It’s a business.
Because they return too many things too often. Stores do that too. Stop complaining.
On the other hand, many retailers have reduced - often by half - their return window and thrown up all manner of restrictions, fine print, etc.
Good. This happens far to often and it drives up the cost for everyone else.
I have never had a problem with returns.
I believe if someone is returning things too often, there is an underlying reason that needs to be taken into account.
People who abuse a generous return policy ruin it for everyone else.
We had a great store named “Lechemere” back in the Seventies and Eighties that had an amazingly generous return policy. You could return anything, anytime, no questions asked.
Loved it. Great customer service.
But people around the late Eighties began to intentionally abuse it. They would buy a huge television to watch a sporting event at a party and return it afterwards.
I even had a good friend who bragged about getting a top of the line SLR camera and lens, taking it on vacation, and returning it when the vacation was done.
That really floored me, and I lost respect for that person.
But that is what people do. Give em an inch, they will take a mile.
I want to give Amazon a pat on the back.
I recently ordered some water filters for my fridge. Ordered the wrong ones. Entirely my fault. I’m 74 for the first time and I’m taking it kind hard.
When I called Amazon to see if I could return them, they told me not to return them, but they would refund my $50 anyway, which they did, while I was on the phone.
IMO the biggest fallacy of online shopping is what I discovered way back when eBay first got going. To do a good job of shopping you need to just hold it and see it. Read the instructions. Ask the store clerk questions. We’ve just been screwed too many times. I prefer the “brick and mortar” stores.
Those too lazy to actually get off their rears and go shopping are just as successful as those that fall in love texting without ever meeting the one they think they are in love with.
What a screwed up culture!
Wal-Mart returns are something to see as well. People return underwear that has skid marks in them. People buy battery powered tools and return them without the batteries.
Until recently, you could buy worn out LL Bean clothes at yard sales and take them back to the store and get a new one.
You could do the same thing with Craftsman tools.
Starbucks will soon learn how exploitive people are.
Tough Noogies!
We have a family run Mom & Pop (& son) shipping store where we accept UPS - fEDEX - USPS free returns. Some people will bring in a half dozen or so free returns several times a week. They don’t care because they think it is free. But I am sure that someone somewhere is paying for it.
Good. I hate it when people use things and return them like it was a rental. Women do this with expensive dresses. You can go to outlet stores filled with expensive dresses that have been worn and returned dirty.
A good while ago I worked a second job at a Lands’ End outlet store. Lands’ End has a very lenient return policy. One day a woman walks in and returns a pair shoes almost completely worn to the bone. She said the shoes didn’t meet her expectations. She got a full refund.
In my opinion, that was fraudulent. We all know there are people who will abuse the system to their financial and personal benefit and try to get over on retailers. Unfortunately, sometimes innocent people get caught up in a retailer’s effort to protect themselves and hopefully a good customer service department can sort through that.
“Dozens” of people complained! Out of how many customers? Sheesh...tempest in a teapot.
I took some items back to Wal-Mart a couple days ago. Wow, was that hard. There was a woman in the lobby with a printer and scanner on her hip. She took all the items out on the FLOOR of the lobby, scanned each item, and printed a return tag which she appled to each item. These are temporary tags that the clerk at the register will take off, so I got a stern warning several times “do NOT take these tags off and be sure they don’t touch or they will stick together.”
After that ordeal, she walked me to the Customer Service Desk about 15 feet away where another somewhat surly clerk proceeded to scan every item a SECOND TIME. She scanned the little temporary label, not the UPC code. Of course, a couple of items jostled in the bag so their labels got stuck together and fell off the product. She got discombulated at that and nearly accused me of being an idiot shopper.
After she finished scan #2, she credited my credit card and then had to use an ink pen to manually line through each item on the paper receipt. I thought they were going to ban me from Wal-Mart.
It probably took 20 minutes. That was absolutely the worst, most inefficient return experience ever. The highly vaunted “Wal-Mart IT efficiency” was nowhere to be seen. She explained that this was a security precaution to avoid people in the store from taking unpaid for items to Customer Service and getting a refund. So every shopper is treated like a criminal. Real nice.
Amazon returns? Jump online, get a return label, print it, slap it on the box and mail it.
Maybe some author will write about my experience.
Good thing I don’t buy shoes online. There’s a 90% chance they might be returned.
In Indiana, we used to have a store called Service Merchandise. It was like a brick and mortar Amazon. It didn’t have as much as Amazon. I liked the store, but they went out of business here.
The worst is when people buy something, use it once and return it for a full refund. Happens all the time.
One problem I have found with Amazon is when a buyer has a question about an item, Amazon provides a “Ask the community” section which I have used frequently and you would not believe some the answers you get back. Some have nothing to do with your original question and others are totally opposite of reality.
Amazon should require that sellers only can answer these questions and that alone would reduce returns.
The descriptions come out to a roughly 10% return rate. That wipes out their profit margins.
The customer isn’t always right, and sometimes they’re just annoying.