mickbayne wrote:jerseyhoya wrote:Woody wrote:This is basic return fraud, regardless of whether "you're only getting store credit." It's hardly any different than stealing an item from one store and returning it to another. This kind of stuff costs retailers billions per year
Savvy
Yes, it's wrong to lie, but this kind of stuff does not cost retailers billions per year. Lethal's posts from an earlier page did a very nice job of explaining why.
I'm not sure where to jump into this conversation, but I've worked for retailers with similar policies. Why do they have this policy? One, because often their customers will have legitimate returns, but will be unable to locate a receipt. Secondly, other people will receive items as gifts and not know where, or not be able, to return the item where it was purchased. In either case the retailer wants to maintain the goodwill of the customer and have them continue to shop in their store while avoiding severe economic consequences. Issuing store credit rather than cash, as explained earlier, helps protect them from severe losses, although when you factor in the amount of unsaleable or unreturnable merchandise and the time spent to process returns, some degree of loss is unavoidable.
The retailer knows a certain amount of fraud will occur, but balances this against the goodwill and loyalty created. Where I worked we would track the names of customers who made returns, and if there was evidence of abuse that person would be cut off from making returns.
Best Buy's stated returns policy is actually pretty strict, so the store is actually stepping outside its guidelines to provide credit in the situation described. Whether they continue to do so depends on the amount of fraud that occurs relative to the goodwill created. And it is fraud; the simple test is that you have to lie about it.
