CNN 2009-12-25

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Ok, so get past the credit card, interest rates and all that. First comes shopping then comes the gift opening, then comes the mad rush to return what you don't want. Here's advice on how to make that return process easier this year if at all? We welcome back consumer reports, Tod Marks, also known as Tighwad Tod, good to see you?

Good to hear you again.

Ok, so you know apparently¹ this time around, this year's a little tougher to make those returns. Why?

Well, you know, 17% of retailers³ and national retail² federation⁴ survey actually reported that they tightened⁵ their policies this year versus⁶ last's. 80% of retailers said that they are not changing their policy versus last holiday season. And so it's getting a little tighter and the reason is simple. It's unfortunately bad apples you know, people that are crocks and you know fortunately returns are expected to cost retailers something in the neighborhood of 3 billion dollars this holiday season alone. You know the innocent pay for it…

When we said they're making it tighter it's more difficult, meaning the window of opportunity has narrowed, meaning you've got to have a certain, you know, looked up about your receipt or your gift receipt what do you mean breakdown⁷ for them?

It really comes down to following the letter of the law, that is they are not making it, making you return things any sooner and in fact most places are pretty generous. We did a study recently. We found that return periods are mostly in the 90 to 180-day range, (Really?) not just the standard 30 days. You know it depends, every chain is different and they have different terms in conditions for different product classes, jewelry⁸ might be different than clothing, then might be different than furniture, you got to look carefully.