BUYER BEWARE - Ignorance means kiss your money goodbye

For my buyer beware project, my group did electronic device return policies. It's a bit of a dry subject but it's a subject everyone can relate to. I won't keep you here for long. I've had enough of this topic and want to purge myself of this completely. So, let's get started...

UGH.

Breathe.

Our group (Lennie, Karleigh, Steve) decided to look at local electronic retailers. We picked Best Buy, Future Shop, Visions Electronics, and Advance Electronics. BB is a big name corporation whose stores can be found all across Canada and the US. (BB Canada and the US BB have completely different policies). FS is owned by BB and is one of Canada's largest consumer electronic retailers. Visions is a national company with a handful of independently owned stores across Canada and Advance is a locally owned store with only one location in Winnipeg. I'm not going to get into each specific store's policy. If you're really interested, here's a link to each of their respective policies:

Best Buy Canada: HERE
Future Shop: HERE
Visions Electronics: HERE
Advance Electronics: HERE

Always, always, always read your receipt and ask what the return policy is. Make sure you know how many days you have for a full refund and how many days for exchange. Don't depend on the kindness of others when dealing with money. This is probably the most important rule. Don't come in on day 32 of a 30 day return policy and ask them to cut you some slack. It's clearly posted everywhere and you should have asked and taken the responsibility to find out. It's like CreComm. No if, ands or buts!

There are some items you need to know about, folks. Opened computer and video game software, CDs, DVDs cannot be refunded or exchanged for something else. This is due to federal copyright laws. It helps crack down on those kids who burn the files and sell illegal copies to their school chums!

When returning something, make sure you have all the original packaging, manuals, cables, accessories and little black twist ties (not actually, but better safe than sorry). Most stores will charge a restocking fee. This enables the store to retain some money from the sale if someone is returning a product that has been opened or is missing components, which depreciates the value of the item. Each store has a different restocking fee for certain situations which you can find on the links I provided. The prices are subject to change on the basis of the quality of the returned product. So, lets say something costed $1000 and when you returned it, they informed you that there's a 15% restocking fee. You've just lost $150, my friend. My sympathies to you. Make sure you find out your store's policy of restocking fees!

Here's an example where someone ran into problems with restocking fees:

HORROR STORY

From: www.complaintsboard.com

Basically, a customer bought a defective laptop and tried returning it within a couple days. Best Buy exchanged it for the same laptop. The new laptop was also defective. The customer tried returning it but Best buy said they would have to charge a 15% restocking fee ($112.50) or exchange it for the same laptop. The customer obviously did not want the laptop for it had been defective twice in a row. In the end, the customer was left with nothing and lost money. LESSON LEARNED.

Companies such as Best Buy, Future Shop and Visions Electronics have an online store where you can purchase items. You simply create an account, fill out your shipping information and supply them with your credit card number. As easy as it is to purchase items online, the returning process is more complicated. You have one of two options. Firstly, you can ship the product back to the company. To do this, you have to go through this whole hubbub about getting a return merchandise authorization number which is only valid for 14 days, then you have to ship it back yourself at your own cost and sell your soul and jump through a hoop. It's very time consuming and plain complicated.

The easier way to return a product you purchased online is to return it to the store. You must have the electronic invoice or purchase receipt that you received when you got the product in the mail. Without this, you have no proof of purchase and customer service representatives can’t even look at your product. All companies’ state that every online product purchased comes straight from the manufacturer so ever product is brand new. If the store deems that the product is in the same condition that it was mailed out in, then they will exchange the product for you (if they have it in stock) or refund your money. If there are missing parts, then you will be charged a restocking fee.

Some stores have “web-only” products. These products come in limited supply because there is a special manufacturer’s deal on them. It also means that the products will not be sold in the stores. Under these circumstances, the web-only products can not be returned to a store for exchange.

Lastly, some stores repackage returned items. They SHOULD be clearly labelled as a repackaged item. Because of this, stores like BB and FS take off a nice 10% of the price. Smaller stores like Visions and Advance also sell repacks but don't have a set price. So, the salespersons will try to sell you the highest the can above cost. It's at their own discretion and since they want to make high commission, they'll try and sell it as close to the original price as possible. In other words, if you're shopping at Visions or Advance, try and haggle a bit with the salesperson! You might get a better deal than you thought you would. Really, just generally make sure any product you buy is new, unopened as has everything in it! An example in a survey we took told us about how someone bought a "new" camera only to find that when they opened it, they found a work order slip that said it had been defective and fixed then put back on shelf!

I think these are the most important points to consider when you are purchasing anything from these stores in Canada. Just be smart, be aware, ask questions, make sure and think hard before making a final purchase decision!

My group made a video demonstrating how a smart customer and a dumb customer returns things. Here it is:


(It's more for the entertainment value. Just consider that.)

Okay, I'm done.

See you!