Sunday, June 14, 2009

Mission Impossible... making a return in India...

It is nearly impossible to return anything in India. Honestly.
We nearly made it through the entire year without needing to try. Until this weekend. In a silly moment, I bought Pat a pair of jeans without having him try them on. OK, so obviously they did not fit.
Saturday we headed out to make the big "R". I should call it the big "E", since returns are not possible, even with a receipt... exchanges only... even in major department stores! So anyway, we approached security (outside the front door) with the bag. Checkpoint #1. The guard examined the jeans and directed us to security guard #2 (inside the front door). He also checked the bag and directed us to "bag check security" about 20 feet from checkpoint #2. Bag check security examined the jeans and the receipt and produced a clear plastic box... sort of like a briefcase. He proceeded to "lock" the jeans in the box (seriously... key and all!!) and directed us to customer service at the rear of the store. Cameras are not permitted inside the store, so it was only now, past all the initial security, that I could try to snap a photo of all this madness! Even at this point, it was nearly impossible, as their are sales assistants planted in virtually every nook and cranny of the store. I did get this one shot of Pat with the case!!

OK, so now we reach customer service and the clerk their gets the keys and unlocks the box, grills us a bit about what is wrong with the jeans, generates an exchange slip and sends us out to find a new item. On to the next challenge. Making the actual exchange. At this point, I had lost concentration and left Pat with the 3 sales clerks who were "helping" him at the register. I shopped on my own for 20 minutes until he appeared carrying the bag... taped closed. We then had the bag checked by the exit security, and, finally, we were free! Quite an ordeal.

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