You have returned home from a shopping day with shopping bags of clothing you bought. That's when you realise one of the items is not on the receipt and that you've not paid for it. Do you go back and pay for it or do you let it slide?
Having managed a volume clothing in my late 20's around Europe , I can come at this in both directions and the answer will be the same in both circumstances. I would leave it slide. I will tell you why!
It was an average Saturday morning in Frankfurt Zeil. By 1pm we had 300k in the tills. Just slightly down on last Saturday. I had sold 35,000 €3 trainer liners in white and 25,000 of the €3 euro trainer liners in white. The Germans were a people that loved good value so they would check the cotton content of the trainer liner , leave and go to H&M. I knew what they were doing. I followed a few out of interest. They would go for the trainer liner section in H&M, check the cotton content and then come back to us. We had a trainer liner with 90% cotton and 10% elastine. H&M were 80% with 10% polyester and 10% elastine. In any other country they wouldn't give a shit and just pick up our ones but the Germans did their homework and for that reason they became one of our top sellers. People used to ask me how we make any money if the margins are so tight but when I mentioned the volume they would be in shock. Yep we were selling by the truckload.
A friend of mine was the commercial manager and he came to Germany with me. This guy was known as the person who brought the snood to the masses. A snood is a type of scarf thing you put around your neck but better. My friend saw a gap so at a buyers meeting we were asked how many we should buy for Germany. The UK had pledged to take 10,000. We will take 200,000. I spat out my coffee. It meant I had to sell around 20,000 of them alone. Facking Hell mate, how the hell am I gonna sell them. You will be thanking me by the time your bonus comes next year he replied. We sold 35,000 in total. He ordered a million the year after which was the first product we asked for 1 million of.
So get back to your question. If it was a retailer like my own. I would just leave it slide. Thank meself lucky that I got it for free. And by the way. Contrary to popular belief , nobody gets in trouble for this. Not the staff member or the manager nobody. The reason being is that the till is not done. The product was not scanned. Therefore the only loss the product itself which was probably made in a sweatshop for a couple of dollars.
Now if I was to bring it back and show the manager my receipt, then the staff member might get in trouble for not scanning a product and free bagging the item which is a common term. So you being a good Samaritan may get someone in trouble. There are two ways of looking at this. The staff is careless and should get in trouble or the staff member made a genuine mistake but is normally an outstanding member of staff.
On the return of the product there is only one way to handle this. Still give the customer the product for free after being so kind in bringing the product to our attention. Also give her a receipt for it in case the size does not fit. Many people think I am mad to say this but you will have a loyal customer that will come back in and spend and you will cover the cost of the customer coming in and telling you about it also. Now I only am dealing with high volume low price retailer. I cannot tell you that a brand like Tommy or Levi's would do the same.
So in order to avoid all the fuss in the last paragraph just be thankful someone made a mistake and you got the item for free. You will wear it more often with the special ingredient that it did not cost anything.
From the stores side we were making so much and turning over volume on a massive scale , that someone having a problem like this actually holds up the show dealing with customer etc so we would have been more productive if they kept their special free garment to themselves in the first place. Mad I know but that is what we were thinking when things were going well.
Returns and refunds are always a bit of a pain in the arse for retailers for a number of different reasons. When I was in Spain , I was in a store and there was one day of the year where Spanish stores all made a loss. It was the 26st December and for some reason in Spain alone , the ungratful Spanish bring all their presents back and exchange or get refunds on clothes they are gifted in return for cash money. I would have to close the tills and turn 18 of them into refund service desks. We made -€60,000 that day and I never forget it. Such is the norm. Nothing to do with this post but I had to tell it.
So these are the reasons why it is better me to leave it slide and thank the stars that I have been lucky today for getting an item for free. These companys make millions and won't miss the money but you will always treasure that item of clothing for getting it for free.
