Baby returns

From Baby returns

First, the important news: My cousin Kristen and her husband Mike had their baby! Her name is Charlotte Mar, and she's already 1 month old and doing well. They're grateful for everyone's prayers.

What does this have to do with me? Not much. I haven't even seen Charlotte yet, because I'm not sure if I've gotten the new Tdap booster. The Tdap is for tetanus, diptheria, and pertussis. It was released in 2005, and I think I got mine in 2006 in Minnesota. But I'm not sure. Anyway, they say we're not supposed to come into contact with newborns unless we've had a recent pertussis booster, so I'll have to wait until Kristen and Mike are ready to take Charlotte public.

Nevertheless, I'm already running errands for the kiddo. What happened is that Kristen and Mike received more baby gifts than they could use, so they wanted to return some. They didn't have time, so Kristen's mom, Valerie, took them. My Auntie Valerie didn't have time, either, so I volunteered. But deep down, I was being cocky, like, "Oh, that's so easy. I'll show you how to do it." If I had known that there were no receipts, I probably wouldn't have opened my big mouth.

Auntie Valerie gave me three bags of baby stuff, mostly clothes. With no receipts. We didn't even know which stores the stuff had come from. Since Kristen had a registry at Babies R Us, I was told to try there. That was my mission: Take three bags of baby stuff, without any receipts, to Babies R Us and bring back some money, or at least store credit. And don't let them rip you off by giving you only a little money for something worth a lot. Although the stuff may not even be sold there. Oh, and go to Borders and return a baby book, also without the receipt. (And Borders was about to declare bankruptcy.)

I had received the baby stuff at night, so I put them in my car and planned to go first thing in the morning, because this would stress me out until finished. That night, I almost couldn't sleep. Then I had nightmares of driving across town only to be met by a condescending statement like, "Of course you can't return this without a receipt. We go to great lengths to explicitly say that you need a receipt. And this isn't even our stuff."

If you're a seasoned shopper, you may be wondering what I was afraid of. I'm not even sure myself, but I know I was terrified. I think I was afraid of being labelled incompetent. I had never tried to return something without a receipt, much less three bags of items of uncertain origin. And I don't know squat about babies. Probably, I wouldn't be able to return anything, and I would come back to my aunt empty-handed. (Actually, with my hands totally full, of all the baby stuff.) Then, my aunt would say that she should have done the job herself, because it obviously couldn't have been worse. I was in a lose-lose situation.

So, terrified, I woke up early, drove across town, and arrived at the Babies R Us right when they opened. (They were still having their morning staff meeting.) I prayed. I was shaking. The lady came to the customer service desk, and she was very polite. I thought, "Sure, she's polite. She doesn't know that I don't have any receipts." I explained the situation, hoping she wouldn't summarily cut me off–for some reason, explaining the entire situation felt really important, regardless of the outcome. When I finished, the customer service woman spoke:

"Okay, well let's see what we can do!"

It was like a little miracle. Check that: I'm calling it a miracle.

The woman calmly, cheerfully, and politely when through each baby item in each bag. Many were sold at another store, Target, but she kindly explained how to tell the difference. Several items were sold at Babies R Us but were on clearance, but the lady scanned each item and showed me how much credit I could get, and she advised me on which ones to just keep. She looked up my cousin's registry (presumably as store policy), but it didn't seem to matter whether the returned items were actually in her registry. I left with two-and-a-half bags of baby stuff, and a gift card with a small-but-very-importantly-non-zero-and-non-ripped-off-amount on it.

Armed with knowledge from the Babies R Us employee, I went to Target. I was still a bit afraid, but the Target customer service desk was also very polite and helpful. Most of the stuff was on clearance and not worth returning, like at Babies R Us, but I still left with a gift card with a modest amount on it.

Lastly, I went to Borders to return the baby book. The employee politely informed me of store policy, but he also called his manager to ask if she would make an exception. She didn't. But Borders had bigger things to worry about.

I returned to my aunt before noon and gave her back two bags of baby stuff, two gift cards, and a lot of explanation. Auntie Valerie might rather have had zero bags of baby stuff and a briefcase full of cash, but it was good enough.

In the end, my lose-lose situation turned out to be a good experience. Besides learning a lot, I was reminded of what it's like to be humbled. I know I could use more of that.

But, I haven't volunteered for my aunt again yet. :-)

Thank you so much to the employees at Babies R Us and the employees at Target.

From Baby returns

Oh, and here's the requisite baby photo. :-)