A new study shows that a growing number of electronics purchases — up to one in five — are being returned to retailers, and that a large majority of the items returned as defective are in fact perfectly fine.

According to a study by the folks at Accenture, the return rate for consumer electronics is anywhere from 11-20%. That number is on the rise, with 58% of retailers claiming higher return rates than previous years.

Especially of note is that 68% of items returned for allegedly having some sort of defect were listed as “no trouble found” after being re-tested upon return to the manufacturer.

(Of course, as anyone who has bought one of these items can tell you, sometimes those re-tests don’t catch the defect the original customer complained about.)

It’s estimated that manufacturers and retailers will spend around $16.7 billion to process returned merchandise this year.

Americans returning electronic gadgets in record numbers [ChicagoBreakingBusiness.com]

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