To be irritated at having to pay for returns??

[HomeBird43]

Ordered some stuff from a clothing website. Sent back the stuff I didn’t want. £1.99 per return deducted from refund.

Wtf? Is this a common thing?? Is this not something that online retailers build in to their margins etc?! I have never come across this before.

I do that but only because sizing and quality is so random. If I knew something would fit me I wouldn't have to buy 2 or 3 sizes and send the rest back.

absolutely.

We know that "free postage" is actually included in the price, it's the same with return. However, until retailers finally decide to have some consistency with sizes, I can't guess if items will fit or not!

I am buying somewhere with free returns, unless it's so cheap I am not out of pocket.

The irony is that I'm often guilty of adding something to my basket to get free postage. I usually go for batteries, socks, tights etc that will be used anyway.

There is an argument though that companies are pushing customers to over order. And returns where charged is usually still cheaper than delivery.

What has changed my thinking recently is the cost of parking, which locally to me has gone up ridiculously since the pandemic. Whereas I used to be a bit stingy about paying for delivery, it now compares well to petrol + parking.

But the city/town has dozens of shops so you can try things on in all of them. Plus not everyone needs to spend a lot to access them. I am a couple of miles from two big retail parks and a big shopping centre. I can also get to a large city on the park and ride, which can cost as little as £1.50 on the bus.

I can also make looking for and trying things on part of a day out and also visit some galleries/museums and go for lunch so even if I don't buy anything much, the day and money isn't wasted. Whereas you can spend a tenner or more on postage and returns and get nowhere in the quest for much needed new clothes unless you're lucky with fit etc.

Supermarkets will be winning. More and more offer a wide range of items, clothing included, and you tend to have free return when you drop there.

Supermarkets have free parking, you tend to have to go anyway for essentials, even when you do online shopping.

I get more and more school uniforms from a supermarket with free return. Retailers will lose out.

The worst is Next, who used to offer a yearly subscription for delivery and returns. They now charge for returns, making the subscription worthless. My local courier has joked that deliveries from Next are non-existent now. Their items were more expensive anyway, you suck it up with the free delivery and return on your membership, it's not worth it now.

It isn’t even helpful when they say “model wears a size 10” in the pictures. How tall is she? What are her body measurements? Not very useful without relevant information. And if they could get them to stand up straight instead of folded up (artistically??) sitting on a chair or the floor, or their arms crossed around themselves, so we could actually see the clothes properly, would be helpful as well!

Too many people order two different sizes of every thing, intending to send half back. Why shouldn’t they pay for that?

If they could try the clothes on people wouldn't need to order online and then realise they don't fit! Essentials like school uniform for example which people will definitely buy.

Especially supermarkets used COVID as an excuse to shut changing rooms and none that we know have reopened them. I can physically see the space sealed off, it hasn't been reused for something else but why bother? At least there I can return the clothes and just get a refund.

Is this with Shein? They charge for returns. Most places I order from don't. Apart from a few. I don't mind a standard return fee and then I drop it at a collection point. But when you have to return by post and it ends up costing €10 to return 1 pair of jeans to Next it makes me not want to buy anything online from them

Don't have an issue with reasonable costs for returns, although always had money refunded for faulty items and can remember when ordering mail order in the very distant past that postage was always charged! Given the cost of car parking now, it is far cheaper to pay for delivery and returns and our local high street is £17 for over 4 hours parking, 7 days a week, so £5 for delivery / return is nothing in comparison!

Who do you think should pay for the return then? Why would the retailer pay for you to return something that wasn't faulty? If you buy something in a shop the retailer doesn't pay you the expense of returning it - your bus fare or parking, your petrol or just your time.

@Chanelbasketballandchain I just gave out about Next. I have bought some lovely things from there recently for DS but I won't buy for myself again. I found a nice looking pair of jeans, ordered my regular size and they just weren't right €10 to return them!! I won't do that again. My closest shop is over an hours drive away so I will just order from places with free returns or the standard return fee regardless of amount.

But there's no choice when the sizing is so screwed. I can be anything from a 16 to 22 from the same store so what am I supposed to do? By the time I've returned items one at a time the size I need will be gone!

So don't buy online then!
I'm sending out 2 parcels to customers today, the postage is costing me £28. I charge a flat rate of £5 per parcel postage to the customer. Should I be expected to pay the £28 again if the customers wants to return? Not a fucking chance. I don't accept returns unless damaged on delivery because I sell b2b only.

I'm pleased they have started doing this to stop people taking the piss.

It costs them a lot of money to deal with returns. I never return anything so resent paying the higher costs when other people do.

Lots of people used to make huge orders with the intention of keeping very little of it - paying for returns stops this happening to some extent!

Lots of stores do that now. Next is the latest one to charge per return.

I am someone who is guilty of buying and returning loads, so don’t object having to pay a nominal fee for the privilege of being able to shop freely at home. There is a cost to sending things back and having it processed and repackaged.

But that is the risk you take if you want the convenience of shopping online. We all know that you have no idea if something is going to fit or look nice on us.

If you don;t want to pay for returns, then you will have to go to a shop.

It’s annoying but I understand why they do it.

Unfortunately this hits me hard as I’m a serial-returner - I’m 6ft2 tall and NO retailers stock their tall ranges in store anymore. I have zero choices to shop in person, despite much preferring to do that.

I always think if the company is saving overheads by not having a physical store where customers can try clothes on, then they should at least pay for returns.

I'm guessing this charge was in addition to you paying for the postage/courier costs? (as it is reasonable for the customer to pay for that)

One way to look at it is to ask whether you put any value on your time. You could go to a shop and try things on; or you have them delivered to you, to try on at home, and you return the stuff you don't like. Are you happy to pay £1.99 per return for this convenience? I value my time quite highly, and view delivery fees and the like as me buying the opportunity to do other (better) things.

As others have said, there is a culture of ordering multiple things with the intention of returning loads of items, and this also imposes additional costs for the retailer. I suppose in a physical store, the cost of hiring the retail staff is built into the price of the goods. But perhaps for online sales it is reasonable for those who want to return lots of items to bear more of the costs of processing their returns, rather than everyone taking the hit?

I rarely buy online because of the return cost. I know what suits me, I’ve got a fair idea of how fabrics will drape and I never impulse buy online, but I can’t predict when something will show up with a waistband four inches bigger than the website sizing guide states.

I ordered some clothes a few months back,I knew in advance it would cost 1.99 to return anything and was fine with that.

What I didn't know was this particular company charge a restocking and steaming fee.

One of the tops I received was absolutely covered in cat hair and what looked like patches of dry saliva??🤮

I was charged 4.99 in total as "apparently" they steam all their returns,which is an obvious lie as the top I received was manky af.

Definitely won't ever shop with them again, still can't get over the cheek of them 😂

M&S aways did this, most others didn't at the time. It increased when online shopping increased and shops closed.

If they didn't do it they would factor it into the prices, but it irritates me when Asda, for example, will send a small item by post and then refuse to let you return it by post or to store, making you arrange a courier for a little hand towel.

Last time I purchase from them, because they don't answer phones, or messages for several days and then ask the questions you already provided details for.

Cost me €10 to return a pair of dace shoes recently because they were the wrong size, because the sizing used by the company is nuts! Needless to say I wasn't impressed