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 ...
In college I used to know several so called “Christians” who thought it was perfectly acceptable to download and ‘give’ to friends music that was downloaded from free-music sites (this was shortly after the whole Napster thing); they would try to get my to trade or (even have for free their music/software/etc). I always told them I thought it sounded/felt like stealing to to me..so they never got me to do this..and I think only changed their tune when the music companies started to crack down and propogandize people that it was wrong (becuase it is)!
Yes, it is him. Right outside of Boston.
OMG, I picked up a jar of pepperocini and the date on it was 2006.........I brought it to the attention of the store manager, he just shook his head.........
at a certain level of dress, there are no returns because of alterations etc.
I think one problem is the fact that with today’s tech you buy stuff but they may not be compatable with other stuff you have or don’t do the job.
(ie a camcorder that advertises good in the low light but in reality the low light is when it is on infrared mode. Or perhaps the digital recording is in MOV format but you really need MPG to be compatable with software)
These dealers also have to deal with specific laws that state they need to guarantee fitness for use.
in the end we are all going to pay for legitimate returns with these idiotic moves.
Just wait til they start returning christmas decorations.
He may regret being an ebay seller and letting his name be associated with this story.
Home Depot now has a sign at the service desk saying NO RETURNS OF MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT AFTER 30 DAYS.
I noticed it when I bought my Honda snowblower. FYI, I would have prefered to buy the snowblower at the local Honda dealer. However, they were sold out for the rest of the season.
We had a similar problem with Best Buy a couple of years ago when we bought a computer, a monitor, and printer/scanner there. After being told by the sales floor and the service desk that we were eligible for multiple rebates, we found out later that wasnt the case. It "cost" us well over a hundred dollars in rebates.
Give up man, you just don’t get it, I’ve wasted enough time trying to point it out to you......apparently we have a failure to communicate....just move on......
Well I guess I haven’t noticed it too much at Sam’s—the only other thing was some Odwalla health bars. They were really cheap—like 18 for 6 dollars so I got a couple of boxes They were either past the due date or near it. I’m still eating them though even though I don’t care much for the berry kind that was one of the flavors in the pack The peanut butter kind were good but we ate all those a long time ago.
I bought a sound card for my PC at Best Buy last summer. Not only was it NOT new, it was a model that was at least 3 years old.
Get what?
... trying to point it out ...
Point what out?
What a crock. A decline in moral values and decency and a dependence on entitlement is what is driving that behavior.
I noticed Costco does that with Power Bars. They make an assortment of 24 bars but one fourth are vanilla, which I am not all that fond of. Power Bar must make the assortments up to include excess inventory and sell it to Costco at a low ball price. I'm not complaining because it is good marketing. I've tried a few times to like the Vanilla bars but it just didn't happen. LOL
We bought some appliances not to long ago from Lowes and I was pleasantly surprised how quickly the delivery rebate check came in the mail. I've had trouble with Home Depot rebates.
Hows that?
You think that when you buy the wrong thing, Best Buy should incur costs, but you shouldn't?
and...
Hate the spam, not the spammers!
bump for later reading.
“It “cost” us well over a hundred dollars in rebates.”
I am still waiting for a rebate of $100 on a laptop I bought at Circuit City. I filled out all the paperwork in the store exactly as told. I received one rebate for $50 but never the one for $100.
I don't think it even needs to go that far. Most retailers can easily keep track of the names and credit cards used by serial returners, and then flag them down when they try to buy something if they have returned too many things.
A restocking fee for non-defective returns also does a lot to get rid of these kinds of "customers," or at least, drive them to your competitor instead. ;)
I’ve seen a number of stores that have a more or less unconditional return policy, with exceptions for cameras, camcorders and laptops, because those are the items most often “bought” for vacations and then returned. I wouldn’t be surprised if more stores offer store credit instead of cash refunds.
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