Hi all! really bored and to waste some time I've decided to do AMA. I'm currently a university student and I've been a cashier for Harvey Norman for about 4 years. My position also includes dealing with warranty/product care repair/replacement issues. I can answer as many questions as I can (nothing too personal). However, just as a disclaimer my answers may not represent all franchises.
oh god i have so many there isn't just one story. i'd get back to you.
I had a customer today try to return their kettle which smelt like off milk and it was stained inside and outside the kettle of dried milk. She claimed it was shorting her power…she argued with my manager and I for ages saying why she would put milk in a kettle but we refused the return
Have you ever met Gerry?
If yes, did you ask him why?
no.
You poor bugger.
i know, i'm hanging in there because they work around me quite well as a student
That’s cool. Sometimes you need to just do something because it works for you.
Do i have to provide a reason if returning a good? Let's say within 30 days of purchase.
Yes and no, if its unopened and unused it shouldn't be a problem even if its out of the 30 days (e.g. christmas time people buy ahead of time). However, the cashier doesn't approve of the returns the salesperson does. sometimes we get products back that the packaging has been butchered but they still get returned anyways.
edit: it depends which sales staff you talk to as well. some might argue with you that if its been used (hygiene reasons/re-sell) and depending on the product.
Do salesmen go out of their way to avoid a price match by claiming its below cost when it clearly isn't?
For the store I work for we price match all the time and had never refused price matching a retailer. i think when it comes to trying to go below that price match they may avoid
haha, no or i wasn't there to witness it. we have the consumer law print out plastered all over our cash desk to avoid these situations. however, we still get customers arguing
Do they still mask the cost price of the item on the barcodes? (I used to work at HN 19 years ago)
i've actually never heard of this. everything is all internal on our POS system.
It used to be really handy when people wanted to bargain with you. Good Guys also used to do it but they had the RRP or something close.
interesting. if a customer tries to bargain they just use POS and type in a price to see if they're going below cost or not.
@Worf: Tbh, I'm not sure as my clearance for my POS system doesn't allow me to check. Though there isn't a percentage how much mark up there is on cost price. It really depends on the brand e.g. we don't get jack from Apple and Dyson
@Worf: It depends on what you consider 'cost' price. For a lot of products, Mr Harvey puts a % on so the cost price foe the store is higher than if you were looking at the cost price in a JB POS system. I remember vividly that when the PS2 was launched the Gerry tax was so high we only made $2 on each unit. Also BigW had them for $1 less so we really had nowhere to go.
whats the best way to haggle to get the best possible price?
I've never haggled/bargained before in my life and I didn't think that was a thing for a retailer to do until I worked at HN I was shocked and always pay the price that's shown (or I would price match).
But to answer your question. Be nice about it and not be arrogant (?).
Do you know what the pay is like/learning opportunity compared to other retailers such as Woolworths, etc.?
Pay is minimum wage they use fairwork to calculate it depending on what position you are (casual, part time/full time).
I don't know the difference between HN and other retailers I've only learnt from another POS system and HN POS system is completely complex. the chances of you being anything more than a cashier is quite low however when signing up to cashiering I thought you'll just scan stuff and get money from people like woolies/Coles that's not actually the case you actually deal a lot more than that lol. But I've never worked anywhere else to know.
what do they tell you for their ridiculous mandate to refuse ppl buying gift cards with amex and treating us like criminals when we try to?
For my store my bosses have never brought it up and I've actually seen this on ozbargain a lot and we've never actually refused customers buying HN gift cards. If we do have suspicions we ask for ID as there has been people using it to steal. This was a massive case for us with visa cards we had so many scams that we had to stop selling visa gift cards
What's the stupidest reason for a returned product that you have encountered?