This shopping mall has a reward system where customers can clock in points for purchases made in participating shops.
He discarded the receipt by mistake and wrote to the customer service department to check if he still can clock in the points for his purchase. To proof that he has really bought the item from the mall, he attached screenshots of the price tag and warranty which has the address of the shop. He also indicated the date of purchase and payment mode he has used.
The reply from the staff was that they could not accept the request as there's no date to reflect the date of purchase.
Now, if anyone of you own a credit card, you know how difficult it is to clock points and redeem for gifts. You probably get 1 point for every dollar spent or $5 spent. And to redeem something, you probably need a few hundreds to thousand of points.
He was rather amused by the response.
While he understand that there are rules and regulations when it comes to such reward system, why do the mall makes it so difficult for customer to clock in points? No doubt it is his problem to lost the receipt. However, since he actually bothered to write in to them, why can't they give him the benefit of doubt and make it an exception for him? Furthermore, it's only $35 which translate to only 35 points.
Is the mall afraid that the system is being abused? In any case, they could just create a record and list down the customer reward card number for exception cases which they could check against in future for any signs of repeated request by a particular customer. To make it clear, the staff could have processed his request and inform him that this is the only exception and remind him to submit all future request with official receipt.
On the other hand, the staff could have contacted the shop owner to check if there's such a transaction instead of rejecting his request outright.
Anyway, the man contacted the shop through its Facebook account to request for a receipt, giving all the details and also the screenshots. The staff replied they are unable to do so and asked him to go down to the shop to get one.
Go down to the shop just to get the duplicate receipt? Why can't they just email or do it through Facebook?
The man realized that he has not stated clearly in his previous message and so asked if the staff could send through Facebook instead.
The staff insisted the man to go to the mall to get the duplicate receipt as it is more official to get the duplicate original receipt instead of Facebook. He further said he can only screenshot on Facebook so it is not official and proper too.
Now the man is puzzled.
What does the man mean by more official to get the duplicate original receipt? How does taking a screenshot of the receipt and send it through Facebook make it not official?
Frustrated, the man wrote back.
He asked if there's any difference in the receipt he will get if he goes to the shop and if the staff send through Facebook. If there's no difference, he just need the screenshot and not the physical copy for submission. He further reiterate that it shouldn't be a problem for the staff to retrieve the payment detail with the information he has provided.
In the end, the staff printed the receipt, either scanned or took a photo of it and emailed it to the man.
Now, the question is why didn't the staff think of making the whole matter easier for the man? Why he didn't ask the man what is the purpose for requesting the duplicate receipt? Is it for submission? Does he need a physical receipt? Can the staff send it by email to him so that he does not need to go down to the shop again?
Now contrast it to my experience at Ikea (click here for the blog post).
They highlight that they have notices everywhere to remind customers to remove their cashcard from IU unit before leaving. They emphasized that they do not do refund for parking charges.
However, they do recognize that even with all these measures in place, customers do forget.
Instead of asking me to provide my car number and IU unit number and proof that I indeed visited their store and made purchases of at least $15, they gave me the benefit of doubt.
And did I abuse this "loophole" since I know that they do not ask for proof?
No, not at all. In fact, I remember it so well that I always make it a point to remove the cashcard before leaving their store.