Customer Complaint Resolution Checklist

Get the facts in the customer's words: SKU or item description, date and store of purchase, what went wrong. Don't paraphrase yet — verbatim wording matters when the issue escalates to corporate or to a chargeback dispute.

Look up the receipt by tender (last 4 of card), loyalty ID, or receipt barcode in Lightspeed / Shopify POS / Square. Note the cashier, register, and date. No-receipt complaints follow store policy — typically lowest 30-day price as store credit.

For defects, check the item against vendor return guidelines — some vendors (e.g., footwear, electronics) require photos and serial numbers for RTV credit. For pricing complaints, compare the ring price to the current planogram tag and any active promo in the POS.

For service-behavior complaints or refund disputes, queue the Verkada / Solink / Sensormatic clip covering the register at the transaction time. Save the clip to the LP folder before it ages out (most retention windows are 30-90 days).

Common causes: mis-rung promo, planogram tag drift after a markdown, vendor short-ship, training gap, or genuine defect. Naming the cause matters — it determines whether this gets fed back to the buyer, the trainer, or LP.

Apply the posted return policy: receipted refund to original tender, no-receipt to store credit at lowest 30-day price, defect exchanges per vendor RTV terms. Anything above the manager-approval threshold (typically $50 or $100) requires the next step.

Per store policy, refunds and credits over the threshold need a manager PIN at the POS. If the complaint involves a safety issue or a threat of legal action, escalate to the District Manager regardless of dollar amount.

Manager enters their PIN to authorize the override. Do not share PINs across associates — every override is audited monthly against the cashier's refund rate to catch sweethearting and refund fraud.

Call or Slack the DM with the customer's name, transaction number, and the proposed resolution. For safety incidents, the DM loops in LP and Risk before any written response goes back to the customer.

Ring the refund, exchange, or price adjustment. Print two receipts — one for the customer, one stapled to the complaint log. For card refunds, confirm the funds went to the original tender, not cash (PCI and chargeback exposure).

If the customer rejects the in-store offer, open a ticket in the CRM (Klaviyo, Zendesk, or the corporate complaint tracker) and hand off to the customer-care team. Include the transaction number, CCTV clip reference, and the offer the customer declined.

Within 48 hours, email or text the customer to confirm the resolution landed (refund posted, exchange shipped, store credit usable). Use the corporate template — do not promise anything beyond what was agreed in store.

Record the complaint in the store's complaint log or corporate tracker: category, root cause, resolution amount, associate involved, and any vendor SKU. Multi-unit teams roll this up weekly to spot patterns across locations.

Three or more complaints on the same SKU in 30 days goes to the buyer for vendor RTV review. Three or more on the same associate goes to the store manager for retraining. Pricing-error patterns go to the merchandising team to fix the planogram tag.