BOSTON (CBS) – At one time or another, nearly everyone has opened a gift during the holidays that they knew right away wouldn’t fit or they just didn’t like.
“Sometimes, yeah, you do have to return things,” one shopper told us outside a Target store in Watertown.
“I’ve never come across something that wasn’t able to be returned once I got to the register,” another customer said.
That may be changing.
“Several large retailers have been shortening their return periods,” founder of ConsumerWorld.org, Edgar Dworsky told WBZ. “In other words, you’ve got to get back to the store quicker than you did in the past.”
For more than a decade, Dworsky has surveyed area retailers for their return policies around the holidays. Over the past few years, he has noticed this trend of shrinking return times.
Take Macy’s for example. According to Dworsky, the department store gave shoppers unlimited time to return items in 2015. In 2016 that was shortened to one year. This year, it is 90 days.
Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond also cut back on unlimited returns.
“It tells you they don’t want to be stuck with outdated merchandise,” Dworsky said.
To complicate matters, some retailers have different time frames depending on what you buy.
“Amazon and Macy’s both have about two dozen exceptions to their return police rule,” Dowrsky cautioned.
We checked the Macy’s policy and discovered their 90-day return rule is shortened to 60 days for dresses. It is 30 days for some watches. For some designer items, you have just two weeks to return.
Other retailers have shorter windows for electronics and televisions.
“You really have to read the fine print,” Dworsky warned.
Some shoppers we talked to had other ideas for avoiding the return desk altogether.
“Donate. You can always find someone who could use a good sweater,” one woman told us.
You can check ConsumerWorld.org for their complete survey of return policies.
