Comments on: On returning stuff

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:27:49 +0000

My mom has always been an “overshopper.” She tends to buy twice as many Christmas gifts as she needs; she’ll buy clothes she has no intention of keeping. She also cannot be bothered to return things herself. When I was in college, I would inevitably spend half of any break making trips to the mall to return things for her. It was actually pretty embarrassing, because I would make multiple trips to the same store within a few days to return hundreds of dollars worth of clothes that had just been sitting around for months.

My college roommate worked as seasonal help one Christmas for Eddie Bauer. She was getting married a few months later, and wanted some nice bedding for herself and her fiance, so she bought a pretty expensive set with her employee discount (Eddie Bauer sold sheets and duvet covers at the time).

She was well-liked by the EB manager and had good sales numbers, so she expected to be offered a year-round position. She wasn’t. Five months later, her fiance broke off their engagement.

So, she went up to her bedroom, stripped the bed, stuck the dirty bedding into the plastic bags it originally came in, and returned the lot. I have no idea how long it had been since she had washed her sheets, but the fact that she still had the original packaging a good five months after she bought the sheets is pretty good testimony to her housekeeping skills. I don’t remember her actually doing laundry while we lived together.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:44:47 +0000

I spent one Christmas season working at Macy’s. The after-Christmas returns were brutal. The best was the woman who returned an Oral B Sonic Toothbrush because “it just stopped working”. The toothbrush had obviously been used (still toothpaste on the brushhead). She wanted a replacment, not a refund, so I made the exchange. Three months later, the same woman returns, with same complaint. This time, my manager checked the toothbrush – it was perfectly fine, except the brushhead was worn out. Rather than spend the money for a replacement brushhead, she would just return the tootbrush for a new one every 3 months!

By: MsChickie

MsChickie — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:28:18 +0000

I worked at the “W” store as a cashier and was wheeling returns back one night. I smelled something weird. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until the crockpot box that was in the cart moved and I heard a slosh. The person had returned a crockpot full of ROTTEN PEA SOUP!!!!!!!!!!!!! I leave you with that.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:13:32 +0000

Huh. I never realized so many people returned gifts. A friend once bought me the dvd of The Count of Monte Cristo–She adored it; I’d never seen it and never cared to. I had my mom exchange it for a $20 Wal Mart gift card but felt awful about it whenever I remember. I still feel bad!!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:03:28 +0000

My husband’s uncle tried to return a TV to Costco that he had bought there SEVEN YEARS earlier. He was ready to get a flat screen and didn’t want the old one anymore. The most incredible part of the story is that they took it back! And really he spends so much money there that it was probably worth it to the store, but we were appalled that he would even try.

By: Sadia

Sadia — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:48:40 +0000

Such interesting posts! Let’s see… I tried to return a pair of boots to Nine West once, after 6 months of wear, because I honestly thought they were meant to last for much longer. An interesting contrast is that I later bought a pair of boots in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) that lasted a solid 3 years. I had the soles replaced once or twice; it was clear that the Brazilian boots were built to last (and be repaired!!) and the Nine West boots were meant to be destroyed by normal wear and tear before a year had passed. They were impossible to repair!!

So I’ve learned my lesson and now am a much better educated consumer.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:39:25 +0000

i’m usually pretty good about the return thing. i have returned one christmas present from my parents because i asked for a neil young cd and ended up with a neil diamond cd (they insisted they sounded similar enough.
being really not fond of neil diamond i took it back and swapped it.
i also had to recently send a dvd back to amazon because when i took it out of the box it would skip and jam on my player. i checked that it was the disk and not the player and swapped it.
i’ve also returned rotten food to the grocery store, but never longer than a couple of hours after i purchased it.
because longer than that and it’s just gross.

By: David

David — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:29:57 +0000

these are great! i’m a notorious returner and have 100s of stories i could share. but better than mine, is one i heard from a banana republic employee who told me about a guy who bought a suit, wore it for a full year, returned it (banana gave him store credit because he kept the receipt all those months), and then bought the suit again, one week later, when it was marked 80% off!

By: GTT

GTT — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:18:06 +0000

I work as a buyer for a department store and I always hear interesting stories about customers wanting to return things… We have a pretty liberal return policy (pretty much the “the customer is always right” philosophy… except when it comes to lingerie and underwear because, let´s face it, that´s just gross). One of the best ones I heard was a lady who returned a VERY pricey pair of boots because they got scuffed when she went horse-back riding! Not only was the leather scratched, there was a ripe horse-doody smell that just would not wash off. Obviously, the returned boots went into the trash…

By: the st00v

the st00v — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:15:59 +0000

Working within the department that oversees the customer service end of our store, I’ve seen (and dealt with) many incredible circumstances involving the return of certain products. I’ve quite a few stories, too long for a comment, that i’ve amassed over time. Travel to willitblend.com and watch the clip where the camcorder is blended, be sure to also watch part 2: The Return. It is not something that would necessarily surprise me if encountered in my own store.