Blake,
Its not that I disagree with you, that "it is good business to take care of
your customers."
Nor am I defending Hyperlinktech, as we don't have enough business
experience with them, to have a valid opinion. but...
This isn't retail HomeDepot that we are talking about, this is distribution.
In my 10 years experience previously in the distribution business, I can
tell you there are not many companies that give "refunds."
We also found that the companies that couldn't understand why "refunds" was
bad business for distributors, usually were the ones that didn't do enough
volume to matter wether we lost them. I'm not saying that I personally do
not believe in giving refunds. I also believe its best practice to take care
of the customer, in most cases. But that does not change the fact that most
dealers do NOT give refunds.
Tessco, Talley. Hutton, Electrocomm.
They may give refunds, but there significant hassle in getting it, that in
most cases will be more costly to the buyer in time than the value of the
refund.
They also usually charge a higher profit margin on every sale than the
smaller distributor that is competing on price, and therefore has more
margin to justify eating the cost to give the refund.
I bet the price received from Hyperlinktech was significantly less than that
the Tesscos or Hutton's would have charged?
When price drops, terms gets tougher. A distributor must determine which
business they want to be in, and they can't be in both successfully.
If in the price market they need to have price policies. Descretion needs to
be taken out of the set policies, otherwise its impossible to manage RMA
processes.
There are many reasons strict policies need to be inforced for Refunds....
1. Price constantly falls based on time. And even a week or s odone the road
the cost of the product may have dropped.
2. People find something cheaper after the fact.
3. Sales people may have already been paid commissions.
4. If special order product, the vendor ends up getting stuck with the full
cost of the product sitting in inventory for a long time, while price drops
by the time someone wants the product. Guaranteed to sell the product at a
loss as well as tie up cash flow.
5. People often irreputably return other vendor's products. Company 1 has
stock and can ship today. Company 2 has lower cost. Company 1 product gets
installed. Company 2 product when arrives gets sent back to company 1 for
refund. Buyer actually makes a profit on the deal, getting a higher dollar
refunded than he paid for the gear from company 2. You'd be surprised how
often this happened. Sometimes even involving invoice forging and swapping
serial number stickers.
6. The easy way to keep EVERYONE happy, is instead to just offer credits or
replacements. It keeps everyone honest. If the buyer is really going to be a
repeat customer, its just a matter of time before he has another order that
he can apply the credit to.
This is standard distribution policies. There are some exceptions. If the
buyer bought a product that the vendor normally keeps in stock and sells a
lot of, and its a product that the buyer will likely never need again, and
the buyer didn't cause big inconvenience demanding immediate shipment of
product for a rush order. On these cases, vendors almost always will give
the refund, even if against standard policies.
But there is no way you can say standard distribution policy is to give
refunds. Just about every term sheet from anybody specifically says "NO
REFUNDS, ALL SALES ARE FINAL". Thats jsut the reality.
Unless specifically discussed otherwise in advance of shipment.
If someone gives refunds, thats a plus that shows they add value. But not
giving refunds does not infer wrong doing.
Just my opinion.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Blake Bowers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Returns to Hyperlinktech.com is it possible?
A vendor that will not give a refund or credit?
Pretty poor business practice. Many will tell you
that there is a restocking fee if the proper product
was shipped, and delivered in good condition, but
truth be known will waive that fee. They add the fee
so they can have a way to deal with purchasers who
turn out to be frequent refunders.
Most businesses consider it a good business practice
to take care of their customers - not make life more
difficult for those customers. It may cost you a little -
at one point, but the returns on your investment by
taking care of your customer are tremendous.
If I buy a widget from a company, and decide it
is not what I wanted, I would expect that company
to make some sort of refund, and I would be willing
to pay a small restocking fee if it was strictly my fault
for ordering something that did not fit my needs, and
it was done with no suggestions about applicablity
from their staff. The company that would not provide
a refund would never see my business again.
I know for a fact that Tessco, Hutton, Talley, and
Electro-comm does refunds.
A refund or a credit?
I'm not aware of many vendors that agree to give refunds.
A sale is a sale.
Just because the cost to get it shipped is near the profit margin, and
probably more costly to process the return than the profit on the sale in
most cases as well.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
--
WISPA Wireless List: [email protected]
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
--
WISPA Wireless List: [email protected]
Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
