My Single Mom Life

Colleen bought two pairs of pants at Old Navy, she tried one pair on, bought another pair in the same style but different color.
On the day she wanted to wear the second pair, she noticed some other woman's vaginal discharge in the crotch.
Please go to Digg, read her story, digg it to the top.
It's awesome what's she doing with the pants now because ON treated her badly when she went to return them.

But I laughed, and I know you'll be laughing, but see, I know how this happened.
I used to work at Old Navy, I know their return policies, and where the products come from.

I worked mostly in the stock room bringing in shipments off the truck.
It was my job to unpack it, hang it on the hangers, place it on the floor.
I also covered the fitting rooms and helped put returned items back out.

First, ALL of Old Navy's items are made over seas. This should be a major hint to wash anything you buy from them.
Why?
Many times I would open a box and spiders would be in the clothes, or fleas.
Sometimes, I'd get done hanging over 200 pieces, and my arms would be itchy. I'd look down to find a major rash going on, on my arms.
From whatever was in the box.

In the fitting rooms, there was a sign up that said you must keep your underwear on while trying on clothes, but uh, sometimes the female customers wouldn't be wearing any.
That's the first way the crusty stain could have happened.
Yes, we could tell them they couldn't try on any more clothes after we saw nakedness, but that might cause a scene, and getting our manager involved in it was something the manager didn't like to do.
Heck, they didn't even like to get involved in blatant shoplifting exchanges.
The second way, is when items are returned.
All the Old Navy employees are required to do, is ask why you are returning it, and give the item a once over for outside damage to the outside of the garment.
We never were told to check pockets or look inside the crotch of the pants.
Simply look for outside stains or tears.
That's it.
That's the second way the stain could have happened, but she said the pants were new, so I'm betting on the fitting room scenario.

What did we do with returned items?
We hung them on hangers and placed them back on the sales floor of course!
Same with items from the fitting rooms that the customers didn't want.
In there, we never even inspected the items after they tried them on.
They were "new" after all.
We placed them back on the hangers, and on to the sales floor they went.

I've worked in retail and customer service for years.
The customer is always right even when they are wrong.
By thoroughly inspecting items and finding a stain like that, could cause the customer to start screaming that they didn't do it, that we must have sold it to them that way, they demand their money back, all at full on screech decibel, which causes other customers to leave the store.
It's best policy, and it was Old Navy's policy, to just inspect the outside of the garments and return their money, no other questions asked, then place the item back on the sales floor with no further inspections.

Old Navy hated to lose money.
Their items were cheap as it was, having to mark off an item, meant the store lost money, and I know for a fact at my store, that items that smelled like smoke, alcohol, coffee stains, baby throw-up, and other assorted problems, were placed back on the sales floor all the time.
The only items we ever marked off, we ones right off the truck, and usually only if they were broken.
But we'd even sell them, after writing it off as a loss.
We'd mark it down 20% and stick it in the clearance bin as is.

Colleen's story is funny and gross, but nothing new to people who worked in retail.
It doesn't matter what you buy and where, always wash it, spray that new purse down with Lysol, take a Clorox wipe to new toys.
You'd be surprised and sickened by what those of us in the retail field know about the clothes you just bought.
Wash them.
In hot soapy water with a bleach alternative if you can.
Some of the critters we came across, gave us the itchies and a rash that needed a doctor to treat.