PC World Checkout

Fifer

shopbot wrote:

Hi All,
I am a store manager for a major High St name.

The reason we ask for your name and address is to prevent staff refund fraud. We do not ever use it for marketing purposes. We want to provide the best possible service and to help do this we allow all of our till operators to process refunds. This hopefully means that you don't have to wait for a Manager to process your refund.

The downside of this is that dishonest staff can process frauduelent refunds for their own benefit. We ask for your details so that if we suspect a member of staff is processing frauduelent refunds there is documentary evidence of the refund. If the employee is making up false names and addresses to process these refunds then it provides evidence against them that we can use to discipline them and refer to the police.

Poppy9: If the item is faulty then you are correct however in our store if you refused to give your details then that would be fine although a Manager would then process and sign off the refund. The vast amount of refunds and exchanges we do are for non-faulty items though. In that case we do not legally have to give you a refund so by waiving our legal right we ask you to give your details. If you refused to do so we could then refuse to refund or exchange.

I hope this gives everyone some insight into why it happens.

Bear in mind though, that the OP wasn't getting a refund, merely a receipt for his transaction. I'm curious though. Many people give false postcodes in the situation you described to avoid mailing lists, but you seem to suggest that false codes place the assistant under suspicion. How does that reconcile?

shopbot

Fifer wrote:

Bear in mind though, that the OP wasn't getting a refund, merely a receipt for his transaction.

I realise that however other posters brought up the refund issue which is what I responded to.

Fifer wrote:

I'm curious though. Many people give false postcodes in the situation you described to avoid mailing lists, but you seem to suggest that false codes place the assistant under suspicion. How does that reconcile?

I want to be careful how I respond to this as I don't want to publish a 'sales assistants guide to conducting refund fraud' on a public forum. As such I don't want to answer your question directly. False addresses do not mean a sales advisor is doing anything wrong. However it is a common factor when we do investigate refunds. We have many other ways of detecting fraud and it is the cumulative effect of all of the irregularities that will start to ring alarm bells.

Poppy9

shopbot wrote:

Poppy9: If the item is faulty then you are correct however in our store if you refused to give your details then that would be fine although a Manager would then process and sign off the refund. The vast amount of refunds and exchanges we do are for non-faulty items though. In that case we do not legally have to give you a refund so by waiving our legal right we ask you to give your details. If you refused to do so we could then refuse to refund or exchange.

I hope this gives everyone some insight into why it happens.

I realise that there is no right of return/refund/exchange with non faulty goods but my point about Argos was that they advertise the 16 money back guarantee. This is material to all sales as customers might not buy the goods there without this guarantee. Nowhere in the small print is there a clause saying we require your name and address. Next are also guilty of this.

I understand what you are saying about staff monitoring but if you return something with a receipt isn't this proof of original transaction. Most sales are also usually on card (either debit/credit) and so are traceable through these details.

WestieFan

Have to say I am in the 'refuse' camp.

I always assumed if I was buying an electrical item they wanted my postcode so that they could send out the inevitable extended warranty bumf after your year's guarantee is up. However, it seems everybody is at it now, even for non-electrical items. And they are not just happy with the postcode, they then want confirmation of your actual house and flat number and even your name.

When asked for postcode, I reply with "why, are you going to deliver it?".

Don't object if I am returning item for exchange/refund though.

roswell

Its easy to work out how refund fraud can be done but illl leave the rest of you to think it out

Juni_3

A few years ago I was shopping in a major electrical retailer and they asked for my business card at the checkout. Within the week the fraud office were contacting my company as someone was ordering thousands of pounds of equipment from various companies using my name and signature. I don't go near the place now.

Obviously it was crooked staff and not the company itself but it was a very embarrasing situation for a while as I could have been a suspect.