billwill wrote:It seems clear to me that those of you who expect a zero returns fee have never tried runniung a small business of your own.
Do you not expect to pay for the shop owner/assistant's time?
They have had all the bother of finding packing and sending the item, plus the accounting person making the entry only to have it returned for no reason so unpacking and reshelving and the accountiung person doing a refund; all for nothing!
Packing materials and postage are generally not recovered either. Do you think the small business owner should go to the Royal Mail and say " Oh that person didn't want it and sent it back; can I have my postage money back please?".
Firstly no one is quibbling about postage if you send something back then you should pay the return postage (unless it is a sender error then they should suck it up).
With regard to packaging of course it can be reused - would you honestly complain if the box had already been sent somewhere else first? A bit of fresh packing tape and another sticky label over the previous one, a few more bits of polystyrene doesn't make for a lot of extra work nor write off the box for reuse. The box would doubtless be the same whether sending out a door handle or fuel pump.
As to the cost for putting it back on a shelf and reversing a sales entry if the computer system is any good it should take seconds. The cost to the business would be minimal and should be built in anyway to the profit margins. It's not as if it's an unusual matter to have parts returned it's a normal part of trading.
Let's say you buy a pair of seat covers and send them back - they are approx. ?700 a pair. Would you be happy to pay ?210 for restocking? I'd be furious. (Not talking about stuff specially ordered in but parts that would normally be on the shelf). 35% is an absolute pisstake. If anyone has real world experience of this please let us all know so we can place our business elsewhere.
The Distance Selling Regulations are not something I am overly familiar with but I believe do offer some protections depending on how you ordered. Pay for stuff on credit card and that offers you additional protection too. Pretty sure it rightly only covers the goods not the postage.
I do wonder if most of the usual culprits offer a no quibble returns policy but hold their T&C's in reserve for people who may be serial returners - not that I'm suggesting you are OP
it's a small world we operate in and I think it's in the suppliers own interest to within reason take things back without charge.