Planning to return used gear...

[jefffalcone]

Stealing is stealing no matter who you do it to. By the fact that you have access to a computer, the Internet and live in the United States you have demonstrated you are one of the worlds most wealthiest inhabitants. So by your logic you feel it is perfectly O.K. for others to steal from you since you are weathly by the world's standards.

Furthermore, stealing of any kind in retail is passed on to the consumer so ultimately the theft is really against the consumer not the retailer.

Ridiculous!

'bob

Returning something is not the same as stealing. Costco allows people to return things that they don't want. That's their policy. Calling people who take advantage of this policy thieves is rude. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it wrong. The store and the customer have entered into an agreement that has nothing to do with you. As of right now, both seem to be pretty happy with the arangement.

 

[Gary D.]

Why do you care if someone takes advantage of a giant faceless corporation like costco? If people taking advantage of return policies was hurting the bottom line, the policy would change. Maybe it's dishonest to buy something planning on returning it later, but seems strange that you would waste any emotion on poor costco.
It might be worth being bothered if people were doing this to a mom and pop shop, but costco? Give me a break.

Costco being a faceless corporation or not pays my daughter very well. Better than most business in the area I might add. Not only do they pay well they treat their employees very well.

These liberal return policies should be a concern to you unless you don’t shop at businesses that have these policies. The bottom line is that every customer, yes every customer pays for them in the long run by higher prices. This also trickles down to stores that don't have these liberal policies.

And what faceless business or corporation pays your salary?

Gary D.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Why do you care if someone takes advantage of a giant faceless corporation like costco?

Giant faceless corporations have these policies so consumers can feel confident about their purchase, not so scammers can buy things with intent to return them. The abuse of these types of policies only hurt the genuine consumers after business are forced to rework their policies to prevent people from abusing the system. In the end, all it does is raise the prices for legitimate consumers.

 

[duckster3d]

Stealing is stealing no matter who you do it to. By the fact that you have access to a computer, the Internet and live in the United States you have demonstrated you are one of the worlds most wealthiest inhabitants. So by your logic you feel it is perfectly O.K. for others to steal from you since you are weathly by the world's standards.

Furthermore, stealing of any kind in retail is passed on to the consumer so ultimately the theft is really against the consumer not the retailer.

Ridiculous!

'bob

Look you may not think this is right, but the stores that allow it think it is ok, so go take a long walk off a short pier. It is by no means stealing, nor illegal in any way shape or form. So calling someone a thief for doing what is allowed and accepted is the wrong thing in this thread. the people doing this are doing a very legal business practice. the stores even encourage it.

I was a small business owner, and would turn down jobs, because the tools needs to do the job would eat up any and all profit, then at Home-depot a sales associate over heard me talking with a customer, and told me why turn down the work, buy the tools needed and return them when done, for a full refund. I did as suggested, and turned a small business into a few hundred thousand dollar a year business.

work the system, how many big businesses have filed for bankruptcy, and continued to do business, only now with out all their debt, and the shareholders are the ones that took the loss. Yes I owned US Air stock and got very burned by their legal business tactics... Yes I used their tactics a few years later, and again it was all legal and above board.

 

[El Orans]

Personally I find it pretty offensive to call people thieves who havn't stolen anything.

Well, you are entitled to your own opinion. My opinion however is that abusing a return policy is stealing.

 

[jeraldjcook]

Returning something is not the same as stealing. Costco allows people to return things that they don't want.

The whole point is that these people did want the item. They wanted to use the item but they didn't want to pay for it. There is a big difference. If someone buy a HDTV and is later unhappy with the picture quality, that's completely different than someone who basically wants to rent the item for a couple of weeks an not pay for it.

Calling people who take advantage of this policy thieves is rude.

But abusing the system, which in turns raises the prices for everyone else and the modification/disappearance of these types of policies isn't rude?

 

[jefffalcone]

Costco being a faceless corporation or not pays my daughter very well. Better than most business in the area I might add. Not only do they pay well they treat their employees very well.

These liberal return policies should be a concern to you unless you don’t shop at businesses that have these policies. The bottom line is that every customer, yes every customer pays for them in the long run by higher prices. This also trickles down to stores that don't have these liberal policies.

And what faceless business or corporation pays your salary?

Gary D.

Why should costco's return policies be a concern to me? They seem to be pretty good at runnig their business. The policy seems to be working for them. If not, they would change it. For instance, they no longer allow indefinate returns on electronics. They decided that policy wasn't working for them, so they changed it. I shop at costco. I return things occasionally. I enjoy having this freedom. It's one of the reasons I like to shop at costco. If some guy buys a snorkle knowing that he is going to return it, so what. Costco will write off the loss and pay a lower tax rate than the average citizen. Costco doesn't care, so why should you?

 

[Bob3]

Costco passes along the hosing- over to the folks who supply them, who just may very well BE a small outfit.
It's one of the prices of doing business with Costco, and has been a real financial hardship on their smaller suppliers, some of whom have been taken down by the "victimless" practice of "temporary purchases".
That's why there's so much turnover in their electronics suppliers; the price structure is shaved pretty dang thin as it is and having to eat a few items can negate the profits from hundreds of sales.

 

[stas]

Some of you guys have very finely tuned moral compasses (and a desire to tune them for others.)

 

[jefffalcone]

Look you may not think this is right, but the stores that allow it think it is ok, so go take a long walk off a short pier. It is by no means stealing, nor illegal in any way shape or form. So calling someone a thief for doing what is allowed and accepted is the wrong thing in this thread. the people doing this are doing a very legal business practice. the stores even encourage it.

I was a small business owner, and would turn down jobs, because the tools needs to do the job would eat up any and all profit, then at Home-depot a sales associate over heard me talking with a customer, and told me why turn down the work, buy the tools needed and return them when done, for a full refund. I did as suggested, and turned a small business into a few hundred thousand dollar a year business.

work the system, how many big businesses have filed for bankruptcy, and continued to do business, only now with out all their debt, and the shareholders are the ones that took the loss. Yes I owned US Air stock and got very burned by their legal business tactics... Yes I used their tactics a few years later, and again it was all legal and above board.

You are the only other sane person involved in this conversation. I can't understand people who are unwilling to take advantage of a corporation. Any corporation will take advantage of any edge they can find. That is the nature of corporations. Unless you are a stockholder, they are not on your side. They do not care about your interests. They care about the bottom line. If lenient return policies were hurting the bottom line they would not exist. Taking advantage of these policies does not hurt corporations, or else they would not exist.

The arguement that somehow returning things will somehow raise prices is also baseless. The business with these policies tend to have the best prices. Where is there any evidence that returns lead to higher prices?