The term doesn’t necessarily apply to consumers who frequently return items they’ve purchased. Instead, the word generally refers to customers who partake in extreme and borderline criminal behavior, by returning items they never bought in the first place, or by returning stuff that they’ve used. And “returnaholics” may be ruining return policies for the rest of us.
So reports WalletPop. The most typical returnaholic move is one called “wardrobing,” in which a consumer buys an article of clothing, wears it once (or more times) while hiding the still-attached tag, and later return it to the store and requests a refund.
The retail industry reportedly loses somewhere north of $10 billion a year due to return fraud (costs that are passed along to consumers in one way or another), and stores are increasingly likely use databases to track returnaholic behavior. Nowadays, it’s not only buyers who need to beware, but returners as well.