In the music business, folks talk about the "Guitar Center Rental" where you buy some gear from Guitar Center, use it for a performance, then return it the next day. Needless to say, it's frowned upon, and I wouldn't do it myself.

This was actually a big problem at Costco, which allowed turns on electronics after any amount of time. People would buy a TV and use it for a year or two and exchange it for a bigger, better one. Their old policy even allowed 6 months on computers, which, as you can imagine, plenty of people took advantage of.

They cracked down a few years back but are still very generous.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17350641/#.VogfljYhKW0

I was just about to reply "is that even possible", in disbelief.

But then I read https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/changed-your-mind...

If you buy online you can return a product, even if it is opened, within 14 days of receiving your order, with a few exceptions like hygiene products or CDs/DVDs.

TIL.

Well also very often a retailer's return policy will be more generous than is required by law because their research shows them that it ultimately increases profit. In the US you can expect to be able to return opened and slightly used merchandise. It's easy to abuse, but it doesn't get abused nearly as often as one might think. It's frowned upon socially to buy something with the intent of likely returning it, except in some cases like online clothing stores where the nature of the product being purchased and the method of purchase necessitate returns (in this case it could be said that the returned product was defective for the purposes of the customer).