It’s called buyer’s remorse -- as anyone who has worked in retail can attest to, returns are just a fact of life, especially with most companies making it so easy to do. However, when the returns start creeping toward nearly half the amount of product you’re shipping, there may be a bigger problem.

TechCrunch is reporting that Android has a dirty little secret the website is all too happy to out. While Google’s Android continues to outpace sales of the iPhone each year, some of those devices aren’t quite getting the love and attention back home that Apple’s media darling is.

At the height of the iPhone 4 “Antennagate” non-scandal last year, Apple claimed the return rate of its iconic handset was 1.7 percent, which was considered high for them. So what are some of the manufacturers peddling Android handsets getting back? According to “a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers,” Android return rates may be between 30 and 40 percent.

“For us nerds, Android makes a lot of sense. It’s ostensibly open platform (but not really) that offers far more flexibility to the programmer, carrier, and, ideally, the user,” the report explains. “For the ‘average’ phone user, however, Android is a maze. Anecdotally, I’ve heard of multiple examples of folks who bought an Android phone in order to ‘Think Different’ and came away disappointed when faced with the glaring differences between Android and a friend’s iPhone or Blackberry.”

If true, the return rate might help explain the wide berth between Android and iOS when it comes to activations, with Google now claiming more than half a million Android devices activated each day. While that may be true, returns in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 percent would certainly chip away at the real truth behind those numbers.

We’re skeptical that the return rate is actually that high, although we’ve personally returned a couple of Android devices (one smartphone and one tablet) in our quest for the ideal one -- and have yet to return a single iPhone or iPad by comparison. What do you think, dear readers? Returned any Android devices lately…?

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