One good thing about shopping in America is the lax rule on merchandise return and exchange. This doesn’t apply to cars or vehicles. The minute you bring your vehicle out their door, you can no longer change your mind. But on other merchandise like furniture, clothes, shoes, home goods, you may bring the items for return or exchange even after several months. Electronics have their own set of guidelines. I am not sure what the return policy of Louis Vuitton is, and in other expensive boutiques. Because of the proliferation of original-looking fakes, it would be hard to accept returns and exchanges. Bad-meaning customers could return fake ones.
We’ve actually seen a little bit of changes because of many abusive customers. In the past, we’ve heard stories from Filipinos that they bought coats and jackets, then returned them after the wintertime. They just didn’t remove the tags. Women buying expensive boots, putting a masking tape at the bottom, wearing it once or twice, then returning the boots in a few days. They just probably wanted to show off to their friends or office mates that they have new clothes, shoes, jackets, bags, etc. Something like the “Confessions of a Shopaholic”. The kind of woman Suze Orman abhors.
They’ve used clothes including jeans for several months and these would still be accepted by stores. Times are slowly changing though. Some clothing stores no longer accept returns on clothes. They give store credit instead. Discount stores have final sales, no returns, no exchange.
Edmund bought golf gloves from Costco. He wasn’t sure of the right size. First, he bought size small. then found them small. We returned them and bought size medium instead. He found them too big. I was the one who returned them. The black guy, Wellington, knew me already and he’s pretty nice.
While I was waiting in line at the Costco Customer Service to return Edmund’s medium-sized golf gloves, there was a white couple ahead of me, returning several bottles of vitamins, chips, etc.
Aside from Wellington, two other Costco employees were assisting him. Then they called their store manager for approval. I noticed, from their facial expressions, exchange of glances, body movements that they were all in disbelief.
The couple were returning some vitamins they had bought in 2001. Repeat year 2001. Twelve years ago! Are they crazy?
I was naiinip na because I’ve been standing in line for 15 minutes, naki usyoso na ako. I craned my neck to check what’s da faaahhh (kunwari Americano na ako).
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A big bottle of Vitamin E (about 8 inches tall) that’s almost empty. Bukas na at halos ubos na. They were also returning a bag of coconut chips that’s half empty. Grabe, kung ako yun, matutunaw ako sa hiya.
When the manager came, I saw him shook his head from side to side. But he eventually nodded and approved the return of $105.90 credited to the couple’s credit card.
While I was going out, there’s a Mexican couple naman, hauling their living room set. They looked like they’ve been used already. Grabe. I wonder when they bought those naman, maybe in 2005. Mukhang sagsag na.
