The correct diagnosis for this "return syndrome" is called "buyers remorse." We've all had it at one point in our lives and it can take some folks a lot of years to cure themselves of impulse buying. Some guys take a look at their paycheck and start looking around for something to spend it on. Only after they've spent the money do they remember they've got a table full of bills to pay. Poor decision making is NOT a legitimate reason to expect a refund.
Does anyone want to buy a bag full of Gold Basins for what I paid for them five years ago? I'd love to get $3.00 per gram for them ugly buggers right now.
Live and Learn,
John Gwilliam
At 10:59 PM 6/27/03 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello List,
I have an ethical question I would like to get some feedback on.
I just got a request from a customer that I give him a refund for a specimen he purchased a month or so ago from me that he wants to return now. His request was not based on the fact that the specimen was damaged or otherwise in a different condition than described when it was sold to him.
The request he felt was justified because he thinks the specimen is now not worth as much as he paid for it bach then. He seems to think he can get the same thing for a lower price elsewhere. So I assume he wants the refund to go buy the other cheaper specimen to replace the one he wants to give back to me.
While I do guarantee authenticity and that the specimens are as described on all my specimens I sell, I do not have a Walmart style lowest price guarantee, that the person cannot find a similar specimen somewhere else in the present or in the future for a lower price. If someone bought something and didn't like it for whatever reason and wanted to return it promptly for a refund, that would be one thing but this is another.
I find this refund request unreasonable and bordering on unethical. A similar but opposite request would be if I would contact buyers a month after I sold them a specimen and demanded that they let me buy back a specimen I sold them a month earlier because new information tells me that I sold it to them too cheap and that if I had it back at the price I sold it, I could turn around and sell it to someone for an even higher price. That request would be absurd.
As I recall, there is just one dealer that offers a written lifetime guarantee to buy back any specimens at the customers purchase prices. However, one would expect that having a stated guarantee such as that would help such a dealer to generate more than enough extra sales to cover the losses when a meteorite genuinely drops in value and a few people decide to take that dealer up on his offer. But without offering that incentive to make all the extra sales along the way, a dealer could go bankrupt giving refunds on demand for price fluctuation reasons.
I guess my question is, how would some of the other dealers respond to such a request? Has anyone had such a request nade if them? And for collectors out there, do you feel making such a request (and expecting it to be fulfilled) is reasonable? Would a direct purchase be different from an ebay purchase?
Steve Arnold
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