Posted on 02/18/2008 11:02:07 AM PST by Cagey
Jimmy Deignan's first time was with a $500 portable DVD player.
He bought it a few years ago at Best Buy for a Boston-to-Los Angeles flight, knowing he would return it for a full refund when he got back. More recently, in November, rather than spending $600 to rent a LCD projector for a business presentation, the Holden resident purchased one at Staples, then returned it a few days later and got his money back.
The way Deignan sees it, he is just a smart shopper: He gets the things he needs, uses them for as long as he wants, and saves money. But to retailers, this is wardrobing, a practice they say is unethical, damaging to their bottom line, and increasingly common.
Nearly two-thirds of merchants had items wardrobed in 2007, up from 56 percent the year before, the first year the National Retail Federation started tracking the trend. Merchants blame tough economic times and a "customer-is-always right" mentality gone too far. They say a growing number of shoppers feel entitled to return used items they no longer want, and probably could not afford in the first place - from costly cocktail dresses for big events to pricey plasma televisions bought exclusively to watch the Super Bowl. So, they are striking back, instituting more restrictive return policies, imposing restocking fees, and keeping a blacklist of serial wardrobers.
"The economy drives people into this behavior - going through their closets and looking for things they can return, regardless of when they bought it or how many times they've worn it," said Dan Doyle, vice president of loss prevention at Bealls Department Stores, a retailer based in Florida with stores across the Sun Belt.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Although I will say, he seems to be in the type of business that would implicate him. Especially with that model “Bikini Car Wash” on his page. LOL
You also have to check the dates on food now days. My local Kroger is bad about having old stuff on the shelves.
See most post #58—that is funny—I just posted the same thing.
And you have evidence to back this up of course.
We often make the claim that social welfare policies are to blame for laziness in people who obtain welfare benefits. A store having a liberal return policies should not be surprised when unscrupulous people exploit these policies. If the stores tighten up their policies, the problem disappears.
I’m 100% certain that Jimmy is a proud Democrat.
More than ever, it's buyer beware. Next time that I see a dress on the racks that's obviously been worn, I'm going to call it to the attention of the manager, and tell them that I can't count on that store's quality anymore.
Clerks must be afraid to confront the returner if it's evident that the garment's been worn. It's either that or they're inept.
And this is why I spend days researching equipment and electronics before I purchase them.
The only thing I ever bring back to the store is my old golf clubs, but that’s just for trade in towards a new club.
Next time you’re complaining about the cost of goods, remember this story, it’s guys like Jimmy that make us pay more.
And don’t tell me to hate the game, not the player, that’s a joke. Stores put those policies in place for honest consumers that actually have to return something because it wasn’t right or didn’t work as intended, not for scum bags to abuse. I don’t consider that a cost of doing business, I consider it fraud and theft.
Same thing with generators during the disaster of Y2K.
:)
Dude, you are indirectly saying he’s a victim by blaming the retailers, you are saying Jimmy is not responsible for his actions, therefore he is a victim of the store’s policy. Sheesh, give it up,,,,,see post 43, 47 for starters.
I’ve found this at Sam’s too. They had a lady out giving samples of some vanilla flavored cocoa just this past fall. I bought a big can. Turns out it had a best buy date in September of last year. I’m still going to use it. I don’t think it will go bad, but I probably wouldn’t have bought a big can of it had I known it was past the best buy date.
I observed a moma hand her brat a can of nuts in a grocery store just to shut her little brat up. Just before she got on the check out she took them away from the brat and dropped them on a shelf.
“Plain and simple this is cheating and stealing from the vendor and the manufacturer. They are the ones that take the financial loss.”
He’s dishonest and this is stealing. However this effects legitimate buyers who need to return their product. It has also kept me from making purchases that I wasn’t sure about.
Customer service is a great thing and many stores apparently consider customers to be problems.
“We’re on the same side here. I believe that retailers should tighten up return policies regarding non-defective merchandise. I like the idea of the “returner’s credit report” too.”
Lets legislate that!!!
This is nothing new. I worked for a high end retail store about 15 - 20 years ago and this happened all the time.
Designer dresses would be returned and the lady’s picture would turn up in the paper wearing the exact dress at some event, mothers who would buy fancy clothes and Italian shoes for their kids to wear for a wedding or photos and they would be returned when the event was finished. Since the sales associates worked partly on commission, it was disheartening to see something returned that you had spent time with the customer helping them purchase and having it returned for completely illegitimate reasons.
The most notorious ones were well-known women in the community that were had the means to afford these things, including the wives of several very prominent athletes.
It’s not the economy, it’s pure dishonesty.
Yes I see.
Again, where did I make this claim? I suppose you could try using font tags and set the text size to 7, and put your text in bold if you want to keep arguing by repetition.
If you want to argue with me, then please, base your postings on reality. If I indeed made the claim that Jimmy is not responsible for his actions, then please, show me where I said this, and I can respond in kind. But if you want to continue trying to tell me that I am saying things that I haven't said, then perhaps you should quit this thread.
Elaine: This isn’t going to work for me ... so if you could show me something else.
Barney’s sales associate: No.
Elaine: No?
Barney’s sales associate: No, because you’re taking that one.
Elaine: I am?
Barney’s sales associate: Yes. Because you wore it out of the store.
Elaine: Ha! That’s preposterous.
Barney’s sales associate: I suppose that salt stain came from all the snow in the store.
(Elaine looks down and gathers the dress at the salt stain)
Barney’s sales associate: Shall I wrap it or will you wear it out?
Elaine: No. You can wrap it.
Nothing is safe anymore, you have to constantly be a detective, open everything, hold things up to the light to see if they have stains, smell them to see if they have any kind of odor indicating the item may have been worn, turn shoes upside down to see if the soles look like they’ve been worn, sheesh, a shopping trip can be soooo time consuming and tedious due to the lack of common sense of others. I used to work for one of those BIG box hardware/contractor stores.....I did not work in the store itself, however, the company policy was that you could return anything, ANYTIME for no reason.....this was 15 years ago....contractors would buy chainsaws, etc. use them on a couple of jobs and then return the item, no questions asked and they would get their money back. The thing was it was the same contractors over and over again, upon return of the item the contractor had to leave a business card and sign a receipt...upon auditing it became very apparent that this was a scam....the company did not change the policy but they did warn the contractors in question that the company was on to them, needless to say, the contractors stopped returning things.....
My local Sam’s has been pretty good about not selling old stuff. Or at least I haven’t purchased anything that was past it’s best buy date. But you still got to check the dates there since your buying such large portions and like say in the case of lettuce you might not be able to eat it before it goes bad.
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