Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ethical question

If you accidentally grab the wrong scent of fabric softener in Target, use it on one (smallish) load of laundry, and discover that the scent so overwhelms your entire house in musky waves of unrelenting awfulness that you're compelled to poke around under the porch in some pitiful hope of disturbing the neighborhood skunk for a better scent to clear the air....

Do you think it's okay to return the rest of the bottle to Target?

(Late breaking addition: I should have been clearer...I would definitely tell Target I'd used the fabric softener; I was trying to gauge the odds of them letting me exchange the scent as a gesture of goodwill and customer service. And the skunk showed up last night around 9pm and sprayed down the whole neighborhood. So today's plan is to be careful what I joke about...)

16 comments:

Stephanie Kartalopoulos said...

I certainly do.
It's like taking a bite of your food and realizing that it has honey in the marinade, and you're allergic to honey, and you return it to the kitchen and order something different.

And it's like buying running sneakers, wearing them twice to run, and realizing that they hurt your feet too much for you to continue wearing them whilst running (thus negating their purpose in your life!).

Absolutely ethical.

And, um, well, it justifies another trip to Target...

L Sass said...

Definitely ethical! If Target wants to keep a customer, they'll absolutely take it back for that reason. Nothing worse than fakey smell overkill!

Anonymous said...

When it's my mistake, I don't take items back, especially when I've opened them - I just chalk it up as dumb tax and hope to pay attention next time. It's okay to take back broken or unopened items, however.

Beck said...

I think that you could return it to the complaints department and say that the smell is nasty, but it's not okay to return it as an UNOPENED product. I WOULD write the manufacturer, though.
But I'd likely just ask my friends if they happen to like that scent. Better to pass it on and make someone happy.

kristen spina said...

First I was going to say yes, of course, return it. But then I thought no, you opened it, better to just toss it or give it away. And then I thought, why not take it back, tell the truth, and see what they say?

Patti said...

no...sorry. but,if you return it with that explaination my guess is that they wiil take it back and then you will feel mighty good about your honesty.

Larramie said...

If it's a personal mistake that's not going to break your budget, I would keep it, donate it to a worthy cause and be more careful next time.

Mary Ann said...

You could write the manufacturer and include your skunk comment. You might get a year's supply of the scent you like.

Anonymous said...

I'd try & return it for no other reason than the priceless story that you will get when you make a customer service representative (I think they call them team members at target or some such nonsense) smell the fabric softener. You can always ask if it's rancid.

LEstes65 said...

You are silly. This is exactly why I pay extra for things like Tide Free (which I had to pay for so I'm considering suing for false advertising).

Nap Queen said...

Take that nasty stuff back! Target will take almost anything back, they're awesome like that.

xxxx said...

Agreed ... Target will take anything back within 60 days! I've taken back used makeup before with no problem.

Michelle O'Neil said...

Target will not care. Take it back.

We have a neighborhood skunk too. So nice to go to bed EVERY NIGHT with the smell wafting in through the screens.

I find it really romantic, don't you?

j said...

definately eithical since you wouldn't think twice about taking back food that tasted terribly.

Alyssa Goodnight said...

As long as you're telling them, I'd say it's fine--they want you to be satisfied. Maybe they even return it the manufacturer, so in that case, you'd be giving the company valuable input. Sorry about the skunk.

Target and I swap regularly. Take one thing back...buy fifteen new things. Ahhh...Target.

Unknown said...

This is the exact reason that I usually sniff fabric softeners, soaps, etc. before I commit to purchase. LOL

However, I'm all for taking it back. I spent 40 minutes reading every bottle of curly hair products at Walgreen's the other day before finally selecting one. I picked it because it didn't have alcohol and didn't say it would be a hard set. Well, guess what, it turned my hair into brittle glass.

I explained what happened and took it back. They were absolutely fine with it.