I went to best buy the other day to buy a new CD burner for my Dell computer. But when opened up my computer and tried to install it, it turns out my computer is wired funny, and doesn’t use those thick IDE ribbon cables. In short, I couldn’t hook this thing up to my computer unless i went out and bought an elaborate IDE/SATA converter.
So now, I’m thinking about returning it to Best Buy, but when I reviewed their return policy, I kept trying to figure out how much the return is gonna cost me. It seems that, I could get ALL my money back (maybe not including tax) from the purchase, even though I opened the CD burner, and potentially used it.
So whats the deal? Could I really go out, buy a cd burner, use it, and return it at no cost? Could I buy and IPod, use it for a weekend, and return it at no cost? Are there hidden fees not listed on the return policy?
I’ve never had to return anything before, because to me, the whole “return” thing just seems so easy, that there has to be a catch. Is there? Or have I just been missing out on one of the luxuries of American life?
Actually, you can return just about anything to any store if you have a good reason for doing so. And it sounds like you do, or you could just tell them you bought it as a gift for your brother and he opened it and tried to install it and he couldn’t. You would like the correct one for his machine, “Here are the specs for his computer, please find one that will work. Thanks.”
Or you could say that it didn’t work correctly, or it was too big or too noisy.
But, in your case it was an honest mistake and you should be honest with them so you end up with the right unit in the end.
You will either get a BB store card for credit (including the tax) or you will get an even exchange for the correct unit.
Now, I’ve known some people who do abuse policies like this. One person I know bought a DVD player, used it for a few weeks and then returned it for store credit. Nothing was wrong with it, he just wanted a better one.
Some stores have very restrictive policies - such as must be unopened and within 15 days, or if opened, exchange for exact same item.
Some stores have very liberal policies. Costco is fabled for their policy of “bring it back whenever” which lets people buy expensive things like plasma TVs a week before the Super Bowl and bring them back next week. All that keeps you from saying “It’s not working right” is your conscience.
Nordstrom is even more fabled for taking a set of tires as a return, even though Nordstrom has never sold tires. I have no idea how they arrived at a value to give to the customer.
It all comes down to customer service and the store’s desire to have happy repeat customers that’ll tell their friends about how great that store is.
As for your drive, if you go back to Best Buy and tell them that you didn’t know you needed a SATA drive until you opened the case, they’ll probably take it as an even swap, assuming the SATA and IDE drives cost the same, and assuming you didn’t trash the box.
My dad and I picked up a camera for my sister at Sams Club about a year ago. When asked if we wanted an extended warranty we declined. She told us that was a good choice. Huh? Yea, as long as you have EVERYTHING (ie manuals, cords, box, packing materials etc…) you can return it to us whenever you want. Even if it breaks 5 years from now.
To add to the abuse, I know some people will buy an item, return it and then buy it at the now discounted open box price. When you’re talking about something that’s $500, that’s an easy $50 off.
Now I should mention that I’ve never done that (thought about it, tempted by it, but never done it). I just remember reading about it a few years ago when BB was talking about not allowing certain customers in anymore.
I must admit that in moments of desperation, I’ve used CompUSA as my own personal computer part-testing-center. That is:
Some hardware has failed on my computer but I can’t quite pin down exactly which part it is. So I buy (an overpriced retail) motherboard, (overpriced retail) memory stick, and (overpriced retail) graphics card and start swapping things out one by one to narrow down the problem.
Then return anything I don’t need. Ultimately this feels rather unethical, but, again, I was desperate.
It also worth pointing out that if you abuse some store’s liberal return policies enough, they will no longer allow you to return non-defective merchandise.
In my area there was a time when people would buy clothes at a very expensive store before a wedding or party. They actually went to the party with labels coverered up. Then returned the clothes soon after. Stores in Dearborn modified their policy to prevent that from happening, We now have strict return policies.
Some people will scam a system and screw it up for everyone.
My wife bought an electronic component a few years ago. It would not work. The store told her to contact the manufacturer . They did not offer any help at all. She went to a store with a better return policy and bought another one for more money. She returned the old one to the new store and they took it back without question. I questioned the morality of that move.
I was told by a guy that he bought a pair of wireless headphones at a yard sale (at $5) and when he got them home they didn’t work. He went down to where they still had that model on sale and then kept the new ones and exchanged the yard sale ones. :eek: I told him he just commited a fraud, but he said that the person who had the yard sale was in his right to have returned them anyway. Some people have a warped sense of wrong and right.
I’ve also been to auctions where they sell Craftsmen tools out of someones garage who passed away. The auctioneers always seem to mention that you can take them back to Sears for replacements. I know that they have a lifetime warrenty, but you are buying them off of a dead guys estate! :smack:
What’s the problem with that? Sears guarantees the tool forever. They don’t restrict it to the original purchaser. (Much like Midas does with their mufflers - guaranteed forever, for as long as you own the car.)
I just returned (actually, exchanged) a $100 coffee maker I’d been using for 11 months. It crapped out much too early, in our opinion. Bed Bath & Beyond exchanged it for a brand new one, no questions asked. They fucking rock.
I think it depends on the retailer. Some places will only offer an in-store credit, and others will simply tell you to pound sand.
You could invest a bit of time and look into your state’s consumer protection laws. While businesses often have strange return policies, what is really important is do these return policies conform to the consumer protection requirements under the law. It will not be the first time you may come up against a “store policy” that may, in fact, not be legal under the law.
I am making no assumptions with respect to your specific issue, nor the store in question. What important is that some businesses are ignorant of the law. More importantly, some businesses may know the law very well but also know human nature in that most of their customers do not know their consumer rights and will take you for a ride anyway.
With your specific case, this consumer affairs web site places Best Buy in their Rogues Gallery of retail stores that is less than happy about offering good customer service.
Yes they do restrict it to original purchaser. From the Sears website they define warrenty as:
*Warranty
A Warranty is a contract between the purchaser of a product and the company that produced the product that details the components, duration, and circumstances by which a defect in the product will be remedied. *
Depending upon what type of tool you buy they either say lifetime or forever warrenty. But when you click on the warrenty info you get the above mentioned definition of warrenty. Kind of misleading since they do state forever separatley from lifetime. Sears is most likely aware that some people are taking advantage this and returning stuff that grandpa bought. It’s good for business.
Regarding returning second-hand stuff. don’t you (legally0 inherit all the rights and warrantees on a tool, when you buy it from the original owner? Agree, buying something to return it (for a new tool) is a bit sleazy-but perfectly lgal, You don’t waive any of your rights when you buy a stadium tcket from somebody else-why shouldn’t you have the same rights as the original owner? On the practical side; most consume-level stuff in this country is junk-Home Depot will take virtually anything back-they expect return rates of 2-55. the whole thing is built into their retail pricing. They (Home Depot) almost never return returns to their suppliers-they just trash it.
Strange little pop-up. It’s just a generic definition of the word ‘warranty’ without any mention of their actual policy.
I can’t find their written policy, but I do know that in practice, you just bring back a broken tool and they’ll swap it - no receipt needed, so they appear not to know or care who the original purchaser was.
Echoing **Kalhoun ** - yes, Bed Bath and Beyond is a great place to do business with. Not long ago, we bought a Crock-Pot with one of their ubiquitous 20% off coupons. The thing died on its second use, so we took it back. Unfortunately, the receipt was lost. No problem - they refunded us the shelf price of the thing and we bought a different brand slow cooker with another 20% of coupon.
I spent a bit of time myself looking for Sears actual warrenty information. I was expecting to find a page of legal terms and various disclaimers but none is to be found.
I guess they figure if you return a 90 year old plane that they can always sell it to Applebee’s.
