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Where's the Customer Service at Yankee Candle?

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Real Estate Agent with Long and Foster Real Estate VA License # 0225089470

Where's the Customer Service at Yankee Candle?

I love Yankee Candles.  In fact, I got a great package of Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie scented candles from one of my favorite title companies this year.  It's a great scent.  Unfortunately, it makes me hungry.  So I took my candles to the local Yankee Candle store in Gainesville, VA.  I had one half jar and three votives.  I had carefully removed the sticky glue that held them in their package so that they could be restocked and sold.  Silly me, I was assuming that Yankee Candle would exchange them for another Christmas scent.

WRONG!

Apparently, when they come packaged as a set, they are individual pieces that are the same size and shape as their regular products, but you can not exchange the scents.  Well, having worked retail, that makes very little sense to me.  I asked the bitter faced employee if being in a package had somehow devalued the candles.  She answered, "Well, of course not!"  My question which was immediately fired back was, "So why can't I exchange them again?"  I might has well have been trying to negotiate with a four year old.  The final answer..."Because that's our policy."

Well, I made at least one person in line behind me super happy when I turned around and asked, now fuming inside, if there was anyone planning to buy this scent tonight.  One person eagerly answered that she had.  I then handed her all four candles and wished her a Merry Christmas as I explained that now she didn't have to buy them.  That angered the clerk as much as she had angered me.

The nice customer that had received them offered to buy me a candle in exchange for the free ones.  I declined as I didn't want that store getting any more money if that is their attitude.  I bet that Bed, Bath and Beyond would have exchanged the candles with no questions asked.

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Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Good for you! And what a great surprise for that lady in line!

Dec 16, 2011 06:04 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Marte:  I still don't get the reasoning.  Oh well.  I didn't need them and they made someone else happy.

Dec 16, 2011 06:09 AM
Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

Hi Chris~ Customer Service?  I'm not sure ANYONE really knows what that is any more.

Dec 16, 2011 06:48 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Donna:  Bed, Bath & Beyond does.  I can return anything there.  Same with Lowes.  No questions asked.

Dec 16, 2011 07:02 AM
Larry & Jacque Ficek
Alaska Dream Makers - Wasilla, AK
Realtors - Wasilla Alaska

YEAH! Chris Ann, this sounds like something I would have done (Larry may have already walked off by this point).

Sounds like the BB&B folks understand (and train employees) how to keep customers where the Yankee employee just wanted to get the customers through the line with as little effort (on her part) as possible.

You made someones day though! :)

Jacque & Larry

 

Dec 16, 2011 09:57 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Jacque:  It was annoying and made me never want to step foot in that Yankee Candle store again. 

Dec 16, 2011 10:12 AM
Michael A. Caruso
Surterre Properties - Laguna Niguel, CA

I love your style. Something I would have done. You taught them a lesson and made someone's day. Good for you. Happy Holiday's!

Dec 16, 2011 11:53 AM
Larry & Jacque Ficek
Alaska Dream Makers - Wasilla, AK
Realtors - Wasilla Alaska

Hey there again, I totally understand!

You did a nice thing though, sorry the nitwit employee didn't get it. That would be what we call the difference between the 'employee' mentality and the 'owner' mentality in a nutshell. Employees just do what they have to to fill their time, owners do what they have to to keep the clients. They are two very different animals!

Jacque & Larry

Dec 16, 2011 05:54 PM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

Thanks for sharing your story.  Poor customer service is something most of will experience during the holiday season.

Best wishes for a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Holiday Wreath in Colonial Williamsburg IMG_1417

Photograph by Roy Kelley

Roy and Dolores Kelley Photographs

Dec 17, 2011 12:04 AM
Jackie Connelly-Fornuff
Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Babylon NY - Babylon, NY
"Moving at The Speed of YOU!"

Yep, Bed Bath and Beyond would have exchanged them. At least you made someone happy for the day. I would have asked for a Manager unless you were pressed for time.

Dec 17, 2011 01:21 AM
Scott Godzyk
Godzyk Real Estate Services - Manchester, NH
One of the Manchester NH's area Leading Agents

Chris Ann GOOD FOR YOU for standing up and sharing this story. that was horrible the way you were treated but was wonderful how you gave them to someone else.  Have a Great Saturday.

Dec 17, 2011 03:13 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Michael:  At least someone was happy, right?

Jacque:  Yeah.  Since it's a chain, I wonder if the store manager would have been the closest to the owner mentality, or would have been just another corporate drone.

Roy:  Another lovely wreath.  That certainly makes me feel better.

Jackie:  It's a small store so I'm sure I was talking to the person on duty.  The high schooler who was the only other employee wouldn't have been in charge.  Just a hunch.

Scott:  I still don't understand the reason for the no.  If they planned to sell more Christmas Cookie candles, what's the big flippin' deal?

Dec 17, 2011 03:57 AM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

I am so sick of hearing "policy" as a reason not to make a customer happy. I called my vet yesterday to get a refill on Pica's prozac. The clerk at Midtown Animal Hospital in Davis told me she had to see Pica to refill his prescription. My husband took Pica there this week for a vaccination. Nobody said anything. She swore they did but my husband said they did not mention he needed an exam to get his prescription. I believe my husband.

I told her we are going on vacation and she could call in to Walgreens a few weeks of the prescription, and we'll bring him in when we get back. She refused. Cited policy. I told her we will never do business with Midtown Animal Hospital again, because they have done this in the past. Nope. She refused.

I was so angry that I turned the matter over to my husband. He called and talked to some other clerk and got a 3-week refill. And it's Christmas-time too. You'd think people would be more customer-service oriented instead of stupid.

 

Dec 17, 2011 04:24 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Elizabeth: That's one of the reasons I love my current vet.  Took them a big old plate of sub sandwiches yesterday.  They fill prescriptions like this with no drama.  Taught me how to give sub-cutaneous fluids for our cats with chronic urinary conditions.  They know how big a hassle it is to bring in the cat that is already stressed out and is having the same issue every six weeks or so.  All I need to do is call in and it's done in 24-48 hours.  Sounds like it's time for a new vet. 

Dec 17, 2011 04:37 AM
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