work was also interesting. for the first time, the management refused to give me an answer on policy. they made me do it. its a step i know they trust me to make. but its still a weird feeling to do it. some guy had a box of pens, in packaging we dont sell.... who knows how long.... no receipt... and the kicker is he tells me; "i dunno that i even bought them here, but id like to return them" i guess 2 of the dozen pens dont work... he lost one... and didn't want to try the other 9 or whatever. the clear answer to this is... tough shit dirt bag. the staples answer is, lets see what we cant do. my sales manager came up; handed me the store key set, and said "scott, you know the policies, take care of the customer, you dont need me for that anymore" so... i walk back over to the customer.... look at the pens in my hand, look him in the eye, and fully intended on telling him to shove it. but the keys in my left hand made me think. so i told him, "let me see what i can do. i tell you what, if this is a product i still carry, ill offer you store credit for the price it rings at now, and you can use that immediately against another box of pens youd like to pick out, does this work for you?" ... silence. then he smiles. ' are you serious young man? ' "mmhmm...." ' hell, you dont have to do that; but i thank you very much for doing it' so he prances around finds some pens he wants, and Staples eats it on the 7.95 box of pens, from 4 years ago. he owes me 3 dollars difference on that, and buys a second box at full price. leaves grinning ear to ear. and im not sure thats a good thing.

i dunno. pleasing the customer is what my 2nd directive is according to the keyholder/management garbage they made me do for the company. safety of assets, customers, and employees is 1st. but.... really... he came in just to see if we do it... no one else in town would do something like that, and im fairly certain we never carried that pen or that packaging for it.... but i did it. and my sales manager told me thats the right thing for us to do, as much as we might hate doing that. Russ, the GM from Dubuque talked to me a week ago, and gave me some good advice on it that ive thought about since then... he told me; "think about how that return, or that claim is going to affect the company Scott" some customer had brought in an open copy of Windows, which im adamant against doing ANY kind of credit on... "sure, Staples bends over and takes it for that, 95 dollars at a time, but my paycheck is still coming, yours is still coming, and were still making alot of money for the people in suits, so; if you look at it as, how is that going to hurt Staples, not just taking it back, but how much would it hurt us if we DONT take it back, you understand why we end up breaking with the rule for the customers benefit." and from Russ, this is just an off the cuff thing. but hes right. for that company atleast. i still dont sit right having to damage off 95 dollars in stolen product everytime some chinese person or student brings back a copy of Windows with no cd key on it... and i never will. nor do i understand the nerve of customers to bring in product they know they probably didnt buy from us, used, lost part of, and expect to get something out of it. but we do it. i did it because its not my company. i just know, that they want it run that way.