returning tv's (1 Viewer)

[harold t]

I have a question how many time can you return tv's to circuit city before they stop it?I bought a sony 61"
hiscan then took it back and got a 57" hiscan and now with all the taking about dvi i am taking the 57" back
and getting a new hitachi 51swx20b.but i might take
the hitachi back in 30 days if they get the new sony's
in time.
harold t

 

[RichardMA]

edited by gregg loewen

please play nice!

 

[harold t]

edited by gregg loewen

 

[Jim FC]

I agree with both of you. No store has ANY legal obligation to let you return anything after three days have gone by, so you are seriously pushing your luck and karma to keep doing this. Karma will come back and get you when you actually get a bad TV you want to swap out for a good one, and CC tells to you beat it cause you've already returned five TVs on them.


Edited by Gregg Loewen
Administrator

 

[BruceSpielbauer]

My own thoughts:

Ethically, of course, abusing return policies is wrong.

Morally, of course, abusing return policies is wrong.

Also, such abuses do yield consequences. As one person above pointed out, those who abuse return policies may find that they are suddenly denied this privelege, and it is likely to come at a time when it is needed the most, or at a time when, for once, it is a "legitimate" return.

It can also have consequences for the rest of us. Such abuse will result in stores and manufacturers tightening up their return policies, making it much more difficult for others to make a return, even if it is legitimate.

I will cite as evidence a situation where I ordered a front projector (standard LCD projector), for a school auditorium, and it was a $9000.00 unit. It was back-ordered, and arrived two months late. I discovered when it finally arrived it could not be installed / hung for seven or eigth months, due to a major construction project at the school (!) I dutifully unpacked the projector, to be cautious, and plugged it in, to make sure all was working. Tested all functions I could think of. Everything seemed fine, so back in the box it went.

Now, flash forward to the following November -- I unpack it, and hang it. Like most units, it hangs upside down. We go into the menu to "reverse" the screen image, vertically, for the upside-down hanging. It reverses the image, BUT it now only gives a 2/3 width image (the rest is cropped). I played with settings. I then called the manufacturer...

Them: "This sounds like a major problem. You had 30 days to return it. You are no longer under warranty." Me: "But... I tried every feature I could think of. I just forgot to try reversing the image..." Them: "Sorry, we have simply had far too many cases of abuse when it comes to warranty work and the return policies. That is why we have to have such policies."

It took thirteen phone calls before a very reluctant customer service person finally authorized a return. If I had not argued, cajoled, sent two letters (one from the school's principal, verifying the truth of the matter), it was obvious that this company was not going to yield. Why? As several of their techs and customer service personnel commented, it was "because of so many cases of previous abuses."

Next time, I will also remember to "reverse" that image, to test an upside-down mounting of the unit .

Abuse the polcies, and we ALL suffer.

-Bruce

 

[harold t]

I have not had any complaints from anyone at the store. Every time i go i spend more money and i am a loyal card holder of circuit city. I mean no harm by it.
haroldt

 

[Steve Schaffer]

On 2 occasions, once in 98 and again last fall, I've returned rptvs under a 30 day return policy. In both cases it was because the set in question did not perform in my home to my expectations. I saw nothing wrong with these exchanges and neither did the store. In both cases the sets I chose as replacements were satisfactory and were kept.

In Harold's case it would appear that he did not complete his shopping decision prior to purchasing.

My advice would be to return whatever he has now for a refund, not an exchange, and wait a few months until he makes up his mind rather than playing musical tvs. The time to make a decision on 4/3 or 16/9 or the importance of DVI is before taking delivery.

 

[Allan Jayne]

I try to audition the equipment in the store before buying it. Using several visits if more questions came to mind later. Less wasteful of good sealed merchandise that now has to be sold at a discount as a demo/floor sample/open box special.
But once (I forget whether it was Best Buy or Circuit City or Good Guys) I was shopping for a VCR and wanted to try it and the salesman didn't want to hook up the floor sample, saying that I should try one at home and bring it back if I didn't like it.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Steve_Tk]

Every store knows which customers are "rental" buyers.

 

[John-Miles]

I agree, abusing return policies can come back to haunt you, I had a rio MP3 player i bought from Future Shop, (never buy Rio) and over the course of 2 years i returned it 7 times (i had the extended warranty) basically the product kept breaking it was a different problem every time. but because i had returned it so many times the most recent return was met with " im sorry we cant exhange it for you, we have to send it back to the factory to be repaired, if its not back in 60 days they said they would replace it. well i did get lucky they only kept it on a shelf for 3 weeks before just replacing it for me (this time with a different player the creative labs nomad) but i can attest that even when returing broken items you can get headaches if its done too much.

 

[Rick_E]

You guys are funny.

When you buy a product from one of these places, the return policy is clearly stated on the receipt and usually posted on the wall. That policy creates a contract (yes, a legal obligation) between you and the store when you buy the TV, DVD player, whatever. It's part of the sale, and a condition of the sale. I don't care if you return things every day. If the stated return policy is 30 days, that's it. They have to honor it. Just like you have to live with it if you lose the receipt, trash the box, whatever. An employee or manager at the store cannot arbitrarily alter that contract and tell you to "beat it" just because they think you are a frequent flier when it comes to returns. I don't mean to sound glib, but I just have to laugh at the notion that they are doing you a "favor" by agreeing to abide by the return policy they state. Make no mistake, these liberal return policies are just as much a part of store promotion and advertising as discounted prices and free leather chairs. With competition from the internet (and lower prices), ease of returns is part of the incentive to get you to buy there. In other words, it's part of the reason you choose to shop there, and they have to honor their printed word.

However, they do have a good amount of discretion when it comes to how strictly they enforce the policy as stated (i.e., some managers might let you return something at 31 days, or if you lost the receipt, whatever. In a case like this it DOES help to have a good relationship with the store)

As for it being "ethically" or "morally" wrong to "abuse" a return policy, let me pose this to you. By way of example, when you get "X Month Interest Free Financing" from one of the places, part of that agreement is that you pay the balance, in full, within the time period allotted. If you pay the balance ONE DAY LATE, all the interest accelerates and you have to pay the entire interest amount. Is it "morally" and "ethically" correct for the finance company to hold you to the finance agreement just b/c your payment came in a day late? Isn't this abuse? Well, maybe, maybe not. The point is, it's just business. Just like holding them to a stated return policy is business. Don't ever feel bad about asserting your rights when you buy a product.

Having said that, I actually think that the big mega stores have very generous return policies. I've seen people returning things w/o boxes, scratched, etc, and they take them back w/o a word. The people who do this, basically "rent" the equipment for free with no intention of keeping it, are of course losers. Personally, I would not take stuff back in the condition that many of these stores do...and their policies state that the stuff must be in like new condition, but often they just take it back anyway. The point is,they consider it part of the cost of doing business. Don't feel sorry for them, they're doing OK.

 

[James Stierman]

Some stores though will give you a refund, but not do buisness with you any more. Shopping at a store is a previlegle not a right, and every tv you return has to be resold for only a 50 profit rather than a 400 dollar profit. But most big store won't mind this because of the volume they do gives them more leway.