Refunds

So you've laid out your hard-earned dollars on that fancy new remote car starter, but you find it's not quite the must-have gadget that you thought it was. You're not satisfied, so you want to return it and get your money back.

No problem — usually.

But there can be a hitch — or a bunch of conditions. Bill Huzar, the president of the Consumers Council of Canada points out that no Canadian store is required to refund your money after you've paid for and walked out the door with some of their merchandise, unless the product is defective or was misrepresented. There's no requirement even for stores to post the conditions under which they will accept returns.

"It's often surprising the ones that actually post it," Huzar told CBCNews.ca. "They're the ones that tend to be the smaller sales place that usually deal in discount goods, so they want to make sure that you are aware of the fact that if you return something in X amount of days, you may get a credit but you don't get your money back."

Of course almost every store will give you your money back under certain conditions, unless they tell you that all sales are final. But it's up to you to know those conditions.

In general, retail establishments handle returns in three ways:

• A refund policy allows you to get your money back.
• An exchange policy allows you to return any item and replace it with another one of the same kind.
• A return for credit policy leaves you with a credit note that you can spend in that store on other merchandise. Be careful, the credit note could have an expiry date.

Again, you better check with the store for details of its return policy. They will vary. Most stores will list some products that they will not take back once you've bought them — like swimsuits and underwear.

Stores will cite copyright legislation if you try to return music or software that has been opened. They may allow you to exchange a defective music CD for another one of the same title.

But stores that are keen to keep you coming back as a customer will give you your money back if you return the product:

• Within a specified time — find out how many days, weeks or months of grace time the store is willing to give you.
• As long as the product is in new condition, in its original packaging.
• As long as you have a receipt.

The trend toward collecting personal data

Sometimes you can still get your money back even if you don't have a receipt, especially if the product is exclusive to a chain. Ikea, for instance, may take back some merchandise if you do not have a receipt — but the amount you get back will be no more than the lowest selling price of the product in the previous two years.

Huzar laments what appears to be a growing trend among large retailers: they're asking for a lot of personal information before they'll give you back your money.

"I can't argue that they're doing something that's not good policy for them, but the disclosure of personal information has become a major concern."

At Sears Canada, for example, returning a product for a full refund is rarely a problem — but you will have to provide some information. The company's website states:

"For refunds and exchanges, we may ask that you provide us with your name, address and telephone number for audit and fraud prevention purposes. Valid photo ID may be required to confirm this information. This information is collected, used and retained to help us ensure that refunds and exchanges are valid (in each case and over time) and in accordance with the Sears Privacy Policy."

It's the same deal at Canadian Tire.

"The issue with Canadian Tire has been a big one," Huzar said. "They're asking for things like your phone number, which one assumes isn't necessary. If you have your receipt and you have whatever the pay document was to carry out your transaction and you've got the goods, tracking that other information serves no real necessary purpose other than that. It's just tracking."

Fears raised over privacy violations

Saskatoon software developer Candice Weingartner said privacy was a major concern for her when she took a few items back to stores after Christmas 2007. She was surprised when she was asked to provide her name, address, postal code and phone number before stores would process her refund.

At first she refused to fill out the information.

"They all refused a refund unless I complied," she told CBCNews.ca "I ended up giving them their own address or as close to their own address as I could make up and a fake phone number and got my refund."

Weingartner says she's reluctant to give out personal information because it can be too easily accessed by others.

"I'm a software developer, I know how secure those systems are — not very: any employee can see this information."

Balancing customers' rights with retailers' needs

At the Retail Council of Canada, Derek Nighbor, the vice president of national affairs, says it's all about balance: the retailer needs to explain to the customer why they are asking for personal information.

"Precedent out of the privacy commissioner's office tends to be that asking to look at photo identification to verify that it's you — asking for your name, your phone number and your address — is acceptable … just to introduce a check and balance into the system."

Huzar concedes there may be good reasons — like preventing fraud — for a retailer to require you to produce photo identification. He believes it's going to become a bigger issue, but there should be limits.

"Certainly, when a fraud is committed, the cost is passed down to us eventually. The issue is making copies of it or recording information. The fact that they identify you with some government-issued photo ID is sufficient."

"At the end of the day," Nighbor notes, "retailers themselves want to mitigate any of their risks on the privacy side — in that regard, less is more by way of retaining the personal information of customers."

The key, Huzar says, is to be sensible.

"The retail sector has to be sensible about where their level of concern is. If I'm going to return something to the local retailer for $6.95, I don't expect to go through the same process as something worth $3,000 to $4,000."

And if you refuse to provide your personal information?

If collecting your information is part of that chain's returns policy, they don't have to hand over your money if you don't fill out their form.