Military clothing store employees expedite Soldiers' direct exchange

By WIlson A. Rivera, Fort Gordon Public Affairs OfficeJune 16, 2014

Military clothing store employees expedite Soldiers' direct exchange
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT GORDON, Ga. (June 13, 2014) -- New Soldiers who have finished Basic Combat Training and are now attending Advanced Individual Training are authorized to do a direct exchange of their military-issued uniforms, if the uniform is beyond repair or the wrong size. During the exchange, the Soldier will swap the old uniform for new ones, but it needs to be done within the first six months of their service.

The Exchange Military Clothing Sales Store has implemented a new process since they have experienced an influx of customers, primarily AIT Soldiers on Saturdays, which is their best opportunity to exchange.

With only one associate at the customer service counter in charge of processing all of the uniform exchanges, the process became time consuming and caused a backlog, specifically on Saturdays.

"For many of them, the entire process exceeded two hours," said MCSS Manager Aaron M. McPherson. "There were so many Soldiers in line, our customer service counter was not available to our other customers."

To significantly reduce the Soldiers' processing time, and eliminate long lines at the customer service counter, Soldiers can DX uniforms from 7a.m. until 9 a.m. Saturday at the back door of the MCSS. Some of the redundancies have been taken out and more sales associates have been incorporated into the new three-station process.

The first station verifies the Soldiers' completed paperwork. The second station verifies the counts and replaces the old merchandise with new. The third station is where the transaction is completed at a sales register.

"The new process reduces their time invested and makes a better sales environment for our other customers during normal business hours," said McPherson.

Under the previous system, the DX process would become congested when several Soldiers arrived at the same time to wait in line. They first would have their paperwork verified, according to Army Regulation 700-84, using DA Form 3078 and a copy of their orders, and then lay out their old uniforms to be replaced. After time spent searching for their replacement uniforms, Soldiers would return to the customer service line to confirm the replacement items needed, and conduct a final purchase.

The action was complete when the Soldier signed the DA Form 3078.

"Soldiers who visit the store on Saturday morning will get hands-on customer service ensuring they get the right sizes of all uniforms without the long wait times they previously experienced," said McPherson. "Saturday mornings, especially near payday, are typically very busy."

The line for the customer service counter was so long it was impeding our other customers' abilities to shop for the merchandise they sought. This process eliminates that problem.

Soldiers can also DX items from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Soldiers using other government acquisitions such as Warrior-Transition, gratuitous, and training brigade platoon sergeant supplemental issues are not affected by this policy. They can visit the store and receive their issue from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Related Links:

Army.mil: Inside the Army News

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