The Wall Street Journal-20080117-Home -amp- Family -- Cranky Consumer- Many Happy Returns- It Depends- Retailers Serve Up Pleasant Surprises- Despite Chitchat
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Home & Family -- Cranky Consumer: Many Happy Returns? It Depends; Retailers Serve Up Pleasant Surprises, Despite Chitchat
Return policies are important, particularly after the holiday shopping season. But people seeking refunds may find that some items -- especially electronics -- aren't welcomed back by retailers.
Electronics are among the common exceptions in retailers' return policies. Best Buy Co. has a 15% restocking fee on opened, nondefective digital cameras, radar detectors and some other items. For Circuit City Stores Inc., opened software, music, games and movies may be exchanged for the same title only.
Return policies have been changing, too. Twice in the past year, Target Corp. has tightened restrictions on items returned without a receipt. Customers now can receive a gift card for as much as $20 no more than twice a year on such returns. The limit for each card had been $40 until August, and $100 until April.
Retailers say limitations are necessary because for some high-tech products, an item may be obsolete by the time it is returned. Also, some items have to be inspected or serviced and then resold at a substantial discount, Circuit City says. "Returned products are costly to retailers," a company spokeswoman says. Target says it revised its nonreceipt-return policy to combat fraud.
While returns certainly add to retailers' costs, companies' imposing restocking fees and other limitations is shortsighted, says Claes Fornell, a business professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business who runs the American Customer Satisfaction Index. "If you tick off a customer by adding a surcharge," he says, "chances are you're going to lose the customer, that customer's future business and everyone that customer talks to."
To assess the ease of returns, we bought two packages each at five retail chains and attempted returns. Except for the Apple Inc. stores, where we bought ear phones for the iPhone, the items were HDMI home- entertainment cables. At each store, we made separate trips to return opened and unopened packages. We brought our receipt and made the trip within the stores' required time frame. Every item came in plastic packaging that had to be destroyed to be opened.
We had expected that the opened, mangled packages would give the stores pause. But we received a refund for every item. Still, the quality of the experiences varied.
The visits to two Apple stores in Manhattan were reasonably speedy and devoid of questioning, though a little irritating. In SoHo, our clerk gabbed with colleagues while handling the return of our $39.95 ear phones. We had to interrupt to ask how long it would take for the refund to take effect (two to three business days).
At the Fifth Avenue store, we encountered a 30-customer-long line, with purchasers and returners lumped together. The queue moved quickly, though, as clerks toting credit-card readers pulled customers out of line. We were one of those lucky ones and though we were returning an opened package, were asked only if there was anything wrong with the product, which there wasn't. The entire process took 10 stress-free minutes.
Target was a different story. Prof. Fornell says he has heard an increasing number of complaints about Target's return policy. We saw why.
When we first attempted to return our $39.99 HDMI cable, on a Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, the line was more than 20 customers long and not moving. We left and returned the next morning, when it took just two minutes to reach the returns counter. The cashier took a look at our mangled package and said we could make only an exchange. But after we returned from the second floor with a replacement, the clerk gave us a refund anyway.
Target says we shouldn't have had a problem. "I think you were just met by a team member that was being overzealous," a Target spokesman says. As for anecdotes of growing complaints, Target says it has a competitive returns policy that has largely gone unchanged since 2001, aside from the adjustments for nonreceipt returns.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. runs big, multipurpose locations like Target, but both our returns in Union, N.J., went well. We received not even a flinch from the clerks in our two separate trips.
Our first return, on a Saturday morning, took about five minutes. The two clerks on duty were busy with customers but no one else was waiting. The second return, on a Sunday evening with about a half dozen people in line, took 15 minutes. The clerk politely accepted our opened package for a full $39 refund.
At Best Buy, the service wasn't as friendly. For our first return, in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, the clerk was chatting with someone who looked to be a friend or off-duty employee. When she finished processing our return, she yelled, "Next!" before we could say a word.
The store was packed. But there were six customer-service employees working, and the line of a dozen customers moved fast; we were done in 15 minutes. The second time, there were just six people in line and four clerks on duty, but the wait took 20 minutes.
The easiest trip was to Circuit City. There was no wait and no trouble.
On our first return, of a $54.99 HDMI cable, the clerk asked only if we'd opened the package. We said no, but she said it wouldn't have been a problem if we had. Sure enough, we returned the next day with shards of packaging. He asked if we wanted to make an exchange, but when we said no, he processed a refund.
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Joseph De Avila and Tony Robinson contributed to this article.
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STORE: Apple
EASE OF RETURN: Long line but it moved quickly; few questions about why we were making a return
COMMENT: The returns might have been quicker if there had been separate lines for purchases and returns -- and if the employees weren't gabbing. We had to interrupt them to ask how long it would take for our card to be credited (2-3 business days).
STORE: Best Buy
EASE OF RETURN: Not difficult, though not friendly; again, too much chatter among the employees
COMMENT: One clerk seemed more interested in a personal conversation than in handling customers. The line moved swiftly one day but slowly the next, though the second line had fewer people.
STORE: Circuit City
EASE OF RETURN: Super easy: short lines, minimal interrogation
COMMENT: Aside from having to wait a couple of minutes while our clerk's computer was commandeered by another employee, we breezed in and out both times. We didn't get funny looks or skeptical questions.
STORE: Target
EASE OF RETURN: Arduous; on one trip, initially we were declined a refund
COMMENT: Our clerk at first said (incorrectly) that we could get only an exchange on our opened package. Only after we fetched a replacement on a separate floor, did she relent. Target said we shouldn't have had any trouble.
STORE: Wal-Mart
EASE OF RETURN: No problem; no questions asked
COMMENT: For such a large store, Wal-Mart's return lines were relatively short. We waited five minutes on our first trip and 15 on the second. One clerk was especially polite, even though we were returning an opened package.
