Pete wanna know first hand why it's like that? Cuz people will screw you no matter what it takes to do it.
I been self employed for 14 years now, I've seen it all. I been ripped off, cheated, swindled, de-frauded, and anything else you can think of. If you don't set a non return policy and someone decides they want to send a widget back then they can and you as the business automatically lose. You get stuck with scratched up used stuff that cannot be sold as new legally, and in many cases won't ever be sold and ya might as well throw it out for the bath you will take on it.
Couple examples...company calls and orders 7 portable radios.....set em up, deliver em, bill it etc... Next week they call back and want to return them....what are you going to say if it's only been invoiced and not paid? So ya take em back all scratched up etc, and ya find out the REAL reason they got em was to avoid having to pay YOU for a RENTAL for a special event they had over the weekend.... nice huh?
Get's better than that too but I will stop there.
Not defending the guys you dealt with, but I've had my eyes opened quite a few times in 14 years now
There's alot of people in this world that just plain suck.