Return Policies

[Stan Calow]

Between these return policies and the people not scanning stuff through the self-service checkouts, its a wonder they make any money at all. Oh, I guess they pass the cost on to the rest of us.

[Günter VögelBerg]

The Home Depot I go to has reconfigured their registers to be like the self-checkout, but there is someone there to do the scanning for you most of the time, but it is a little awkward because they are standing next to you instead of on the other side of a counter. It is very strange. I'm still unsure of the protocol.

[Kevin Beitz]

I don't think you should be aloud to return anything unless it's defected.
If you bought it it's yours...

[Edwin Santos]

I don't think you should be aloud to return anything unless it's defected.
If you bought it it's yours...

There's nothing stopping you from adopting that policy for yourself.

There are lots of good reasons these stores have such liberal return policies. These are multi-billion dollar companies, they're not stupid nor gullible. They may take it on the chin now and again, but a liberal return policy is a net win for them at the end of the day.

[Brian Elfert]

The big box stores encourage purchasing additional items for projects as they know a significant percentage of the unused items will never be returned. I knew the returns person at the Menards near my old house personally as I returned some unused item on just about every trip. However, I bought many times more than what I returned.

[Dave Lehnert]

I don't think you should be aloud to return anything unless it's defected.
If you bought it it's yours...

Wont work.
As a retailer if you are not happy with an item I would much rather you return it in usable condition.
If my policy was "No return unless defective" you can bet if the item was not defective it would be by time they returned it.

[Edwin Santos]

I don't think you should be aloud to return anything unless it's defected.
If you bought it it's yours...

Wont work.
As a retailer if you are not happy with an item I would much rather you return it in usable condition.
If my policy was "No return unless defective" you can bet if the item was not defective it would be by time they returned it.

Not to mention that the customer would not shop in your store again if you enforced such a policy. Retailers spend millions on marketing. Yes a percentage of people will abuse a return policy, but a large percentage will not. Return policy losses are a comparatively inexpensive form of marketing, customer acquisition, goodwill building. Plus the largest retailers have negotiated with their suppliers to share or bear the cost of returns and defective items. And they join in because it's worth it for them to do so.

A good retailer is looking at the customer for a relationship, not a single transaction. Most of the larger hotel chains look at customer service in the same way. Sure they'll draw the line at some point, but the goal is to make it the exceptional circumstance where you have to say no to the customer. They've crunched the numbers, they wouldn't do it if there wasn't a payback. The studies show that people are fairly loyal to their chosen brands be it Marriott, Home Depot, Apple, Amazon or whomever. The return policy is one of many tools for reinforcing that loyalty. This is what they told me in business school at least.

I guess another way of expressing the theory is that running a customer off on over a $5 item may be the right thing to do on principle, but it's generally considered to be bad business in the long run.

Edwin