Even the well-seasoned Dillard's manager was taken aback by this one. A customer brought in a pair of moderately expensive dress shoes, expressing a desire to return them because they just weren't quite right. As the manager processed the order, she checked inside the box to be sure that the shoes in the box were the shoes that matched the box-past experience dictated that follow-up on returns. The shoes were the correct ones for the box, but the customer had another issue. The shoes had masking tape on the bottom-masking tape that was dirty. Returning to the customer, the manager said, "You forgot to remove the masking tape from your shoes." The customer responded, "I only wore them once. That's all I needed them for."

From Neiman Marcus to Saks to Dillard's and back, managers have to stay one step ahead of customers-or rather, lessees-who buy-or rather, lease for free-dresses and now shoes for one use with premeditated intent to return the merchandise. Stores now place tags strategically so that the dresses cannot be worn without cutting them off and there are no returns if the tags are cut off on formal wear.

Lest you think that the problem is limited to women and formal wear, talk to your Ace Hardware or Home Depot manager about the folks who "buy" a special tool, use it once, and then try to return it. The hardware/home improvement stores are left with opened packaging and used goods by buy-it-temporarily customers.

Amazon led the way down a new path on returns policies with its return whatever, at Amazon's expense, and Amazon will take it back. Other online retailers as well as the brickand-mortar stores have had to adjust. As a result, stores such as Macy's have adopted very liberal return policies. Macy's advertises that it will take anything back, anytime. The horror stories abound. Macy's employees in the luggage department call their area "the rental luggage department," because customers buy the luggage, use it on a trip, and then return it. If the customer says he will be leaving in the morning and returning in a week, the clerks note that so they can time the return of that luggage; they will also be back to return their newly purchased luggage in a week. \({ }^{73}\)

An unanticipated consequence of the liberal returns policies is the effect on employee pay. There are employees who are on commission plan for a certain amount of income in a week or believe that they have earned a certain amount of income. However, with these types of return policies, they can lose their commissions on any returns within six months after purchase. The policies on commission were created to stop employees from having friends and family come in and purchase goods, allowing the employee to earn the commission but then returning the goods. Without the hit to the employee on commission loss for returned goods, there would be gaming of the system. However, customers seem to be gaming the system. In 2014, customers in the United States returned \(\$ 284\) billion in goods, a \(53 \%\) increase in five years. The amount returned is \(8 \%\) of total sales.

Union leaders are pressing the major department stores to change their return policies to 150 or 120 days instead of 180 days so that employees can better budget and plan on incomes, and possible reductions in income due to returns. A recent university study found that sales employees believe that returns have become too lax. The impact on earnings for retailers from so many returns has resulted in reductions in the number of sales employees, with many who remain being reduced to part-time schedules.

On the customer side, and from the legal perspective of contracts, if the store advertises a 180-day-no-questions-asked return policy, the store must honor what has been advertised. And, after 180 days, the customer could have fit in a great deal of walking on those shoes and quite a few trips with the luggage, along with a few proms and other formal events.............................

 Discussion Questions

 1. What is the ethical category here?
2. Who is affected by the returners and their conduct?
3. Explain the impact of return policies.