And this is why good things don't last....

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by BUFFLARS12

First off, it's Costco, not Cosco.

Secondly, this might be true outside of the US but it sure is not the case in the 50 states.

Returns cost money. The refund employees are getting paid. What about all the food that gets returned and thrown out?

I guess they just "write it off". Lol

wait, I thought we were talking about Tesco...

[amgraham]

When I expressed my astonishment at what was being returned to Costco to my buddy, and no official terms or whatever here... He insinuated that they do keep track of "used" and "long term" sort of returns. ...and that... if you abuse it and return several "used" items after more than a month or so... You get "flagged". Future returns, especially opened and used, will be scrutinized more carefully and/or refused.

[Sassicaia]

Originally Posted by BUFFLARS12

First off, it's Costco, not Cosco.

Secondly, this might be true outside of the US but it sure is not the case in the 50 states.

Returns cost money. The refund employees are getting paid. What about all the food that gets returned and thrown out?

I guess they just "write it off". Lol

how do you know its not the same in the states? My source (from inside costco) told me it was company wide).

[Sassicaia]

Originally Posted by jgoens

And what do they do with those returned dried out Xmas trees? Spray them and sell them as artificial ones next year?

I've be told some stuff gets sent back to the manufactures and much of it "gets tossed". My guess is its the latter.

Still, someone returning a christmas tree should to be told to fuck off.

[BUFFLARS12]

Originally Posted by Sassicaia

how do you know its not the same in the states? My source (from inside costco) told me it was company wide).

Rather not say how I know on a public forum..but I know.

Think about it. The cost involved to get product to a warehouse, get it to the retail location and then out for sale in the retail warehouse has to be considered.

This costs money. Companies this big work on volume. Every transaction and part of the process is thought out.

Stating that a large company prefers to have customers return product is somewhat ridiculous.

It's an inconvience on the customer, business and the vendor.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by dzvero

Its part of the business, They know it and its calculated and they are still very profitable. Did you see Costco closing stores?

No. They're not closing stores. But they have jacked up the yearly membership fee. And you can't tell me the abuse in the return policy didn't have some part in this. So in essence, you're seeing a direct result of the dirt bag mentality of these mouth breathing knuckle draggers.

[BUFFLARS12]

Originally Posted by Sassicaia

I've be told some stuff gets sent back to the manufactures and much of it "gets tossed". My guess is its the latter.

Still, someone returning a christmas tree should to be told to fuck off.

There is big difference between vendor agreements that take care of a high volume reseller and a company "prefering" it's shoppers to return products.

[BUFFLARS12]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

No. They're not closing stores. But they have jacked up the yearly membership fee. And you can't tell me the abuse in the return policy didn't have some part in this. So in essence, you're seeing a direct result of the dirt bag mentality of these mouth breathing knuckle draggers.

Correct.
There's a cost of doing business. And if those costs go up due to policy it either has to be pushed to the consumer or a policy has to be changed.

In this case it was both

[dreamingat30fps]

My parents use to sell cosmetic stuff to Walmart. They were required to take back any returns and would often get back empty boxes where people clearly stole the stuff inside.

[CTinline-six]

It really doesn't surprise me, since I often see oil containers full of used oil on the shelves at WalMart.

Honestly, even if they gave me a full refund, that still wouldn't be enough money for me to drag a dead tree dropping needles everywhere back to the store.

[pz619]

Originally Posted by Sassicaia

I've be told some stuff gets sent back to the manufactures and much of it "gets tossed". My guess is its the latter.

Still, someone returning a christmas tree should to be told to fuck off.

Depends on the product. If the value is low then the vendor is going to say toss it. Especially true on perishables. The vendor isn't going to want to pay for the shipping back. If the item has higher value then it could get sent back to the vendor for reconditioning/repair if it's warranted. Otherwise the retailer will simply put it back on the shelf for resale.

Usually product goes back to the vendor on a monthly/quarterly basis. Non-perishable returns will go back to the nearest distribution center and the buyer at the retailer's head office will get in touch with the vendor for a return authorization. Something like a Christmas tree probably has a pre negotiated return/failure rate established at the time of PO. For example, 5% can be deducted from the PO invoice due to defective product.

[rlmesq]

Originally Posted by Real Dodger

I don't know if I saw this story in BP or somewhere else, about someone returning snowtires to Nordstoms. The irony, of course, was that Nordstroms has never sold tires.

The store in question had taken over the retail space where a Sears (?) had been, and an older customer had come in not realizing a new store had replaced Sears. Amazingly, they issued a refund for the tires.

Originally Posted by geogerf

This is true, I worked at Nordstroms as one of my first jobs in the late 90’s and they used this example as to their quality of customer service. This example occurred like in the 60’s or something, though.

According to Snopes, it's a legend that's impossible to confirm or disprove.

I suspect that a Nordstrom PR person dreamed it up and got some columnist to repeat it as fact.

https://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/nordstrom.asp

[rlmesq]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

Wow. That is brazen. I wonder if it's why Omega (aka Swatch) bitchslapped Costco.

In the long run, it was Omega that got bitchslapped and had to pay Costco's legal fees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.4cdd171544a4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_...Wholesale_Corp.

[Xtabi]

I know a guy from 20 years ago that was banging a girl in her dormroom. At one point they knocked over her roommates TV which in turn pulled the coax connector out from the TV and broke it. Her roommate had just got it for Christmas. He had the idea to take it back to Best Buy w/o the receipt. They took it back. The roommate never knew what happened.

OK the guy was me !

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by Xtabi

I know a guy from 20 years ago that was banging a girl in her dormroom. At one point they knocked over her roommates TV which in turn pulled the coax connector out from the TV and broke it. Her roommate had just got it for Christmas. He had the idea to take it back to Best Buy w/o the receipt. They took it back. The roommate never knew what happened.

OK the guy was me !

In my teens I remember my parents bought me a PC from Walmart to replace my old PC. I set it up and spent hours getting all my files transferred to it. I don't remember exactly what happened but the PC soon after died and I was so pissed because I had spent all that time moving the data. I ripped out the hard drive and returned it to Walmart hard driveless.

I remember I was scared they would check it. They turned it on and up pops the "no system disk found" message and I was shitting my pants. Of course the person at the counter had no clue wtf that was and just processed the return.

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by geogerf

I once saw a person returning a Christmas tree the week after the holiday.

lol poor people.

[M_Six]

LL Bean changing their policy as well. I can't believe scumbags pull stuff out of trash cans to return for replacements. I guess I'm just too honest and/or naive.

The outdoor specialty retailer said returns of items that have been destroyed or rendered useless, including some purchased at thrift stores or retrieved from trash bins, have doubled in the past five years, surpassing the annual revenue from the company’s famous boot.