Best Buy Gives Customers A Christmas Gift, Dumps Restocking Fees

Being a computer geek and general tech junkie one of my biggest complaints has always been restocking fees. I absolutely hate shopping sites or stores that charge me just because I buy something and then either don't like it or just find the need to return it. But we all know that when it comes to electronic items, restocking fees are a fact of life. After all, retailers can't sell an item for full price once it's returned in an open/used state, even if it was only used for a few minutes. So to recoup some of the loss associated most companies make the customer eat some of the cost with a 10-15% restocking fee.

After years and years of customers complaints Best Buy has finally caved and recently announced that as of 12/18/2010 the company will be doing away with their traditional 15% restocking fee. The company posted the following notice on its website:

Best Buy continually listens to our customers, and they told us they want to give confidently this holiday season and every other day of the year — and with that comes easier returns. Effective Saturday, December 18, Best Buy is improving its return policy by removing restocking fees for all products except special orders. Customers can visit BestBuy.com for further information.

According to popular consumer affairs blog The Consumerist the new policy applies to all items including iPads, iPhones, notebook computers, and digital cameras. In addition, a company email notes that customers who were charged a restocking fee between November 17 and December 17 can come back to a Best Buy store to get the fee refunded.

All I can say is its about time! Walmart did away with restocking fees years ago and a few other places like Staples has followed suite.