MoneySaving Poll: Have you bought clothes just to wear then return?

elsien

I've seen it discussed elsewhere that it's something that can happen, but no one I know does it - or if they do, they're not admitting to it which would seem to be a tacit acceptance that what they are doing is not acceptable.

savingsusie

Have you ever bought something from a shop, got it home and realised it has been previously worn as there are deodorant stains under the arms?? I felt really guilty returning it even though I returned it the following day. The assistant was very nice but I am not 100% sure she believed me. I have no problem with store assistants checking returns thoroughly and wish more would do so.

JohnBKent

Has anyone noticed the results show that the older the age band the greater the percentage who find this morally wrong. Says something about the way society is heading

patanne

I think it is also to do with returns policies when we were in our formative (as in clothes shopping) years. Also now you are pretty much anonymous, what with shopping on-line & normal distances travelled being greater. It is much easier to be dishonest if no-one will ever know who you are than it is to only get a credit note & HAVE to go back to that same shop. I think a lot of things regularly happen now that didn't 50/60 years ago simply because some people think it is alright to do something wrong just because they are unlikely to get caught. There are also things that don't happen so much now because people know more about what CAN happen.

elsien

Intersting though that the people who say they've done it don't appear so keen to come on here and justify themselves.

Moneygonewhere?

I wouldn't really want to buy something that stinks of someone else's perfume etc.

Flick216

I would say that it's pretty rare that these clothes go back on the shelf. The retailer will just send them back to their supplier and claim the money back from them. The retailer doesn't care if you return it - they are not the ones who pay for it.

XRAT

And as long as the graphs look like this.., the shops will allow us to exchange goods.
As we become more diverse however, I wonder if those graphs will change.

Tiger_Tony

The results clearly show consistently declining morals over the years. The younger the person, the lower the morals. What a sad state of affairs.

eddddy

Shops regard 'returns abuse' in the same way as shoplifting and online fraud - they try to minimise it, but accept it as a 'cost' of doing business.

John Lewis, for example, say:

Terms & conditions
...
It's important that any unwanted item, unless faulty, is returned in a re-saleable condition. We'd expect this to mean that you've kept all original packaging and labels, and that it's undamaged and unused.

So somebody returning clothing they that have used (i.e. worn) is breaching the terms of the contract.

In fact, if someone makes a false representation (e.g. saying "the clothes haven't been worn") to make a gain for himself (e.g. getting a refund) - that's a textbook example of Fraud by False Representation, which is a criminal offence.

Although, realistically, I doubt that any shops would push for a criminal prosecution.

But online retailers are increasingly analysing their customers' return patterns, with a view to blacklisting customers who are abusing the returns policy.