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Comment by searchableguy | Hacker News Reader

Few people probably abuse the system too much. There are scamming forums and services for Amazon refunds. Scammers take 10-20% of the item cost for refunding it without giving the original.

A trend I observed here among college students is buying clothes for a party or instagram selfie and then returning it.

Small sellers get screwed pretty hard. You should check their forums.

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Wait, people genuinely buy clothes (although this is more like borrowing) just for the purpose of taking a selfie?

I can't even begin to comprehend how desperate they must be to look good and fit in.

Yes, this is so common that there is a name for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardrobing

Oh the practise I'm aware of, it was more the application of it which surprised me here. I guess it makes more sense (although that's stretching the definition of sense) when you apply it to influencers (a connection I failed to make initially).

Wait until you hear how much food foodie influencers throw away after they get their money shot (it's all of it.)

Back in the days of brick-and-mortar shopping there used to be people who bought a large screen TV shortly before a big sports game and then returned it afterwards. A lot of stores revised their return policies because of this.

I'm curious about the policy. "You can't return a TV if there has been a sports game on TV".

Just like the super bowl or World Series or whatever.

You could institute a restocking fee on any returns.

If the restocking fee is low enough, people would just consider it a rental fee. You'd need to make it close to 50% fee to discourage the massive returns

If the restocking fee accurately represents the cost to the store to repackage it and put it back out on the floor, and probably lower its price -- perhaps with a little left over -- then I think everyone comes out ok here. The returner gets to "rent" a TV for a weekend, and the retailer gets to pocket a little money for allowing the "rental" to happen, while covering the cost to resell the TV.

Best Buy doesn’t have that policy, I don’t think any of the major retailers do.

I remember hearing from someone that in some parts of florida, the retirees would come down for the winter and just before returning to go back north, flock to the store and return a bunch of stuff.

My father in law will buy certain things (like a wedge pillow) that are too bulky to fly with, when he arrives at his destination. And then return it on the way back to the airport

> A trend I observed here among college students is buying clothes for a party or instagram selfie and then returning it.

Ok, yeah, so buying something and finding a creative way to hide the tag so you can wear it to a single event and then return it is common enough that it's a decades-old TV/movie trope, but... buying something just to take a selfie for Instagram and then return it? What has the world come to...

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