Rambling thoughts... We've all bought stuff at Home depot, Lowe's, Amazon, etc. that came with free returns. Tools, lighting fixtures, all sorts of stuff for our projects. Many of these items are packaged in plastic that has been sealed with e.g. ultrasound, making it impossible to open "neatly". You have to destroy the packaging to open it, so the product can't go back on the shelf once returned. (Sometimes they tape it back together, but not usually.) I needed some landscape-style spotlights to illuminate the Halloween stuff in my yard. I won't know what will work best until I try them after dark. I bought 3 different style of spotlights, know that I can return whatever doesn't work for me. Whatever I return will have been ripped open and that has to cost (all of us) something. I guess the more stuff a person buys and returns, the better off they are. At least they are getting something for their money. I pity the po' fool that always knows exactly what they need and never returns anything. They are paying the cost for those that "buy to test".

I doubt there any real costs to us. All the stores have to offer it to be competitive, AND they have to have low prices to be competitive. I'll tell you what the real cost is if you're not careful! You accidentally buy a returned product, e.g. some ceiling fan or lighting fixture, and you're at a client's house installing it and realize that it's missing a bunch of proprietary hardware because the previous purchaser was an incompetent, lazy bastard who didn't put all the bits and pieces back in the box before returning it! And let's face it, the store clerks don't check or even know what to check for when returns come back. So now, you realize that you have to return the previously returned product, but it's half installed already. So you have to either UNinstall what's already been installed, and/or drive back to the store to return it for a new one... or hopefully get a clerk that will let you buy a new, unopened, fan/lighting fixture, take out the bits and pieces that...

Slightly OT: How Much Do Free Returns Cost Us?

Oct 29, 2018 81 Replies

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Spalted Walt 7 years ago

HTH ;-)

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DerbyDad03 7 years ago

I clicked the button with my toe.

Mike, you can touch it now...if you want.

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