What's going too far with "buy then return" at retail stores?

[JDMnAR1]

Your wife did nothing wrong. I wll frequently overbuy before I start a project simply so I don't have to stop in the middle of said project to buy more supplies. It isn't like she took an entire buggy full of obviously used Christmas ornaments complete with artificial tree back to Wal Mart on Dec. 27th for a refund.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Going too far is buying something and bringing it back after the warranty expires and bitching until you get a new one. Also, a good example are the deal shoppers that go buy it on sell and try to return it at the original price, basically stealing money from the stores. Most of this can be prevented by paying your CS staff enough to actually give a damn about your store...lol

 

[Gillbot]

Your wife did nothing wrong. I wll frequently overbuy before I start a project simply so I don't have to stop in the middle of said project to buy more supplies. It isn't like she took an entire buggy full of obviously used Christmas ornaments complete with artificial tree back to Wal Mart on Dec. 27th for a refund.

Same here, especially with plumbing or something along those lines. I buy anything and everything I think I might even remotely need then return the unused parts after i'm finished.

I think the key here is, as long as it's unused/unopened it's ok. It really burns me when I see people posting in CPU/OC that they got a dud chip for the 3rd time since it won't hit eleventy three GHz so they'll just return it and buy a few more till they get a good one.......

 

[Rumpltzer]

While in grad school, one of my neighbors wanted to borrow my Costco card. She planned to buy a rice cooker, use it for the summer while her roommate was away, and then return it in the fall. I told her I'd have no part in it.

While shopping at Costco for vitamins earlier this year, I picked up a bottle and it had, "Merry Christmas! Love, XXXXX," written on it. Looked otherwise sealed, but I chose another bottle anyway.


Folks return unused lumber and building supplies to Home Depot and the like all the time... I see this extra party supply thing as something similar.

 

[mugs]

The other part of why returns are tracked is people scamming. They either grab something from the shelf and walk over to CS to get a refund, or they buy with a stolen CC and bring it back without the receipt to get store credit in a gift card that they sell to somebody for cash.

Macy's has started putting return labels on everything (maybe not every item, but at least ~$12 and up). When you're checking out they scan the item, put a sticker on it, scan the sticker, and the unique return label number goes on your receipt. Prevents you from using that receipt to return anything that wasn't bought at Macy's.

It's pretty annoying though, the cashiers are pretty slow at this process.

 

[kranky]

A little late but just remembered a story a friend told me a few years ago. He was moonlighting at Home Depot at the time. A guy came in with a handful of 4 inch long stubs that were cut from 8 foot long 2x4s. But the stub ends still had the UPC on them. The guy actually wanted to return them as if they were still 8 feet long.

My friend thinks this is ridiculous and goes to ask the manager for advice on how hard to come down on this scammer. But the manager looks over to see who the customer is and says just give him his money back or he'll cause a big scene. Apparently he was well known in the store.

Whether they'll cause a scene or not, don't enable scammers.

 

[rh71]

ok who else has bought car seats for their rental car while on vacation and returned them after use? We're gonna have 4 kids (2 cars) for like 7 days. Renting them through the car rental company is gonna cost a lot. Even booster seats.

 

[AustinInDallas]

That seems acceptable to me. Working at frys I have to admit I see some shady shit from customers. Literally no joke, atm, half our graphics card inventory is open box. Customers just buy stuff, use it temporarily, and end up returning it.

Sad part is,..We can't test every component that comes back as well...and from time to time depending on item, we take the customers word for it if the item is still functional...Which unfortunately ends up with either a broken item on the shelves...Or even a incomplete contents of the package...

People are just flat out evil at times =*(.

But yea....You're fine...^_^

sounds like you work at store 19

 

[SlitheryDee]

A little late but just remembered a story a friend told me a few years ago. He was moonlighting at Home Depot at the time. A guy came in with a handful of 4 inch long stubs that were cut from 8 foot long 2x4s. But the stub ends still had the UPC on them. The guy actually wanted to return them as if they were still 8 feet long.

My friend thinks this is ridiculous and goes to ask the manager for advice on how hard to come down on this scammer. But the manager looks over to see who the customer is and says just give him his money back or he'll cause a big scene. Apparently he was well known in the store.

Whether they'll cause a scene or not, don't enable scammers.

This is what you get when the people working at the store don't have anything invested in it. The funny thing is that customers will mistake the employees apathy about whether or not the customer is trying to screw them for good customer service. The employee is just taking everything back whether the store can get credit from the manufacturer or not because they are too apathetic to deal with a disgruntled customer. Naturally this results in a happy customer because they know they can scam the place whenever they want to after that.

You'll hear some people say that retailers should go ahead and take returns like that anyway because it'll work out to be a net profit over the course if their relationship with the customer, but my experience is the opposite. The same people will try to pull the same bullshit over and over again. There's no way to make them happy and ever make money off of them as well. As far as I'm concerned I don't need those kinds of people as customers anyway.

 

[Baked]

i give people in the return line at costco the snake eye whenever i see them returning fruits and veggies. assholes come in all shapes and sizes.

 

[Baked]

Whether they'll cause a scene or not, don't enable scammers.

i agree with this 100%. they only pull this shit because other people keep enabling them with the customer is always right shit. fuck you and get out of my store.

 

[Red Storm]

ok who else has bought car seats for their rental car while on vacation and returned them after use? We're gonna have 4 kids (2 cars) for like 7 days. Renting them through the car rental company is gonna cost a lot. Even booster seats.

Why don't these kids already have car/booster seats to take and use? None of their parents own cars?

 

[rockyct]

Nothing is wrong with what she did.

1) She actually did spend money at the store after the items were returned
2) The returned items were resalable for full price
3) The time from initial buy to the return was probably pretty short so I assume the store wasn't stuck with old or dead stock
4) A party host should always buy over the headcount. Much less stress if someone brings a couple extra people

 

[mugs]

ok who else has bought car seats for their rental car while on vacation and returned them after use? We're gonna have 4 kids (2 cars) for like 7 days. Renting them through the car rental company is gonna cost a lot. Even booster seats.

This is exactly the kind of bad consumer behavior that is a problem. This is not ok.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

ok who else has bought car seats for their rental car while on vacation and returned them after use? We're gonna have 4 kids (2 cars) for like 7 days. Renting them through the car rental company is gonna cost a lot. Even booster seats.

That would be way over the line. That's theft

 

[Anonemous]

Why don't these kids already have car/booster seats to take and use? None of their parents own cars?

It's sometimes more expensive to bring them (baggage fees) then to buy new ones at the destination.

 

[olds]

I am reading where people get a sliver membership at BB which I guess gives a liberal return (60 day?) policy. Then they buy a TV and return it when a newer one comes out. Seems like a pain in the ass to me.

 

[Mixolydian]

I am reading where people get a sliver membership at BB which I guess gives a liberal return (60 day?) policy. Then they buy a TV and return it when a newer one comes out. Seems like a pain in the ass to me.

it is, chris. aint nobody got time for that.

 

[highland145]

This is exactly the kind of bad consumer behavior that is a problem. This is not ok.

This. You could donate it to a non profit and take the tax write off as new.