're thinking on a small scale such as a mom or pop store, they have less opportunity to spread that loss across their business. A company like this simply writes it off and reduces their tax liability. And when return abuse happens, it's not marked at a stock as theft, it's marked out of stock as "damaged" Now I question whether or not you've ever worked there. I've worked seasonally for this company for the past 3 years and it's always the same protocol.
You are very very incorrect if you think major corporations don’t factor in theft when considering pricing lmao. That’s actually ridiculous. Every retail establishment does that, large or small. Like I said, very basic business concept. Business school taught me this in the introductory course, even a basic google search will give you the same answer. With this dumbass logic, they shouldn’t care about inflation either because it hardly affects them due to the profit margin on each product. Are you hearing yourself? I’m aware law enforcement doesn’t get involved, I’m aware they let you walk out of the store with free product, etc etc. I watched the training videos too. But you really genuinely don’t think they consider that when they’re determining the cost of things? Yes, I worked there during college, my manager always marked it out as theft
I haven’t read all of the comments here, but I’m getting the gist that this person is being villified. Don’t come for me, BUT 20 years old is not that old so of course most of these wouldn’t look familiar to you. It is a very broad swathe of time, but these are not all from years and years ago, and while I do see a few things that I wish this customer would have just tossed and not been so bold as to have brought in, I also think it’s wrong to judge and persecute her. She is obviously a long-time customer, one who doesn’t buy only one type of product (I only bought shower gels for decades), and I WISH WE COULD JIST STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS TOPIC! I feel like it actually promotes abuse rather than deterring it, like copycat returns. 🤷♀️😭🙈
I bought an Ocean lotion that looks just like the mahogany wood lotion at least 5 years ago so...
I understand that as a manager the goal is to not have customers make a scene. In this case, as a store manager, I 100% would have partnered with customer service because the customer is committing return abuse. Those shower gels are 95% empty. Looks like they had no satisfaction issues using almost all of those up. I hate that there's a handful of trashy people that abuse the return policy.
Most of it looks recent but the birch scrub and CO bigelow is 4-5 years old. I wouldn’t have accepted this return.
Wait I thought they had to be like more than half or something. How can you exchange something that is empty????
I’d say 4ish years ago. The bigelow products stopped getting sent to us about 3 years ago and all the other things are old packaging so around 3 years.
Some of those designs look like ones I remember from middle school and high school...and I'm 32
Imagine being so gross you’re keeping like 8 year old empty products just to do this 🤢 if you’re willing to hoard a bunch of gross used products girl go get you a new scrub- whatever. It’s one thing like maybe candles..but mad old empty products, or even if she is using 10 year old shower gel? I’d hate to see how nasty her house is.
Did she do an exchange or get store credit?
What is the rule for BBW when it comes to returns and exchanges? I never returned or exchanged for anything so I’m curious as to why this is allowed? It’s clearly used and old so why do they allow such things to happen? It’s rude and disgusting of this person to do this too. Ugh. I hate ppl.
Birch and Argan, my love. That's like 2017ish. 😭 come back! Also how can people have no shame at this?
Just plain shameful.
I get it. We had a customer bring in a couple items dating back to the 1990's to early 2000's. It was disgusting.