The "restocking fee" is now common at many brick and mortar operations also.
Best Buy, Target etc. I'm sure this is, in part, because they have been
burned by buyers taking advantage of a "no questions asked" refund.
However, some places have no mention of this fee clearly posted. It is not
mentioned until you are handed your receipt by the cashier (or automated
checkout system). and then only if you take the time to read the fine print
on the receipt or the faint grey print detailing store policy on the back,
will you find some mention of this "restocking fee". Some places set their
"restocking fee" as high as 20% so watch out! Grizzly is kind enough to
have their "restocking fee" clearly posted on their web pages. And Chuck is
man enough to admit _he_ made the error, not Grizzly.

{rant mode "ON"}

I think it is too bad that today's retailers think they need to charge their
customers (soon-to-be _former_ customers, in many cases) this "restocking
fee". In another life, I was in the retail electronics field. We sold a
good product and we worked hard to train our sales staff to assist our
customers in selecting the right product to fill that customers needs. We
enjoyed a less than 1 percent product failure rate out of the box. So we
did not have to deal with many DOA complaints. Sometimes the salesman
misunderstood what the customer needed, sometimes the customer did not fully
understand _what_ he needed. We were always pleased to replace, exchange or
refund to make the customer happy. That WAS the corporate policy, satisfy
our customer. And we never charged a "restocking fee", which would only
assure that our customer left the store with a bad taste in his mouth.
Returns, replacements, refunds etc. were simply a cost of doing business.
Some things could be repackaged and resold, some marked down and sold
"as-is", others returned to the manufacturer for credit and some things were
tossed in the dumpster. Checking these items, repacking, marking down,
shipping for credit and all the paperwork involved took time but that was
all part of doing business. The main goal was to assure that, even though
our customer had to return with the product for whatever reason, we would do
whatever was necessary to correct the situation and have our customer leave
the store with a smile. (hopefully to return one day and make another
purchase) The formula seemed to work, as we grew from 375 stores in '69 to
+11,000 in 1980. AHH, the good old days!!!

Today, many retailers are in for the quick buck, would rather compete with
price than quality, hire inexperienced help, offer minimal training and seem
content with a "revolving door" staff. Constantly have to hunt down someone
to answer a question and finding 4-8 "salesmen" in a huddle, discussing last
nights game, who got voted off the island or where to party this weekend,
has driven me from Best Buy, Fry's Electronics etc. Now retailers add the
"restocking fee" to drive more of us away? I'm sure it makes sense in
business school but I can still vote with my feet.

{rant mode "off"}

need to get another cold COKE and see if I can jack the old blood pressure
up a little higher

DexAZ