kamasutrababe

And what happens when you find you're stuck one day with all that expensive equipment?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041228/news_1b28returns.html

Retailers crack down on returns
Some shoppers being monitored, blacklisted

By Barbara Whitaker
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

December 28, 2004

Tina Orkin said she thought she was making a routine return.

Orkin said she had her receipt, the tags were on the item, the item was undamaged and she was within the 60-day time period set for such transactions.

But after scanning her driver's license, the clerk at the Express clothing store told Orkin that her request to return was denied.

To receive an explanation, Orkin was told to call a toll-free telephone number at the Return Exchange, which has developed a state-of-the-art database to monitor returns at retailers. Each retailer that signs up for the company's service determines the criteria ? like the frequency of returns and the value of the items being returned ? for denying an exchange.

The service ? which consumer advocates say is being used by companies such as Express, KB Toys, the Sports Authority, Staples and Guess ? has been criticized for monitoring and blacklisting shoppers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the practice and has proposed legislation to require stores that limit returns to clearly warn shoppers before they make a purchase.

With the holiday return season in full swing, the monitoring is cited as an example of how retailers are getting tougher on returns and exchanges as merchants try to combat billions of dollars in fraud. Retailers say return abuse is an increasing problem ranging from the shopper who purchases a dress, wears it once to a party and returns it, and up to more organized, large-scale rings that steal items and then profit from bringing them back.

"I'm concerned about the 99 percent of consumers who are not abusing the system," said Edgar Dworsky, a former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts and founder of ConsumerWorld.org, an Internet public service site. "It's the wrong size, the wrong color, the mother bought clothing for kids who didn't want it."

He said consumers returning gifts this holiday season "may be in for a nasty surprise," adding that "the stores are really cracking down on returns from this extreme of using a blacklist to the slicing and dicing of return dates for different product categories."

Dworsky said that this season consumers may confront more complicated return policies and more restrictive policies regarding the return of expensive electronic items such as computers and digital cameras. In addition, he said, more companies are charging restocking fees and some have shortened return periods.

As for what he calls "slicing and dicing" ? different deadlines for different types of items ? he uses Best Buy as an example. Consumers have until Jan. 8 to return items such as camcorders and digital cameras; all other items bought since Nov. 1 have until Jan. 24. Computers must be returned within 14 days and are excluded from the holiday policy. In addition, certain items have a 15 percent restocking fee.

Jay Musolf, a spokesman for Best Buy, said the staggered return policy was developed to give consumers more time to get merchandise back to the store. Typically, they have only 30 days on items except computers, which must always be returned within 14 days.

Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said retailers lose an estimated $16 billion annually to fraud, though he agreed that the vast majority of consumers making returns do so legitimately.

"Consumers are going to find more stores with tighter, more restrictive return policies than they found last year," said King Rogers, a retail consultant. "When you look at the economics of it, $16 billion a year in losses, they have to tighten up."

For retailers wanting to stem such losses, the Return Exchange presents an attractive option. Executives with the Irvine software company declined to be interviewed and suggested that their Web site, www.returnexchange.com, be consulted.

The company gathers, analyzes and stores information regarding return behavior. In stores using the technology, trademarked as Verify-1, customers making returns are asked for their driver's license or state identification, which is swiped into a machine and recorded by the company.

"Staples started rolling it out maybe a year and half ago to counter return fraud," said Owen Davis, a spokesman for the company, which is based in Framingham, Mass. "It only applies to those returns without a receipt and it's only in select stores."

But consumer advocates voiced a variety of concerns from failure of merchants to notify consumers their return activity was being monitored to the possibility that shoppers would be unfairly singled out.

"Consumers don't have any sense of rules for this new return or exchange reporting mechanism," said Jordana Beebe, communications director for Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a public advocacy group in San Diego. "Often times people won't know they've transgressed this invisible boundary until they're making a return and it is declined."

Orkin, who has two daughters 18 and 22 and who lives in suburban Los Angeles, said she was denied after six transactions: four returns, one exchange and one price adjustment.

She said she shops frequently at Express and estimated that in the one-year period being examined she and her two daughters, ages 18 and 22, spent nearly $1,000 at stores in the chain.

"My issue is that there was nothing in the store to say this was their policy. You were simply denied," she said. "What's the number you can't return after? Is it three items? Is it four? Can you have 1,000 purchases and still be denied on the same number of returns as someone with five purchases?"

Anthony Hebron, a spokesman for Limited Brands, the parent company of Express, said the Express program is intended to track abnormal return behavior. It looks at the total number of returns, where the returns are made (specifically they're watching for returns in a variety of places) and the value of the returns. He said the company's tracking of returns is now clearly stated in stores and on receipts.

Hebron said the company began using Return Exchange because customers were complaining that it was taking too long to make returns, which involved writing out the same information now being gathered, and because they felt it would be a more secure way of handling the information.

"There is no blacklist," he said, noting that the process is supposed to protect consumers as well. "You get a red flag and when you call Return Exchange they send you a summary. Part of that is to identify abuse."

Good customers can call customer relations to clear up the matter and be placed on a VIP list to prevent problems in the future.

Orkin, however, said she was so offended by the practice she would not bother.

"I found it infuriating. I still don't know the grounds for the denial," she said. "I won't go back."