Don’t bother returning them…
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Here’s an unusual customer service experience. A colleague of mine had ordered a pair of childrens water shoes for $10 from a well known online retailer. They were a size large, and she called to make arrangements to return them. They told her they’d send out the new pair, and not to bother sending back the first pair, just to donate them to charity. Econmically it makes sense; their margain was probably only $5, and between shipping costs and restocking, they’d lose money. I wondered if they saw on her customer record that she was a fairly regular customer, and this wasn’t something that had the potential for abuse. I’m wondering, have others heard/seen of a practice like this, as it was new to me?
Welcome Ethan. Some good links in your post. I look forward to reading future posts, and would love to see an intro section with a bit of bio info on the different posters. It also seems that there’s a comment queue somewhere, as it doesn’t look like there have been new comments on the blog in quite a while. [this appears to be fixed 
, as comments have posted]
-Josh
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Surprisingly, the practice mentioned above is more common than you think. I’ve seen it happen at brick and mortar stores as well as online. Some online retailers have a policy if the product retailed for less than $25, damages and mis-ships would not be returned but simply refunded. I don’t believe there a huge concern with abuse as this isn’t a policy that is made public. For the average user, they would not be able determine if it was a dollar threshold, product category, or some other factor that led to the retailers decision to not accept a return.
[…] Heads up retailers, this is what good customer service is all about. […]
Happy to read this. I wasn’t aware retailers were doing this on a regular basis, but since prices are getting to be so competitive, retailers that focus on customer service are sure to benefit, especially those who get it right.