Are you buying a product from Google’s Nexus line as a gift this holiday season, or for an upcoming special event? It’s too late for reader Joan, but she wants everyone to know that you should probably make your purchase from somewhere with a looser return policy than the Google Play store if your gift-giving occasion is more than two weeks or so away. That’s because you can’t return items more than 15 days after purchase unless they’re defective.

Google is free to set their own policies, of course, but that’s important information for customers to have. Joan is the gift recipient in this case, who wanted to trade her Nexus 7 in for a tablet with a larger screen. She says that the short return deadline wasn’t made clear to her siblings when they made the purchase. It’s in the “help” documentation, but why would you look there unless you’re specifically looking for help?

She explains:

I have a ‘buyer beware’ alert to report that you may or may not be aware of. My siblings purchased a Google Nexus 7 for my 60th birthday, Family issues stopped us from celebrating until last night. Upon receipt of the gift I saw that the screen was too small for me to be able to read clearly so it was decided that I should upgrade to the 10 inch model.

As soon as I awoke this morning I called Google and was informed that I could neither return or exchange the tablet because it had been shipped on 11/16/2012 and they only allow returns within 15 days of shipping. They do not exchange unless the product is defective and then only for the same model.

I have checked their website, and yes, I found this clause buried in link but there is no clear warning to holiday shoppers. Only the very tardy shoppers will be lucky enough to be allowed to have their gifts returned if the recipients do not like the Nexus.

This policy is not user friendly and it should be made very clear on their order form, especially at the holiday season.

That’s a good reminder even if you aren’t tablet-shopping: the always check the return policies of the stores where you buy gifts for any event. You can never be sure when or why something might have to go back.

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