BY MICHAEL CRUMB:The increased cost of shipping is causing some companies to charge customers for returning items they ordered online, and that means the beginning of the end of the era of free returns, Insider reports in this story. Companies are making the decision to start charging customers for returns as they pay more for ground shipping and the labor involved in processing, sorting and preparing those returned items to be resold. With challenging financial times and uncertainty about the future, some companies are now saying if you want to return something, you will have to pay for at least part of that cost.