Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

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PeteC
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Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by PeteC »

BigBoy's below post reminded me of this subject:
Big Boy wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 7:32 am This no refund in the event of cancellation seems to be a common theme. One of things that has put me off using the Pattaya ferry so far is their website used to have a similar clause i.e. if you book, and the ferry doesn't go, you've lost your money (not checked for a while to see if the clause is still in place) ............
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We've all been victim of this in one way or another. I'm not aware of any other country in the world where refunds are not given for a product within a certain amount of time after purchase. Here on major items (such as the TV we just bought) it's 7 days for an exchange and then you have to deal with warranty, no other options. No way in hell to get your money back at all. I think the policy on smaller items/appliances in the chain stores here is only 24 hours for exchange?

I don't know if this "national policy" has ever been challenged in court, but it damn well should be. :banghead: Pete :cheers:
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by migrant »

The States seem to go the opposite (no surprise!) in that more, and more, stores are making it easy to return for a refund. Some stores offer this indefinitely.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by hhinner »

From experience I can say that Tesco is very good at honouring the warranty they give on electricals. It's 4 or 5 years now that we bought a dvd player. It failed during its year's warranty and we took it back to the store. They offered a replacement of the same model, a different model of same or different brand (with any difference in price paid or refunded) or a cash refund. Within half an hour we had a new player of different brand.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by Big Boy »

Guarantees are a joke as well. I've had a few things that have gone wrong within the guarantee period. Repairs here are so cheap (generally) the guarantee isn't worth bothering with. As an example, my wife's sewing machine was declared dead about a week ago. A friend gave her a phone of a repair man.

She phoned him Saturday evening, and he told her to phone back Sunday at 10, which she did.

He came yesterday afternoon from Cha-Am identified the problem and fixed it. Total cost - 200 Baht. Why would I want to worry about the guarantee? It's been the same with laptops. Mr Don usually sorts things same day for a couple of hundred Baht.

There was however one occasion when I took my aging HP laptop to Mr Don. He basically said it was fcuk'd, but it was guaranteed. I'd bought and used the laptop in the UK for a couple of years, and had used it here for a while. I said there's no way it could be guaranteed, but he insisted. The cost for Mr Don fixing it would have been massive, so I agreed to the guarantee fix, and purchased another laptop for use instead.

The laptop was away for months, but sure enough, it did come back eventually, repaired. I subsequently donated it to my granddaughter.

I just wonder how long my wife would have been parted from her sewing machine if she had gone down the guarantee route.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by PeteC »

migrant wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:42 pm The States seem to go the opposite (no surprise!) in that more, and more, stores are making it easy to return for a refund. Some stores offer this indefinitely.
Yes, Zappos is an example I think. My daughter in Ca. uses them extensively, especially for shoes for the kids. If something goes wrong months later, that is not normal wear and tear, they accept back for refund or exchange. They even pay for the return shipping.

Here, the merchants control the consumers, it should be the other way around. There is a consumer protection agency here but likely they are controlled by the merchants and elite company owners as well. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by Nereus »

All Bata retail stores offer our customers the following guarantees for 7 days from the date of purchase. Guaranteed: repair and exchange of any defects. Guaranteed: exchange on unworn merchandise for any reason.
Only had to use it once, but they only did it when I called on the assistance of a passing cop!
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by handdrummer »

Does anything in this country function normally, ie, like the rest of the world?
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by StevePIraq »

handdrummer wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:24 pm Does anything in this country function normally, ie, like the rest of the world?
You say the funniest things, this is Ting Ting Land.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by handdrummer »

StevePIraq wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:34 pm
handdrummer wrote: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:24 pm Does anything in this country function normally, ie, like the rest of the world?
You say the funniest things, this is Ting Ting Land.
At least you don't take me seriously. But seriously, this is the most peculiar place I've ever lived and I've lived in a lot of places over the past 79 yrs.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by laphanphon »

Lucky so far, and only vendor that was a problem, and my last choice to use, Global House. All the rest, chains have been very good.

Same with my online 'go to' vendors. Lazada and Banggood, along with eBay.

Gearworst and TomTop, refunds via PayPal claims. AliExpress, a couple of their vendors failed miserably.
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Re: Returns, Refunds & Exchanges

Post by Trevtherev »

On this same subject, had a very interesting experience to share today at one of the IT shops on the 3/F of the Market Village. Last Saturday I purchased a 4TB WD Passport HDD. Once home this unit worked like a dream backing up files at a very impressive rate. With around 2TB of data stored I had to switch over the drive to another PC. On the new PC the unit connect, opened up the security feature, accepted my password then came up with a message I have never seen before (similar to) "drive file system is not recognised, drive needs to be re-formatted". I tried the HDD back on the first PC and ended up with the very same problem, tried a third PC and after getting the same result did the recommended re-formatting. After this drastic and time wasting action, the HDD then came back to life, I passed the security entry and the drive was recognised. This time I only copied a few files before trying the unit on other PC's, and sadly I got the same result suggesting I reformat the drive. I did this yet again, but this time after formatting the HDD it would not unlock after accepting the security password and if left connected to the PC it would lock the blasted thing up. It did the same on all the PC's I had to hand. So I took the unit back for an exchange within the 7 days I was told when I purchased the dame thing. To cut a long story short, it took the shop over half hour to "almost" accept my problem after locking up their massive gaming PC's containing 6 cooling fans many times??? I asked why it takes so long and gives the impression to the customer that he is tying to pull a fast one. The young guy in the shop told me that he would get into serious trouble if the HDD was not completely defective. Then after about 40 mins I thought had cracked it when a new sealed in the OEM box HDD was brought to the location of the testing. Then there was 5-10 mins of phone calls, then the guy I thought was the store manager told me that I had to pay another THB 100 because the replacement drive was a different colour. Strange this, because on Saturday when I purchased the drive I could have had any colour within the WD range for exactly the same price. I asked to see the official price list to prove this, but sadly it was not available for comment. Then came my reserve back up option "okay then please give me my money back and stuff the drive". This turned out to be but a damp squid as they do not give refunds, and only exchange. After another 5 mins, another shop assistant came to me with a different colour replacement drive in a bag with a new receipt. I asked, what about the THB100 difference, I was told the sales assistant who had spent 30-40 mins testing the defective HDD would pay the THB 100. At this point I asked to speak to the store manager, to this the reply was "sorry sir there is no manager"?? I guess the moral and conclusion to this case (so sorry the long story) would be, this seems to be the way shops and stores treat their sales staff and could go some way to explain the reluctance to show much positive feedback when items are returned or when a customer has a problem. And finally, being a good reasonable guy, the first shop assistant who did his best to try and short out the defect and did all the testing did not end up out of pocket. Aaaaah happy ending, and the replacement HDD is so far is working as advertised.
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