@xadexane wrote:
@richard1rst wrote:
But clearly the attitude about free returns is changing. Whether or not, if ever, it gets to eBay is an open question. But it is turning.
Then in the same way there is a flood of free returns, there will be a flood of no-return chargebacks.
With the same integrity that consumers will try many to return most, the same purchaser is not deterred to chargeback. Retailers abound, the buyer has 10 or more credit cards, and if either blacklists, the buyer simply moves on to the next retailer or competing-for-your-business credit card.
If it's not already plainly evident, return fees will go the way of the restocking fees.
Well, first we are talking about prominent independent retailers not your basic Mom and Pop stores. And I would guess that most major retailers have their own credit cards over which they can control chargebacks. Or at the very least they have influences with banks that you and I do not when it come to chargebacks.
Aside from that however, if a major retailer makes returns a hassle to the point that “the buyer simply moves on to the next retailer” that is exactly what the retailer would want. Driving away a troublesome retail buyer is no different than adding them to eBay's Blocked Buyer List. Now they are someone else's problem.
It costs retailers a significant amount of money, time and labor to clean, possibly repack or retag, and restock returns. And if comes back in less than salable condition then it goes in the closeout bin to be sold for pennies on the dollar. All of that is a financial loss to the store.
If adding a return fee eliminates the troublesome buyer and drives that buyer to a different store than I would suggest that return fees will increase, not vanish. The same way that eBay's Blocked Buyer List is not going to disappear.
It is easy to assume that stores exist to makes sales because that is what is publicly stressed. That is not why stores exist. They exist to make PROFIT all of which the above bites into.
