Goodwill Store — Local services in West Lafayette

I am reporting a manager at this goodwill location 200 Sagamore Pkwy W, West Lafayette, IN 47906 for discrimination against me and refusing to adhere to policies. Her name is "May" (tan skin + brown hair, relatively short & of Asian decent). I tried to return some items I had bought at a local regional store to that branch. According to Goodwill policies, I should be able to return them to any of the regional stores as long as the tags are intact and the receipt is no more than 14 days old. All the items are reflected on the receipt with the correct pricing and tags attached. May decided that she simply did not want to do the return because she stated that her store doesn't price things the way that the prices were shown on the receipt. As someone who has been to several goodwills within the region, I explained to her that every store has different prices for different items because no items are the same. She then said that it's the store policy to check the cameras when they do returns, insinuating that I was participating in theft, which is beyond ridiculous. When the fitting rooms were taken out of our Goodwills, I had to resort to buying everything I could not try on in the store so I could try them on at home and return the ones that I didn't like or did not fit properly. I have always purchased large amounts of clothing when I visit Goodwill because I am aware of the 14 day return policy, which gives me enough time to try things out and return items that did not work out for store credit that I can come back and spend. Due to that, sometimes I have to do large amounts of returns resulting from the lack of fitting rooms in the store. Nowhere in the Goodwill policy states that returns can be rejected if I have followed the proper instructions, which I have, so I truly believe she was discriminating against my return request because she was either too lazy to put the items back on the floor or she believed I was abusing the return policy in some way. I told her, if she had an issue with how different stores price their items, she can call the other stores and take it up with them. I will not be driving out of town to return items that I purchased at the original store on the receipt, which she suggested, when I know for a fact that it is in the policy to accept it at any regional locations and I am already in that particular store. That is a major inconvenience to the customers because I do not live close to the other store at all. I told her that if she was concerned with me abusing the return policy in any way, she could pull up cameras and show me exactly what she was accusing me of. She was unable to provide me any evidence of such, just pure assumption, outright refusal to adhere to policies, and deliberately lying. I have been a frequent shopper at this particular location because it is the closest store to where I live and all the other staff have always been friendly and helpful, except for May the manager in this instance. This is no way to treat guests, especially being a representative of an organization that supports the community. I truly hope there are correct actions taken towards this situation so that this type of disrespectful and unacceptably rude treatment does not...

I exclusively LOVE the West Lafayette location, but because of this interaction today I will probably not go back for my own safety or that of my daughter. The store is typically very clean and well organized, and the staff is always so kind and welcoming- but not today. My sister, my one year old and I came to the store to specifically find wall art and frames. As soon as I started looking, an employee whose name I now understand is Corey, started speaking (loudly) about how he had just straightened up the picture frames. I, in no way intended to make a mess or leave things in disarray (I worked retail for a decade) and my daughter was in the cart so she was not messing with anything. Just to be clear that this comment was absolutely unsolicited. A moment later we continued looking and he came right in between myself and my shopping cart (where my baby was!!!) while he huffed and puffed rearranging the frames that I had just looked through. Of course I left the area but that didn’t stop him. He was actually shouting for several minutes about how frustrated he was that “people need to mess everything up”. To be clear- we did NOT mess anything up. I was looking at the frames, I did not even pull them off the shelves. His behavior continued, he was strolling around the store shouting and visibly making people uncomfortable for several minutes. I have never been afraid to be in a goodwill, nor afraid of their employees until today, but this persons behavior was genuinely scary. He made us feel uncomfortable to touch anything. And I’d like to reiterate- we both have worked retail, we did not and would not make a mess nor do anything to invoke such a behavior. I hope this person understands that customers deserve respect and kindness (especially when they are giving you the same) and changes his behavior because we were thoroughly shaken. This person would probably be more comfortable in a position where he does not interact with customers since he hates them so much and clearly doesn’t understand...

The people I interacted with today on all levels were very rude and unprofessional. They did not care at all about my problem. I can admit I was a bit rude myself because I was so upset but the level of just disinterest and lack of empathy was telling, I understand you’re just there to get a pay check, but a little sympathy is needed in certain situations. I tried calling for DAYS to locate an item that was donated by mistake by my father while o have been sick and the phone number listed was not able to connect to the store. The goodwill customer service line in general was unhelpful and the woman I spoke to was also very unhelpful and rude. I don’t leave bad reviews because I work in retail and understand what it’s like but the overall attitude and demeanour of the people I dealt with today was unacceptable. I’ll probably never recommend goodwill to anyone ever again. They do not care...