What exactly is a Restocking Fee?

[friscuba]

In some cases it's clearly warrented is right. In all cases? Not. Imagine if Walmart decided that they will no longer accept returns of ANY item. People will take their money to another store and Walmart will file for bankruptcy. Businesses have to accept that returns is part of business. Does Walmart go broke because massive amounts of people are returning things? I think not.

Now the LDS. If my LDS decided to charge a restocking fee on everything, more customers would go elsewhere. The LDS wouldn't care unless they need those customers. Not too far from my house are 3 gas stations. Usually all three are about 1 cent off on their price of gasoline. My buddy who used to work there told me that one day one station lowered it by 7 cents. Then his boss was pissed because he new that in order not to lose customers he would have to do the same. It's business. There's ways to make a profit. One of them shouldn't be restocking fees.

I'd bet it'd be the rare business that charges restocking fees in an effort to make money. In the case of the generators you mentioned, those who returned them were basically committing theft. They either used them and returned them, or took them out of the dealer's stock just in case when they should have been renting.

Does your LDS charge a restocking fee on everything, or are you just worrying about hypotheticals? Businesses do not have to accept returns on everything, but most choose to do so as a part of customer service, it's their choice though and they may suffer the consequences if their return policy is not in line with their same industry competitors.

If I had a retail shop here, I'd be charging a restocking fee on BCD's, wetsuits and regulators - I'd also offer all of them for rental with the caveat that the rental price, or a large portion of it, could go towards the purchase of a packaged new one if you decided you wanted that particular item upon it's return. The goal is to not get ripped off by people who have no intent of purchasing stuff.

 

[bythesea]

Many years ago I worked in Photo retail, every Friday in May and June we would make fairly large sales of camera gear.. all of which would be returned in the following week, at the same time as the customer dropped off rolls of wedding photos to be processed.
The same thing happens with furniture near the holiday season (got to impress the guests) and upscale clothing at anytime..


There are enough pathetic people out there that will buy and return simply because they can. A good retailer has a liberal returns policy but they are not in the business to be ripped off. In a lot of cases the restocking fee is simply the stores way to ensure that they will not be abused. Most that I've noticed only charge the restocking fee on large ticket or special order items (and of course those things that someone _could_ rent but may be too cheap to).

As long as the fee is posted and mentioned up front I think it is a fine idea.

This is a fine example from a current Ebay listing


"Well I'm just back from a two-week scuba trip in the Galapagos Islands and these were my emergency back-up diving fins, never used Avanti Quattros.
I've owned Quattros for three years, and absolutely love their top-rated performance and especially the locking straps are so much more dependable than cheap plastic buckles. Before I left for my trip I purchased a second pair (this pair) as backups just in case something happened while abroad...thankfully I never had to use them since my first pair worked great but it was nice to know I had them if needed.

The size is Regular, which fits a male size 9-12 -- I'm size 11 and usually wear 3mil boots and the fit was great with these open-heeled fins.

My LDS charged me $109 with tax and won't let me return them because I took them on our trip, BS, I know!

This is a great chance to own these finds at a nice discount, and I'm only asking $5 for shipping. (If you live near DC come pick them up for free)

As you can see from the pictures they are in phenomenal shape and have only a few superficial scratches from being in my Scuba bag...they have never even touched salt water. "