This is an All Ears English Podcast.
What's your return policy?
English vocabulary for shopping.
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With your American hosts Lindsay McMan, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
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Do you tend to return items often when you shop?
Today, get the key English terms that you need to make returns and get your refunds.
Plus, learn about American cultural values about price tags.
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How are you doing today?
Hello, Michelle, how are you doing today?
Good, good. How are you?
Very good, very good.
Hey, Michelle, when was the last time you returned something that you purchased?
Oh, good question. I'm trying to think specifically, I think it was something with clothing.
I think I did make a clothing return recently, but I can't quite remember it.
Oh, I know what it was.
I ordered some clothes online and then I didn't like them at all.
And then the store had a very, very generous return policy, almost too generous, so I kept procrastinating.
Oh, no. And it felt so good once I finally returned it.
And then you feel like you made money, even though you didn't.
Yeah, I guess. Sometimes I forget to return things and then the window goes by and then I just.
Yeah, I don't know.
That happens to me too, yep.
Yeah, so interesting topic today, a very on the ground, practical English lesson for our listeners today.
What are we talking about, Michelle?
Well, today we're gonna talk about how to make key words associated with making a return in English.
So, something doesn't fit.
You don't like a present someone gave you.
Anytime you need to return something.
I mean, again, like Lindsay said, this is very on the ground practical stuff.
And it's important because we need the language to understand what's okay in terms of returns and also how to communicate effectively when making one.
Yes, 100%, 100 % a lot of stores, especially online have pretty generous return policies, but you do need to be able to write a message or make a call.
Nowadays, it's really easy through Whole Foods, you can drop Amazon with Amazon returns, at least.
Have you done those drop boxes where you can just - I haven't done the drop boxes, but yeah, I think Amazon is the one where I tend to get something and then forget that I need to return it and then I miss it because I think theirs is just 30 days usually.
Okay, yeah, I don't know, but today we're gonna get the key skills.
But first, before we get into that, Michelle, I wanna make sure our listeners know, guys, our C1 Fluency course is currently in the works.
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Michelle, speaking opportunities.
Our listeners, tell us about that just for a second.
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Okay, guys. And just one more fun thing before we get into it.
We've been doing these Spotify polls.
So we have some results to share.
So episode 2270 was, are you book smart or street smart?
And our poll for that was, are you more book smart or street smart?
So if you're not sure about what that means, definitely go on and listen to episode 2270.
So Lindsay, what did our listeners say?
All right, so the results are as follows.
So book smart was 67 % of our listeners are book smart and then street smart, 33%.
That's interesting, Michelle.
I feel like it's interesting.
It also could be different depending on which country you're in.
Are you in your home country?
Or are you, because street smart in that case would be different, right?
It's kind of cultural intelligence, everyday knowledge, how to do that versus in an English speaking, a new country, right?
As an expat maybe. So really interesting though.
It is interesting, yeah.
How that kind of, there's quite a difference between the two.
Yeah, this is one of the more divided polls that we've seen.
Often our polls will be close to half on things and half and half, but this one is really leaning towards book smart.
It's really interesting.
I wish I could ask a follow -up question of our listeners to learn more here.
Yeah, totally. I don't know.
Maybe we'll do some sort of follow -up on it.
So guys, remember to listen to episode 2270 to hear more.
Okay. So let's get into returns.
We already talked about this word return policy.
So that's one of the key words for today.
So what is the return policy?
It's just the rule for that particular business.
Each business has their own rules when it comes to the window of time in which you can return.
Most of the time it's 30 days.
I know for most of our courses, it's 30 days.
Yeah, that's really what it is.
It's your policy. And there's a key question you might ask, Michelle, what is that?
Right. So you could say, what's your store's return policy?
And they might say, yeah, we have a 30 -day return policy, right?
Right. So, and also part of the policy might be in how an item has to be for returning it, right?
They might say it has to be in the original packaging.
They might say that it needs to have the tags on it still, or if it's shoes, they can't show that they've been worn.
Sometimes you might be able to return it past the window of time, but you might get store credit.
So lots of different things.
And a lot of times it's in small print on the receipt.
And so you just gotta be real careful when looking at that.
And sometimes people end up asking in the store when they're considering buying something, right?
If they're not 100 % sure if they want it or not, they might say, oh, well, what's the return policy?
Yeah, for sure. Everyone has a different approach to this.
But nowadays, a lot of stores are just emailing you your receipt because we're simply looking to save paper.
So make sure that if you do that, you're reading, if you're not sure if this is gonna be a good fit, that you're reading that return policy in your email for sure.
And then there's refund, which is different, obviously, but it's related, Michelle.
This is either a noun or a verb, which is interesting.
And this is basically getting your money back.
So in a noun form, I can give you a full refund for that item.
Michelle, what would it look like as a verb though?
Right, as a verb, it might be something like, can you refund my money?
Right, can you refund me?
You say that too, right?
You can refund me, yes, yes, exactly.
So it could be a noun or a verb, but very, very useful and important.
The next one is also super important.
This is exchange. And this is to get something in place of something else.
So maybe a store won't take returns.
Again, like I mentioned, sometimes what will happen is, if you do miss that window, you might not be able to get your money back, but you can exchange it for something else.
So the store is saying, we're keeping your money.
But you can pick something else.
So you could say, I'd like to exchange this for another color.
Or this could also be a noun or a verb.
So as a noun, it would be, you could say I need to make an exchange.
Interesting how a lot of these words work as nouns and verbs.
Yeah, and return too.
Can I make a return?
I'd like to do a return.
Oh, oh, maybe that's the pro tip of this episode.
It's not just about shopping.
It's actually about grammar.
That's true. All right, we'll take a quick break and then we'll come back for a few more.
Okay, Michelle, store credit.
Now you mentioned this, I think briefly when we're talking about exchanges, or if you're past the window for a refund, sometimes they'll give you what?
Yeah, store credit.
So you don't get your money back, but you are able to get, sometimes they'll give you a little gift card that they'll say, oh, okay, so you have $50 on this that you can use in the future.
So it's the same idea as an exchange, but actually I recently got store credit.
Dan bought me a gift.
Nice. Of course I returned the gift.
Of course, oh poor Dan.
No, so he bought me a gift and then I went to see, maybe I want something else, but I couldn't decide.
And so they said to me, oh, well, you don't need to decide today.
You can always just get store credit for the future.
So is that, is that, does it have an expiration date?
That's the only thing we want to check.
It didn't and very exciting.
I just got my purchase yesterday.
So I did remember that the problem that happens is every once in a while you get store credit and you forget to use it.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.
I mean, gift certificates are like that.
How do you feel Michelle about receiving gift cards as a key gift, like a birthday gift for your birthday or for a holiday, something big.
Are you, do you feel like it's too impersonal or do you feel like it's perfect if they know what store to gift from?
I'm okay with it. What about you?
I love them. Yeah, I'm fine with it.
Especially if it's the right store.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm happy for it.
I also like to get maybe a gift card to a restaurant.
That's nice too. Yeah.
So that can be a thoughtful gift.
Even, I know sometimes people might think it's impersonal but like you said Lindsay, if it's maybe to a special place, you know, they've wanted to try or.
I think generally with the thought, like the thoughtfulness it's better the restaurant or the experience as a gift card.
But I know people who just don't like gift cards but it doesn't make sense because these same people have stores.
I know particular stores they love and that would be perfect to give them a gift card from those stores.
But they just don't want gift cards.
I think it's impersonal.
So what can you do?
It's interesting. So you could say something like, unfortunately, we can't give you a cash refund but we can give you the full amount in store credit.
So expect to hear that store credit and then gift receipt.
Now this is used when you're giving or receiving a gift to hide the amount that you paid.
But the person, you want the person to have that receipt.
So they know where to go if they do want to return it.
But eventually though, Michelle, they're going to figure out how much you paid because they're going to go say, oh, here's how much you have.
Yeah. I think that goal is to be nice and show them you can return this if you want.
I'm hoping you don't.
So you don't find out how much it is, but you're only going to find out how much I spent if you go to return.
Yeah. It's also just, I think it's just a way to be a little more refined, socially refined because if you imagine, let's say Christmas morning everyone sitting around the tree and you gift some, let's say your mother -in -law, there's really expensive sweater and the receipt is just a normal receipt.
And it says like a $500 sweaters, like, oh my God, you spent too much and there's a whole thing.
And it's just not, it's just, it's awkward to bring in conversations of money when you're gifting someone something, at least in American culture.
I mean, I'm sure you do it too, but I'm always peeling off the label, you know, to make sure that people can't see.
It's always this big secret.
It's actually interesting.
I don't know if that's a universal.
I don't know if that's just an American cultural norm.
And let's just dig into that for a minute here.
We're getting into lots of interesting topics that I didn't think we would.
Why is that? Why do we peel off the receipt, the tag, the price tag when we go and wrap something as a gift?
It's interesting because it goes back to, I think privacy around money in general.
You know, we talk about how we don't ask people how much money they make.
There are certain things that culturally I think we're pretty private about.
And so money is generally one of them.
I mean, the other one is maybe how much someone's house cost, which is interesting because you can just look it up online.
But you wouldn't, I don't think you would say to someone, oh, how much was your house?
Even though your friends are probably going to Redfin and looking up the house you just bought.
So it's just funny.
We're a little, I mean, and even for the gift, you can look it up on Amazon or you can look it up, you know, you can always find these things out, but there's some certain privacy around it.
And even so recently I went to my friend's daughter's birthday party and I realized I didn't take the tags off.
It happens. So I ran back in and I pulled it out of the...
You went the extra mile.
I did. It started, you know, with my nails, trying to scratch the tags off.
And then I looked at the receipt and they didn't give me a gift receipt.
So they were going to see how much it was anyway.
It was like, oh. Yeah, interesting.
What do you think, Lindsay?
That is really interesting.
I think you hit the nail on the head, Michelle, this is it.
So we've talked about our values of privacy around money, politics, religion, sex, things like that are very, you know, there are things we keep close to the chest, right?
We don't always talk about them in public as much.
Maybe that's changing.
I don't know. But at this moment, it's yeah, how much money you make, how much money you have in the bank account, investments, things like that.
And so what would happen, what we worry about is if we don't take that label off, did I spend too little?
Did I spend too much?
What are they going to think of me?
These are all conversations.
So actually, this could be a cool poll that maybe we'll do.
This will be the poll.
You know, do you take labels off gifts?
Is there privacy around money for?
I would love to know.
OK. So we will put that in, guys, if you're listening on Spotify, we're going to add that in because we were this was just such an interesting topic that again, I didn't see this coming either.
But this is interesting.
Super interesting. All right.
We got to move on, Michelle.
So what's the last term?
The last one is final sale.
Final sale. What is final sale?
It always feels very intense when you see it.
I often see all sales final.
Yeah, basically, it means you can't return something.
Well, actually, it's two different things.
So final sale, it can't be returned.
I'm sorry. This item is final sale.
So it cannot be returned.
But all sales final.
Sometimes you see that I think you see that when a store is liquidating.
Oh, and they're not going to be around for you to come back and return.
It's a little bit different, a little bit different.
So, yes, yes, definitely.
Yeah. Final sale. Sometimes I'll be looking at something online and it's on it's on sale.
And I'm excited. And then I see final sale.
I can't buy final sale online.
No way. Yeah. No, yeah, for sure.
For sure. I just I just don't really.
I don't even shop that much in general.
Like I know right now, I'm still wearing shorts because I need a new new pair of pants for the fall.
Like I I'm wearing a summer shirt.
I know. No, I'm I'm I'm similar.
I I like to look and then I get nervous and I don't buy things.
OK. Interesting. It does tell a lot about someone, their shopping habits, right?
Do they go in? Do they not even bother?
It tells you a lot about your lifestyle and things.
But let's go into a role play, Michelle, and we'll see what we can learn here.
OK, so here I am making a return to a clothing store and you work there.
All right. Here we go.
OK, here we go. Hi, I'd like to make a return.
Sure, I can help you with that.
Do you have a receipt?
Yes, I have a gift receipt.
OK, great. Oh, it looks like this may be out of time limits of our return policy.
Oh, no, really was a final sale?
No, but it's just past the 45 days.
Oh, I see. Right. So I'm so sorry, but I can't give you a refund.
However, you can exchange the item for something else or I can give you store credit.
Oh, OK. I'll take a look around.
Thanks. Of course. Yes.
So paying attention to that.
That's the worst when you go in and you realize you're out of that window.
Yeah. So Michelle here, you said hi, I'd like to make a return.
So again, that is the noun form of return.
Right. I could have also said hi, I'd like to return this.
Yes. 100 percent said that as well.
And then you asked, do you have a receipt?
And I said, yes, I have a gift receipt.
Mm hmm. All right. And how do we spell receipt, Lindsay?
Oh, that's another good insider tip here.
So R E C E I P T. And if you do have the app, you will be able to see this in the app.
All right. So good.
So and then you said what I said what, Michelle, next?
You said, oh, it looks like it may be out of the I know, yeah, I think you thought this was a little bit awkwardly worded.
So out of the time limits of our return policy.
No, no, no, no, no.
I'm thinking of what would be a better way that I could have written that.
This may be out of I mean, you might just say this might be outside of our return policy.
Right. I might say, oh, it looks like you may be outside of our return policy window.
We're we're we're outside of the window.
Yeah. Something like that.
Yeah. Yeah. Not actually outside of a window, guys.
Right. That's a metaphorical window.
A metaphorical window.
OK, so and then I said, you said, oh, no, really?
Was it final sale? And you're asking what were returns not even possible on this.
Right. And then you said, I'm so sorry, but I can't give you a refund.
However, you can exchange the item for something else or I can give you store credit.
So refund, I can't give you a refund.
So we're using the noun form.
So I can't give you your money back, you're saying.
However, you can exchange it so you can pick something else out or I can give you the store credit.
And that would mean more like that's, you know, generally store credit.
I think of that's more like for another time, but it doesn't have to be.
Yeah, totally. Interesting.
So this episode has brought up a lot of really insightful things that we hadn't even considered bringing up today, like money and American culture and spellings of weird words.
Why do we say receipt when it has a P in it?
So all we did for a takeaway, I think I want to make sure our listeners, if you guys are living in an English speaking country, the U .S., England, Australia, don't avoid making a return if you need to, if you have to do it.
But you're afraid of having that conversation.
There is no better practice than the moments when you are heightened.
Maybe you're a little nervous because when we're actually emotionally activated, we learn things better as we're doing the thing that we're using the words.
So go up to that desk, return that item, challenge yourself.
This would be a really cool way to do it.
Don't do it if you don't, you know, right?
Right. You don't need to buy something and then return.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Just go for it. Don't be afraid because this is how we get better.
Yeah, absolutely. All right.
Well, this is a lot of fun.
And guys, look out for that that poll on Spotify.
We're going to put it up looking forward to hearing your answers.
Yeah, me too. I'm super interested.
All right. Good stuff, Michelle.
You have a nice day.
And guys, don't forget all ears English dot com slash C one.
See you there. All right.
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