Top 6 Reasons I Hate Returning Holiday Presents
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Suzanne is a certified credit counselor and a Social Media Specialist for CareOne Debt Relief Services. Suzanne writes for Divorce, Debt and Finances and A Straight Talk on Debt. Follow Suzanne on Twitter @ADivorcedMom and @AskCareOne where she shares her insights on divorce and managing your finances.
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The packages have all been opened; the ribbons are in the trash and now for the fun part—returning the duplicate gifts, the pants that just didn’t fit, and the sweater you hate from grandma.
Retailers everywhere dread this part of the holiday season more than we do but, do they really need to complicate matters? Some retailers are better than others when it comes to their return and exchange policies but inevitably there will be hassles.
So how can you make the return process as painless as possible? Arm yourself with the stores return policy, and a smile.
- Hassle free returns are anything but. I hate having to make a scene at the cash register. We all want the same thing when it comes to returning something we’ve bought or received as a gift; to be able to make the return and get our money back without a fight.
- Hidden return policies. I hate when the return policy is not displayed and I have to ask. We want the return policy clearly displayed near the sales counter and if possible printed directly on our receipts.
- Poorly trained staff. There is nothing worse than standing on line for hours on end to return something only to wind up at the counter with an employee who has no idea how to return your item.
- The inquisition. I don’t want to sacrifice my first born, figuratively speaking, in order to return an item I am not interested in having. It shouldn’t matter when I bought it, why I no longer want it, etc. A simple, “It didn’t fit,” should suffice.
- The long lines. I hate the lines after the holidays; stores should have a separate line specifically for returns. It never fails that the lines are longer post holiday as shopper’s line up to return / exchange unwanted gifts.
- Your size, the color you want is no longer available. I hate when I like the item but, need a different size / color and there isn’t any of the item left. Merchandise gets picked over throughout the holidays often leaving you with few choices for an exchange.
Let’s face it returns are inevitable post holiday. No matter how carefully you shopped for a gift or how much thought your Aunt Betty put into yours, its human nature to return unwanted items for something you could actually use.
In today’s economy we are all trying to be frugal and watch every penny spent and an unwanted item lying in the closet or on a garage shelf bothers us.
Maybe next year I will consider re-gifting unwanted items or selling them on Craigslist.
How do you feel about the holiday returns process?
Ashley here: I usually make my husband do our returns. Maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve never really gotten too much as far as an inquisition. But I do always feel like the company thinks I’m trying to pull a fast one. I doubt they care but I always feel awkward.
Ashley
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Comments
I also dislike returning items to physical stores for the reasons that are listed above. However, I have found that returning items to Amazon is really easy. I’m not sure if they do this for all items, but for a book set that I had received two copies of, they paid my shipping costs to send it back. I just needed to box it (using the same box it came in) and drop it off at a UPS store. I like it when it’s easy!
I really really returning items. I have only returned once in store so far. We bought a camera that had its own battery along with the docking station to charge. The battery would stay only for 30 mins. If it was regular batteries I would have just kept it but we can’t stop for 2 hrs every 30 mins to find a charging station. The walmart return employee treated me like I personally robbed her of something. Now I research the heck out of a product and then only buy. And mostly buy only from Amazon just in case. We never had to return anything so far. Hopefully that will be the case forever.
@Jeffrey You are absolutely right about the cost to retailers; having worked in retail I saw firsthand what happened to the “returned” items. Some people totally take advantage of return policies and return used items.
@Bryan I have had good and bad experiences returning items ordered online; but yes Amaazon is great with returns.
@Suba I too had a bad camera experience return with Best Buy. I had to return the same camera twice before I finally got one that worked…ughhh.
Not that I’m sticking up for the retailers, but apparently returns are a huge loss for them both in damaged merchandise as well as fraud.
I really dislike the long lines. It’s always a pain to have to stand there and wait.
It’s also annoying to try to exchange things. A lot of times they no longer have your size. I just went to exchange a pair of slippers at LL Bean, and my size is back-ordered 2 months!