Retailers Draw Line on Some Returns

By CONNIE KOENENN

Jan. 7, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It was the Los Angeles County Consumer Affairs Department’s first call after Christmas. The man was frantic. He had bought his wife a potbellied Vietnamese pig, having heard they made gentle pets. This pig did nothing but squeal, and the store wouldn’t let him return it.

“He hoped there was a law that would force the store to take the pig back,” says Betty Stark, supervising investigator for the department, recalling the 1990 incident. “There wasn’t, but the pet store eventually took it back on consignment and found it another home.”

For Stark’s department, the two weeks after Christmas are a challenge.

As writer John Updike puts it in “Twelve Terrors of Christmas,” “Fear of Returns” involves: “The embarrassment. The unseemly haggling. The lost receipts. The allegations of damaged goods. The humiliating descent into mercantilism’s boiler room.”

Stark’s office tries to soften the agony. “If it’s a problem of billing, or quality, or misrepresentation, we will get involved,” she says.

The laws are minimal: A store must take back merchandise that is demonstrably defective, but after that it’s a game without rules.

Do your new cowboy boots pinch?

Do you sneeze every time you pick up the Christmas kitten?

Did you buy a 16-pound turkey before learning that half your invited guests have converted to vegetarianism?

None of this is the stores’ responsibility. They might take it back, but they don’t have to.

Until three years ago, California stores could set their own refund policies, and they were under no obligation to inform customers. Now, under a 1990 state law, any store that doesn’t offer cash, credit or exchange on goods returned with a receipt within seven days must post its policy in a conspicuous place.

Despite this lack of regulation, a post-Christmas sampling of local retailers suggests that consumers have the upper hand.

At Tower Records on Sunset, manager Tammy Laub expresses a typical sentiment: “It’s the holidays, we are being nice and basically we have no choice. With the economy the way it is, the customers are always right.”

Stores report one sign of the times is the number of customers who want to exchange gift certificates for cash. Sometimes they succeed, though retailers work hard at steering them into merchandise.

Most department stores accept exchanges or returns on all their merchandise. “A sales receipt is appreciated, but not necessary,” says a spokeswoman for Nordstrom, which thrives on customer service.

“We take almost anything back. We just want people to be happy,” says Sue Gee, district manager for the Ann Taylor chain. She had just waited on a Century City customer returning a skirt purchased in 1990 but seemingly never worn. “You can’t imagine what people will return,” says Gee. “Items purchased a year ago, items with no receipt, things that have been marked down to nothing.”

“We know who’s the boss, and that’s the customer,” says Bruce Meyer, president of Geary’s Beverly Hills.

“If you pay cash you get cash back; if you use a credit card we write a check to the credit card company. With gifts we don’t give cash back, but we do miracles on exchanging.”

One recent negotiation involved newlyweds in Yosemite who had a credit balance on some returned wedding gifts. “They didn’t want any more crystal or china, they wanted a refund,” says Meyer. “They were up in the wilderness and needed fly rods and reels. So I ordered them--he wanted Penn rods--and used the credit to pay for them.”

Here is how some retailers handle returns of selected items:

Books: Sharon Hearn, owner of Children’s Book World, posted signs (“No refunds, store credit only, proof of purchase required”) after returns became a problem. “People were just cleaning out their closet,” she says. “We had Christmas and Hanukkah books coming back in May.”

At Dutton’s Brentwood, Doug Dutton’s policy is to “exchange everything as long as it is in our database somehow or other.” He doesn’t get a lot of exchanges, but will take back a book even if it has been read. “You can tell by the spine if it has been opened,” says Dutton. “My philosophy is if you need to read the book that badly, then God bless you, and get a life.”

Shoes: “Shoes and boots are a big gift item,” says Ron Ross, manager of Jack’s Shoes in Simi Valley.

His policy, like most, is to exchange any shoes that likely came from the store--if they haven’t been worn.

Compact Discs: Receipts are usually required for return of CDs and tapes at Tower Records, but leniency is the holiday policy.

“For now we are taking back anything and everything and will probably continue that through the middle of January,” says Tammy Laub.

And if the item has been opened and played? “We still take it back and it gets returned to the company as defective. I’m not sure what they do with it.”

Lingerie: “Not exchangeable,” says Anna Coronado-Mendoza, assistant manager of Playmates on Hollywood Boulevard. “It’s a health issue--undergarments and bathing suits--anything that touches the skin like that.”

Some larger stores say they will take back intimate apparel, but won’t return it to stock.

Food: Along the highly competitive supermarket aisles, return policy is dictated by pleasing the customer. “As far as I know, there is no state regulation,” says Don Beaver, president of the California Grocers Assn.

“But generally speaking, any customer who brings back a food item with a complaint will get another item or their money back. Nothing perishable is returned to the shelf.”

Pets: Typical is the Oceanside Pet Shop, which has a no-return policy, and concentrates on gift certificates so the recipient can select the pet.

Furs ‘n’ Feathers in Simi Valley offers a 72-hour health warranty and has a no-return policy--unless the pet turns out to be temperamental “like a bird that attacks you.”

“We don’t take an animal back once it leaves here,” says Scott MacMullen at the Animal Farm in West Hollywood. Customers must sign a sales agreement that states the pet won’t be returned.

The shop does a steady holiday business selling gifts for pets--and this is foolproof. The pets never ask for a refund.