I've heard about being banned from returns a long time ago, pre internet shopping. I think it was either Limited or Express.
This doesn't necessarily apply to Sierra Trading Post as they apparently charge return shipping. But if you think about companies that offer free shipping and returns, you could be costing the company a chunk of change, especially if your return rate is higher than keep rate. Or even in store returns cost time and money to process.
Sometimes the customer is not right.

I agree with Viva that companies need to consider the cost of processing returns as part of their overhead if they wish to reach a global audience. And honestly, if a company's CS gets negative with me, there's about a 99% chance I won't shop there again. I'm not that married to any particular brand or retailer.

JAileen, I've found that STP's customer service is not nearly as friendly as it used to be, ever since they got bought by the TJMaxx parent company last year. I've pretty much stopped shopping from them because they do seem to be actively discouraging returns. Because their items are often mis-labeled, seconds, etc, I've always had a pretty high return rate with them; I feel it's par for the course.

Interesting thread. I buy a lot at STP. They have a retail store in a town I visit every few weeks, so I just do the returns there. Between losing weight, and shopping for a couple of different gear intensive trips, I've been buying a lot lately. I have been trying to be more discriminating in what I keep (yay YFL!), so my return ratio just jumped a lot in the past few months. I would not buy/keep nearly as much if they made returns more difficult.

Before being acquired by TJ Maxx they had the best customer service, but an almost overly generous return policy - I saw people take advantage of it all the time. As of March 2016 they started informing me at check out that the return window is 90 days. Still plenty generous.

At the bottom of your STP receipt they tell you how much you've "saved" over the years. It is a truly terrifying number.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. And thanks for delurking, delurked! Your perspective is an interesting one.

I've made a conscious decision to stop worrying about this since without there being an industry standard, or little in the way of published policies, there's little you can do to ensure staying in-bounds short of never returning anything.

I do appreciate knowing that STP's cut-off is 60% (and wish they'd be more straightforward about this) but don't believe that their policy necessarily translates to other companies.

While being cut off can feel personal, it isn't. These are numbers driven decisions. Alas, there's something that feels unfair about them. I'd like to see more transparency in this area.

I've had to return a few things lately because I've been trying new brands and am not familiar with the sizing. I do my best, most of what I order fits and is what I expected, and I'm thrilled. But I'm not going to keep stuff that I'm not 100% happy with. Stores need to remember that I'm the buyer, and that I can take my business elsewhere if I so choose.

I buy a ton from Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic, for me and my kids, and also return a lot. The closest stores are more than an hour away so I often order multiple sizes or something 'just to try' that I know is unlikely to make the cut.

I do marvel sometimes that prices are as low as they are, with free shipping in both directions.

I will keep doing it though, until I am banned. Their return forms have an option to indicate 'ordered multiple sizes/colours' which to my mind encourage the kind of shopping I do - I don't feel guilty about it.

Interesting thread! I prefer to shop online, because filters make it so much easier to find what you're looking for. I mostly shop outlet sites like The Rack and Last Call or the sales pages of women's clothing stores like Soft Surroundings and Anthropologie. Over the past two years, I probably have a 20 or 30% rate of keeping things. (I recently tried a batch of dresses from Sierra Teading Post and returned them all. I probably won't be back--by my own choice). I don't think about it any differently than walking back to a fitting room. Most of the places I buy have brick & morter stores where I live, so returns are easy (another reason not to use Sierra).

If I wanted to buy a handful of the same item, like T-shirts, I'd probably go ahead and order several types, all from the same place to get free shipping, and return the rest. 3-6 kinds of shirts, and 4-5 of each would be a lot of returns, but doing it all as a huge batch would just make the whole thing easier. So far I've never heard a peep from any merchant, though Jaileens email is interesting

I don't know anyone that has been banned for a high percentage of returns, Fashiontern. I don't think you have to give this a second thought.

Super old thread, but it caught my interest because of a discussion I just had the day with the owner of a store. You want to know why this might happen? Because you are costing them more money than you are worth, in plain language. My store owner friend told me that every credit card sale AND return costs him a minimum of 5% per transaction, and that rate can increase as the "value" of your credit card (what points programs are associated with it, what level of card it is etc) increases. A Black Amex, Platinum VISA or its equivalent can cost a retailer 10-12% in transaction fees, PER transaction . So if you are a serial returner, you are costing that retailer a minimum of 10% every time you buy something , and if you return rate exceeds your purchase rate - well, you're not a favoured customer (especially to indie stores - this is less relevant to large national retailers ). Sure, larger retailers build the cost of shipping and using credit/debit cards into their retail price, but when you are reducing their margin all the time - I can see how it could happen. In Canada, free shipping is not a given, just because of the economies of scale of selling to a smaller population across a vast geographic area - so serial returning is not as much of a problem here. This also explains why indie boutiques and store are less likely to even offer returns, period.

Thanks Sterling! If it happens, then I'll have to change, but I'm not planning to make any changes before then.