RANT OF THE DAY: Exchange Policy ~ Too Much of a Good Thing?

We as human beings have ingrained in our DNA the innate talent of messing up a good thing. Throughout our history on this floating dirtball, whenever there is something awesome in our lives, people will inevitably screw it up and ruin it for everyone. If there is any possible way to get over and take advantage, folks will find a way to do it and their hubris and selfishness blind them to the fact that their actions are wrong. And is always the case, the good suffers for the bad and that awesome thing is nothing more but a mere memory.

We've seen this over the years at BBW. Perfect example - phone orders. Back in the good ol days, you could call a test store, order a few test scents and have sent to you with $5.99 shipping...awesome, right?! It was great but then as usual, people had to mess it up. You had greedy bastards ordering 10-20 candles at time and not just one of everything but 10-20 of ONE SCENT! Or you had lying assholes saying that their order wasn't delivered and the store would have no alternative but to send replacements so these assholes got double the candles. Meanwhile the stores were running out of candles to sell to customers who were actually in the store. Corporate said "screw this"  and sent a mandate to stores saying no more phone orders all because of people's greediness and dishonesty. In 2014 they brought phone orders back but thru Customer Relations but people were pulling these shenanigans again and after a few months phone orders were no more and this time for good.

What else have we seen disappear over the years? Survey coupons...BBW Insiders program...free candle giveaways...3day grace periods. It's easy to scream and yell, gnash your teeth and shake your fist in the air angrily while declaring that BBW is being unfair. However, perhaps we should save our self righteous ire for the unscrupulous members of our candle community instead.

Which brings me to the point of this whole rant - exchanges. As you know, BBW has a lovely exchange policy - if you're unhappy with your candle for whatever reason, just bring it back and exchange for another candle that is more to your liking. Sometimes the SA will ask you for a receipt and your ID, but for the most part they SA will graciously do an exchange for you no questions asked. But as always, people try to get over and pull a fast one. You have folks...

• bringing in a completely burned candle to exchange and because of the return/exchange policy, SAs have no choice but to (begrudgingly) do an exchange

• exchanging 10-20 candles all at the same time   

• the newest trend - buying candles (especially if there is a glitch online) that they have no intention on burning and keeping them to do an exchange when a new collection comes out and/or there is a sale

I personally don't do any of this. In all the years I've been shopping at BBW, Ive returned maybe 4 or 5 burned candles and they were only burned once not all the all way to the bottom. The most I will return is 3 candles at a time and even then, I kinda feel a little guilty about it so I'll buy something after the exchange - whether its another candle or soap or even a pocketbac just to make my conscience feel better. Plus the SA gets some commission action - win win situation. And ALL of my returns are candles that I have already bought and are chilling in my collection.For every candle I buy, I keep the receipts (in chronological order) in a manila folder just in the off chance I decide to exchange something. I say all of this not come off holier than thou and sanctimonious but rather I just like the feeling of doing the right thing.  

Also have you ever heard what happens to candles that have been exchanged?

• Candles in a current collection in stores are put back on the shelves
• Candles from old collections no longer in stores are boxed up and kept for SAS 
• Burned candles are destroyed and thrown away

The point is no money being made!

Here's the problem - sure, you're getting all of the candles you want, so you're happy. That's all well and good for you but what does BBW get it out of it? What money is being made from all of your exchanges? Where's the profit, the revenue? You forget BBW is a company and business and for a company/business to maintain itself, it needs MONEY! BBW is bleeding money with all of these crazy exchanges! And do you know what the after-effect is? PRICE INCREASES!!! BBW has to make up the cost somehow! It's easy and convenient to vilify BBW  and say they're being greedy (and to a certain degree they can be) and lord knows I was one of many ranting and raving about that... but now I get it. Exchanging candles ad nauseam isn't solely to blame for price increases but there is no denying that it is one of the major causes!

My biggest issue with folks doing these exchanging tomfoolery is that they're bragging about it on social media! "I got all these candles and didn't have to pay anything" Yeah you sure did...at BBW's expense! SHUT THE F*** UP!!! STOP RUNNING YOUR MOUTH AND BLABBING! YALL TALK TOO DAMN MUCH! First of all, everybody is seeing this and thinking it's ok for them to do as well! Furthermore, do you honestly think BBW isn't paying attention to this candle chicanery? Trust me they are highly aware of what folks are doing and eventually at some point, they are gonna do something about it.

I can't tell people what to do as that is not my place. All I can do is spill some T and hope folks gather around to take a sip. Everyone exchanging 10+ candles or buying candles to exchange later, you are NOT being as crafty as you think you are and bragging about it on social media is only gonna hurt you in the end. Stores have already started implementing "if you don't have a receipt, you have to pay the difference " rule..which I was totally against at first but now I am all for it! It's a great deterrent cuz I'm almost positive most folks doing these crazy exchanges are not bringing in their receipts. Y'all keep on playing around and corporate is gonna make this rule official for all stores. Or worse..corporate will get rid of the exchange policy permanently!