By Marcella S. Meeks

James 4:17 “If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

There is nothing more annoying than when a person researches stores like Walmart and Amazon about their merchandise return policy, and then uses it to their advantage to get extra time use out of products for free. I’ve seen people who order merchandise, use it for thirty or ninety days, return it right before the return policy grace period ends and they get their money back. That way, they can make sure if they like the merchandise or not.
If they decide it’s what they want, after they’ve returned it, and got their money back, they go into the store and buy it or they simply order again and do the same with it.

That is wrong. It is sin, simple as that. James 4:17 says, “If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” They already did the research and knew ahead of time they were returning it for a full refund after using it for thirty or ninety days. That’s not a good thing, it’s a sin. They already knew what they were doing to begin with.

That is not what the store return policies are set up for, to let someone decide if it was what they want or not. It’s not a ‘try it for free’ policy.

The policy is set up for customers who may not be satisfied with the quality or how it works or doesn’t work. They shouldn’t be allowed to use the merchandise for a month or longer and decide that it wasn’t what they wanted, and then return it.

That costs the business owners money. Packaging, shipping costs, staff payment, right on down the line. Someone has to pay for all that.

The thing is, this person already knows from the offset that he is going to send it back after he uses it for the thirty or ninety days. That is plenty of time to make up his mind if he wants to buy it or not. He gets several months of use out of it for free to make up his mind.

He has done his homework by knowing the return policy and how it works.

The business owner cannot sell it as new after a customer uses it and returns it like this. That is deceitful and wrong. No matter how small it seems, it is wrong. The person who does it knows it’s wrong, too.

People have no right doing this to businesses but they do it everyday. Some people may think this is OKAY and that no one is watching, but God is. He sees it.

Anytime you cheat a business like this, no matter how you try to justify it, it is wrong.

Pay for the merchandise like everyone else if you want it. It’s deceiving when someone already knows he is going to return something before the return policy grace period is up. Don’t be tempted and think that you’re getting by with it because God sees it all before you ever do it.

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James 1: 13-15 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”