more on "Your papers please" down at the local mall

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Stephanie <sjwinters3 () hotmail com>
Date: October 24, 2004 3:42:45 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] "Your papers please" down at the local mall

Dave, in response to the Fortune Magazine article about not being able 
to do
returns at the mall, one thing that bothers me about this Verify-1 
system of
The Return Exchange is that people who buy a lot of retail goods like 
myself
(I am an eBay Power Seller who buys lots of inventory both wholesale and
retail) actually do many returns/exchanges for all sorts of valid 
reasons.
For example, when you buy a lot, you get more defective products than 
the
average person. So there should be a way to allow returns in proportion 
to
the amount you buy. But since Verify-1 appears to uses a driver's 
license
number to record how often you return, and that same driver's license 
number
is not recorded when you do your purchases, they would have no way of
knowing your returns were not excessive in proportion to your actual
purchases. They would only be only able to tell that they were excessive
when compared to the average consumer, presumably. And believe it or 
not,
there are actually lots of retailers like me, as well as other "power
shoppers" who buy an enormous amount of products with coupons or 
significant
rebates for various reasons. And of course, there are people who just 
buy a
lot. It goes to reason that if you buy a lot, you will also return more 
than
the average person. I do not know how one could ever consider excessive
returns as necessarily fraudulent ones, especially if the item is still 
new
and unused. There just is no way to know for sure.

As a retailer, I applaud organizations trying to take a stance against
fraudulent returns, but perhaps a better way would be not to issue a
categorical "return denied" notice, but to allow the customer to offer 
an
explanation to the store and let each store decide for itself. Of 
course,
you could also require a driver's license for all purchases and then 
weight
this against the returns, but then privacy advocates, myself included, 
would
have a field day. The bottom line is that there really is no way to 
automate
this process without knowing the full purchasing history of a person.

Stephanie

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
To: "Ip" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 2:09 PM
Subject: [IP] "Your papers please" down at the local mall


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
> Date: October 22, 2004 2:00:22 PM EDT
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: "Your papers please" down at the local mall
>
> Hi,
>
> Fortune Magazine has just run a story showing how drivers licenses and 
> the
> Internet are being used to track "bad" customers who return too much
> merchandise at clothing stores.  Here is a link to the Fortune article:
>
>    Sorry, Your Return Is No Good Here
>    http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,710662,00.html
>
> Here's how the system works:
>
>    http://www.returnexchange.com/about/index.asp
>
>    Our signature product, Verify-1, utilizes an ASP model
>    to provide return authorization services that are
>    initiated by either a VeriFone or similar type platform
>    on a retailer's POS system. A driver's license or state I.D.
>    card is swiped through these devices to initiate a product
>    return, and similar to credit card or check verification,
>    the data is transmitted to The Return Exchange's host
>    server for an approval for return authorization. We detect
>    fraud through utilization of deterministic rules, statistical
>    models and a shared return information database.
>
> Missing from the Web site is any brag list of customers and names and 
> bios
> of management personnel of the company.  Looks like the company values 
> its
> privacy.
>
> Richard M. Smith
> http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
>
>
>
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