I knew some rather unscrupulous people in the 98-03 period who'd take items off of shelves in the walmart, remove the packaging and walk over to customer service for a cash refund, having never bought anything or even leaving the store. They'd walk out with cash in hand.

Having worked in retail, they basically knew that nobody in that store really cared (loss prevention officers, staff, managers... nobody seemed to care.)

I would love to know the actual numbers. I bet the customer lifetime value for eating this cost probably won out eventually.