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A. and I have been assembling wardrobe for going to Black Spire Outpost. Inevitably, something I ordered was not quite as expected and I decided to return it. (We have mostly done very well with sizes and the quality has been consistently as expected, so no complaints, things happen.) When I went to do the return on Amazon, I saw a new option: to take the item to a The Ups Store (what I normally do) and they will package it and ship it (NOT what I normally do). I carefully timed my trip to do the return so it would be quiet there and I would not be in a hurry, so I could gossip and try to better understand what this new option was all about.
I am not a subtle person. So after engaging in greetings (the fine man who runs this The Ups Store is always there and consistently friendly and approachable), I comment, I saw this new option and thought I would try it and then ask if you would prefer me to go back to the old way of packaging it up myself. This strategy is direct, and creates a truck sized opening for people to complain. If there is a True Statement to be made about humans, it is that humans love to have opinions about changes that directly affect them. Customer facing people have to be judicious about expressing these opinions, especially if negative, so you really gotta give them wide permission to go for it to actually express them, but they have opinions. I got a totally unexpected response. Pretty soon, he said, you are not going to have a choice, because this is the way Amazon is going. It saves them money. Instead of paying to return each package, they group them together and send them out in a larger package. My jaw dropped (literally, and I am sorry, in my defense, I did brush my teeth this morning). I commented, that is freaking brilliant, because this is a whole different way of thinking about returns from mail order. I am not convinced he is a fan of this new system, and ask him what he thinks and he comments, he would rather have the business than not. Well, that is one way to think about it.
I wished him good luck and good day and headed out the door, where I paused to observe a stack of boxes and a chair sitting on the sidewalk looking almost like they were ready to be shrink wrapped and palletized at a freight forwarder, but you know, no, that cannot be what is about to happen. I had to continue pausing, as an Amazon van drove up in front of me then started backing up when I was going to walk around the back of it. Driver apologized, I said no worries, and as I went to my car I slowly started assembling the pieces of what I had just seen.
If anyone knows the details of the contract negotiations that led to an Amazon Prime van stopping at a The UPS Store to pick up bulk returns, I would love to hear about it. That sounds exciting. I mean, back in the day, when The UPS Store was Mailboxes Etc.., I would not have blinked. And I know that the individual The UPS Stores are not corporate owned (or, at least, not all of them). But still. That was cognitively disorienting, to say the least.
I am not a subtle person. So after engaging in greetings (the fine man who runs this The Ups Store is always there and consistently friendly and approachable), I comment, I saw this new option and thought I would try it and then ask if you would prefer me to go back to the old way of packaging it up myself. This strategy is direct, and creates a truck sized opening for people to complain. If there is a True Statement to be made about humans, it is that humans love to have opinions about changes that directly affect them. Customer facing people have to be judicious about expressing these opinions, especially if negative, so you really gotta give them wide permission to go for it to actually express them, but they have opinions. I got a totally unexpected response. Pretty soon, he said, you are not going to have a choice, because this is the way Amazon is going. It saves them money. Instead of paying to return each package, they group them together and send them out in a larger package. My jaw dropped (literally, and I am sorry, in my defense, I did brush my teeth this morning). I commented, that is freaking brilliant, because this is a whole different way of thinking about returns from mail order. I am not convinced he is a fan of this new system, and ask him what he thinks and he comments, he would rather have the business than not. Well, that is one way to think about it.
I wished him good luck and good day and headed out the door, where I paused to observe a stack of boxes and a chair sitting on the sidewalk looking almost like they were ready to be shrink wrapped and palletized at a freight forwarder, but you know, no, that cannot be what is about to happen. I had to continue pausing, as an Amazon van drove up in front of me then started backing up when I was going to walk around the back of it. Driver apologized, I said no worries, and as I went to my car I slowly started assembling the pieces of what I had just seen.
If anyone knows the details of the contract negotiations that led to an Amazon Prime van stopping at a The UPS Store to pick up bulk returns, I would love to hear about it. That sounds exciting. I mean, back in the day, when The UPS Store was Mailboxes Etc.., I would not have blinked. And I know that the individual The UPS Stores are not corporate owned (or, at least, not all of them). But still. That was cognitively disorienting, to say the least.