Sorry about your problem at the BP - I've been on holidays this week, so I know it wasn't me
We always let people test fire Excaliburs, with one single exception - when we have a big sale going on, like we did for the last few weeks, sometimes there just isn't time to take customers in the range and spend time with them. Management tells the staff to use their own discretion in such situations, and if there's a long line of people waiting to buy treestands or stuff or have arrows cut, etc, we explain the situation to the customer, and generally they understand.
I don't personally recall ever refusing any
serious customer a test shot or two. The store is a tourist attraction, and we constantly get people running through the place asking "hey mister, can I try shooting this" so we don't obviously let them. We have an arcade right next to the Archery department for that purpose. But anyone who is seriously interested gets to try anything (within reason). Time permitting.
As for returning a bow - it's a general store policy, but not written in stone. Obviously, for safety reasons, bows cannot generally be returned once taken out of the store and shot. In some cases there's no way of knowing if the bow has been abused, dry-fired, etc. Obviously, we have to put returns back on the rack for resale. Would you like to buy a bow that someone had abused and returned?
We have had a couple of cases of people buy a crossbow just before hunting season, shoot a deer the first weekend, and then try to return the bow. One guy even didn't wash all the blood completely off an arrow!
If there's a good reason the the return, like a defect, sure. Or if the customer just plain doesn't like the product, it's a manager's call. Please don't blame the "greenshirts".
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