This one is a saga about trying to return items from an online order...
For some context, I had ordered a lot of items in the app during a recent sale. Two of those items were a pair of shoes in two different sizes for my wife. One of the sizes never arrived, so I contacted customer support and they refunded the pair that didn't arrive. Great!
Now let's pickup the story where the journey begins...
I had five items I wanted to return, so I went to the Nike store, where, you know, Nike says is a great place for easy, free returns on online orders. So three items were quickly processed, but there were two items that they were having an issue with, as the system was telling them the items were already part of a return.
Huh? Ahhhh, ok, I think I know what happened. These two items were in the same package that was missing the shoes, so I explained this to the manager. No dice, didn't matter, nothing could be done. I was told my only option was to leave the store, contact customer support to do a return, get a shipping label and then take them to UPS or come back to the store to drop off.
My only option? Only? Challenge accepted! I was not walking out of the store with those items. As my luck would have it, there was an option...
Apparently if I could get the return shipping label, it could be printed at the store and they could take the items to be shipped for the return. I proceeded to spend about 30min in the store, on the Nike app, chatting with a customer service agent trying to explain the situation. Ultimately I was able to get the return label emailed to me, and this where the story should end, but...
I jumped into the checkout line and waited for 15min for my turn. When I got to the register, the manager who I originally spoke with was gone on lunch break. No big deal, I had my label! I explained the situation, what the manager said, and asked them to print the label and take the items.
Wait for it... here's where it gets really fun...
I was told they'd print the label (perfect!), give me a box for the items (amazing!), but wouldn't take the box for the return shipping, because they can't be held liable for what happens to the items (ha, you got me, where are the hidden cameras?).
I was literally speechless. Literally. I stood there for about ten seconds, not speaking, staring off into the distance and trying to process what all just went down...
I ordered Nike items from Nike online, and took them into a Nike store for a return. I spent over an hour in a Nike store, mostly chatting with Nike customer support in the Nike App, to help resolve a return issue caused by Nike ordering systems. And after all this, I am going to walk out of the Nike store, with the unreturned Nike items, because Nike couldn't figure out how to resolve it on my behalf while I was in the Nike store.
...after it became clear to me that logic had left the building, I snapped out of it and simply grabbed my items, said thank you and walked out the store.
By this point my brain was short-circuiting, my internal body temperature was rising and it must have looked like I was about to self-combust in the mall because my wife generously offered to drive home.
Now because I was already in too deep, I spent the hour-long car ride home chatting with the customer support agent in the app (same one while I was in the store - shout out for Rose, she was great throughout the whole process!). She verified that there was no reason due to either store policy or return exception that the store should not taken the items for drop off.
When it's all said and done. I now have to find more time to drop these Nike items off at a UPS store. I'll survive. There's actually one in our neighborhood, but that's beside the point.
I can 100% appreciate that there was some sort of challenge with the system, but it is BEYOND WILD to me that it was deemed acceptable/reasonable by the Nike store that I should... 1) sit in the store and message with Nike customer support in the App to try and resolve the issue myself, and 2) leave the store with the items I came there to return and return them somewhere else. read more