I hate having to return products to stores. That's especially true when the items I return are bought by my wife who sends me back to financially resolve her purchasing missteps. Fortunately, most of the time when this happens, she sends me back to the Dot store (our pre-schooler's name for the natural foods store co-owned by a woman of the same name) or Target, both of which are hassle free.
Returns at the Dot store usually go something like this:
Dot: Something wrong with it?
Me: No, she forgot we already had three at home and didn't need this many.
Dot: No problem. (Hands me the money) So, how is that little dancer of yours? She came in with Jamie and I couldn't believe how much she's grown.
Returns at Target are also easy, albeit less familiar:
Target Associate: How may I help you?
Me: (No conversation. I just hand her/him the receipt.)
Target: That'll go back on your Red Card. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me: No. Thanks.
I bring up the ease of returns because bringing product back, even to stores you frequent often, is not always easy. Two local stores, one part of a large grocery chain operation and the other a big hardware store chain, have for years required that you provide the receipt and then fill out a form with name, address, etc. I'm not sure what purpose the forms play since they already have my/our information from the receipt plus a credit card and/or a rewards card. There's also the issue of legibility. Some 30+ years ago, I began writing everything with the aid of keyboard (back then an IBM Selectric) and gradually lost the ability to write longhand. There is no one, including myself, who can read my handwriting.
I have to admit that my return experiences while shopping online have been pretty stress-free over the years. I did once tell a call center representative that my first time shopping their site would have to be the last if I was charged whatever their return fee was. You see, the product that showed up at my door looked nothing like the photo on the site. Anyway, even in that case, the representative told me the fee would be waived and everything turned out well in the end. I've even placed additional orders on that site.
Today, I never place an order on a new site without reviewing its return policy first. As it turns out, I'm not alone. Sixty-three percent of people who shop online do the same thing, according to comScore.
A recent press release to announce comScore's Online Shopping Customer Experience Study concluded, "Hassle-free returns and exchanges rank above average in terms of importance for shoppers but rank low in terms of current customer satisfaction, showing a significant area of opportunity for retailers."