Posted on 01/04/2018 4:23:05 PM PST by aquila48
Earlier this week I returned a pair of indoor/outdoor heated slippers that I purchased online from a niche retailer as a Christmas present for my wife. The problem was that they resembled outdoor boots more than they did indoor slippers. As I started to search for the retailer’s policy on returns, I steeled myself for a time-consuming and costly process of perusing ambiguous and closely packed text and then undertaking the arduous and messy task of repackaging the item and engaging a shipper to return it. As it turned out, the return process was a breeze.
I began by viewing a three-minute online video on the retailer’s returns page, which clearly specified the steps I needed to take, beginning with printing out a prepaid FedEX shipping label. As instructed, I then repacked the item in the same two boxes that it was shipped to me in and affixed the prepaid shipping label to the shipping box. Both the gift box containing the slippers and the shipping box were deliberately constructed and sealed so that they were not mangled or otherwise damaged when they were initially opened.
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The ease with which I was able to return the product was not the result of a happy accident or the unique policy of a niche retailer. It was the product of fierce competition that is raging between online and brick-and-mortar retailers this holiday season. One retail consultant called returns a “battleground” among online retailers, whose holiday sales have grown almost 14% over 2016 sales to $107 billion. Returns for the entire retail industry, including online and traditional retailers, are expected to equal roughly $90 billion over the next few weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
Not really, no.
I hate gift giving. I buy you something you don’t want and Vice versa. Then you go must go through the procedure to return it. I don’t usually return something someone buys for me. I cram it in the crawl space or give it to one of my kids.. I actually let the wife buy almost all gifts. Then she puts my and her name on it. When I was single, only extremely special people got gifts from me and I told the rest PLEASE DONT BUY ME ANY PRESENTS.
Yes. I am considered a Scrooge. I wear it as a badge
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