I would normally always 'fess up to damage that I had caused, just as I will always return excess change where the cashier makes a mistake. Sometimes, however, the retailer/supplier has a generous policy which doesn't impose a penalty for doing so. Yesterday, I found that one of the keys on my 11-month old laptop had been broken off, presumably when my grand-daughter and her friends were using it to play DVD's. Took it to the retailer, they couldn't fix it, and suggested I took it to the Toshiba service centre, about 20 minutes drive away. There the service department receptionist agreed that it had to have been broken off by maltreatment, but said their policy was to replace it under warranty anyway, so I wound up with a new keyboard fitted at no charge within 20 minutes. That sort of service will persuade me to choose Toshiba over competitors in any future buying decision, so the cost to them of this very high level of service will probably be recouped many times over.
John in Brisbane -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of William Robb Sent: Friday, 21 May 2010 4:10 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: Leica M9 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom C" Subject: Re: Leica M9 I have to differ a bit with you on this Bill. Mostly agree. There are customers who set out to rip off retailers. Those who purchase an item for the time they need to use it and then return it, for example. It was not Steve it was Christian with the G11, according to the way I read. :-) IMO, there was no dishonesty involved. He brought the item back stating it stopped working. That was true. He was not asked anything further. Best Buy simply returns the item as defective, Canon refurbishes, and yes somewhere, somehow, on this individual item profit is diminished, but then again as you point out... maybe not since the pricing of the item was in place before the camera was purchased and returned. That being the case, one could reasonably argue there's no loss suffered at all, as Canon has a rough statistical idea of how many cameras will be returned, regardless of reason. Sears, as you know has made it a practice on their Craftsman hand tools to replace items, no receipt, no questions asked, regardless of how the item was abused. Do we pay for that policy at the get go when purchasing a Craftsman hand tool? Yes we do. But I, for one, like the idea that I can use a flat blade screwdriver for a crowbar and when it breaks I simply walk in and say 'it broke'. Salesman says 'Oh, OK go get another'. It's proven to be a successful policy, as far as I can tell. The system also works because that extra nickel, dime, dollar, that's tacked on by the mfr. and/or retailer is so often not used up, and extra profit is generated by it. So who's benefiting? Tom C. How about the ones who buy two single device boxes, take the side plates off so as to make a two gang box and then bring the side plates back for a full refund? The customer is always right, and so they get their refund, which means they have effectively gotten their "purchase" for free. Or the guy who cuts a board on the wrong side of the line and so returns it for a refund, even though there was nothing wrong with the product, it was as advertised. Regarding the pricing, if this sort of thing never happened, prices would be somewhat lower since the supply chain would not have to pad prices to pay for it. The one and only time I tried to have a Craftsman tool replaced, I was given somewhat of a hard time by the sales clerk. She wanted a bill of sale, etc. This for a socket that had cracked under normal use (I didn't put the thing onto an impact driver). I know how the system works, it just galls me that so many people use the threat of bad mouthing a store to take advantage of the system. They get an immediate advantage, but everyone ends up paying for it. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
