After my previous complaint about Motherhood’s shipping and returns policies, I wondered if maybe I was being unfair. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Amazon Prime and Zappos into thinking that shipping and returns are always free and simple. I decided to go look up the policies for a few places. It turns out that shipping and returns policies have lots of exceptions and special cases, but most stuff tends to be covered by the basic policy.
As of April 2, 2016, here is what I’ve found:
| Retailer | Free Shipping | Return Window | Return Shipping | Refund | In-store Returns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon (not Prime) | 5-7 days for $50+ | 30 days | Free | Excludes original shipping if it wasn’t an Amazon error | No |
| Amazon Prime | 2 days on almost everything | 30 days | Free | Full | No |
| Bed Bath and Beyond | 3-7 days on $25+ | Forever? | Free | Excludes original shipping | Yes |
| Best Buy | 3-7 days on $35+ | 15 days | Customer pays | Full | Yes |
| Dillards | 1-5 days on $150+ | 30 days | Customer pays | Excludes original shipping | Yes |
| JC Penney | 4-7 days on $50+ | 45 days | Customer pays | Excludes original shipping | Yes |
| Kohls | 4-7 days on $75+ | 12 months | Customer pays | Excludes original shipping | Yes |
| Lands End | 4-6 days on $50+ | Forever | $6.95 | Full | Yes |
| L.L. Bean | 2-5 days with no minimum | Forever? | $6.50 | Full | Yes |
| Macys | 4-5 days on $99+ | Forever? | Free | Full | Yes |
| Modcloth | 4-9 days on $75+ | 30 days | $5.99 | Full or full+$5+free shipping in store credit | No |
| Motherhood | 3-7 days on $89+ | 30 days | Customer pays | Excludes original shipping | Yes |
| Neiman Marcus | 3-5 days with no minimum | 15 days | Free | Full | Yes |
| Newegg | 4-7 days on some items | 30 days | Free | Full | No |
| Target | 3-5 days for $25+ | 90 days | Free | Excludes original shipping if it wasn’t a Target error | Yes |
| Wal-mart | 4-6 days for $50+ | 90 days | Free | Full | Yes |
| Zappos | 4-5 days with no minimum | 365 days | Free | Full | No |
Motherhood isn’t the worst of the bunch, but they’re far from the best. Probably not coincidentally, the best shipping and returns policies seem to come from the companies that actually do a lot of online business. The modcloth offer of an extra $5 if you’ll take store credit is a neat gimmick.