When you return an item, sometimes a store charges a fee. So for example a $300 phone, they take $35 off your return, so you only get back $265 if you decide to return it.
It’s bullshit because they aren’t going to sell it for $35 less to the next chump.
It has nothing to do with discounting it, it has to do with paying for the labour involved in the sale and refund process, which takes worker time.
That labor should be paid from the profits of goods sold and not returned–just like every other liability.
Why? The company shouldn’t have to eat the cost just because you decide after the fact that you don’t actually want/need the item. The company should be liable for warranty claims, but not simple returns.
There are so many cases where you must be able to use an item to determine its suitability. If brands and vendors don’t facilitate that prior to sale then I have no way to test it without buying it first. Vendors take a gamble then if the product works for me. If it doesn’t, well that’s the cost of doing business. They make money enough for purchasing wares, paying utilities, rent, and salaries, covering logistical overhead, and turning profit all from the sale of their goods. There’s no reason consumers should have to subsidize one of their risks through a special medium beyond the sale of product.
If a company doesn’t like that then they can adopt consumer friendly protections like permitting trying on clothes, test driving a car or having a tool rental option prior to sale.
But if I:
- buy a phone and realize only when I get home that the brilliant engineers forgot to allow me to set a background image
- buy a new computer and realize only when I get home that despite them advertising it supports thunderbolt it won’t actually work with my thunderbolt accessories and can’t support 3 external displays
- buy a new mouse that is enclosed in a sealed cardboard box that doesn’t permit checking the ergonomics only to realize it doesn’t work well
- buy a pair of headphones only to realize they sound bad/creak when worn/have terrible cable noise
- buy an oil filter wrench and realize I can’t fit it and my hand at the same time on the access port
Well, then, they can process a return.
This is correct.
Four of the five examples you provided are warranty claims: The product is defective, or otherwise not-as-described.
The fifth one is the only one where I would probably insist on a return fee. My wrench would clearly have its dimensions listed, and you’d have all the information you needed to learn whether it would work for your particular application long before you hit the “buy” button. When it doesn’t fit, I will be able to show you that you could and should have known that before purchasing. (I’d probably waive the restock fee if you were sufficiently self-deprecating and apologetic about wasting my time.)
If I look and realize I didn’t include that information, that would be a warranty claim.
Why? It’s not broken. Might fit some other car. And not being able to set the background. Not broken. Just operates that way. They should do a better job of describing the product which is why a lot of legitimate returns happen. In a world where bricks and mortar stores are going extinct people must rely on product descriptions and with more and more shady practices by sellers. Forget their restocking fee.
If they lose customers because of the fee, then aren’t they in essence paying the price anyway?
If they lose customers because of the fee, then aren’t they in essence paying the price anyway?
If I buy something from you, and then return it for no reason whatsoever, am I actually a customer? Or am I just some asshole you never want to hear from again?
If you have the right by law to return something, they must not charge a fee. That cost needs to be included in the original price. If the return policy is optional, then they can charge something. And you can decide to never buy anything from them ever again. And trash that store on social media for its hostile policy.
And it’s a cost of doing business that the business should pay.
The customer always pays, not the business.
Do you want to pay extra because other people return items?
You act like every return is a scam.
Do you want to pay for a product you didn’t get?
There’s no restocking fee for an item that you didn’t get, because it’s not a return.
A company charging you a restocking fee in that situation is a scam.
Fine I guess I have to spell it out. You get the crappy product, return it and pay a restocking fee. You just paid to end up with nothing. Get it now?
Do your research before buying something?
Returns are not a right, no retailer is required to accept them. Most do it for a better shopping experience, people are more likely to spend if they know they can return.
You are protected from defective or dangerous products, but that’s through the manufacturer’s warranty. You are also protected from products that do not work as advertised. I think that’s a law in most countries.
But returns for other reasons like bad clothing fits or you just don’t like it are not legally protected for the most part. There are some exceptions but they’re specific.
So to say restocking fees are greedy is silly.
A return within 2 weeks is a right in the eu actually.
Only for online shopping I think.
No, I think that you have that right for every contract, that you enter (buying contract or otherwise). Though there are exceptions (for example digital goods like ebooks). Ypu can very much bring back a retail good that you bought in a store for 14 days after the purchase. Though I think they can refuse, if you damaged the product in that time.
For example I returned an item I bought in the tool store, because I realized I bought the wrong one.
For online shopping you can annul your order and they have to comply for pretty much everything, with a few exceptions and under a few caveats (such as unopened/original packaging, depending on the item in question)
Buying in-store you can likewise reurn most things, although you have to provide a reason (which the store may or may not accept), and is again subject to some caveats.
For example, for unperishable items you just have to provide the packaging. Foodstuffs must be unopened or have an obvious factory fault that wasn’t detectable without opening. Underwear is generally not accepted back due to sanitary reasons, but other garmets are, including shoes. Medicine from pharmacies isn’t accepted even sealed and unopened.
Of course, you must provide the original receipt, although scans/photos are accepted and some stores go so far as to look up the receipt by CC number.
Oh good point! So. it’s only a right online… weird.
Errm… Sorry to break it to you, but returns are most definitely a legal right in a good chunk of the world, just because they’re not in whatever backwards country you live does not make it a general rule.
That being said OP is likely from one such countries since he mentions restocking fees which would be illegal in any place that has decent consumer rights laws.
In Europe we are paying restocking fees, just not overtly. I have been in the ecommerce business, and know others who have. You just mark up the goods taking into account your returned goods cost.
It’s like physical stores adding a the spread cost of shoplifting into the prices.
You’re not paying a “fee”. Sure, someone is paying for it, but it isn’t a fee.
Returns are a right and a necessity. Just as you take broken, spoiled, lost (and as you said, stolen) goods into account and “mark up” others to make up those losses, you do the same thing for returns.
It’s a business expense that has to be covered by some means (larger margins). But that’s not a “fee”.
Ummm, they’re offering the return.
I believe a fair and reasonable restocking fee is absolutely justified when customers try to game the system. Having worked in several retail establishments over the years, I can tell you that this sort of behavior is rampant and I’ve seen lots of really shady shit from people, including:
- Buying clothes for a special event and then trying to return them the next day.
- Buying a tool to fix something in your home, and then trying to return it the next day.
- Breaking an item that you purchased, and then wanting to return it, claiming that it is defective.
People are opportunists. If there are no controls in place to keep some people from doing shitty things, some people will do shitty things.
Breaking an item that you purchased, and then wanting to return it, claiming that it is defective.
Context is king, however, if I bought a tool and it broke when I was using it, you best believe I’m going to return it.
Which, if the retailer has any kind of a brain, will be followed by a polite request for a demonstration of how you were using said tool when it broke. They know what to watch for to identify scammers, trust me.
That’s not going to work a lot of the time tho. Like, I bought a weed puller last month that I had to return for a replacement because one of the bolts just fucking fell off at some point, leaving the head of the tool detached from the handle without threading a zip tie through the hole. How would I demonstrate that failure, other than just showing how the product works? And how would you tell if I was scamming you? Most kinds of tool breakage are going to be from normal usage, so the scammer only has to know how the tool works and have a plausible excuse for why it broke.
I worked retail for a decade so I have an idea of where you’re coming from, but I don’t think it’s nearly as easy as you’re saying.
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Absolutely and there’s no shady shit practiced by corporations.
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I can see several reasons why this may be done, and most depend on the retailer and product. The short version is that restocking fees make sense for large or valuable items, and for small businesses.
High-value items like electronics, jewelry, etc. are prone to theft and return fraud. For example: someone could buy a computer or jewelry, swap some parts, and return it with different parts that are worth much less. It takes time and resources to test the product to verify it’s the same as what was sold.
Large items like furniture are very expensive to ship and when one is puchased, the retailer would often restock the item which costs them money.
Small businesses are often charged higher fees by manufacturers and distributors for ordering or shipping products, as they generally don’t order in high amounts. This means that they will make less money if they sell an item for the same price as a large corporation. Small businesses also don’t have the same resources for testing returned products, so processing returns has a much larger impact on them vs large corporations. Because of this, it often makes sense to implement a restocking fee to make up for these costs.
Large corporations generally have a streamlined process for processing, testing, and shipping returned products. While some things are still expensive to process, it’s significantly less impactful for a large business to process a return. It still costs money to process a return, but in my opinion restocking fees can be greedy for larger corporations that can eat those costs.
Depends on the reason for the return and the amount of the fee. It does cost a business money to take product back to stock. Businesses need to keep stock moving out. Just holding stock costs them money. Taking stock back costs even more. They likely can’t sell it as new on top of the normal overhead costs of stocking it.
If it’s returned because you didn’t like it, it’s reasonable for you to bear some of the cost.
If it’s defective or doesn’t work as advertised, that’s different. The retailer should eat the cost of that.
If it’s returned because you didn’t like it, it’s reasonable for you to bear some of the cost.
I think that is reasonable only if the seller has a “try before you buy” policy. As one example, if I’m looking for a new computer peripheral like a mouse or a headset or similar, I usually have no way to actually see how well it works for me before buying.
Small shop: Depends how much they are asking.
It can be a hassle to get it back into inventory.Big shop/retailer: They are setup for that process. They can stomach the burden.
I’m sure there are some people who take advantage of returns and the restocking fee is there to dissuade them. But also I’m sure the retailers are trying to make some extra money on returns.
Depends what it is, I’d say a restocking fee on dildos is reasonable.
Lol I think that should be unreturnable for safety reasons. I don’t specifically search for adult toys so idk what would be the “proper way” to get them, but I got curious and searched amazon’s catelogue and its all non-returnable, which is probablt a good idea because otherwise buyers can’t be sure if its use before… 👀
Yeah it is, never bought dildos but I’ve bought other sex toys on amazon.
Greedy retailer.
Any retailer worth their salt would include them in their profit margins.
When you run a retail store (or online store) selling physical goods, you are bound by the rules of matter (as oppoes to digital stuff). Stuff breaks. Food spoils. Old car models lose value. PC parts even quicker. Stuff gets lost. Stuff gets broken. An error occurs during manufacturing. These are all sources of loss which you have to take into account, predict and mitigate.
Adding returns to that already large (and by no means exhaustive) list isn’t an unreasonable ask.
You just estimate the number and projected cost of returns and adjust your prices and profit margins accordingly.
A “restock fee” is definitely uncalled for. The store made the decision to order X amount of the product, with a Y margin of loss (lost, broken in transport, stolen,…). These present a loss of item. An item they could’ve sold. However, a return isn’t a loss of item. They get the item back. And charging customers for the priviledge of buying something, getting dissappointed and making a big deal out of it with “restock fees” is a stupid business move - you risk losing the customer. Especially when you consider the fact that a return is the smallest cost out of all the issues mentioned here.
And if your competition doesn’t treat their customers as bad as you do - the risk isn’t small. And even if not, a boycott out of spite, even just one customer, is a much larger loss than the net gain of one “restock” fee.
So, it’s just greedy. And a bad business move if you care about customer retention. Not doing it while others do is a smart move, since these things are bound to happen. And when they do at a competitor, who knows? Maybe the customer tries you next and just… Remains loyal. Although when you say “customer loyalty” today, people think of gimmicks like loyalty cards.
I think there is some more nuance here then all restocking fees are bad. For some businesses that sell items that are custom made or have so many varieties that they are practically custom parts. So when an item like this is returned it can’t be sold at the same amount & storing the item until it sells has a cost. So to encourage customers to be certain of their orders a restock fee is used on some items to stop customers from ordering testing then returning what they don’t like.
If you bring up Amazon’s restocking fee your right those guys are assholes who try to squeeze as much cash out of everyone.
This seems relevant: https://youtu.be/WG8idKaX9KI
