H&M or Die

Company: H&M

Date: July 15^th 2015

Nature of encounter: Returning apparel item

Level of satisfaction: Satisfied

I ordered a number of items from H&M’s online store because of a midsummer sale they were having. They arrived in the mail within a reasonable amount of time. I was extremely satisfied with all of the items I received except for one which was way too big. H&M doesn’t allow you to return items in the mail, even if they were ordered online. The store that was closest to me was one of their flagship stores, I was informed that they don’t accept returns of any sort at their flagship stores when I tried to return the item there a few days after receiving it. I thought I had 30 days from the date of receipt to return the item, seemingly enough time to return it . Days went past and I still hadn’t returned the item, I would continuously forget it in my apartment when I had time to visit the other store. The day I remembered happened to be the last day that I thought I could return it. I went to the store and stood online, I got to the front of the line to be told that a manager had deal with the return. The cashier asked me to step to the side and told me that a manager would be with me in a moment. Right away a manager was able to help me. He asked to see the proof of purchase and the item so that he could inspect it. He pointed out that the 30-day return policy started from the date of purchase not the date of receipt. He said that I was about four days past the return date window. I explained that this was the second store I had tried to return the item to and I said that it was silly that the flagship stores did not accept returns. He saw that I spent a lot of money on this one purchase. Before I could express further my dissatisfaction he smiled and said that he would backdate the return form and say that it was returned a few days earlier and that he forgot to file it. I was so happy; I did not want to be stuck with something that I would never wear.

I was so happy the representative took the item, even though it went against policy. I didn’t want to be stuck with something that I had no use for. I have been in the position with other retailers that refuse to take the item because it was a day past due.

H&M could see that I was a loyal customer and understood that if they didn’t accept the return that they could make me extremely upset and lose my business altogether. The manager at H&M thought of lifetime value having me as a customer. OSA needs to take this into consideration when dealing with its customers. The average student may pay $20,000 a semester, that accumulates to a substantial amount of money over the course of the four years that most students spend at the university.