Who loses out with returned items?

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Boeingflyer

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#95448 4-Jan-2012 21:22

I just had to return a car/portable DVD players back to Dick Smiths today. Had a little fight with them at the start with them accusing me that i broke it by putting a dirty disc in, but with a print out of the CGA in my back pocket and just done my law papers at uni last year i quickly turned the situation around with some key words out of the CGA, anyway my question is, why do the likes of dick smiths/harvey normans etc always put up such a fight against faulty defects?? would it not be the wholesaler/manufacture that wears the cost of replacement???
With todays situation, i'm now reluctant to go back into the store, so effectively they have lost my business over something so simple to put right.
I did like the managers last words to me as i was walking away from him towards the door "don't put dirty discs in the player, it will break it every time", he had to get the last word in.

0verdose05

102 posts

Master Geek

#564484 4-Jan-2012 21:35

So you were putting in dirty disks?

Predated

177 posts

Master Geek

#564485 4-Jan-2012 21:37

from my experience working retail, the retailer loses out as the manufacture will just show the wear and tear etc and won't take it back. without seeing the product you returned if they could see something that indicated you had put dirty discs in then the manufacture will use the same argument with the retailer and they don't have the CGA to hide behind.

Its the reason most retailers will try not to take back damaged/ opened merchandise. I know as a consumer I'm not going to buy an opened product at full price.

We sometimes sold products to work with peoples computers and they would bring them back saying they are faulty, we would plug the product into our store laptop and it would work fine. The problem was their laptop was full of ad-ware and malware etc and was about 8 years old. They would then argue that the kid next door who was a computer genius told them that it wasn't their computer. Often times you'd end up just taking it back as the time spent arguing/explaining the product was fine wasn't worth the money you'd lose selling the product as second hand.

And no ever returns the packaging in as new condition which for retailers to be able to sell the product as new again is required.

From my experience only about 1 in 10 returns are genuine, however we are so feed up with the other 9 people trying it on that even if you have a genuine complaint you just get lumped in with the rest of the idiots. On top of that too is its a minimum wage job generally and a lot of the people working in retail don't care too much, they just want to avoid all the extra paperwork of a return.

although I guess in the long run the customers end up paying as those costs along with shoplifting etc end up being added across the products in store.

nzbnw

2374 posts

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Spark NZ

#564486 4-Jan-2012 21:38

Depends. The OEM may credit the retailer if the product is defective within a certain time frame, or choose to repair the product, in which case the retailer would loose out.

If the product's not faulty, or a broken (out of warranty) then *if* the retailer choose to accept the goods back, they would wear the cost.

Generally speaking anyway.

Either way the retailer has the right to repair refund of replace as their discretion within a reasonable time frame under the CGA. They could have in this instance (speaking from a high level without having specifics) refuse to accept the goods back, and go down the repair path. If repaired, hand the goods back to the buyer, or if they receive a credit from the OEM they could then credit you or replace the unit.

How things are done differ however from retailer to retailer.

nzbnw

Hobchild

623 posts

Ultimate Geek

#564499 4-Jan-2012 22:21

How dirty does a disc have to be to damage a player anyway?

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#564521 4-Jan-2012 23:15

I wouldn't rag on Dick Smith's too much either - as noted by nzbnw, they have given you a better outcome than they could have. You're not guaranteed an item that works 100% of the time under the law... and they have the right to send the player away for repair. But instead, you walked out with a result. (Did you get a new one or your money back?)

mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#564535 5-Jan-2012 00:13

It would also depend on whether the product has a known fault, that is universal across all products. I have just found this on one product I purchased recently, and hopefully it leads to them being withdrawn from sale and recalled. In that case it would be the manufacturer that would bear the cost I presume.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#564548 5-Jan-2012 01:20

quite often the manufacturer will include an extra ~x% items to allows for OBFs (out of box failures), regardless of how many actually break (i.e. DSE orders 10,000, but the manufacturer sends 10,200. kinda like a bakers dozen).

this means the retailer has an incentive to accept the fewest amount of swaps possible so they can sell more items.

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sbiddle

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Retired Mod

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#564575 5-Jan-2012 07:37

Typically speaking the retailer would lose out, unless the product is a genuine fault the the supplier would take it back.

DSE canned their return policy because it was being exploited - 90% of goods bring returned weren't faulty, they were merely customer returns, and these goods were then onsold, ultimately most of the time at a loss, because there was nothing else that could be done with them.

I also wouldn't be so keen to knock DSE in this case. While the shopping experience at DSE quite often isn't a good one, in this case you haven't actually said what was wrong with the player, but have obviously received what you wanted (replacement or money back). There are retailers out there who aren't so easy to deal with.

Boeingflyer

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#564581 5-Jan-2012 08:09

I can confirm this was actual case of a defective item, my apologies in not providing more. Ever since i brought it home i always thought something was wrong, it would sometimes have trouble reading a disc etc, then two days ago it just wouldn't read anything, wouldn't even spin up to full speed and when it tried a few times it would just give up and give a blank screen with an 'x' in the corner.
On the day i brought the item, i installed it in the car and has not been removed since, so it hasn't been mishandled etc.
I do feel sorry for retailers now knowing that they could be getting screwed around by their supplier and also false claims from customers. I did ask for a replacement and got one in the end as i was claiming that this product had a substantial defect (section 21 CGA), in the fact that it did not work and was needed for a road trip next week. The manager tried to offer me a refund but i turned it down stating that it was my choice between a replacement or refund (again under section 21).
Now some people might think i'm just a big tosser in the way i handled it but i was just exercising my rights and why should i give someone a couple of hundred dollars for a faulty product. This is just a part of business that retailers have to take into account and most likely pass the added cost onto customers. I rather have a hidden cost in the product to allow for this so that when buying a product, its not lucky dip if you get a dud or not and have no rights.

Byrned

455 posts

Ultimate Geek

#564590 5-Jan-2012 08:41

In experience from both sides of the fence (both as a retailer and a distributor) it's pretty even if it's a case of goodwill. One of the companies I worked for we didn't even bother testing them as the cost of testing in terms of labour would be more than the product actually cost!

If it's a genuine fault then most times the distributor/OEM would credit the retailer for it. Depends on what terms the retailer purchased them on i.e. an allowance for a certain amount of faulty products could have been built into the cost price for the retailer to allow them to bin any faulties.