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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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There are so many cases where you must be able to use an item to determine its suitability. If brands and vendors don't facilitate that prior to sale then I have no way to test it without buying it first. Vendors take a gamble then if the product works for me. If it doesn't, well that's the cost of doing business. They make money enough for purchasing wares, paying utilities, rent, and salaries, covering logistical overhead, and turning profit all from the sale of their goods. There's no reason consumers should have to subsidize one of their risks through a special medium beyond the sale of product.
If a company doesn't like that then they can adopt consumer friendly protections like permitting trying on clothes, test driving a car or having a tool rental option prior to sale.
But if I:
Well, then, they can process a return.
This is correct.
Four of the five examples you provided are warranty claims: The product is defective, or otherwise not-as-described.
The fifth one is the only one where I would probably insist on a return fee. My wrench would clearly have its dimensions listed, and you'd have all the information you needed to learn whether it would work for your particular application long before you hit the "buy" button. When it doesn't fit, I will be able to show you that you could and should have known that before purchasing. (I'd probably waive the restock fee if you were sufficiently self-deprecating and apologetic about wasting my time.)
If I look and realize I didn't include that information, that would be a warranty claim.
Why? It's not broken. Might fit some other car. And not being able to set the background. Not broken. Just operates that way. They should do a better job of describing the product which is why a lot of legitimate returns happen. In a world where bricks and mortar stores are going extinct people must rely on product descriptions and with more and more shady practices by sellers. Forget their restocking fee.
If they lose customers because of the fee, then aren't they in essence paying the price anyway?
If I buy something from you, and then return it for no reason whatsoever, am I actually a customer? Or am I just some asshole you never want to hear from again?
Is this my 1st purchase or 50th? What if it's my 500th?
Being anti-consumer harms you more than it helps, because it will drive business away from you for being an asshole. I know, I've stolen business from big box stores to my personal by pointing that out to people (and I only got kicked out once for losing them a sale lol).
Oh, if you're trying to return it arbitrarily, it is definitely your first purchase. I've got years of data supporting that. Repeat customers just don't make arbitrary returns. If a repeat customer makes a return, it is because I screwed up, and I don't charge a restock fee on my mistakes. Quite the contrary, I usually offer a replacement without a return, and toss in some goodies as well.
I'm not being anti-consumer. "You" are not a consumer. You're returning the product arbitrarily, not "consuming" it.
What you actually are is a "borrower". Which would be fine if I was a library, but I'm a small business with tight margins.
Catering to borrowers takes time away from serving my customers. I don't feel a pressing need to convert a borrower to a customer.