Originally Posted By: Carmudgeon
Best Buy's return policy is clearly elucidated, on its website, and if things haven't changed, a large sign overlooking the customer service counter where returns are handled.
What many consumers are unaware of is that retailers have been tracking individuals' return habits across different retailers, via a company called TRE (The Return Equation). If a store requires a personal ID to accept returns, it's a sign that they use the technique, and the company's services.
Amazon, Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Home Depot and Nike are all clients.
It has introduced a third party into the equation, which has no accountability, but does have the power to (by some accounts, arbitrarily) deny returns based on the data it has collected on an individual, based on some unknown criteria. TRE and the retailer are able to deflect blame onto each other, allowing neither to take responsibility.
That said, retailers are under no obligation to accept returns at all. They do so as a courtesy to customers, and to avoid being at a competitive disadvantage when the majority of peers do accept returns.
But, even the most liberal of them, such as Costco, Nordstrom, and REI, have had to change their policies to combat abuse of return privileges.
It only takes a few bad apples to ruin the whole batch.
Bed, Bath and Beyond does it as well.
I think if folks actually understood just how bad people abuse the system for returns and theft, you would wonder why stores even bother taking returns back...
We had a local best buy that had a freight trailer broken into, and they took almost the whole truck in less than 20 minutes. And have tried to return it to all the local stores as well....
