Have been disciplined, but am sure I'm not at fault

JBoyle4eva

In my store, which sells clothes, we have an online ordering service were customers may order items, have them delivered to their home address and if unsatisfied, they may return them to our store to be refunded. A customer came in with 9 garments which totalled to over €500.

As it was such a large refund, I took my time processing it and after ensuring I had put all the times through on the tills, I confirmed it on the till. However, I was not aware that when we confirm on the till, the receipt does not print the amount to be refunded. As I could not confirm it myself, I paged for a manager and a member of senior sales came who is superior to me. She went into the admin office to check, but she returned to say she couldn't check.

At this point, she ordered me to process the return once more, confirm the price and we would void the original refund transaction. This is what I did, but when she tried to void my original refund, the system said it could not identify such a transaction. I had then to call POS control to get assistance, but was told to get a manager to check the electronic journal in the admin office to check if the transaction had gone through.

Nonetheless, at this point in my shift, I no longer dealt with this transaction and continued on with my duties.

Yesterday, however, I was called into a meeting with my manager. She had a printed statement of the transaction and asked me to explain what happened. I did so, but she said I should've known that you cannot process a void for a return on home order transactions. I then informed her that it was a certain member of senior sales who ordered me to do the transaction once more as wish she said we would void it. However, she seemed adamant that the double-refund was my fault.

I have now been disciplined, which means I'm now banned from doing returns and am being forced to re-train on till basics.

I completely disagree with her decision. I'm not solely at fault, and I certainly wouldn't have decided to do the refund again without any senior person telling me otherwise.

Does anyone think I've any grounds to appeal the decision she made? I believe that as I had been informed by senior personnel to do this and that neither of us were aware you couldn't void a home order return that I shouldn't be given such a harsh punishment. Our store does have a policy of appealing disciplinary decisions, if you believe you need to.

kirving

Appeal it, you can't be disciplined for doing something you were told to by another senior staffmember.(unless it was dangerour or illegal)

Working in a shop once, the manager had a complete wobbler when I took in a €100 "Bounsbond" gift voucer as payment as apparently the store doesn't accept them.

However, there was a fairly large "Bonusbond" button located between "Cash" and "Card". She knew she couldn't discipline me really as I just did as the till said!

gerrycollins

JBoyle4eva wrote: »

In my store, which sells clothes, we have an online ordering service were customers may order items, have them delivered to their home address and if unsatisfied, they may return them to our store to be refunded. A customer came in with 9 garments which totalled to over €500.

As it was such a large refund, I took my time processing it and after ensuring I had put all the times through on the tills, I confirmed it on the till. However, I was not aware that when we confirm on the till, the receipt does not print the amount to be refunded. As I could not confirm it myself, I paged for a manager and a member of senior sales came who is superior to me. She went into the admin office to check, but she returned to say she couldn't check.

At this point, she ordered me to process the return once more, confirm the price and we would void the original refund transaction. This is what I did, but when she tried to void my original refund, the system said it could not identify such a transaction. I had then to call POS control to get assistance, but was told to get a manager to check the electronic journal in the admin office to check if the transaction had gone through.

Nonetheless, at this point in my shift, I no longer dealt with this transaction and continued on with my duties.

Yesterday, however, I was called into a meeting with my manager. She had a printed statement of the transaction and asked me to explain what happened. I did so, but she said I should've known that you cannot process a void for a return on home order transactions. I then informed her that it was a certain member of senior sales who ordered me to do the transaction once more as wish she said we would void it. However, she seemed adamant that the double-refund was my fault.

I have now been disciplined, which means I'm now banned from doing returns and am being forced to re-train on till basics.

I completely disagree with her decision. I'm not solely at fault, and I certainly wouldn't have decided to do the refund again without any senior person telling me otherwise.

Does anyone think I've any grounds to appeal the decision she made? I believe that as I had been informed by senior personnel to do this and that neither of us were aware you couldn't void a home order return that I shouldn't be given such a harsh punishment. Our store does have a policy of appealing disciplinary decisions, if you believe you need to.

Appeal it, in writing stating the facts as you have clearly stated in your post and naming names of people who interracted with the transaction.

Provide proof of your history there and any responsiblities you have been given and your progression within the company if any as proof of your ability and any quotes from your last review if positive. Also state that this is your fist displinary issue in "x" time within the company and that you feel you are a valued member of the staff.

Admit however your failings in not knowing the inability to void a home order return however state that you were fully till trained before however it was never mentioned during training and that you did seek the advice and help of your superior and in your opnion the punishment was severe as a first time offence. Tell them that you now feel you are not trusted and feel incompedent(?).

Point out that if the issue was never brought up in your first till training, how will retraining prevent the issue reoccuring(apart from the fact you now know considering your experience).

Ask that you be reinstated to your previous position however ask for any advanced, ie not basic,till training as the issue never arose in your basic training and you wish to progress further than your current position and you feel any training would be advantage to your career.

^^^Great advice ^^^