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Some retailers including Sports Authority, 40% of Staples stores, Express, The Limited, and KB Toys use a computer database by The Return Exchange of Irvine, CA to track customer returns. (Home Depot, Wal-mart, Barnes & Noble, and others reportedly use their own proprietary systems.) Typically, stores swipe the shopper's driver's license when a return is being made, and if the store's return limit is exceeded, the customer's tendered return is denied. Some stores' posted policies do not warn shoppers of a cap on frequent returns. Last year, Express and The Limited for the first time explicitly disclosed return limits albeit on inconspicuous signs and receipt backs: five returns within any 90 day period with a receipt, or only up to $300 without a receipt.
Other stores are using increasingly strict but conventional means to curb returns. Items such as computers, digital cameras, and opened goods may be subject to limited return rights, restocking fees, shortened return periods, or no refunds at all.
For example:
"There may be many unhappy returns this year if consumers are slapped with unexpected restocking fees, or find themselves erroneously placed on a returns blacklist," said Edgar Dworsky, Founder of Consumer World®, the Internet's largest public service consumer resource guide [ http://www.consumerworld.org ]. "There is also no excuse for retailers' continued failure to clearly disclose their return policies to shoppers in advance."
Some retailers relax their regular return deadlines at holiday time by extending the return period into January. Remarkably, in Consumer World's spot check of in-store return policy signage, some stores failed to post the terms of their holiday policies. Nonetheless, some chains with generous regular or extended holiday return deadlines include:
Consumer rights vary from state to state with respect to product returns. Generally speaking, a store can set up any return policy it wants, whether it is "all sales final", "merchandise credit only", or "all returns in 30 days". Most states require the policy to be clearly disclosed to the buyer prior to purchase, usually by means of a conspicuous sign. Some states do not consider a disclosure that only appears on the sales receipt to meet this requirement. It is not unreasonable, however, to require customers to provide a sales slip or gift receipt to establish where and when the item was purchased, and at what price.
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BOSTON (December 17, 2007) - Based on its annual return policy survey, ConsumerWorld.org says that shoppers may face some nasty surprises (and one pleasant one) the day after Christmas as stores continue to enforce complicated and restrictive return policies, including checking a "blacklist" of "serial returners" prior to a refund, or by imposing costly restocking fees.