Is this some sort of American thing I'm too European to understand?
this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Yes, it is. That's because companies like trying unpopular policies in America first before moving them to Europe.
Try telling that to my unequivocal legal right to return anything for any reason within 14 days
Yup, thats because the EU actually protects their consumers unlike the great ol' US of A
You guys don't drunk-order a bunch of useless shit then expect to return it for no cost once buyer's remorse sinks in?
Point is, we have laws enforcing that possibility. It's not goodwill from companies...
It's not goodwill from companies...
Nothing good for customers ever is
I will continue to only deal with companies that offer free returns.
an understandable personal policy, but a lot of small businesses can't compete with these companies. my margins are thin and my products are expensive, so if I accept a return from a customer i am losing money. the cost of producing the item that got returned is not recuperated it's just gone.
I am not sure what to advise. It isn't personal.
I just think it's something interesting to think about. there's a lot of things that gigantic companies do in order to eat small business that can't afford to.
Make sure you are doing a better job with item descriptions than them.
I only deal with garment retailers that do free returns including free shipping. They omit exact measurements (sleeve, shoulder, chest, waist, body, close up shots of fabric etc) so I order several sizes and keep the ones that fit.
Some are really good at it and I never have to return anything (e.g., Asket)
I do buy some items without free returns but I will NEVER buy things like clothes or shoes without free returns or an option to take them to a physical store for free. There is a reason that brick and mortar stores have changing rooms.
There is a reason that, back in the day, mail-order clothing companies like L.L. Bean had ridiculously good return policies. They wouldn't have gotten any business without them.
Exactly. It would be more acceptable to have paid returns if 1)clothing photos and descriptions were more accurate and 2) if sizing was consistent within and across brands.
But I should not get punished because your company wants to make your size 6 in the measurements of a typical 10 so that you can inflate egos and sell more stuff.
I feel your initial points, but even so... Half an inch on seams can be the difference between comfort or "I need to only eat salads for breakfast" which ain't no way to live
To be clear, what’s under discussion is free shipping on returns. And fine, whatever. It will be annoying, but if the price of returning in the same packaging is known at purchase time, I’ll survive and adjust my shopping with that vendor as necessary.
If free shipping on returns disappears, I won’t shop online anymore
Easier said than done for a lot of folks. Online shopping put a lot of malls and other stores out of business. Good luck finding clothes anywhere but Walmart and the Internet.
At least the malls in my city seem thriving. A massive number of clothing stores especially. It's hard to picture clothing stores having issues since being able to try them on is still more convenient than free returns. And all those clothing stores have survived decades of extreme competition, since any given mall has a dozen to two dozen stores that often feel near identical.
I can see this being true for small towns maybe, but I do most of my clothes shopping in stores anyway. Most of my online shopping is electronics
Not in the EU it's not. It's law here.
Where consumers and employees have rights.
No, it’s not. You have the right to return it (Dutch: herroepingsrecht) but the cost of returning can be at the expense of the buyer when stated on their webshop. Check their ToS
Okay yes if we are talking about shipping then that's true.
The article and the referred articles are about the return shipping fee, not about handling and so. For example, fashion retailer H&M are beginning to charge European countries too, perfectly fine with the law :)
63% of consumers said they order multiple sizes or versions of the same item, with the intention of returning what they don’t want, according to Narvar.
Holy fucking shit. The degree of waste is astonishing. I can't believe this number is so high. Fuck everyone who does this.
But that's what happens when you make your clothes to sizes that have no relation to the bodies that go in them. Especially for women. What the fuck is a 12?
When I go to a shop, I try on maybe ten pairs of shoes that are all my size before I find a pair that fit my feet and I can actually walk in.
There's no waste there, it's like one extra journey to your house when you buy something, no matter how many things you're sending back. The real waste is when the shop just throw it away because it's cheap shit not worth processing back into stock.
If it's such a hassle, maybe don't sell clothes online. Put it back in the high street where it belongs.
That sounds like more effort than just going to the fucking store.
Or better yet a thrift store. There is for a massive surplus of clothes and even Goodwill's have brand new brand name clothes for a few bucks, all over the place.
I can't go to stores because I need tall and extended sizes that I have never found in a physical store. Not even for shoes. So online is my only option, and even then there isn't much choice.
Still I only order one at a time by carefully reading the sizes and taking my own measurements. Usually I don't need to make a return. If I do it is usually such a bad fit that I give up on buying it anyway after returning.
Maybe where you live. Every thrift store within a 20 mile radius of me rarely has anything in my size. And even more rare anything brand new brand name at all. Haha maybe cheaper, but our thrift stores haven't been as cheap as they used to be before Macklemore.
Usually I go to a store to try on sizes then order the size I need.
Okay. We need to get clarity here -- if a product is being returned because it just wasn't compatible with the purpose I had in mind? Like pants that don't fit? By all means, charge me for return.
But if the product is defective? No, you pay for that. You sent me garbage, you owe me 100% money back.
Guess I just won't buy online then. Not worth the risk
The end of everything for one dollar shops at the border haha
ITT too cool Europeans not reading the article, not realizing they have it worse than Americans lol.
Most returns go right to the dump. We try to refurbish ours but even that is a huge cost that isn't always advantageous to businesses. Adding a cost to it will reduce waste and unnecessary purchases which is good for everyone and the environment.
Free returns is great insulation against broken products.
In my experience having to pay 15% of the purchase price just to return something that arrived broken definitely prevented any unnecessary purchases from that company in the future.
That's why the warranty exists. If something arrives broken then the company hasn't actually fulfilled their obligation of sending you the product you ordered in the first place, but that doesn't mean a refund, but a replacement product. It also circumvents any "we'll give a refund but not for the shipping cost" or "we send the replacement but you have to cover the shipping" bullshit - they didn't send what you ordered, it's their responsibility to fix it until you have it working on your hands.
I didn't see it on the article, but I would expect that returns/replacements for broken, defective, or misleading items will still be free. I'm guessing the problem is people using free returns when buyers remorse kicks in.
If that's the case, I imagine they'll suddenly see an uptick of destroyed merchandise coming back. Seems counterproductive because then there's no way to resell it.
I don't know a single company that will charge you for a return if you receive something broken. It just doesn't happen. 95% of our returns are buyer's remorse or they didn't research their needs better. Easier just to buy and return then to do the work.
I've had it happen.
Even on Amazon I've had vendors not want to refund money for broken items without me shipping back at my cost.
I've never paid for it, if push comes to shove I'd dispute it with Amazon and my credit card company.
I paid for a delivered functional product.
Those companies don't last there, believe me. I've been on Amz since they opened to 3rd party sellers and we are a top 500 seller. Literally for any reason we send out replacements or parts because that's how your company succeeds. What I was talking about is the people who abuse the process and there are a lot of them. One warehouse can throw away over 100,000 items a week and there are 100s of warehouses in the US. It's a collosal amount of waste mainly because returns are risk free to the customer.
I bought a frame online from Michaels that arrived broken. I drove to the store, rather than pay to ship it back, and they said they would refund me the price of the frame, but not the shipping I paid for originally. It took a manager (15 minute wait) and many minutes of me insisting I shouldn't have to pay anything for a broken product for them to finally just give up and swipe the card that allowed them to refund my shipping (only as store credit, mind you). They were not happy about it.
They used to, but not anymore. Amazon Warehouse exists as a seller for a reason.