Imagine spending several hours with your child in one of those hip, trendy, music-blaring fashion stores, picking out endless layered outfits for camp, only to be told at the register that there is a cap on the number of purchases an individual can make, and, unfortunately, you’re over the limit. Or, imagine you purchased a phone several months ago and it just doesn’t work. You write, you call, you threaten to involve your lawyer and the media….and still the store won’t take the phone back because it violates store policy on the return of electronics.

The clothing store is concerned about individuals purchasing large amounts of merchandise for resale. The electronics division of the department store won’t take back anything electroinc that was purchased more than six months ago. On the surface, these policies don’t seem overly unfiar. But when store policies violate everything that seems right and fair to the customer, who’s wrong? Is it the store, for setting up seemingly inflexible, stringent policies or is it the customer for having unreasonable expectations? Complaints like these are at the core of the customer experience, and stores who make it exceedingly difficult for their customers to return unwanted items are losing those customers.

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