The Discounted Kurta and the Six-Year Customer
Priya works as a sales associate at a mid-market readymade garment store in Jaipur. On a Tuesday afternoon a regular customer, Mrs Sharma, brings back a kurta set bought 12 days earlier during a Flat 30% Off promotion. The bill shows ₹1,299 after discount; the original price was ₹1,855. The store's printed policy allows exchange within 7 days on full-price goods and no return or exchange on discounted goods. The customer has the bill but has removed the tags and says the kurta shrank after the first wash. She is upset, says she has bought from the store for six years, and threatens to post about it online. The manager is at lunch for another 40 minutes. Priya also knows the store is pushing a new festive collection this week with a 22% margin, and that the store's monthly exchange budget is capped at ₹15,000, of which ₹9,200 is already used.
1. What should Priya do in the 40 minutes before the manager returns? Give the sequence of actions and the reasoning for each.
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Sequence
- Move the conversation off the sales floor. Invite Mrs Sharma to the counter side or a chair, offer water. An audience makes both sides defensive and raises the chance of a public scene.
- Listen and take notes before answering. Ask when she washed it, how, and what detergent; ask to see the wash-care label. Record bill number, date, item, and her claim. Roughly half of 'shrinkage' complaints are actually hot-water or tumble-dry washing, and this changes the remedy.
- Do not promise a refund. Priya has no authority and a premature promise becomes the store's liability. Say clearly: 'I cannot decide this alone, but I will get you a decision today.'
- Check the garment physically. Look for shrinkage, colour bleed, seam failure. If the label says hand wash cold and the fabric clearly failed, this is a defect complaint, not a change-of-mind return - the printed 'no exchange on sale goods' clause does not cancel liability for defective goods.
- Give a written acknowledgement with a 48-hour inspection timeline and a name and number to call.
- Escalate to the manager at once on return, with the facts and her six-year purchase history, so the decision is made with information, not pressure.
Reasoning: the risk here is not ₹1,299; it is an avoidable public complaint plus the loss of a repeat customer. Priya's job is to contain, document and hand over cleanly - not to adjudicate.
2. Mrs Sharma insists on a full refund. How should Priya respond, and under what condition would a refund or exchange be justified despite the 'no exchange on discounted goods' policy?
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Response script: acknowledge the loyalty first ('six years is exactly why we will look at this properly'), restate the policy without hiding behind it, then separate the two possible cases.
- Change of mind (fit, colour, taste): the printed policy applies. Offer what is available within the ₹15,000 monthly budget - a store credit or exchange at the manager's discretion. Explain that discounted stock is bought on a no-return basis from the supplier, which is why the term exists.
- Defect (fabric shrinks or bleeds despite correct wash-care): the sale term does not apply. The store must repair, replace or refund. Priya should say so plainly: 'If our inspection shows the fabric failed, we will replace or refund it.'
Condition that justifies the exception: documented evidence of a manufacturing or fabric defect, or a supplier who will accept the piece back. A defect claim is a quality complaint, not a return, and consumer-protection principles do not let a printed clause override it.
What not to do: do not blame the customer, do not say 'you washed it wrong' before inspection, and do not offer a refund one day and withdraw it the next. Also do not accept the garment back into sellable stock - tag it as a complaint item so it cannot be resold.
3. The manager authorises a ₹150 coupon and Mrs Sharma buys a ₹1,499 festive kurta set. Calculate the incremental gross margin and compare it with the cash impact of a full refund. What should be entered in the complaint register?
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Working
- Festive set price ₹1,499, margin 22% → gross margin = 0.22 × 1,499 = ₹329.80
- Coupon given ₹150 → net contribution from the new sale = 329.80 − 150 = ₹179.80
- Full refund avoided = ₹1,299 cash outflow avoided
- If the returned kurta cannot be resold (shrunk), a refund also means a stock loss of ₹1,299 at cost, so the real gap between the two outcomes is roughly 1,299 + 179.80 ≈ ₹1,479 in favour of the coupon route.
- Budget check: exchanges used ₹9,200 of ₹15,000; adding ₹150 leaves ₹5,650, so this is affordable.
Caveat: the coupon is only cheaper if the returned garment is either proven defective and claimed back from the supplier, or written off. If the store quietly puts a shrunk kurta back on the shelf, the calculation is false and the next customer pays for it.
Register entry: date and time; bill number and sale date; customer name and phone; item, size and price paid; complaint reason in the customer's words; wash-care label checked (yes/no); inspection result; decision and authority (manager's name); coupon or credit-note number; disposition of the garment (supplier claim / write-off); staff initials.