This holiday shopping season, you might be surprised when you try to return an unwanted item. Instead of an online retailer confirming that a product can be returned for free—as many shoppers now expect—it might tell you to just keep it instead.
The general trend among retailers like Amazon in recent years has been to make it as easy as possible to return unwanted merchandise bought online. But in some cases, it costs more for a retailer to have an item shipped back—and sorted and resold, if not disposed of—than it’s worth. (There’s also the environmental cost to consider.)
