Definitely! Bought a $20-25 coffee maker from Target, had to return it because it was obvious that it was used, you could smell the coffee grounds when you opened the box. I wonder how that would impact my "return" score.
My wife used to shop at Costco a lot. Let's say she wanted a new vacuum cleaner. She would buy like four of them, bring them all home, decide which one she wanted to keep, and then return the other three. She didn't do this much for groceries of course, but she did it for other product categories all the time. I kept warning her that Costco would cancel her membership if she kept doing it. I explained that she's going to be a net-loss customer returning such a high percentage of purchases. She said they wouldn't even know. I told her that was naive, because every transaction is linked to her membership account number or whatever. I said it's pretty silly to think they wouldn't keep such records, and have some sort of algorithm that flagged excessive returners. I didn't realize it might be a third party doing the analysis, but the concept seems pretty obvious. She argued that she was just following their policies, and wasn't doing anything sketchy. She wouldn't listen to me, and continued the behavior. Six months after that conversation, she got the membership cancellation letter in the mail.
she got what she deserved, tbh. that’s a stupid way of buying stuff, anyway. why didn’t she just read reviews for stuff before buying multiples to decide “which is best?”
My brother in law bought a leaf blower at Home Depot just to find that someone replaced it with an old one. Employees don’t check they just put it back on the shelf.
I started ordering a lot of things from Amazon during the pandemic. It's easy for online shopping to become a habit. I've returned numerous clothing items and shoes because they didn't fit, not because I was somehow defrauding them. Since this was happening so often, I decided just to go to a regular store and try things on instead of buying them off Amazon. It's just easier for me to go to the store and try the things on. Since I made that decision, I don't have as much to return.
Your clothing is probably higher quality too. Unless you know the brand you want, it’s hit or miss and usually miss in my experience with amazon clothing. Cheap fabrics, terrible smells sometimes, weird sewing and off sizing.its just not worth it. Weirdly I’ve had very good luck with my higher end leather shoes. Go figure.
Well that's not so easy when so many storefronts have shut down. I don't have many options to physically shop for products anymore. The stores dwindled over the past 20 years. 😩
If The Retail Equation told the reporter, as stated, that consumers have the ability to request their data related to a retailer, they were lying. The data can only be requested AFTER a particular retailer has rejected or "warned" a return. TRE's website explicitly states this. Congress should provide that consumers have the right to view information collected about them, just as the Fair Credit Reporting Act does for credit reporting bureaus.
Congress should provide consumers have the right to explicitly be told that their information will be shared with a third party and what info and in what regards
@@keithhibbard5651Per the video, sounds like there have been a couple class action lawsuits from 20-23 but looking hard to prove. This is definitely a data privacy issue and foresee changes soon hopefully...
Interesting how they blame everything except for the fact that their inventory is increasingly being filled with made-to-fail and cheap products that rarely live up to the descriptions, expectations, and information listed on their websites.
@nolan if you’re buying from places like Amazon you can expect made to fail. Go in person to a local business for better quality and service and feel good that you made a positive contribution to society 😊.
@@balagan79985 Of course you can expect made-to-fail junk if you purchase the cheapest option possible, and that's true for local businesses also. But Amazon certainly offers products at the higher end of the quality scale also. Well, at least inasmuch as higher quality products are produced at all. You can get Snap-on brand tools the same as you can get Northern Tool brand tools, for example. Buying online doesn't automatically mean inferior products. And whether or not it's a positive contribution to society is completely subjective. Money leaves your pocket and goes into somebody else's pocket either way. Maybe try to keep they money in your home country if possible, but other than that there's no net difference.
Looks like public lobbying. This is just a way for them to change laws/rules without being the bad guys. They are not fooling me. Damn near every seller on amazon is from the same set of manufacturers in China. Most of their products are hit or miss. Walmart is no different.
They'll refuse to process your return, but not refuse to process your purchase without telling you that you are banned from returns. Something a state AG should look into pursuing.
Right, you should be notified before making the purchase. If they’re tracking credit/debit cards then there’s no reason they can’t send a notification to the payment processor that returns will not be allowed… and then let the costumer decide if they want to follow through with the purchase.
AG won't do anything lol, we've left the era of honor in our system. Companies rule the roost and do what they please--just look at how poorly made items have become, the amount of excess, unnecessary tech to track usage and have control in household appliances, etc...
There is no law that says you have to be able to return or refund. It does not have to be mentioned, explained or posted. Returns and refunds are a courtesy not a right. What would AG do? Like 4 second of research would alleviate your idiocy.
@@fluffy177 nope in no state is a refund policy maditory, yes you can sue which is a civil not criminal matter. Saying a bunch of nonsense like quoting consumer law is a new level of call8ng out your own ignorance.
I worked in retail for nearly forty years and it’s astounding how many people return items worn, tickets switched, used, and outside the window of time for the return. Two of the biggest things was returning hats after the derby and returning items they decorated with because they had company coming for a while.
This why we can't have nice things, people with no shame always take advantage of the system and ruin it for the general population. Glad stores are doing this.
🤔 I've had to request a refund on items recently that were being sent to me broken in padded envelopes. I specifically called customer service, told them the items arrived broken and requested for them to please send them in boxes next time instead of padded envelopes. They said they'd change the mailing method. They sent them again in padded envelopes broken again. I reached out to customer service for a second time to request my money back and they offered to send the items again instead. I had to insist on a cash refund instead. I was done playing this game with them. At some point there are process issues with the retailers that are reducing their profits. If they had sent the item in the correct type of packaging originally, they'd have gotten their money and we'd have all been happy. There are definitely people who are returning things fraudulently, but frequent returns doesn't necessarily indicate fraud.
Had that happen twice with Amazon on the same item. Ordered two cute terra planters. I did see negative reviews with the items coming in broken but they were older reviews so I took a chance. Nope...planters came in a box twice the size of the planters but there was no padding of any kind. Nothing! Took a chance again because I really liked them. Came in broken again and I returned again. Maybe I am now on that list. I'm still annoyed about those planters 😁
@@sbffsbrarbrrit’s not worth the perceived savings and the Terra pots were probably made by children anyway. Try a local nursery and enjoy face to face and customer service. If you can afford it I highly recommend paying up for quality and service.
@@sbffsbrarbrr there are some things that Amazon ABSOLUTELY FAILS TO DELIVER: furnace filters; THEY ALWAYS ARRIVE CRUSHED! No matter what, they are utterly destroyed, and I don't mean a little. It's like they go out of their way to ruin them.
Simple fix for me, might not be for everyone: curtail shopping as much as possible and be really finicky about the quality of what I do buy in store. More money in my pocket, that much less in those of participating retailers.
This is exactly it!! I used to buy a ton on Amazon. Now I almost never do, and I almost never have to return anything. I used to have lots of returns (broken, wrong size, etc.). I was also spending tons. Now I save both money and time not falling for all their pushes to buy more Amazon sh*t all over TH-cam, Insta, Pinterest, and Amazon itself.
This!! Also, I used to get angry and annoyed at my mom for taking hours to try on clothes in person and analyzing any product she was interested in buying. With the tedious work, problematic customer service and time it takes to return a product you bought online, now I fully understand my mom and take my time to try on and see products in person. Yes it gets really annoying but thanks to that, I’ve never had to deal with returns neither online nor in person and though it takes a long while, I know that the product I’ll buy is used for a long time and won’t regret it. Mom does know best 😵💫
Agreed. This just makes me want to be very critical of where and on what, I spend my money. They need to do better. I can live with fashion from the last couple of years or even learn to make my own clothes. I can learn to make do with what I have. I won’t suffer, but the retailers will.
A classic case of enshittification. Online retailers had to implement very permissive return policies to get people comfortable with online shopping and put local shops out of business. These policies were never sustainable. Now that they have the market share they're walking them back.
^^ This. Not to mention the fact that their sites are increasingly being filled with shittier plastic versions of everything. Many of my returns are because I knew I didn't want to be stuck with something that felt like it wasn't going to last me 6 months.
Enshittification or the current state of entitlement? That can go both ways, retailers making it easy for people to shop online with easy returns. Then entitled idiots abusing it because is says easy returns? The TRE isn't flagging your everyday shopper, they are tagging the abusers and rightfully so. Give someone and inch and they take three feet and this is what always happens and why we can't have nice things. Not sticking up for big corporations, eff them too. But in this case, the abusers are to blame.
I work in loss prevention for a big box retailer… yes return fraud is rampant and companies do have resources that track down fraudulent returns / excessive returns that cause a loss for a company. Companies have the right to ban a customer from shopping at their company if that’s the case. Everything is tracked, your rewards number, credit cards, debit cards, everything is tracked, also video footage helps a lot 👍🏽
"consumers have a right to a report from any particular store, by going to our website you were never aware of in the 1st place" such transparency, much honesty 🙄
THISE FOLKS GET PAID UNDER THE TABLE!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW WEALTHY THIS GUY IS HE HAS OVER 2200 STORES MAKING 378 BILLION. THIS IS THE 1% WHO MAKE TGE WORLD TURN.
That is a lie. If you visit the website to get information you first have to provide details of the denied return, then and only then is a report made available to you. You can't go there and get all data that pertains to you. Laws need to be passed so you can gain access to this data.
Used to work at an electronics retailer. We had a couple that would come in frequently and talk to salespeople for hours about some fancy tech product. Invariably they returned it within 3 days. The sales manager printed out their transaction history and they had never actually held on to anything. Next time the couple showed up, the manager told them we would be unable to sell him anything ever. They never came back.
bruxi78230-Some people are so wasteful that it makes me sick. Your example is one I have heard of before from someone that worked at an auto parts store.
@@timr.2257 ----- Not sure why they chose 3 days. But yes, mental issues definitely. It was kind of like this was some weird form of entertainment for them.
They probably bought a high-end video camera to record a wedding or something, then returned it when they were done. I heard of someone doing that with a big TV for a superbowl watch party, then return it after they were done
I've encountered FAR more retail fraud by RETAILERS. Knowingly sending broken items, outright junk, delivering liquid items that have leaked out visibly in the package, etc. If a retailer has a restocking fee, I'm not shopping there.
....or items that are expired. Lots of construction adhesives and similar wet products have expiration dates... they'll gladly sell you a tube of caulking or sealant that's years old and won't work properly, even though they should know which lot numbers they have and when they were received.
Then you've never worked in retail. A retailer isn't going to send broken items if they have a decent return policy because they'd expect to get them back. Sounds like items damaged in shipping or fraudulent returns that got sent back out without proper inspection.
I am actually happy to hear retailers are doing this. Too many people treat retailers like rent-a centers or worse, borrow-a-center. Take responsibility for your spending habits, do your research, and make informed decisions.
Using stores as rental companies.... I remember one person I knew around 25 years ago bought some painting equipment, a roller with a long pole to reach high spots outside a house. Used it, rinsed it off real good then returned it, saying it was too short or too heavy, whatever, and claimed not to have used it. Got a full refund. Free rental! That's why I'm a big fan of "restocking fees" or some way that "renters" have to pay at least something.
Same here. I know someone that said they were going camping and I knew they had no gear, so I asked them what they were going to use. They said buy it at Costco and they return it all after the trip. This type of interaction ruins it for legit returns.
I used to work for a Walmart in Ohio. I was helping in the return department one day. I opened a box to make sure it had what it was supposed to have in ot. It didn't. People will buy a tv,keep the tv and put something in the box that feels and weighs about the same ,like a piece of plywood. Return it to the store in the hopes that the persin working the counter doesn't open the box. This was the problem at the store I worked at. I brought it to the managers attention and cut our losses by 75%. I saved the store tons of money and never got any recognition for it. The manger took all the credit
I remember working retail years ago and the absolute worst was luggage. People would purchase premium 5-piece sets to go on the occasional vacation and they'd always return them a few weeks later packed neatly in their pristine boxes and the damn airline flight tags would still be on all the handles. It got to the point that we basically considered our luggage section a free rental service.
I used to work at a store in downtown NYC that would sell furniture and other household items to ABC studios for them to use in their newsrooms as well as on the set of the soap operas that taped every single day. When those items finished serving their purpose, these guys Are given the privilege of returning these things back to the store for it to be resold without folks, knowing that they were already used
@@kylespencer2192 definition of stealing is to take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it. That’s the true definition so this ain’t the same as stealing 😂… and look at it like this.. if I pay 80 bucks for a suitcase that cost the company 2 bucks to make…. When I return it in 30 days, they done flipped that money many times so I figure I’m doing them a favor by providing a small loan to make money over again an again while I collect my money and return luggage on day 29 because I don’t want no problems 😂
There were problems even 50 years with people returning clothes that they bought to wear once to a special event and then returning them. They didn't just try them on but wore them and returned them.
I worked in the fine china department of Macy's in the 80s. People would buy 12 place settings of an extremely expensive China pattern, throw a party then return the China used and unwashed and Macy's North would make us accept the return. We'd then have to damage out thousands of dollars worth of fine China. It would make us mad!
My grandma has said she's done this Got a nice dress for an event. Wore it a few times and then returned it for full cash back. To this day, people still do this.
The problem with this is that many people buy a lot for a move or a project, and we’re stuck shopping bad quality items. So returns go up because manufacturers don’t want to pay to make better quality stuff so we can get stuff done.
I used to shop at department stores or boutiques where the clerks literally said .. buy it take it home and you can always bring back if you decide you dont like... hundreds of times...
When I ran a store, I generally felt that a lenient return policy was good business. Customers felt comfortable purchasing because we stood behind the product and pretty much guaranteed satisfaction. Also, I didn't want conflict between my customers and my staff. In general, I ignored our posted return policy and just used my judgement. It's a value proposition. I could refuse to return a $20 item, but if the customer gets upset and stops shopping at the store I could lose far more value from all the other purchases they would have made in the future. However, as the video states, there are people who are net-zero or negative-value customers because of their returns and the time demands they place on staff. For those customers I instituted a very strict return policy, compliant with our posted policy but nothing else. Retailers are completely within their rights to "fire" customers who they no longer feel comfortable doing business with. And yes, people (or companies) who abuse the system are why we can't have nice things. Companies are often guilty of being greedy, but customers are often not any better. It's a problem of parties not acting in good faith, not being okay with both sides coming away with equal value.
Exactly, it is a kind of social contract that once broken is difficult to mend. Your approach seems the best. Customer satisfaction is important but net negative customers with verified patterns of return abuse are not customers you need in your business.
I get that you think you were doing a good thing by going against the policy to do what was nicest for the customer. HOWEVER, what you actually did was open yourself and the store up to lawsuits for discrimination. Because bending the rules like that creates the illusion of favoritism and should a shady person have caught onto that, they could have spun it. The optics look bad and that alone can open the door in ways you never could have predicted. I've worked in retail for years. It may seem nice but the policy is there for a reason and it's not just "we want to be meanies and not lose money." Sometimes, it's to protect everyone from legal issues.
I hear you. But I ran retail stores for a long time and tried hard to teach my staff to treat everyone that returned an item as a customer and give them other options to return and exchange the item on the spot. A skilled sales staff can do this and make a difference in those return numbers and limit the number of net zero customers.
It would be nice if retailers would go after the people who are actually brazenly walking out of the store with stolen items. My husband works big box retail and they lose thousands of dollars weekly due to thieves who know there will be no one going after them. Employees are not allowed to intervene. Police are never called no matter how expensive the item. It makes everything cost more for the rest of us.
Usually what happens in these cases is they are captured on cameras and evidence is sent to police where they do investigations. They identify the person and let them steal enough until they have enough evidence for a felony charge. This is how we did it at Old Navy when I worked there 2019-2021
It is time to use facial recognition technology. When the person is in the system it will alert security and closely watch. Chinese use facial recognition everywhere especially it is so useful to find wanted person
@@BethanySchwarz5678 I can't believe this is an effective method. Other lowlifes just see others stealing stuff with no consequences, so they start doing it too. Studies show that the best way to prevent shoplifting is deterrence, and this method offers zero deterrence.
@@kemangraya2382 Ya'll love authority. We has fewer problems with shoplifting for decades before these sort of surveillance technologies existing, so putting us all under increasing corporate surveillance is not the way. It just blows my mind the way Americans just love sucking at the teet of their corporate authoritarians.
when politicians pass laws saying "We won't charge you if it's less than $1000" . . . , and the DA refuses to charge them - what's the retailer supposed to do?
My man it’s consumer retail. Most people buy crap and get it home and realize they don’t need it and take it back. The percentage of returns that are base on a defective product is very small. And in general people don’t want to pay more for quality. They want it cheaper and they get what they pay for. Why do you think Walmart is so successful. Everyone wants a discount price when it comes to everyday retail commodities.
Knowing I can return something that may not work for me causes me to purchase more. Change the return policies and I will make less purchases. This is especially true with online purchases.
Exactly. Companies are just gonna lose customers this way. People stop shopping in the establishment altogether cuz you can’t make returns or it costs you.
I think that as consumers we need to do better though. The idea of 'buy now and think about it later' is incredibly unsustainable. Almost half of the stuff that is returned online ends up in a landfill because they are unable to resell a returned item even if it is perfectly fine. Consumers are unaware of this and it needs to become part of our purchasing decision process. Not only does this improve sustainability but reduced returned for retailers means lower prices. When setting retail prices they factor in losses from returns so it is a win win for the retailer and the consumer if less people return items. Just time for consumers to become a little smarter.
Look up the word “fraud” and apply it to the promises on 99% of the products you buy. And then tell me consumers are the problem. I’m glad people are returning 15% of this deceptive junk and that number should probably be higher.
You’ve gotta consider that these companies have grown as much as they can. The only way to make profit is to cut cost. Which means cutting labor, real estate, amount of items, and ability to return.
I used to like shopping at brick and mortar stores so I could try things on and get a feel for the items , unfortunately there’s fewer and fewer of them around which has “forced “ me to shop online. Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience but it’s really hard to get the right fit when you can’t try stuff on first.
I hear you. I’m also wondering what percentage of “wardrobing” is actually customers buying multiple items to try on then returning what doesn’t fit. Plenty of people purchase online, or if in the brick-and-mortar store, just skip the dressing room completely. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been in a dressing room, to be honest. I don’t doubt people are “wardrobing”, but I also wonder if retailers are taking into account that people will purchase more than one item with the sole intention of returning whichever doesn’t fit.
@@kissesforthemisseslol... I do this even with certain tools and hardware. You can't tell which tools are good quality until you can actually see and hold it in your hand as nearly half of the pictures online anymore are COMPUTER GENERATED RENDERINGS of what they wished their tools looked like. I absolutely hate that.
Exactly, this is why I’m worried about the whole denial factor. I have to order multiple things to see if they will be the right size or if the color is even correct in person to the online photo. Then I return whatever doesn’t fit me. Sometimes I have to return the whole order which looks bad but honestly nothing fit me, I did not wear or wash it for an event, I have dotted my i and crossed all my Ts. I don’t want to get denied from my favorite retailer but if nothing worked, nothing worked. It’s too bad that bad people ruin things for good people.
@randomgirl2994 you're not the only one! I've had to return entire orders before because every single piece of hardware I bought didn't actually fit/work the way it was sold online. 🤷
When ordering large, heavy items like window air conditioners, I pay online and have them shipped to store (Lowes or Home Depot). When picking up, I get the store employees to remove the heavy item from the box for my inspection, because there is often hidden damage from boxes being dropped, but the box itself does not appear damaged.
@@BobbyJ529 uh.. how if the item was shipped TO THE STORE and they are inspecting the item? I mean it is kind of a pain honestly.. and it still may be defective.
A hoarder like myself who impulse buys clothes and never return a single item is who these retailers are giving a high five 🙌 I admit it, I have a problem.
I used to impulse buy when online shopping and for whatever strange reason never even opened the package for years once it arrived. I've wasted probably hundreds of dollars like this. Recently, I've really practiced being more mindful about my purchases: opening up the package in a timely manner, testing it out or trying it on to see if I like it, and returning what I don't need without any guilt or shame. And it feels amazing!! Seriously. It feels so good to only keep what I need and genuinely like; otherwise, back to the store! Sorry for randomly sharing that with you, but try it one day when you're ready. I'm like a semi well-oiled returning machine now, and it feels fantastic😂🎉
When the retailer ships an item to the customer, the retailer has to pay for postage. When customer returns the item for a reason that is not the retailer's fault such as "size does not fit" "change mind" "no longer needed", the retailer needs to charge a restock fee to cover the cost of the postage. Some times the items the retailers get back are also used or damaged and they would assess a restocking fee. This is fair.
Amazon sent me the wrong armchair that I purchased for $400 and when I returned it the restocking fee was $370 for a chair that I didn’t order. I don’t think it’s appropriate when the seller makes a mistake and we have to pay for it
Easy answer, make better products that don't need to be returned all the time. Like amazon now flagging products as frequently returned.... how about quit selling it bc it's obviously crap
This happened to me. A retailer, LOFT, who offered tall sizes on line only (I am tall) but allowed in-store returns, used TRE to flag my returns (tall items ordered that did not fit). I used to purchase most of my clothes from them and bought A LOT. I got cited by them during a busy shopping season when the store was crowded. I had no idea I was doing anything wrong and was following their own policies. I never returned worn items. I was a loyal customer up to that point but was treated like a suspected criminal by store employees. Totally blindsided. Didn't know I was doing anything wrong and had no recourse. When my 30-day return suspension ended, every unworn item that still had tags from LOFT were returned, and I haven't patronized them since. That was 2015. l
I’m tall too so I get most orders online from JCrew and Banana in tall sizes. But many still don’t fit across the bust etc - I have to return them but equally I have to order online because they don’t stock in store
Wait... so you're not allowed to buy items online, try them on, then return them to the store with tags? 🤔 I too have to buy sizes that often are not carried in store and have no other choice so... what do they want us to do?
I'm also tall and have bought my clothes almost exclusively online for the last 10 years. I don't know what retailers want us to do if they don't carry items in store. And especially in womenswear where clothing sizes vary significantly by store, item, even color. Returns are a given.
I work for Home Depot I’ve seen people return griils after using them most of the summer or ladders after they obviously used it to finish a job.They have returned tools used to remove shingles from roofs after they are done.
EXACTLY! And if it's a very expensive item, put "sales final" or "store credit" only returns on it SO PEOPLE KNOW. all this shady stuff is so unnecessary for everyday shoppers because most people will understand that there should be limits on certain things in order to prevent abuse. For example, thrift stores like GoodWill, all sales are final. (only exception i've seen is if something was broken i.e if u show the clerk that a battery powered radio doesn't work when you put the batteries in you'll get STORE CREDIT.)
I think it's the cost they have more of a problem with then number of items... If you return x2 50k items vs 10x 2$ items.. The x2 items are more likely to get you banned.. because you are costing them more money...
Percentage also makes a big difference. If you purchase 20 items a month and return 1 a month, it's not as bad as a person who buys an item every month but returns it.
It's a self-inflicted wound, and I bet every one of these corps knew this would happen when they use easy return policy to encourage and lure consumers to spend money on stupid things, estimating that a large enough percentage of them wouldn't bother returning unnecessary stuff.
Yep, the amount of clothing that didn't fit that I've bought, tried on, never worn, and never returned because it wasn't worth the hassle could probably clothe a city at this point. A city of people with very oddly shaped bodies.
You're one of those idiots who will blame everything on corporations instead of consumers, huh? It the returns are easy, why wouldn't consumers take advantage of it? Your argument makes no sense.
It's not at all surprising people are returning more these days when companies make a lot of items unavailable in store. When something is "online only" you can't see the product first, try it on, inspect it for quality. And companies are terrible at describing things online or giving accurate sizing details and so on. They also tend to sell very cheaply made items that appear far better online. Not to mention the fact that prices are going up so much. It's hard to blame the customer for this when they aren't technically breaking any rules. Companies need to more outwardly warn customers if they're going to be tracking their information and possibly ban them from returns. I am sure they would see a decrease in sales, but it's the only thing that's fair if they want to go after customers for returning items when the policy states they can.
This is exactly the reason why I stopped buying LEGO at Wal-mart and Target… sets were missing the minifigures and some “system abusers” went to the extent of replacing the LEGO with uncooked pasta, then sealed box up gluing the tabs and/or placing clear tape over the original tape!! Never again, I will always buy directly from LEGO.
As much as possible I buy direct from the company itself, exactly for this reason. Shoes directly from Asics, socks directky from Undrr Armour, etc. You never have to deal with this crap buying direct.
I’ve read a few post in which a person was denied a return, not because they returned too many time (or amount) at that store but another store.. so it’s cumulative between stores that’s not linked by a parent company. I don’t like the idea of abusing a return policy (read that a person returned a ten year old grill and it looked ten years old with rust stains and all the wear and tear), but at the same time, if a lot more people are shopping online, it’s difficult to make an informed decision. It’s become riskier for one more reason to shop online since retailers (or that third party service) are penalizing.
Time to change your mentality. 'Buy now, think about it later', is incredibly unsustainable. Almost half of the crap returned online ends up in a landfill because it is either hard to sell opened or not worth the restocking of the item.
@@cindy_kbt Entitled? No. It's an exceptional rarity that I return a product as I usually know exactly what I want. Because of that fact, I'm not willing to pay to return an item when it happens so rarely. I'm simply not going to fight with a company over a return fee, especially considering the reasons I'm most likely to return it is that the product doesn't work or arrives damaged.
The problem isn’t the returns, it’s the cost cutting push. There will always be individuals committing fraud, but the general public shouldn’t be treated as criminals.
Preach. Shrink is, was, and always will be a cost of doing ANY form of business, yet it's only recently that corporate behavior has become toxic and anti-consumer to this degree.
As I’ve always seen it, there are too many people too comfortable with returning items. Free returns to some people mean they can try after they buy and decide if they like it or not. They can buy 3 or 6 items and see which one of the 6 is better and return the rest. Or use it and abuse it then return it. Simply unsustainable behaviour. I’ve always researched the crap out of an item before buying and rarely return things even if I didn’t like it.
@@latestarter7761 One of the places I shop at got rid of their fitting rooms during covid. On top of that, it seems like everything is sewn so wonky these days. Sorry, but I'm not going to keep an item that doesn't fit me right because they don't provide a place for me to try it on before I buy it. I truly do not understand why they did that. They must get a huge amount of clothing returns. Must be cheaper than paying for a fitting room employee I guess. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if we got rid of all these profit-driven corporate stores that don't pay their employees enough to care about customers, and went back to having talented local clothing makers and tailors in every town.
Exactly. It's like the move towards entirely using self-checkouts because they don't want to pay cashiers. Of course this will lead to losses from theft or mistakes. It's their own fault, as is the way many companies had or even still have extremely lenient return policies. They can't blame people for using these policies to their advantage.
Way back in 1990, I had a friend buy a $300 camcorder at Kmart. I said, "Don't you talk to Steve (her husband) before making a big purchase on an unnecessary item?" She said, "Oh, I'm just going to record Stephanie's tumbling routine. Then I'll return the camera." I was floored!
This is wrong and more lawsuits need to be filed. Consumers have no idea they are being profiled. This happened to me. Denied a return, item brand new with tags at Marshall’s which I use do alot of shopping. I was given a number to call when my return was denied, I called them and they were very nasty so I hung up on them. I plan to get the information they gathered on me and may get an attorney to sue them after watching this. How dare they profile people!! Consumers must not accept this behavior from stores
hummmm the influencers are a big part to blame... lol buying items and returning them. I knew a stylist that would buy items and returned them after a photoshoot and said everyone did it then one day she walked in Zara to return items and they told her no......over a grand with of Zara junk she had to keep....
Yep the influencers are a huge part of the problem!!! If they are denied, I wouldn’t feel bad. Showing haul after useless haul and some people are still watching and buying into that crap 🥴.
Give us stores to go into, a pleasant shopping experience where we can see items in person and make better choices on what we buy and you’ll see less returns. I absolutely hate online shopping and end up returning a lot of the junk that I order once I see how awful it is in person. Going to stores is miserable nowadays bc the inventory is not there. I would much prefer to go to a real store stocked with the things I need so that I can browse and enjoy myself. Punish the customer with bad return policies, people will buy much less.
Agree 100%. I miss the days when I could buy everything I needed in stores. I have never returned so much as I have since online shopping took over. I hate waiting on shipping, and I hate when I finally get the thing only to find out it's cheap chinese crap. That doesn't happen when I can handle and test a product before buying, but I honestly think that's exactly why so many companies are forcing online-only. If we see that something is crap up front we won't buy it, but if they post a pretty picture and fake a bunch of good reviews they can trick customers into buying crap and count on a lot of people not wanting to go through the hassle of printing a return label and lugging the crap back to the post office. All the shipping is killing the planet too. Nothing good about online shopping.
I worked for nearly two decades at a retail store, and we had a few customers who had (chronic/habitual "buyers remorse")! It didn't matter what they purchased it was guaranteed to be returned in a couple days! Most of the employees knew them by name and would refuse to wait on them whenever they would enter the store.
All the thieves stealing from retailers and going back and returning merchandise without recepts is probably a big cause for these return policy changes!!
Yup. I am not buying this story. The returns largely referred to here are people returning stolen merchandise, the retailer just can’t prove it. So, the act like the return problem is our fault. I buy everything online. Brick and mortar have passed shoplifting costs to us. Now, as this story says, we r to blame. Screw them, I don’t need them
I’ve never understood how you can return anything without a receipt. Seems obvious you should have to prove you bought it in the first place. I’ve only ever really heard about the no-receipt problem after Christmas back in the day, people claiming they got the stuff as gifts. That’s how gift receipts became a thing.
As with most things, it's 20% of a population that causes 80% of the problems. I hardly return items. But some people do abuse it. Get rid of the 20% that abuse it and prices go down.
If a company may refuse a return they should put that in the description of the product. They have built up their business and put high street shops out of business with this free returns offer. They should be made to fulfill their promises.
I guess they don’t do it cause they are afraid of losing potential buyers. I would not purchase anything from a store with not return policy. Imagine if products come broken. NOT THANKS.
I once purchased a color laser printer that was on display at a local Office Depot. The item was labeled as "last item". According to the store, the item had been returned. I bought the printer and drove home. When I prepared to print, the printer information application warned of depleted printer toner. Apparently, the customer who returned the device did so after printing thousands of color pages. Color laser printer toner cartridges retail for about US$100 each. A color printer uses black, cyan, yellow, and magenta toner cartridges: a whopping US$400. I took the printer to the store to report the incident. They kindly provided new toner cartridges free of charge.
I know a couple women, mother and daughter that are so guilty of this. Buy a dress for a special occasion, wear it and then return it. Or buy decor for a special dinner or party they’re hosting, set out the pretties for the event and then return them. I love seeing this!!
The theory behind return policies is that it induces spending by giving customers an option should they find their purchase not suitable for whatever reason. It's understandable why retailers would amend their policies if this is no longer the case, but it's also quite concerning that someone operating within the bounds of a return policy would not be told they had been flagged BEFORE making a purchase (with the understanding that the return policy still applied to that transaction).
Also, everyone knows that 99.99% of people never read T&Cs in full, it's problematic that legal claims still rely on this, especially when the vast majority of people do not have the legal expertise to fully comprehend that 'wall of text'.
Stop buying "junk" and change your consumer habits. Most of that "junk" is impulse buys which lead to buyer's regret which leads you people returning it. People need to stop being so impulsive, do some research, and think before the buy something.
My question is if you’re denied to return items, is the consumer being made aware that the sale is now final? This isn’t like your credit score when you can look it up. I never heard of this before this video. It’s an arbitrary line in the sand so you could very well be swept in it like others who aren’t returning fraudulently. So in essence you can buy something get a faulty product or a product that doesn’t fit your needs and standards return it and they deny you. Based on a system you had no idea about. To me, if this is essential to doing business then the consumer should be aware what’s going on when you’re checking out.
I’m glad they are doing this! I used to work in retail many years ago and we would have people return clothing that smelled like smoke, weed, etc. Then get an attitude if we wouldn’t take it back and give them cash instead of store credit. If you think the product is substandard or cheap, you need to read and check this out before you spend your money!! I hear a lot of people complaining that these companies sell cheap stuff or substandard products!! Whose job is it to check that?!! yours!!!!
I worked at a bricks-and-mortar retailer with a few customers that returned 75%+ of all their purchases, to the point staff knew their personal info by heart. These folks were banned from returning anything and one was eventually trespassed.
That makes sense. I am more concerned about the average consumer like myself who make returns on their crappy products. Especially when they have guarantees.
This is good to know because I didn’t know that retailers were doing this. I rarely return anything because I rarely buy anything without doing a lot of research first and really pondering the purchase. Stores try to get people to impulse buy and then they penalize them when they return the item.
I worked at a large home improvement store in early 2000’s. They trained sales floor staff to over-sell and encourage customers to make a return if needed.
Try to be a more conscientious Shopper but if you got to return some s*** return it.....80% of this s*** is cheaply made Chinese Goods with huge markups...I'm sure most of it disintegrates the minute you open the wrapper
Sometimes I understand the frustration of returns. I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago trying to buy stamps when a lady came in with an empty container trying to get her money back for some chicken tenders she had already eaten. She claims they were stale and tasted bad but she ate them all and still expected to get her money back. I felt horrible for the young man at the service desk who had to explain why they couldn’t refund her money. He was really nice to her but she wasn’t happy and left the store saying how she wasn’t ever buying anything from there again. I’m betting she’ll back and will more than likely be buying more chicken as well.
There is a special block called Perishables. Mainly on the online side, if a customer has concerns about the taste or quality of food that was sent often a full refund or partial refund will be done( usually full). If this behavior happens too often she is blocked from purchasing perishable items like food.
Too many people abuse return policies such as buy a dress for an event and return, but a TV for SuperBowl and return. When this happens, a retailer Hass to sell it at an open box price or are used markdown price. They lose money when people buy things and use them and there’s nothing wrong with him. They should have to keep it only unless it’s unused and they change your mind, should they be able to return it? Imagine if you owned a store in all people did was buy use for an event and return it. You would go under right away.
So gross to buy something to wear then return after wearing. I always wash my clothes before wearing in case someone bought and wore it, I don’t want their smell on me.
I try to never return items unless they are broken, cause health issues(like candles), or something like that. Haven’t returned something in a few months because I also don’t impulsively buy stuff anymore.
While people obviously abuse return policies, if people have a legitimate return within the policies, and the return is denied, they should dispute it with their credit card company by filing a fraud complaint, or sue the store in small claims court.
if you knowingly and deliberately made the purchase, it is not a fraudulent purchase. You can't later claim it is because now you don't want it. That IS fraud.
@@ryanroberts1104it isn't fraud to not accept a return. if you ever bothered to read a return policy, you would see that the store has the right to refuse any return.
@@kitfisto1827 The store has to honor the written return policy at the time of sale. They cannot change the rules later and say "no returns", this is fraud. Everything is facilitated through Visa/Mastercard, they are the ones who get to determine fraud. If they don't want to accept returns from certain people, they need to say this before the sale.
@@kitfisto1827 Wrong. They cannot simply change the return policy whenever they like. The bottom line is Visa or Mastercard will always take the consumer's side here, it is not fraud, this is common business practice.
Well if they’re going to move all their stores to e-commerce then of course they should expect returns. I can’t see or touch the item in the store before I buy it, how will I know if it certainly works for me before it shows up at my house?
Retailers need to check returned items before accepting them! I bought a light from Home Depot, but when I opened the box, there were pieces missing, and the light was broken. I returned it, and they took my name and number for the return. Honestly, the light should never have been put back on the shelf and resold. No one inspected it?
I think Lowe's did that to me by significantly raising the price of the water filters I buy there. I didn't get upset about it because I felt like they were underpriced from the start. But that's still not good business practice. 😂
Way back before they changed their return policies I knew a few people that would return their ink jet printers at Costco to avoid having to purchase new ink jet cartridges... It always bothered me that they thought it was OK to do because their policy allowed it... and they felt justified because of the prices of ink cartridges...
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I’ve heard social media influencers often buy & then return items but make money off the links their viewers use to buy the items they see the influencer wearing.
I return about one or two things a month on Amazon, but I also spent like 20 grand on there last year. Some of it just needs to be returned. I bought a tablet and the cheap-o $40 case I bought with it didn't fit. And they suggested it.
I shopped at Home Depot for 35 years and was denied a return on 3 light fixtures that cost $135 total because TRE told them I was a bad risk. I will never go back to them, I had spent over 100K there!
One big reason I buy from Amazon is their return policy. If there is an equal choice, I'll pick Amazon over other online retailers because I know I will not need to pay return shipping if there is a problem. Want to lose my business? Give me a hard time returning.
Tried to get the “Retail activity report” just to see what my score was. Well you can’t get it unless you’ve been issued a warning or denial letter already.
I just did it because some companies or retailers sell me on saying, "Try it out. If you don't like it, return it." Which does get me to purchase at that moment but I definitely will return it if I don't like it.
@@lewispedraza996 You can't. I got a denial from Home Depot long ago and when I requested my return score or retail activity report from other stores they declined. I return maybe 1-2 items TOTAL for all retailers combined in a year. I asked for a specific retailer as well because I had gotten some odd emails from them despite not shopping there and they denied me recently as well.
This is all news to me today. I was at TJ MAXX and Hole Depot and both associates mentioned if there was any reason to return an item they would gladly return. I hadn’t indicated that I would return anything and they both noticed my surprise.
I work for a large retailer and whilst most returns are legitimate there are a significant amount of people abusing the system and its increasing as more people find out ways to defraud us (claiming they sent back multiple items in a package) or simply abusing the returns system like doing 600 orders in a year and returning everything (probably wardrobing). These people should be blocked as theyre increasing prices for the rest of us.
There's also the people who use the return process as a free rental service or as a way to buy something new and return something old. Then you have people looking on the ground or trash looking for trashed receipts and coming inside claiming they "forgot" to grab one of their bags or something.
@@covfefemaga7918 i agree, I saw somewhere that After christmas, there's a long line of people trying to retun the biggest of christmas trees and decor. I m sure they buy it for Instagram pics and vlogs.😂
I read about a person who bought an item in a store, took it home and found something else in the box and the store refused to do anything. One reason Amazon and other big retailers just auction off pallet loads of returns.
A lot of folks should understand that if they are doing an honest returns, buying something with a credit card, all but saves you from any type of hassle, regardless of how a retailer treats your return
I worked at big retailer and remember this happening I can tell you that most of the time it’s accurate when I looked at the purchase history you could see that they kept returning a lot of the things they were buying. I also remember a couple that kept coming and returning things without a receipt claiming it was a gift we suspected it was maybe stolen product, what they didn’t know is that when you do a return with no receipt the system requires an id and that’s a way they keep track after they did this frequently the system denied their returns and printed a receipt with phone number to call.
The ban takes place when you’re returning the item, (because you made too many returns, especially no receipt returns). There’s no ban on making purchases and no identification is requested on purchase. How would they be able to tell you if you have a return ban if they don’t even know who you are as you’re buying the item? Don’t make frequent returns and always have your receipt, problem solved.
@@donnadixon289...if the ban doesn't occur UNTIL you are returning the item... that's a problem. 🤦 That's like saying you can get a "free" car inspection... unless you bring in your car to get the free inspection. If you're on the cusp of being banned from returning items... you should know beforehand.
I work at Target too. My coworker who works at the customer service desk came over to me yesterday to complain about someone who bought something and didn't even leave the store before they returned it 😂 and it was already extremely busy yesterday, being the day before mother's Day, and people like that doing unnecessary things like that to make people's job harder.
One issue I'm often seeing is a very poor description of the items for sale on a website. This can be a real issue when buying accessories or items that need to fit to another part. Without an accurate description (e.g. measurements, list of compatible items, supported features, etc.), it's likely that the part won't fit when I buy it, so I have to return it. Of course, knowing more about an item also gives customers more reasons not to buy it. But, if a retailer purposely leaves a potential customer in the dark about the details, they shouldn't be surprised if the item gets returned frequently.
The number one reason I return items is when I shop online and the big box retailers do a terrible job packaging goods for safe shipment. They will wrap obviously fragile items, but then will put a cast iron pan and a candle in a tin in the same box, toss 3 air pillows on top and ship it out. Any guess on what that tin looked like by the time it traveled umpteen miles being slammed around in a box with a cast iron pan? Another store put a box of 4 juice glasses in a poly mailer with several items of clothing. When it arrived, not only were the glasses ground to shards, but all of the clothing was embedded with it as well. And they do that same sort of thing all of the time. I don't want to return merchandise---I just want it to arrive in one piece.
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It reminds me of when I worked retail ages ago. A guy and his family which included his siblings and their family. came to a shoe store at a local outlet mall I worked at. They bought a lot of dress shoes for a wedding. It was strange as my impression of them are like they are not the type of people who would wear dress shoes regularly. But we not gonna say no to someone who buys something. But a week later they came back and returned everything, they claimed they used something else but the shoes looked like they were lightly used on the soles, and not brand new. I know they used it for the wedding and returned it. It’s like a free rental. Why did the store take it back? It wasn’t too obvious they used it. At least they did a decent job of cleaning up the shoes after the wedding. Store employees have to treat customers with respect. But the store did lose a lot of money and we had to restock the shoes.
That was really low. Good example of why we need to scale back on H+M, Amazon etc purchases and other giants. You had to take those shoes back because Amazon and others will take anything back.
@@WillieFungo I must be related to someone over there because I hardly ever return anything unless I haven't opened it or ordered something by mistake
EU has super open return laws. Italy is a member of the EU therefor it also has the policies. Example you have 14 days to get a refund even if there is nothing wrong with the product. They also have the right to request a refund up to 2 years from the purchase date. So if they buy a shirt and its seams come apart within 2 years they can get a refund. europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm
Buying something over the internet is always a gamble. How about creating a profile on manufacturers and online sellers that sell misrepresented and/ or junk!
This happened to my mother YEARS ago. My dad owned a handyman/car repair business so he routinely made lots of trips to Home Depot. My mom was returning unused supplies for a job he didn’t end up needing. They were all unopened and not used. Her return was denied. Why? Well Home Depot at the time used the same 3rd party return company that Advance auto parts used and her CORE returns (ie the money you get back when you return your old alternator, old battery for disposal) flagged more than 3 times in 6 months. That’s right this company was counting the money the auto parts store held hostage from her as a “returned item” and flagged her name in the system so a totally separate return at a totally different store would not go through. This was around 2013 I believe. These companies must be stopped.
Wow I mean this without exaggeration but that's devastating. That's just effed up for these companies to have done that to your mom when she wasn't even fraudulently returning. I'm learning from all these comments and this video I have to be super careful with my returns now.
@@stacysaurusrex If I recall around the same time there was a prominent realtor in my area who encountered the same issue but at Best Buy. He purchased 3 phone cases each for his 2 sons (so 6 total) for Christmas. He wasn’t sure which ones they would like so they could each pick one to keep and he’d return the other two. Best Buy accepted the 4 returns after Christmas but a few months later denied a much smaller return he had on a similar inconsequential item because “he’d been flagged in their system” for having too many returns. He went to the local news station with his story so not only did Best Buy get a ton of negative PR over what was probably at the time barely $100 in returned merchandise but the best part is the realtor was planning on totally upgrading all his major home appliances that coming spring (new washer, new dryer, fridge etc) so they lost out on a massive sale.
If you are denied a refund *against* the stated return policy, then simply contact your card provider (Visa or Mastercard) and tell them they will not accept the return. They will happily refund your money and let you keep the item. It is not legal for a store to stray from their written rules after a purchase, that is why they are written for all to see! If they want to change the rules and limit returns, they have to say this before you give the money.
@@nobodynever7884 LOL! It's called a chargeback. You are in fact a customer of whoever issued your credit/debit card. What I said is how you apply for a chargeback involving anything at all, that's one of the features of Visa/Mastercard. Credit card companies make money off the retailers, off the customers, and everybody in between. When they give your money back, they also charge the store a chargeback fee of around $20. You have no idea what you are talking about.
@@ryanroberts1104 i love chargebacks i do eveytime, and multiple times actually, go to asmany banks popssible open up an account and get many credit cars possible rack high credit limits.. theynallow charge backs after 15 days anything over $1000 takes awile, man i got 35k free stuff charge backs.. an giess what bank didnt cut card off. and refuse credit card makesure not secured card un secureed meaning not ties your name.. also if pay credit who caes it ruins creditscore but can report equifax as fraud and they remove hard inquires aventiually..
I don’t think I’ve ever returned anything online.. I’m too lazy to do that. I give it away.. now if I ordered something and got something broken or missing, I’ll send a message and a picture. I want my money back . Other than that, I’ll give stuff away to friends. Not going to the post office, nope.. in store purchases, unless it’s broken/damaged I would have no reason to return it.
@@ShannonsBibleStudy Agreed. Now look how many commenters said they wouldn't shop at a store than tightened up its return policy. Kind of makes you wonder if they are the problem, doesn't it?
I work in an electronics store and let me tell you how much open boxed inventory we have that don’t get sold because the box is broken or just for the fact that it’s already been opened and people don’t want to buy that. We have to remind and tell customers that once your earphones are opened (cuz they may have touched your ears) or your appliance has touched food, it is unreturnable (unless clearly defective).
What store do you work at that doesn't allow earbuds/earphones or headphones not to be returned? Or appliances? I returned my Bose earbuds a few years back because they made my ears hurt a ton and I had zero issues. I've also seen people return like used blenders, juicers to GNC, Kohls, etc.
I’m in Canada. Maybe it’s different here. In-Ear Earphones cannot be returned because of hygienic reasons-it’s unsellable once your earwax has touched those buds. Same for appliances that have already been used. Food particles in your returned products? Too unhygienic. How can you sell those again?
I'm glad to hear this. As a shopper, I feel there's no doubt that the cost of this behavior is passed along to me and everyone else. That's not fair. I've often thought I would gladly sign an agreement with a retailer saying I wouldn't return something unless it was genuinely and demonstrably defective, if that would get me a discount of maybe one or two percent.
Having worked in retail in the past it's _always_ been something that happens, just fairly rare. Stores share info on known shoplifters and those people would end up not being allowed to return stuff.
@@omgness1234 People frequently get flagged without ever abusing policy, even on receipted returns. Most people won't ever deal with this issue but it can and does happen often with people who are just normal everyday shoppers.
The problem for the customer is that today's products are made so poorly that returns are more prevalent. The retailer restocks the same item that was returned, and then the next buyer has to return it also. I recently purchased a programmable radio from Amazon. The radio had another person's information programmed into the memory. I started to return it for another one but decided to just do a factory reset of the memory instead.
I hate when retailers put returned items back into inventory without making sure the item works or has all the parts.
Definitely! Bought a $20-25 coffee maker from Target, had to return it because it was obvious that it was used, you could smell the coffee grounds when you opened the box. I wonder how that would impact my "return" score.
Exactly. Companies should be charged with FRAUD for every used item sold as "new".
Yea I ordered something that should have had 8 items, mine arrived with only 1. I was not pleased.
I've also had this happen several times.
Then when you return it, you get smacked on your invisible score for fraudulent returns. 😩
My wife used to shop at Costco a lot. Let's say she wanted a new vacuum cleaner. She would buy like four of them, bring them all home, decide which one she wanted to keep, and then return the other three. She didn't do this much for groceries of course, but she did it for other product categories all the time. I kept warning her that Costco would cancel her membership if she kept doing it. I explained that she's going to be a net-loss customer returning such a high percentage of purchases. She said they wouldn't even know. I told her that was naive, because every transaction is linked to her membership account number or whatever. I said it's pretty silly to think they wouldn't keep such records, and have some sort of algorithm that flagged excessive returners. I didn't realize it might be a third party doing the analysis, but the concept seems pretty obvious. She argued that she was just following their policies, and wasn't doing anything sketchy.
She wouldn't listen to me, and continued the behavior. Six months after that conversation, she got the membership cancellation letter in the mail.
Can’t blame the store. While she had all that stuff at home, they couldn’t sell it to a legitimate buyer
she got what she deserved, tbh. that’s a stupid way of buying stuff, anyway. why didn’t she just read reviews for stuff before buying multiples to decide “which is best?”
@@pabloescobarschanclas Because she's a woman? Her logic circuits don't work too well.
@@pabloescobarschanclas Because her logic circuits don't work right?
If that's how she shops for partners I'd be concerned.
My brother in law bought a leaf blower at Home Depot just to find that someone replaced it with an old one. Employees don’t check they just put it back on the shelf.
So, maybe Look inside the box before you get to the cashier and pay.
Happens way more than you think
Many larger products returned to home depot do not go back on shelves. HD returns them to the mfg for refurb.
And now your brother in law will get his return score dinged.
@@jeskeepinitrealask an employee, don’t just rip the package open and leave it there like a child.
I started ordering a lot of things from Amazon during the pandemic. It's easy for online shopping to become a habit. I've returned numerous clothing items and shoes because they didn't fit, not because I was somehow defrauding them. Since this was happening so often, I decided just to go to a regular store and try things on instead of buying them off Amazon. It's just easier for me to go to the store and try the things on. Since I made that decision, I don't have as much to return.
Your clothing is probably higher quality too. Unless you know the brand you want, it’s hit or miss and usually miss in my experience with amazon clothing. Cheap fabrics, terrible smells sometimes, weird sewing and off sizing.its just not worth it.
Weirdly I’ve had very good luck with my higher end leather shoes. Go figure.
Yes. I never buy clothes online. You have to see how they actually look on your body! Or for shoes, how do they feel to walk around? So important
Well that's not so easy when so many storefronts have shut down. I don't have many options to physically shop for products anymore. The stores dwindled over the past 20 years. 😩
If The Retail Equation told the reporter, as stated, that consumers have the ability to request their data related to a retailer, they were lying. The data can only be requested AFTER a particular retailer has rejected or "warned" a return. TRE's website explicitly states this. Congress should provide that consumers have the right to view information collected about them, just as the Fair Credit Reporting Act does for credit reporting bureaus.
I also checked their website, you are very right.
Congress should provide consumers have the right to explicitly be told that their information will be shared with a third party and what info and in what regards
1000000%
No health privacy laws after covid
@@keithhibbard5651Per the video, sounds like there have been a couple class action lawsuits from 20-23 but looking hard to prove. This is definitely a data privacy issue and foresee changes soon hopefully...
Interesting how they blame everything except for the fact that their inventory is increasingly being filled with made-to-fail and cheap products that rarely live up to the descriptions, expectations, and information listed on their websites.
I agree. When the product doesn’t meet the expectation, u should be able to return it.
@nolan if you’re buying from places like Amazon you can expect made to fail. Go in person to a local business for better quality and service and feel good that you made a positive contribution to society 😊.
u get what u pay for.
@@balagan79985 Of course you can expect made-to-fail junk if you purchase the cheapest option possible, and that's true for local businesses also. But Amazon certainly offers products at the higher end of the quality scale also. Well, at least inasmuch as higher quality products are produced at all. You can get Snap-on brand tools the same as you can get Northern Tool brand tools, for example. Buying online doesn't automatically mean inferior products.
And whether or not it's a positive contribution to society is completely subjective. Money leaves your pocket and goes into somebody else's pocket either way. Maybe try to keep they money in your home country if possible, but other than that there's no net difference.
Looks like public lobbying. This is just a way for them to change laws/rules without being the bad guys. They are not fooling me. Damn near every seller on amazon is from the same set of manufacturers in China. Most of their products are hit or miss. Walmart is no different.
They'll refuse to process your return, but not refuse to process your purchase without telling you that you are banned from returns. Something a state AG should look into pursuing.
Right, you should be notified before making the purchase. If they’re tracking credit/debit cards then there’s no reason they can’t send a notification to the payment processor that returns will not be allowed… and then let the costumer decide if they want to follow through with the purchase.
AG won't do anything lol, we've left the era of honor in our system. Companies rule the roost and do what they please--just look at how poorly made items have become, the amount of excess, unnecessary tech to track usage and have control in household appliances, etc...
There is no law that says you have to be able to return or refund. It does not have to be mentioned, explained or posted. Returns and refunds are a courtesy not a right. What would AG do? Like 4 second of research would alleviate your idiocy.
@@fluffy177 nope in no state is a refund policy maditory, yes you can sue which is a civil not criminal matter. Saying a bunch of nonsense like quoting consumer law is a new level of call8ng out your own ignorance.
@@fluffy177 furthermore that civil suit would be for false sales or fraud and nothing to do with a right to return
I worked in retail for nearly forty years and it’s astounding how many people return items worn, tickets switched, used, and outside the window of time for the return. Two of the biggest things was returning hats after the derby and returning items they decorated with because they had company coming for a while.
This why we can't have nice things, people with no shame always take advantage of the system and ruin it for the general population. Glad stores are doing this.
🤔 I've had to request a refund on items recently that were being sent to me broken in padded envelopes. I specifically called customer service, told them the items arrived broken and requested for them to please send them in boxes next time instead of padded envelopes. They said they'd change the mailing method. They sent them again in padded envelopes broken again. I reached out to customer service for a second time to request my money back and they offered to send the items again instead. I had to insist on a cash refund instead. I was done playing this game with them. At some point there are process issues with the retailers that are reducing their profits. If they had sent the item in the correct type of packaging originally, they'd have gotten their money and we'd have all been happy. There are definitely people who are returning things fraudulently, but frequent returns doesn't necessarily indicate fraud.
Good points!
Had that happen twice with Amazon on the same item. Ordered two cute terra planters. I did see negative reviews with the items coming in broken but they were older reviews so I took a chance. Nope...planters came in a box twice the size of the planters but there was no padding of any kind. Nothing! Took a chance again because I really liked them. Came in broken again and I returned again. Maybe I am now on that list. I'm still annoyed about those planters 😁
@@sbffsbrarbrrit’s not worth the perceived savings and the Terra pots were probably made by children anyway. Try a local nursery and enjoy face to face and customer service. If you can afford it I highly recommend paying up for quality and service.
No, it doesn't automatically indicate fraud. But frequent returns CAN make you a net-loss customer overall.
@@sbffsbrarbrr there are some things that Amazon ABSOLUTELY FAILS TO DELIVER: furnace filters; THEY ALWAYS ARRIVE CRUSHED! No matter what, they are utterly destroyed, and I don't mean a little. It's like they go out of their way to ruin them.
Simple fix for me, might not be for everyone: curtail shopping as much as possible and be really finicky about the quality of what I do buy in store. More money in my pocket, that much less in those of participating retailers.
This is exactly it!! I used to buy a ton on Amazon. Now I almost never do, and I almost never have to return anything. I used to have lots of returns (broken, wrong size, etc.). I was also spending tons. Now I save both money and time not falling for all their pushes to buy more Amazon sh*t all over TH-cam, Insta, Pinterest, and Amazon itself.
This!! Also, I used to get angry and annoyed at my mom for taking hours to try on clothes in person and analyzing any product she was interested in buying. With the tedious work, problematic customer service and time it takes to return a product you bought online, now I fully understand my mom and take my time to try on and see products in person. Yes it gets really annoying but thanks to that, I’ve never had to deal with returns neither online nor in person and though it takes a long while, I know that the product I’ll buy is used for a long time and won’t regret it. Mom does know best 😵💫
Agreed. This just makes me want to be very critical of where and on what, I spend my money. They need to do better. I can live with fashion from the last couple of years or even learn to make my own clothes. I can learn to make do with what I have. I won’t suffer, but the retailers will.
@@ladylove34 Same, especially since I got rid of Prime.
@@Dontneedahandle0 Exactly!
A classic case of enshittification. Online retailers had to implement very permissive return policies to get people comfortable with online shopping and put local shops out of business. These policies were never sustainable. Now that they have the market share they're walking them back.
I agree but would retailers have walked it back if it weren't for abusers and fraudsters taking advantage of worry-free return policies.
^^ This. Not to mention the fact that their sites are increasingly being filled with shittier plastic versions of everything. Many of my returns are because I knew I didn't want to be stuck with something that felt like it wasn't going to last me 6 months.
Enshittification or the current state of entitlement? That can go both ways, retailers making it easy for people to shop online with easy returns. Then entitled idiots abusing it because is says easy returns? The TRE isn't flagging your everyday shopper, they are tagging the abusers and rightfully so. Give someone and inch and they take three feet and this is what always happens and why we can't have nice things. Not sticking up for big corporations, eff them too. But in this case, the abusers are to blame.
Most of what retailers describe as return fraud is people returning products within the return policy.
@@laughingshaman1 Purchasing something with the INTENT to return it is still return fraud, regardless of company return policy.
I work in loss prevention for a big box retailer… yes return fraud is rampant and companies do have resources that track down fraudulent returns / excessive returns that cause a loss for a company. Companies have the right to ban a customer from shopping at their company if that’s the case. Everything is tracked, your rewards number, credit cards, debit cards, everything is tracked, also video footage helps a lot 👍🏽
"consumers have a right to a report from any particular store, by going to our website you were never aware of in the 1st place" such transparency, much honesty 🙄
THISE FOLKS GET PAID UNDER THE TABLE!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW WEALTHY THIS GUY IS HE HAS OVER 2200 STORES MAKING 378 BILLION. THIS IS THE 1% WHO MAKE TGE WORLD TURN.
That is a lie. If you visit the website to get information you first have to provide details of the denied return, then and only then is a report made available to you. You can't go there and get all data that pertains to you. Laws need to be passed so you can gain access to this data.
Used to work at an electronics retailer. We had a couple that would come in frequently and talk to salespeople for hours about some fancy tech product. Invariably they returned it within 3 days. The sales manager printed out their transaction history and they had never actually held on to anything. Next time the couple showed up, the manager told them we would be unable to sell him anything ever. They never came back.
Sounds like a clear case of return abuse...
bruxi78230-Some people are so wasteful that it makes me sick. Your example is one I have heard of before from someone that worked at an auto parts store.
Why would they only return after 3 days? Sounds like they just have mental issues.
@@timr.2257 ----- Not sure why they chose 3 days. But yes, mental issues definitely. It was kind of like this was some weird form of entertainment for them.
They probably bought a high-end video camera to record a wedding or something, then returned it when they were done. I heard of someone doing that with a big TV for a superbowl watch party, then return it after they were done
I've encountered FAR more retail fraud by RETAILERS. Knowingly sending broken items, outright junk, delivering liquid items that have leaked out visibly in the package, etc. If a retailer has a restocking fee, I'm not shopping there.
Exactly
....or items that are expired.
Lots of construction adhesives and similar wet products have expiration dates... they'll gladly sell you a tube of caulking or sealant that's years old and won't work properly, even though they should know which lot numbers they have and when they were received.
Then you've never worked in retail. A retailer isn't going to send broken items if they have a decent return policy because they'd expect to get them back. Sounds like items damaged in shipping or fraudulent returns that got sent back out without proper inspection.
Me too , they sent me licking products and doesn’t give me refund for it
@@brycek3434 retail no 👎 but the policies to refund back to costumer , when is happened
I am actually happy to hear retailers are doing this. Too many people treat retailers like rent-a centers or worse, borrow-a-center. Take responsibility for your spending habits, do your research, and make informed decisions.
Yes, like the reporter, "this laptop is not for me".... Wow.
Using stores as rental companies.... I remember one person I knew around 25 years ago bought some painting equipment, a roller with a long pole to reach high spots outside a house. Used it, rinsed it off real good then returned it, saying it was too short or too heavy, whatever, and claimed not to have used it. Got a full refund. Free rental! That's why I'm a big fan of "restocking fees" or some way that "renters" have to pay at least something.
Same here. I know someone that said they were going camping and I knew they had no gear, so I asked them what they were going to use. They said buy it at Costco and they return it all after the trip. This type of interaction ruins it for legit returns.
@@frenchyroastify Wasn’t there a woman who returned a (formerly) live Xmas tree to Costco for a full refund?
@@terrydempsey6174 I can believe it
I used to work for a Walmart in Ohio. I was helping in the return department one day. I opened a box to make sure it had what it was supposed to have in ot. It didn't. People will buy a tv,keep the tv and put something in the box that feels and weighs about the same ,like a piece of plywood. Return it to the store in the hopes that the persin working the counter doesn't open the box. This was the problem at the store I worked at. I brought it to the managers attention and cut our losses by 75%. I saved the store tons of money and never got any recognition for it. The manger took all the credit
Thieves
Just typical male manage behavior.
@@kathyyoung1774 there is a special place in HELL for them!
Walmart receipts for electronics like tvs and computers include serial numbers that are supposed to be verified upon return.
If you want recognition for an idea, submit it in writing. Most major businesses have a suggestion program.
I remember working retail years ago and the absolute worst was luggage. People would purchase premium 5-piece sets to go on the occasional vacation and they'd always return them a few weeks later packed neatly in their pristine boxes and the damn airline flight tags would still be on all the handles. It got to the point that we basically considered our luggage section a free rental service.
Well good. They sell that bs to high
@@jasonmoses7785 then dont buy it
@@jasonmoses7785that doesn't mean it's ok to basically steal 😂😂
I used to work at a store in downtown NYC that would sell furniture and other household items to ABC studios for them to use in their newsrooms as well as on the set of the soap operas that taped every single day. When those items finished serving their purpose, these guys Are given the privilege of returning these things back to the store for it to be resold without folks, knowing that they were already used
@@kylespencer2192 definition of stealing is to take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
That’s the true definition so this ain’t the same as stealing 😂… and look at it like this.. if I pay 80 bucks for a suitcase that cost the company 2 bucks to make…. When I return it in 30 days, they done flipped that money many times so I figure I’m doing them a favor by providing a small loan to make money over again an again while I collect my money and return luggage on day 29 because I don’t want no problems 😂
There were problems even 50 years with people returning clothes that they bought to wear once to a special event and then returning them. They didn't just try them on but wore them and returned them.
Need a digital nose to "sniff" out the problem.
Yep one woman said she'd buy a dress for an event leave the tag on tucked in then return it after the event.
I worked in the fine china department of Macy's in the 80s. People would buy 12 place settings of an extremely expensive China pattern, throw a party then return the China used and unwashed and Macy's North would make us accept the return. We'd then have to damage out thousands of dollars worth of fine China. It would make us mad!
My grandma has said she's done this
Got a nice dress for an event. Wore it a few times and then returned it for full cash back.
To this day, people still do this.
@@kstreet7438she’s a bum
The problem with this is that many people buy a lot for a move or a project, and we’re stuck shopping bad quality items. So returns go up because manufacturers don’t want to pay to make better quality stuff so we can get stuff done.
I used to shop at department stores or boutiques where the clerks literally said .. buy it take it home and you can always bring back if you decide you dont like... hundreds of times...
When I ran a store, I generally felt that a lenient return policy was good business. Customers felt comfortable purchasing because we stood behind the product and pretty much guaranteed satisfaction. Also, I didn't want conflict between my customers and my staff. In general, I ignored our posted return policy and just used my judgement. It's a value proposition. I could refuse to return a $20 item, but if the customer gets upset and stops shopping at the store I could lose far more value from all the other purchases they would have made in the future.
However, as the video states, there are people who are net-zero or negative-value customers because of their returns and the time demands they place on staff. For those customers I instituted a very strict return policy, compliant with our posted policy but nothing else.
Retailers are completely within their rights to "fire" customers who they no longer feel comfortable doing business with. And yes, people (or companies) who abuse the system are why we can't have nice things. Companies are often guilty of being greedy, but customers are often not any better. It's a problem of parties not acting in good faith, not being okay with both sides coming away with equal value.
Exactly, it is a kind of social contract that once broken is difficult to mend. Your approach seems the best. Customer satisfaction is important but net negative customers with verified patterns of return abuse are not customers you need in your business.
I get that you think you were doing a good thing by going against the policy to do what was nicest for the customer. HOWEVER, what you actually did was open yourself and the store up to lawsuits for discrimination. Because bending the rules like that creates the illusion of favoritism and should a shady person have caught onto that, they could have spun it. The optics look bad and that alone can open the door in ways you never could have predicted. I've worked in retail for years. It may seem nice but the policy is there for a reason and it's not just "we want to be meanies and not lose money." Sometimes, it's to protect everyone from legal issues.
It is just that evil selfish entittled people are ruining it for everyone else. !
I hear you. But I ran retail stores for a long time and tried hard to teach my staff to treat everyone that returned an item as a customer and give them other options to return and exchange the item on the spot. A skilled sales staff can do this and make a difference in those return numbers and limit the number of net zero customers.
It would be nice if retailers would go after the people who are actually brazenly walking out of the store with stolen items. My husband works big box retail and they lose thousands of dollars weekly due to thieves who know there will be no one going after them. Employees are not allowed to intervene. Police are never called no matter how expensive the item. It makes everything cost more for the rest of us.
Usually what happens in these cases is they are captured on cameras and evidence is sent to police where they do investigations. They identify the person and let them steal enough until they have enough evidence for a felony charge. This is how we did it at Old Navy when I worked there 2019-2021
It is time to use facial recognition technology. When the person is in the system it will alert security and closely watch. Chinese use facial recognition everywhere especially it is so useful to find wanted person
@@BethanySchwarz5678 I can't believe this is an effective method. Other lowlifes just see others stealing stuff with no consequences, so they start doing it too. Studies show that the best way to prevent shoplifting is deterrence, and this method offers zero deterrence.
@@kemangraya2382 Ya'll love authority. We has fewer problems with shoplifting for decades before these sort of surveillance technologies existing, so putting us all under increasing corporate surveillance is not the way. It just blows my mind the way Americans just love sucking at the teet of their corporate authoritarians.
when politicians pass laws saying "We won't charge you if it's less than $1000" . . . , and the DA refuses to charge them - what's the retailer supposed to do?
Make a quality product and people will not need to return items, to make sure value is not lost on thier end, due to corporate greed
My man it’s consumer retail. Most people buy crap and get it home and realize they don’t need it and take it back. The percentage of returns that are base on a defective product is very small. And in general people don’t want to pay more for quality. They want it cheaper and they get what they pay for. Why do you think Walmart is so successful. Everyone wants a discount price when it comes to everyday retail commodities.
Consumer abuse of the return system does not equal corporate greed.
even if an item's quaiity is good, it can be too big, too heavy, not fit, etc.
Knowing I can return something that may not work for me causes me to purchase more. Change the return policies and I will make less purchases. This is especially true with online purchases.
“Causes me to purchase more crap I don’t really need because if I actually needed it, the return policy wouldn’t matter”
There, fixed it for you.
@@anthonydomench6871 I didn’t need you to fix anything. I said what I said.
Exactly. Companies are just gonna lose customers this way. People stop shopping in the establishment altogether cuz you can’t make returns or it costs you.
@@anthonydomench6871I'm sure you don't need clothes then.
I think that as consumers we need to do better though. The idea of 'buy now and think about it later' is incredibly unsustainable. Almost half of the stuff that is returned online ends up in a landfill because they are unable to resell a returned item even if it is perfectly fine. Consumers are unaware of this and it needs to become part of our purchasing decision process.
Not only does this improve sustainability but reduced returned for retailers means lower prices. When setting retail prices they factor in losses from returns so it is a win win for the retailer and the consumer if less people return items. Just time for consumers to become a little smarter.
Idiots abusing the system makes it worse for everyone
Lmfao abusing the system starts with these massive companies, not the handful of customers returning their cheaply made, planned obsolesce products 😂
It is the handful of customers "fraudulently" abusing the system making it bad for all
Look up the word “fraud” and apply it to the promises on 99% of the products you buy. And then tell me consumers are the problem. I’m glad people are returning 15% of this deceptive junk and that number should probably be higher.
You’ve gotta consider that these companies have grown as much as they can. The only way to make profit is to cut cost. Which means cutting labor, real estate, amount of items, and ability to return.
@@rileyjoseph3488 And jacking up prices.......
I used to like shopping at brick and mortar stores so I could try things on and get a feel for the items , unfortunately there’s fewer and fewer of them around which has “forced “ me to shop online. Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience but it’s really hard to get the right fit when you can’t try stuff on first.
I hear you. I’m also wondering what percentage of “wardrobing” is actually customers buying multiple items to try on then returning what doesn’t fit. Plenty of people purchase online, or if in the brick-and-mortar store, just skip the dressing room completely. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been in a dressing room, to be honest.
I don’t doubt people are “wardrobing”, but I also wonder if retailers are taking into account that people will purchase more than one item with the sole intention of returning whichever doesn’t fit.
@@kissesforthemisseslol... I do this even with certain tools and hardware.
You can't tell which tools are good quality until you can actually see and hold it in your hand as nearly half of the pictures online anymore are COMPUTER GENERATED RENDERINGS of what they wished their tools looked like.
I absolutely hate that.
This too. I always order multiple sizes and see which fits the best!
Exactly, this is why I’m worried about the whole denial factor. I have to order multiple things to see if they will be the right size or if the color is even correct in person to the online photo. Then I return whatever doesn’t fit me. Sometimes I have to return the whole order which looks bad but honestly nothing fit me, I did not wear or wash it for an event, I have dotted my i and crossed all my Ts. I don’t want to get denied from my favorite retailer but if nothing worked, nothing worked. It’s too bad that bad people ruin things for good people.
@randomgirl2994 you're not the only one! I've had to return entire orders before because every single piece of hardware I bought didn't actually fit/work the way it was sold online.
🤷
That's one thing that I will not do. When I buy something I keep it. Rarely have I returned something. Do not want to deal with the hassle.
When ordering large, heavy items like window air conditioners, I pay online and have them shipped to store (Lowes or Home Depot). When picking up, I get the store employees to remove the heavy item from the box for my inspection, because there is often hidden damage from boxes being dropped, but the box itself does not appear damaged.
Great idea!
Smart!
if it is damaged, do you know for sure they aren't counting it as a return on your part..against you?
@@BobbyJ529 uh.. how if the item was shipped TO THE STORE and they are inspecting the item? I mean it is kind of a pain honestly.. and it still may be defective.
Yeah I do that for all my window air conditioners too.😂
A hoarder like myself who impulse buys clothes and never return a single item is who these retailers are giving a high five 🙌 I admit it, I have a problem.
I used to impulse buy when online shopping and for whatever strange reason never even opened the package for years once it arrived. I've wasted probably hundreds of dollars like this. Recently, I've really practiced being more mindful about my purchases: opening up the package in a timely manner, testing it out or trying it on to see if I like it, and returning what I don't need without any guilt or shame. And it feels amazing!! Seriously. It feels so good to only keep what I need and genuinely like; otherwise, back to the store! Sorry for randomly sharing that with you, but try it one day when you're ready. I'm like a semi well-oiled returning machine now, and it feels fantastic😂🎉
@@chai_lattesdon't be sorry for sharing something that will help other people, and good for you controlling you shopping addiction
What problem? Donate your surplus to a 501c(3) and get a tax write off and feel good about. There are many local stores that buy clothing to resell.
You need therapy. That's a mental illness. Please seek help.
Start a reviewing You tube channel on the stuff you're impulse buying.
Some companies have been charging a "restocking fee" for years now.
When the retailer ships an item to the customer, the retailer has to pay for postage. When customer returns the item for a reason that is not the retailer's fault such as "size does not fit" "change mind" "no longer needed", the retailer needs to charge a restock fee to cover the cost of the postage. Some times the items the retailers get back are also used or damaged and they would assess a restocking fee. This is fair.
Best Buy
A restocking fee is completely fair for opened products.
Amazon sent me the wrong armchair that I purchased for $400 and when I returned it the restocking fee was $370 for a chair that I didn’t order. I don’t think it’s appropriate when the seller makes a mistake and we have to pay for it
It costs money to pay an employee to inspect a product and put it back.
Easy answer, make better products that don't need to be returned all the time. Like amazon now flagging products as frequently returned.... how about quit selling it bc it's obviously crap
Will you please STOP MAKING SENSE? Thank you…
Or take note that the item you are considering buying is “frequently returned” and don’t buy it?
This happened to me. A retailer, LOFT, who offered tall sizes on line only (I am tall) but allowed in-store returns, used TRE to flag my returns (tall items ordered that did not fit). I used to purchase most of my clothes from them and bought A LOT. I got cited by them during a busy shopping season when the store was crowded. I had no idea I was doing anything wrong and was following their own policies. I never returned worn items. I was a loyal customer up to that point but was treated like a suspected criminal by store employees. Totally blindsided. Didn't know I was doing anything wrong and had no recourse. When my 30-day return suspension ended, every unworn item that still had tags from LOFT were returned, and I haven't patronized them since. That was 2015. l
The loft filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy lol
nowadays, stores are desperate to flag real customers instead of actual criminals to make up the loss profit from theft
I’m tall too so I get most orders online from JCrew and Banana in tall sizes. But many still don’t fit across the bust etc - I have to return them but equally I have to order online because they don’t stock in store
Wait... so you're not allowed to buy items online, try them on, then return them to the store with tags? 🤔 I too have to buy sizes that often are not carried in store and have no other choice so... what do they want us to do?
I'm also tall and have bought my clothes almost exclusively online for the last 10 years. I don't know what retailers want us to do if they don't carry items in store. And especially in womenswear where clothing sizes vary significantly by store, item, even color. Returns are a given.
I work for Home Depot I’ve seen people return griils after using them most of the summer or ladders after they obviously used it to finish a job.They have returned tools used to remove shingles from roofs after they are done.
we really should implement a rental or checkout system.l Libraries often now have tools and items you can check out of the library for free.
@@outoftheforest7652I thought Home Depot has a rental service already
y'all let em do it and then y'all complain about it. lol.
Home depot does have a rental system
And don’t forget all the generator returns from all the Home Depot locations in South Florida after hurricane season
They should just be upfront about it. "You are allowed to return X number of items per year."
I know Walmart has a limit like that for items returned without a receipt, but they don't list what that limit is on their return policy web page.
EXACTLY! And if it's a very expensive item, put "sales final" or "store credit" only returns on it SO PEOPLE KNOW. all this shady stuff is so unnecessary for everyday shoppers because most people will understand that there should be limits on certain things in order to prevent abuse. For example, thrift stores like GoodWill, all sales are final. (only exception i've seen is if something was broken i.e if u show the clerk that a battery powered radio doesn't work when you put the batteries in you'll get STORE CREDIT.)
I think it's the cost they have more of a problem with then number of items... If you return x2 50k items vs 10x 2$ items.. The x2 items are more likely to get you banned.. because you are costing them more money...
Percentage also makes a big difference. If you purchase 20 items a month and return 1 a month, it's not as bad as a person who buys an item every month but returns it.
I would rather see a fixed price to return and item. Say 10% of the price or something like that. Kinda the way retailers used to be.
It's a self-inflicted wound, and I bet every one of these corps knew this would happen when they use easy return policy to encourage and lure consumers to spend money on stupid things, estimating that a large enough percentage of them wouldn't bother returning unnecessary stuff.
Exactly! They can’t have both ways.
True
Yep, the amount of clothing that didn't fit that I've bought, tried on, never worn, and never returned because it wasn't worth the hassle could probably clothe a city at this point. A city of people with very oddly shaped bodies.
You're one of those idiots who will blame everything on corporations instead of consumers, huh? It the returns are easy, why wouldn't consumers take advantage of it? Your argument makes no sense.
@@PerfectoKissThey're trying to make returns easy for good faith consumers. How is that "trying to have it both ways"?
It's not at all surprising people are returning more these days when companies make a lot of items unavailable in store. When something is "online only" you can't see the product first, try it on, inspect it for quality. And companies are terrible at describing things online or giving accurate sizing details and so on. They also tend to sell very cheaply made items that appear far better online. Not to mention the fact that prices are going up so much.
It's hard to blame the customer for this when they aren't technically breaking any rules. Companies need to more outwardly warn customers if they're going to be tracking their information and possibly ban them from returns. I am sure they would see a decrease in sales, but it's the only thing that's fair if they want to go after customers for returning items when the policy states they can.
This is exactly the reason why I stopped buying LEGO at Wal-mart and Target… sets were missing the minifigures and some “system abusers” went to the extent of replacing the LEGO with uncooked pasta, then sealed box up gluing the tabs and/or placing clear tape over the original tape!! Never again, I will always buy directly from LEGO.
I had the same thing happen to me recently.
Wow
Or a Lego store
As much as possible I buy direct from the company itself, exactly for this reason. Shoes directly from Asics, socks directky from Undrr Armour, etc. You never have to deal with this crap buying direct.
the extremes people go to steal. If they used that imagination for good things we won't be doing this bad in society.
I’ve read a few post in which a person was denied a return, not because they returned too many time (or amount) at that store but another store.. so it’s cumulative between stores that’s not linked by a parent company. I don’t like the idea of abusing a return policy (read that a person returned a ten year old grill and it looked ten years old with rust stains and all the wear and tear), but at the same time, if a lot more people are shopping online, it’s difficult to make an informed decision. It’s become riskier for one more reason to shop online since retailers (or that third party service) are penalizing.
I will not purchase anything from a retailer that charges a fee to return an item!
Sounds pretty entitled to me. People constantly abuse return policies and we all pay.
Time to change your mentality. 'Buy now, think about it later', is incredibly unsustainable. Almost half of the crap returned online ends up in a landfill because it is either hard to sell opened or not worth the restocking of the item.
@@Michael-pg7rv Time to change your mentality from ASSuming you know anything about me
@@cindy_kbt Entitled? No. It's an exceptional rarity that I return a product as I usually know exactly what I want. Because of that fact, I'm not willing to pay to return an item when it happens so rarely. I'm simply not going to fight with a company over a return fee, especially considering the reasons I'm most likely to return it is that the product doesn't work or arrives damaged.
I often do because I do my research prior to buying. I welcome a 5% restocking fee for most items. I vote YES.
The problem isn’t the returns, it’s the cost cutting push. There will always be individuals committing fraud, but the general public shouldn’t be treated as criminals.
Preach. Shrink is, was, and always will be a cost of doing ANY form of business, yet it's only recently that corporate behavior has become toxic and anti-consumer to this degree.
As I’ve always seen it, there are too many people too comfortable with returning items. Free returns to some people mean they can try after they buy and decide if they like it or not. They can buy 3 or 6 items and see which one of the 6 is better and return the rest. Or use it and abuse it then return it. Simply unsustainable behaviour. I’ve always researched the crap out of an item before buying and rarely return things even if I didn’t like it.
@@latestarter7761 Exactly, some people are using it as a trial period or as a free rental.
@@latestarter7761 One of the places I shop at got rid of their fitting rooms during covid. On top of that, it seems like everything is sewn so wonky these days. Sorry, but I'm not going to keep an item that doesn't fit me right because they don't provide a place for me to try it on before I buy it. I truly do not understand why they did that. They must get a huge amount of clothing returns. Must be cheaper than paying for a fitting room employee I guess. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if we got rid of all these profit-driven corporate stores that don't pay their employees enough to care about customers, and went back to having talented local clothing makers and tailors in every town.
Exactly. It's like the move towards entirely using self-checkouts because they don't want to pay cashiers. Of course this will lead to losses from theft or mistakes. It's their own fault, as is the way many companies had or even still have extremely lenient return policies. They can't blame people for using these policies to their advantage.
Way back in 1990, I had a friend buy a $300 camcorder at Kmart.
I said, "Don't you talk to Steve (her husband) before making a big purchase on an unnecessary item?"
She said, "Oh, I'm just going to record Stephanie's tumbling routine. Then I'll return the camera."
I was floored!
Fraud
yeah people treat retailers like they are rent out places. This is why it is getting out of control.
Camcorder
@@mike10240 they did say the 90s. What? Should she have used her iPhone 11?
@@fwdcnorac8574 it was cam quarter before, wanted to help out
This is wrong and more lawsuits need to be filed. Consumers have no idea they are being profiled. This happened to me. Denied a return, item brand new with tags at Marshall’s which I use do alot of shopping. I was given a number to call when my return was denied, I called them and they were very nasty so I hung up on them. I plan to get the information they gathered on me and may get an attorney to sue them after watching this. How dare they profile people!! Consumers must not accept this behavior from stores
hummmm the influencers are a big part to blame... lol buying items and returning them. I knew a stylist that would buy items and returned them after a photoshoot and said everyone did it then one day she walked in Zara to return items and they told her no......over a grand with of Zara junk she had to keep....
Glad to hear that fraudster got busted!
Yep the influencers are a huge part of the problem!!! If they are denied, I wouldn’t feel bad. Showing haul after useless haul and some people are still watching and buying into that crap 🥴.
Give us stores to go into, a pleasant shopping experience where we can see items in person and make better choices on what we buy and you’ll see less returns. I absolutely hate online shopping and end up returning a lot of the junk that I order once I see how awful it is in person. Going to stores is miserable nowadays bc the inventory is not there. I would much prefer to go to a real store stocked with the things I need so that I can browse and enjoy myself. Punish the customer with bad return policies, people will buy much less.
No, there will always be people looking for ways to commit FRAUD.
Agree 100%. I miss the days when I could buy everything I needed in stores. I have never returned so much as I have since online shopping took over. I hate waiting on shipping, and I hate when I finally get the thing only to find out it's cheap chinese crap. That doesn't happen when I can handle and test a product before buying, but I honestly think that's exactly why so many companies are forcing online-only. If we see that something is crap up front we won't buy it, but if they post a pretty picture and fake a bunch of good reviews they can trick customers into buying crap and count on a lot of people not wanting to go through the hassle of printing a return label and lugging the crap back to the post office. All the shipping is killing the planet too. Nothing good about online shopping.
Bed, bath, beyond, i miss you. How are you supposed to buy pillows, sheets, towels online?
I worked for nearly two decades at a retail store, and we had a few customers who had (chronic/habitual "buyers remorse")! It didn't matter what they purchased it was guaranteed to be returned in a couple days! Most of the employees knew them by name and would refuse to wait on them whenever they would enter the store.
Some people return clothes frequently because , it is inconvenient and uncomfortable to try on clothes for size in the stores dressing rooms.
All the thieves stealing from retailers and going back and returning merchandise without recepts is probably a big cause for these return policy changes!!
Yup. I am not buying this story. The returns largely referred to here are people returning stolen merchandise, the retailer just can’t prove it. So, the act like the return problem is our fault.
I buy everything online. Brick and mortar have passed shoplifting costs to us. Now, as this story says, we r to blame. Screw them, I don’t need them
I’ve never understood how you can return anything without a receipt. Seems obvious you should have to prove you bought it in the first place. I’ve only ever really heard about the no-receipt problem after Christmas back in the day, people claiming they got the stuff as gifts. That’s how gift receipts became a thing.
As with most things, it's 20% of a population that causes 80% of the problems. I hardly return items. But some people do abuse it. Get rid of the 20% that abuse it and prices go down.
@@harmonys2102at Walmart you are only allowed to do that three times per year and you need a drivers license
If a company may refuse a return they should put that in the description of the product. They have built up their business and put high street shops out of business with this free returns offer. They should be made to fulfill their promises.
I agree and was going to write a similar comment.
Street shops lost due to many reasons duh
I can't speak to every retailer, but some have a return policy explicitly saying that management has final say on returns.
I guess they don’t do it cause they are afraid of losing potential buyers. I would not purchase anything from a store with not return policy. Imagine if products come broken. NOT THANKS.
😊😊😊😊😊pqp9l9
I once purchased a color laser printer that was on display at a local Office Depot. The item was labeled as "last item". According to the store, the item had been returned. I bought the printer and drove home. When I prepared to print, the printer information application warned of depleted printer toner. Apparently, the customer who returned the device did so after printing thousands of color pages. Color laser printer toner cartridges retail for about US$100 each. A color printer uses black, cyan, yellow, and magenta toner cartridges: a whopping US$400. I took the printer to the store to report the incident. They kindly provided new toner cartridges free of charge.
Liar 🤥 you used them 🤡 we are not stupid 🫵🏻
@@walterwhite1why would someone make that up in a TH-cam comments section. Makes no sense
@@CJ.1998X.Y.Z cj my guy are you blind!?? of course this man is a criminal and Walter is doing the right thing!!!!
@@marvin19mejia you’d be surprised how many creepy liars are on this platform
Those printers are ripoff. They can give you the printer for free and still make money from selling you overpriced ink cartridges.
I know a couple women, mother and daughter that are so guilty of this. Buy a dress for a special occasion, wear it and then return it. Or buy decor for a special dinner or party they’re hosting, set out the pretties for the event and then return them. I love seeing this!!
The theory behind return policies is that it induces spending by giving customers an option should they find their purchase not suitable for whatever reason. It's understandable why retailers would amend their policies if this is no longer the case, but it's also quite concerning that someone operating within the bounds of a return policy would not be told they had been flagged BEFORE making a purchase (with the understanding that the return policy still applied to that transaction).
Also, everyone knows that 99.99% of people never read T&Cs in full, it's problematic that legal claims still rely on this, especially when the vast majority of people do not have the legal expertise to fully comprehend that 'wall of text'.
They need to stop selling so much junk especially Amazon and Target.
🇨🇳
Exactly
Stop buying "junk" and change your consumer habits. Most of that "junk" is impulse buys which lead to buyer's regret which leads you people returning it. People need to stop being so impulsive, do some research, and think before the buy something.
It really easy to not buy junk… it literally involves doing… nothing. Stop putting in effort to buy junk.
then stop BUYING the junk?
My question is if you’re denied to return items, is the consumer being made aware that the sale is now final?
This isn’t like your credit score when you can look it up. I never heard of this before this video. It’s an arbitrary line in the sand so you could very well be swept in it like others who aren’t returning fraudulently.
So in essence you can buy something get a faulty product or a product that doesn’t fit your needs and standards return it and they deny you. Based on a system you had no idea about.
To me, if this is essential to doing business then the consumer should be aware what’s going on when you’re checking out.
You can order your report
I’m glad they are doing this! I used to work in retail many years ago and we would have people return clothing that smelled like smoke, weed, etc. Then get an attitude if we wouldn’t take it back and give them cash instead of store credit. If you think the product is substandard or cheap, you need to read and check this out before you spend your money!! I hear a lot of people complaining that these companies sell cheap stuff or substandard products!! Whose job is it to check that?!! yours!!!!
Enjoying the taste of that boot leather?
Thrift stores are the ones winning
Very large in their receipts do they print:
ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
Even for brand new items with tags
Examine before you buy
Thrift stores are the only ones left which have 100% of the merchandise available for inspection in the store.
@@kathyyoung1774 But please do it carefully. Some people just destroy the package in the process making the item unsellable.
@@vaderladyl I'm not one of those. My mama taught me better.
I worked at a bricks-and-mortar retailer with a few customers that returned 75%+ of all their purchases, to the point staff knew their personal info by heart. These folks were banned from returning anything and one was eventually trespassed.
I don’t blame the store
That makes sense. I am more concerned about the average consumer like myself who make returns on their crappy products. Especially when they have guarantees.
This is good to know because I didn’t know that retailers were doing this. I rarely return anything because I rarely buy anything without doing a lot of research first and really pondering the purchase. Stores try to get people to impulse buy and then they penalize them when they return the item.
They are only trying to prevent Fraud
Yet you still make returns. It seems that the problem is not with how customers behave
I worked at a large home improvement store in early 2000’s. They trained sales floor staff to over-sell and encourage customers to make a return if needed.
The cost of returns is paid by all the consumers that don’t return items driving up purchase prices.
Unfortunately even if they reduce returns, shoppers will not see it in the form of price cuts
Exactly. That’s why it really irks me when people flippantly buy and return things all the time.
Try to be a more conscientious Shopper but if you got to return some s*** return it.....80% of this s*** is cheaply made Chinese Goods with huge markups...I'm sure most of it disintegrates the minute you open the wrapper
Yep
Same with buy now pay later, same with credit cards, same with financing anything
Sometimes I understand the frustration of returns. I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago trying to buy stamps when a lady came in with an empty container trying to get her money back for some chicken tenders she had already eaten. She claims they were stale and tasted bad but she ate them all and still expected to get her money back. I felt horrible for the young man at the service desk who had to explain why they couldn’t refund her money. He was really nice to her but she wasn’t happy and left the store saying how she wasn’t ever buying anything from there again. I’m betting she’ll back and will more than likely be buying more chicken as well.
There is a special block called Perishables. Mainly on the online side, if a customer has concerns about the taste or quality of food that was sent often a full refund or partial refund will be done( usually full). If this behavior happens too often she is blocked from purchasing perishable items like food.
If she ate all of them, they must have been good. She wanted 2nds for FREE! No Sale to her!
Too many people abuse return policies such as buy a dress for an event and return, but a TV for SuperBowl and return. When this happens, a retailer Hass to sell it at an open box price or are used markdown price. They lose money when people buy things and use them and there’s nothing wrong with him. They should have to keep it only unless it’s unused and they change your mind, should they be able to return it? Imagine if you owned a store in all people did was buy use for an event and return it. You would go under right away.
So gross to buy something to wear then return after wearing. I always wash my clothes before wearing in case someone bought and wore it, I don’t want their smell on me.
Yes, they are CROOKS.
I try to never return items unless they are broken, cause health issues(like candles), or something like that. Haven’t returned something in a few months because I also don’t impulsively buy stuff anymore.
While people obviously abuse return policies, if people have a legitimate return within the policies, and the return is denied, they should dispute it with their credit card company by filing a fraud complaint, or sue the store in small claims court.
Absolutely. This is why you should always use a Visa/Mastercard for this sort of thing. The store is the one doing the fraud here, not the customer!
if you knowingly and deliberately made the purchase, it is not a fraudulent purchase. You can't later claim it is because now you don't want it. That IS fraud.
@@ryanroberts1104it isn't fraud to not accept a return. if you ever bothered to read a return policy, you would see that the store has the right to refuse any return.
@@kitfisto1827 The store has to honor the written return policy at the time of sale. They cannot change the rules later and say "no returns", this is fraud.
Everything is facilitated through Visa/Mastercard, they are the ones who get to determine fraud. If they don't want to accept returns from certain people, they need to say this before the sale.
@@kitfisto1827 Wrong. They cannot simply change the return policy whenever they like. The bottom line is Visa or Mastercard will always take the consumer's side here, it is not fraud, this is common business practice.
Well if they’re going to move all their stores to e-commerce then of course they should expect returns. I can’t see or touch the item in the store before I buy it, how will I know if it certainly works for me before it shows up at my house?
Retailers need to check returned items before accepting them! I bought a light from Home Depot, but when I opened the box, there were pieces missing, and the light was broken. I returned it, and they took my name and number for the return. Honestly, the light should never have been put back on the shelf and resold. No one inspected it?
I think Lowe's did that to me by significantly raising the price of the water filters I buy there. I didn't get upset about it because I felt like they were underpriced from the start. But that's still not good business practice. 😂
Way back before they changed their return policies I knew a few people that would return their ink jet printers at Costco to avoid having to purchase new ink jet cartridges... It always bothered me that they thought it was OK to do because their policy allowed it... and they felt justified because of the prices of ink cartridges...
Yup... those people should be banned from Costco for life for that kind of crap.
They were thieves and caused this problem. We all pay because of thieves.
People stick with Costco because of their generous return policy. If Costco changes that policy they will lose a lot of members.
@@ruthlessluder Where do you think they will go?
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I’ve heard social media influencers often buy & then return items but make money off the links their viewers use to buy the items they see the influencer wearing.
Thieves
I return about one or two things a month on Amazon, but I also spent like 20 grand on there last year. Some of it just needs to be returned. I bought a tablet and the cheap-o $40 case I bought with it didn't fit. And they suggested it.
I shopped at Home Depot for 35 years and was denied a return on 3 light fixtures that cost $135 total because TRE told them I was a bad risk. I will never go back to them, I had spent over 100K there!
One big reason I buy from Amazon is their return policy. If there is an equal choice, I'll pick Amazon over other online retailers because I know I will not need to pay return shipping if there is a problem. Want to lose my business? Give me a hard time returning.
I find corporate greed to be the biggest issue these days.
Tried to get the “Retail activity report” just to see what my score was. Well you can’t get it unless you’ve been issued a warning or denial letter already.
What a scam
I believe you can email them directly for it.
I just did it because some companies or retailers sell me on saying, "Try it out. If you don't like it, return it." Which does get me to purchase at that moment but I definitely will return it if I don't like it.
@@lewispedraza996 You can't. I got a denial from Home Depot long ago and when I requested my return score or retail activity report from other stores they declined. I return maybe 1-2 items TOTAL for all retailers combined in a year. I asked for a specific retailer as well because I had gotten some odd emails from them despite not shopping there and they denied me recently as well.
This is all news to me today. I was at TJ MAXX and Hole Depot and both associates mentioned if there was any reason to return an item they would gladly return. I hadn’t indicated that I would return anything and they both noticed my surprise.
I work for a large retailer and whilst most returns are legitimate there are a significant amount of people abusing the system and its increasing as more people find out ways to defraud us (claiming they sent back multiple items in a package) or simply abusing the returns system like doing 600 orders in a year and returning everything (probably wardrobing). These people should be blocked as theyre increasing prices for the rest of us.
There's also the people who use the return process as a free rental service or as a way to buy something new and return something old.
Then you have people looking on the ground or trash looking for trashed receipts and coming inside claiming they "forgot" to grab one of their bags or something.
Exactly black list them
Probably TH-camrs doing hauls. Maybe those specific people should be blocked based on their profession?
@@covfefemaga7918 i agree, I saw somewhere that After christmas, there's a long line of people trying to retun the biggest of christmas trees and decor. I m sure they buy it for Instagram pics and vlogs.😂
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
I read about a person who bought an item in a store, took it home and found something else in the box and the store refused to do anything. One reason Amazon and other big retailers just auction off pallet loads of returns.
A lot of folks should understand that if they are doing an honest returns, buying something with a credit card, all but saves you from any type of hassle, regardless of how a retailer treats your return
I wonder if they have considered just offering some type of discount if you waive the return policy? I almost never return anything
This is a good idea. But then again, you would probably need to be registered and that's more info they have on you and sell your info if not hacked.
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
I worked at big retailer and remember this happening I can tell you that most of the time it’s accurate when I looked at the purchase history you could see that they kept returning a lot of the things they were buying. I also remember a couple that kept coming and returning things without a receipt claiming it was a gift we suspected it was maybe stolen product, what they didn’t know is that when you do a return with no receipt the system requires an id and that’s a way they keep track after they did this frequently the system denied their returns and printed a receipt with phone number to call.
A retailer ahould be required to tell you if your return will be auto banned before you give them money.
The ban takes place when you’re returning the item, (because you made too many returns, especially no receipt returns). There’s no ban on making purchases and no identification is requested on purchase. How would they be able to tell you if you have a return ban if they don’t even know who you are as you’re buying the item? Don’t make frequent returns and always have your receipt, problem solved.
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
@@donnadixon289...if the ban doesn't occur UNTIL you are returning the item... that's a problem. 🤦
That's like saying you can get a "free" car inspection... unless you bring in your car to get the free inspection.
If you're on the cusp of being banned from returning items... you should know beforehand.
I work at target and I can tell you people do this every single day especially with electronics. 😅
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
as long as you have a receipt it shouldn't matter.
That’s me 🤷🏿♂️
@@junemoran4550stop being a bad customer. There is such a thing as
I work at Target too. My coworker who works at the customer service desk came over to me yesterday to complain about someone who bought something and didn't even leave the store before they returned it 😂 and it was already extremely busy yesterday, being the day before mother's Day, and people like that doing unnecessary things like that to make people's job harder.
One issue I'm often seeing is a very poor description of the items for sale on a website. This can be a real issue when buying accessories or items that need to fit to another part. Without an accurate description (e.g. measurements, list of compatible items, supported features, etc.), it's likely that the part won't fit when I buy it, so I have to return it. Of course, knowing more about an item also gives customers more reasons not to buy it. But, if a retailer purposely leaves a potential customer in the dark about the details, they shouldn't be surprised if the item gets returned frequently.
The number one reason I return items is when I shop online and the big box retailers do a terrible job packaging goods for safe shipment. They will wrap obviously fragile items, but then will put a cast iron pan and a candle in a tin in the same box, toss 3 air pillows on top and ship it out. Any guess on what that tin looked like by the time it traveled umpteen miles being slammed around in a box with a cast iron pan? Another store put a box of 4 juice glasses in a poly mailer with several items of clothing. When it arrived, not only were the glasses ground to shards, but all of the clothing was embedded with it as well.
And they do that same sort of thing all of the time. I don't want to return merchandise---I just want it to arrive in one piece.
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These scamming fleecers annoy the hell out of me, they're under every single money-related video! A: "Investing is great, but it's hard to beat the market, but then I got 19% higher returns than average" B: "oh my gosh, how, can you recommend an advisor?" A: "Sure, contact my guy Scammy McScammerson. I didn't trust it at first, but he has a 5 start rating". Every. Single. Time!
It reminds me of when I worked retail ages ago. A guy and his family which included his siblings and their family. came to a shoe store at a local outlet mall I worked at. They bought a lot of dress shoes for a wedding. It was strange as my impression of them are like they are not the type of people who would wear dress shoes regularly. But we not gonna say no to someone who buys something. But a week later they came back and returned everything, they claimed they used something else but the shoes looked like they were lightly used on the soles, and not brand new. I know they used it for the wedding and returned it. It’s like a free rental. Why did the store take it back? It wasn’t too obvious they used it. At least they did a decent job of cleaning up the shoes after the wedding. Store employees have to treat customers with respect. But the store did lose a lot of money and we had to restock the shoes.
That should be an automatic rental fee.
That was really low. Good example of why we need to scale back on H+M, Amazon etc purchases and other giants. You had to take those shoes back because Amazon and others will take anything back.
This happens a lot with wedding clothing
Met an Italian guy and he told me they don't even allow returns over there. I will say he was very psyched about the American return policies
Same in Japan and Korea, returns are almost never allowed
America is the most consumer friendly country on the planet. We have it so easy here, but very few people appreciate it.
@@WillieFungo
I must be related to someone over there because I hardly ever return anything unless I haven't opened it or ordered something by mistake
EU has super open return laws. Italy is a member of the EU therefor it also has the policies.
Example you have 14 days to get a refund even if there is nothing wrong with the product. They also have the right to request a refund up to 2 years from the purchase date. So if they buy a shirt and its seams come apart within 2 years they can get a refund.
europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm
Mexico bans any store returns
I love that consumers standing up for themselves and not taking the loss on poor quality items is "problem returning ."😂
Right. This is propaganda.
like why should i gaf if i’m a “bad returner”. THEY need to realize that nobody wants poor quality items priced higher than what they used to be.
Buying something over the internet is always a gamble. How about creating a profile on manufacturers and online sellers that sell misrepresented and/ or junk!
This is a great idea!
This happened to my mother YEARS ago. My dad owned a handyman/car repair business so he routinely made lots of trips to Home Depot. My mom was returning unused supplies for a job he didn’t end up needing. They were all unopened and not used. Her return was denied. Why? Well Home Depot at the time used the same 3rd party return company that Advance auto parts used and her CORE returns (ie the money you get back when you return your old alternator, old battery for disposal) flagged more than 3 times in 6 months.
That’s right this company was counting the money the auto parts store held hostage from her as a “returned item” and flagged her name in the system so a totally separate return at a totally different store would not go through. This was around 2013 I believe.
These companies must be stopped.
Wow I mean this without exaggeration but that's devastating. That's just effed up for these companies to have done that to your mom when she wasn't even fraudulently returning. I'm learning from all these comments and this video I have to be super careful with my returns now.
@@stacysaurusrex If I recall around the same time there was a prominent realtor in my area who encountered the same issue but at Best Buy. He purchased 3 phone cases each for his 2 sons (so 6 total) for Christmas. He wasn’t sure which ones they would like so they could each pick one to keep and he’d return the other two. Best Buy accepted the 4 returns after Christmas but a few months later denied a much smaller return he had on a similar inconsequential item because “he’d been flagged in their system” for having too many returns. He went to the local news station with his story so not only did Best Buy get a ton of negative PR over what was probably at the time barely $100 in returned merchandise but the best part is the realtor was planning on totally upgrading all his major home appliances that coming spring (new washer, new dryer, fridge etc) so they lost out on a massive sale.
If you are denied a refund *against* the stated return policy, then simply contact your card provider (Visa or Mastercard) and tell them they will not accept the return. They will happily refund your money and let you keep the item.
It is not legal for a store to stray from their written rules after a purchase, that is why they are written for all to see! If they want to change the rules and limit returns, they have to say this before you give the money.
You realize they make money off the retailers right? The retailers are the CC company's customer, not you. You are just a passant to them.
@@nobodynever7884 LOL! It's called a chargeback. You are in fact a customer of whoever issued your credit/debit card. What I said is how you apply for a chargeback involving anything at all, that's one of the features of Visa/Mastercard.
Credit card companies make money off the retailers, off the customers, and everybody in between. When they give your money back, they also charge the store a chargeback fee of around $20.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
@@nobodynever7884 are you trying to say "pissant" or "peasant?" "Passant" would be a quite interesting and incorrect way to describe a human. 🤣
@@ryanroberts1104 i love chargebacks i do eveytime, and multiple times actually, go to asmany banks popssible open up an account and get many credit cars possible rack high credit limits.. theynallow charge backs after 15 days anything over $1000 takes awile, man i got 35k free stuff charge backs.. an giess what bank didnt cut card off. and refuse credit card makesure not secured card un secureed meaning not ties your name.. also if pay credit who caes it ruins creditscore but can report equifax as fraud and they remove hard inquires aventiually..
I don’t think I’ve ever returned anything online.. I’m too lazy to do that. I give it away.. now if I ordered something and got something broken or missing, I’ll send a message and a picture. I want my money back . Other than that, I’ll give stuff away to friends. Not going to the post office, nope.. in store purchases, unless it’s broken/damaged I would have no reason to return it.
I certainly hope they let you know that it is a final sale up front
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
Retailers helped create the return problem.
Because they gave in to the whiny babies who didn't follow the stricter policies to begin with.
People COMMITTING FRAUD caused this.
@@kathyyoung1774 Retailers needed to put their foot down long ago. They let themselves be bullied and it has caused a lot of problems.
@@ShannonsBibleStudy Agreed. Now look how many commenters said they wouldn't shop at a store than tightened up its return policy. Kind of makes you wonder if they are the problem, doesn't it?
I work in an electronics store and let me tell you how much open boxed inventory we have that don’t get sold because the box is broken or just for the fact that it’s already been opened and people don’t want to buy that. We have to remind and tell customers that once your earphones are opened (cuz they may have touched your ears) or your appliance has touched food, it is unreturnable (unless clearly defective).
What store do you work at that doesn't allow earbuds/earphones or headphones not to be returned? Or appliances?
I returned my Bose earbuds a few years back because they made my ears hurt a ton and I had zero issues. I've also seen people return like used blenders, juicers to GNC, Kohls, etc.
I’m in Canada. Maybe it’s different here. In-Ear Earphones cannot be returned because of hygienic reasons-it’s unsellable once your earwax has touched those buds. Same for appliances that have already been used. Food particles in your returned products? Too unhygienic. How can you sell those again?
@@rbartow22that’s disgusting and a disgrace dude
I'm glad to hear this. As a shopper, I feel there's no doubt that the cost of this behavior is passed along to me and everyone else. That's not fair. I've often thought I would gladly sign an agreement with a retailer saying I wouldn't return something unless it was genuinely and demonstrably defective, if that would get me a discount of maybe one or two percent.
What I’m really shocked about is CNBC actually did some journalism for once.
It was an accident. Won’t happen again.
Retailer activity report. Sounds a lot like a credit report.
A social credit score. ;-)
No health privacy laws after covid THANKS DemonRats
...except you can find your credit score BEFORE being denied credit.
Use cash and solve the problem
It is.
Wow, I have never been denied the ability to return an item. This is all news to me.
Probably because you’re not one of these people abusing the policy
Having worked in retail in the past it's _always_ been something that happens, just fairly rare. Stores share info on known shoplifters and those people would end up not being allowed to return stuff.
@@omgness1234 People frequently get flagged without ever abusing policy, even on receipted returns. Most people won't ever deal with this issue but it can and does happen often with people who are just normal everyday shoppers.
@@canela904 it's not only those who don't use it fairly though.
Because this isn’t that common. It’s people who are trying to defraud businesses
The problem for the customer is that today's products are made so poorly that returns are more prevalent. The retailer restocks the same item that was returned, and then the next buyer has to return it also.
I recently purchased a programmable radio from Amazon. The radio had another person's information programmed into the memory. I started to return it for another one but decided to just do a factory reset of the memory instead.