"Please do not return item to store"

[Glenn]

Anyone ever get that notice in something you bought? I've often wondered why. Do retailers ding suppliers if a certain percentage of their items are returned? Or is the company that made the item just trying to help out the customer?

 

[ctenidae]

I've seen it on a few items. Always seems like the kind of items the store won't necessarily have alarge stock of, so they don't want to be swapping defects for good. I think a lot of them have technical elements that the company can resolve over the phone before you return it.

Either that, or retailers are getting lazier and refusing to run customer support for suppliers.

 

[hammer]

or retailers are getting lazier and refusing to run customer support for suppliers.

This...

 

[bvibert]

I've seen it mostly on cheap junk. My feeling is that the company prefers the opportunity to fix it over the phone (whether that's to clarify the directions, or send out a replacement for a missing or broken part), rather than have the store return it for a refund. Especially if it's just because their shoddy quality control failed to notice that there were only 3 screws instead of the required four. It's probably a lot cheaper for them to send out a new bag of hardware than it is to have the store return the whole unit.

Personally I don't care what the instructions say, if I buy something from a store that doesn't work or is missing pieces I'm going to bring the product back to that store for a refund or replacement. The company making the product should have better quality control if they don't want shit returned to the store...

 

[catskillman]

and they don't want the store to know how badly it was made, as they may stop carrying the items and/or brand all together

 

[gmcunni]

i'd suspect thinner and thinner profit margins on goods make it prohibitive for retail shops to provide the customer support.

 

[Nick]

I've gotten this on several pieces of electronics, including my most recent phone