Decide How an Upstart Online Retailer Handles a Return Request After the Window Closes

You are a product manager at a company that has only recently entered a crowded e-commerce market. A customer asks to send back an item, but the return window for that purchase has already closed. What do you do? ```hint Price both answers Before choosing, work out what a yes and a no each cost a company that is still earning shoppers' trust, then check whether your answer still holds when support sees this same request every day. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Why is the return late, and by how much: a defect found later, a delivery that arrived late, or a change of mind? - What is the item worth, what condition is it in, and could it be resold if it came back? - What do we know about this customer: how many orders, any earlier exceptions, any signs of return abuse? - Are you deciding only this request, or also how support should handle the next one like it? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The facts that change the answer, such as why the request is late, the item's value and condition, and the customer's history - What a new entrant needs from its returns experience, and how this decision helps or hurts that - A range of possible responses, each weighed on its cost to the company and its effect on the customer - A rule support can apply to the next similar request, with protection against abuse - How you would measure whether the approach works, and what results would change the policy ### Follow-up Questions - The same customer asks for another late return two months later. What do you do? - How would your answer change for an expensive laptop versus an inexpensive kitchen item? - When would you lengthen the standard return window for everyone instead of granting exceptions?