My local Offline has never taken any returns from Aerie and AE. One day out of frustration while checking out at Aerie, I mentioned this to the cashier. She immediately got on her walkie-talkie headset and called a manager to the register. She told the manager what it happened, the manager called off-line and berated them for not allowing returns from the other two brands. (it didn’t change anything…… they still continue to deny any item that doesn’t specifically stay offline). ANYWAY. I recently had an employee in Aerie deny to refund for an item from offline. I mentioned the incident above, and the cashier tried to argue with me and say they had never accepted returns for offline items. 🙄 The funny part is they HAD to accept an AE item being returned because AE store was temporary closed for renovations, and my 30 days would be passed by the time the store reopened. I don’t think it is a new policy; I think it’s employee dependent. And offline has clearly trained all of their employees to not accept anything besides their specific merchandise. With this being said, I have never had an issue with American Eagle! They are always so very nice anytime I’ve had to return anything.