****ing RMAs, how do they work? - Page 2
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semantics
10040 Posts
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
On June 17 2010 13:47 Dknight wrote: No, it isn't fair. The problem with that is that the merchandise does not work in the first place. Why pay S&H twice on one product where if it worked properly, you wouldn't need to send it back? The fact is, electronics equipment will always have a chance to malfunction. This is well established in pretty much every warranty contract situation. You pay for fuel don't you? You pay for bus ticket don't you? It's the same thing. The Manufacture do not and should not cover the service which you use to get the merchandise back to them. If the Manufacture's RMA center is 500 meters from your home, are you going to argue that you have to spend 10 mins walking there? Look, I don't know how things are done in the states but where I live, it's pretty straight forward, freight is not included in the warranty. Some manufacture do this out of kindness but I don't expect it, I just think of it as sending some one else to bring it back to the hardware maker and paying him for it. | ||
ThePurist
Canada686 Posts
On June 17 2010 12:44 haduken wrote: Paying for the shipping is fair. The fact is, electronics equipment will always have a chance to malfunction. This is well established in pretty much every warranty contract situation. You pay for fuel don't you? You pay for bus ticket don't you? It's the same thing. The Manufacture do not and should not cover the service which you use to get the merchandise back to them. If the Manufacture's RMA center is 500 meters from your home, are you going to argue that you have to spend 10 mins walking there? Look, I don't know how things are done in the states but where I live, it's pretty straight forward, freight is not included in the warranty. Some manufacture do this out of kindness but I don't expect it, I just think of it as sending some one else to bring it back to the hardware maker and paying him for it. Electronic equipments as with any other consumer product do have chances to malfunction upon arrival, you are right about that. You are also right about how it is pretty normal (in most countries) for the consumer/end-user to pay for the shipping reporting an RMA. However, it is in my opinion that the manufacturer should pay for the shipping for the RMAs. I do not have the original source at hand, but there was an article recently about how shipping costs are 1/1000th the cost in relation to how much the consumer will pay to ship something back. The consumer is highly disadvantaged because we do not have logistic systems established while manufacturers do (in long-term contracts with shipping companies around the world). If they are really willing to stand behind their product as well as customer service(satisfaction) in maintaining their brand name they would pay the fractional cost of the RMAs. In a business sense, they do not want to pay for the shipping on RMAs because they do not want: 1. People to abuse the system 2. Do not want frivolous losses Most companies have a very simple stance on RMAs, and it's along the lines of... "If there is something wrong upon arrival, just send it back and we'll make it right" It seems very simple and justified, but by really thinking it through you can see that the end-user is the one who has losses to get the original product. I know for a fact in Seoul, South Korea, (due to to the highly competitive e-shopping market) they will pay for everything in terms of shipping. The original shipping, RMAs, refunds, whatever. They just want exposure of their company and to protect their image (not to lose market share). I hope to see this kind of level of customer service in the near future for more countries. Thus, I cannot agree with the quote above "Some manufacture do this out of kindness ..." There is no such thing as "kindness" in business policies it's all about best interest for their entity. Some companies such as Logitech (a strong company with market shares in different sectors) the shipping is nothing to them due their size and it is in their best interest to take care of their customers for create brand loyalty/customer retention. | ||
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