What's New For 2008 Return Policies
Some retailers are tightening their returning policies this year, while others are loosening them. ConsumerWorld tells you who's naughty and nice this year.
Of note:
- Circuit City extended holiday return deadlines to January 31.
- Sears pulls back its far-reaching 15% fee to just electronics that are used or missing packaging or parts, mattresses, built-in appliances, and some special order items.
- BestBuy tightens return policy by a week to January 24 for most items.
- Overtsock has an up to 30% restock fee on some items.
2008 Holiday Return Policies: Some Retailers Naughty, Some Nice [Consumer World] (Photo: www.geofffox.com)
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Comments:
Damn, I guess I won't be able to return the huge amount of socks I'll end up getting to Overt sock.
@Dafrety:
always hated getting socks for christmas as a kid... then I finally got that NES I wanted... 4 years afer the Super Nintendo came out
For the naughty companies: You REALLY want to lose business, don't you. Hell, they could put some stipulations after a certain date, like after January 24th, no returns, only exchanges or store credit until Jan. 31st. People shouldn't be waiting until the 31st to return things, anyway.
As for Overstock.com - Who the hell even SHOPS there. I went to their site when the commercials began, and couldn't find a darn thing that was genuinely on sale.
as a consumer, i think 30 days, unopened or like new in the box is completely reasonable. receipt = 100% refund/no receipt = lowest price last 6 months. anything less than that is just being a dick. anything more than that is nice, but not needed.
as a former retail employee, i feel for those of you on the line this year. i'll have a few extra egg nogs in your name on the 26th. then i'll come to see you with my busted ass mp3 player without a box, headphones or software that i didn't even buy in your store two years ago demanding a refund. happy holidays!
Are retailers still charging restocking fees for items that were never opened? Since Newegg started selling electronics, I haven't been in a store in quite awhile. I always found a fee for restocking an obviously unopened item to be complete BS. 1 or 2 percent, I can live with that, but 15% on an unwanted Macbook that I never took out of the box (this was about 18 months ago) is just pure BS.
Restock fee? What is that for?
Some stores it's January 14th. But that's for cellphones, so I'm happy they have any return policy.
@verucalise: They have their occasional uses. One time I went through them to get an IDE based ethernet card long after most retailers stopped acknowledging that IDE cards ever even existed. So...once...yup, useful once.
WOW.... Sears still hasn't learned anything !
Sears still charges a 15% restocking fee. With retailers fighting each other tooth and nail for consumers business, they can't even seem to get themselves on an even playing field with their return policy.
It tells me that Sears must sell some pretty awful stuff if they wont' back up the products they sell.
I have not spent a penny in Sears due to their 15% return fee and I never will again !
LOL @ Overtsock
Macy's was v. v. nice to me last night. I bought 5 suits, and returned one. I didn't have my receipt but they were nice enough to put it back on the debit card I purchased it with. I was fearing I'd only get store credit (which I'd never use).
@Dafrety:
I'm just bought a pair of overtsocks. What if I want to swap them for inconspicuousocks? Inquiring feet want to know.
@verucalise: I don't know that I'd buy gifts from Overstock, but I recently got a sewing machine from them for about $85 that retails at $150, plus they threw in a bunch of accessories that would have run me about another $40 free. While I'd expect some kind of discount for a refurb, that was a much better deal than I'd expected to find.
what i find most strange is that you got that graphic from my local network weatherman's home page.
Meh, the Target I work at does NOT charge a restocking fee. If the electronic item is unopened, there should be no hassle (unless it has a serial number, in which case the employee at the service desk will open the box to check.) If the item has been opened, the employee (or "Team member" in target lingo) will call someone from the electronics department. they look through the box, and if everything's there, you just return it.
I've been at my store for over a year, and last week, i actually had one of the people at the service desk (i'm a supervisor of the front area) ask me HOW to do a restocking fee... answer: we don't.
I cant believe you guys missed this part:
"Best Buy...and computers only have their standard 14 day return period. So, it is already too late to return any PC bought on Black Friday."
which is partially incorrect. desktops have 30 days, laptops 14.
but consumerist missing a chance to knock BB? shame!
Odd. Almost every retail job I've worked allowed holiday returns until January 31st. Although tightening it to the 24th would still be about 30 days, which is what most retail return policies are, so... meh? Not sure whether it's a good or bad thing. Shortening it to the 15th of January or earlier sure would suck, though. Instead of the 12 Days of Christmas you get 12 Days of returnability. Jolly, indeed.