Retail Headaches

"SALE NOW ON!" scream the shop windows at us. January Sale, Spring Madness Sale, Summer Sale, Clearance Sale, Blue Cross Sale, Red Circle Sale and Pink Flamingo Sale for all I know. The truth is that we seem to have sales on all year round now, so we largely ignore them. When do you ever see posters proclaiming, "This Week Only! Everything at Full Recommended Retail Price!" Of course we never would, even if they were bonkers enough to want to advertise such a fact. It always makes me wonder...if they can afford to sell something at half price in a sale, how much mark-up would they make on it normally? But the trouble is we all need, or want 'stuff'. Whether it's a replacement camera, an iPod, or the latest Wii game, we all do it. We love the retail 'fix' and the momentary high it brings us. I have personally spent thousands of pounds on techie stuff. I love new technology, and I always want it now! I can remember paying over £400 for my first DVD player, and you can now get one for 19 quid in tesco! With mass marketing and manufacture, the price of everything falls eventually. It's just a case of whether or not you want to wait for it.

Then of course the problem with mass manufacture is there is always going to be a percentage of machines that are assembled badly, or have parts missing. They are knocked out as quickly and cheaply as possible.
It seems to be a fact of life these days that whenever you buy something new, you are almost surprised if everything is intact, complete, and works straight out of the box. Retailers are constantly in a price war with their competitors to provide the goods or services just that little bit cheaper, in order to gain you as a customer. People these days are a bit more savvy, and I think most folk 'shop around' when deciding on a major purchase for the home or car. The retailers then have to provide goods cheaply, and to do that, sometimes corners are cut. The electronics companies that once worked in this country have now mostly 'gone to the wall', unable to compete with imported goods from China, Poland or Korea. The industry has become so cut-throat that retailers will try every ruse they can to get you to part with your money.
Their favourite scam is the Extended Warranty. All the staff are primed to hit you with their spiel the moment you decide to buy. If you choose to add the warranty to your purchase, you are probably increasing the price instantly by as much as a third. I recently bought a lava lamp, ( I know...how '70's!), but that aside, the thing had been reduced from £19.99 to £9.99. I was asked at the till if I would like a 3 year extended warranty on it at a cost of only £3.99. Whilst the cost is not necessarily an issue in this case, the principle is. A lava lamp is simply a bulb with a glass cylinder of wax above it. What can go wrong? If the bulb pops, you replace it. If you accidentally smash the glass cylinder, it's not covered by the warranty anyway!

In the case of more expensive electrical goods, they are covered by a Manufacturers Warranty for 12 months. If there is an inherent fault with a machine, you'd hope that it would show up long before the year was up. Even if it doesn't, and even if you do want the piece of mind of insuring something against breakdown, try talking to your home insurer first. You'll be amazed at the savings you could make, and you'll most probably end up with a new machine.

That aside, we also have to deal with surly staff. Yes, we know retail work is badly paid, but manners cost nothing. So many of the lads and lasses that work in shops these days treat customers as though they are a pain in the arse, and that you are lucky that they allow you to even walk through the door, let alone serve you. Courtesy or politeness is almost painful for them, and you leave the shop feeling that they have somehow done you a favour by even acknowledging your existence. Well, to be fair, there are two types of retail workers. There are the ones stated above, who are pissed off that they have to spend their lives in this godforsaken place, and then there are the ones that are so obviously working on a commission. They leap at you the moment you enter the store, cheesy grins in abundance, and questions about what you are looking for. If you fall for their patter, you are shepherded to whatever department they want you to visit, and the blurb starts. "This tv/dvd player/washing machine etc is the best on the market. And if you buy it this week we also throw in free cables/dvds/towels. But you have to hurry, because today is the last day of the promotion. Shall I just check if we have some in stock, and then we can do the paperwork" Before you know it, you are the proud owner of the latest Craposonic or Singsangdung machine, and are walking back to your car, with a wallet full of warranty.

I can't really add more to this rant, except to include an excerpt from the Which? magazine's website, which advises people the best way to go when shopping for goods. Maybe you could add your own experiences via comments to this blog, and I will add them to it. Here's what Which? says:

"UK customers are frustrated with the consistently poor service provided by organisations in the UK according to a study by RightNow Technologies, with respondents indicating that one quarter of their customer service experiences in the last year have been negative.
The study, entitled "The Customer Experience Report, Great Britain 2006", reveals that 65 per cent of all respondents moved their business elsewhere after a bad service experience, while more than one quarter - 27 per cent - of Britons also indicate that once their custom is lost, it is lost forever.

When staff were confronted with the faulty DVD player, most instinctively pointed to the manufacturer's warranty. Electrical goods usually come with a one-year manufacturer's warranty, which the manufacturer is legally bound to honour.
But that simply lets you choose another route to getting your product repaired or replaced. During the warranty, the retailer still has the same responsibilities. And, when it expires, the shop's legal obligations remain - not that this stopped staff hiding behind the warranty like a safety blanket.
We were bemused by the service we encountered, so we contacted all the companies and asked what steps they took to train staff. The head offices were very helpful and all duly told us that they kept their staff fully informed about shoppers' rights. Curiously, that training isn't showing up on the shop floor.
One obvious way to help confused staff would be to include information on rights in the in-store bumf. At the end of each visit, we asked whether the shop had any leaflets which outlined our shoppers' rights. Some of the staff were so perplexed by the notion that they offered us leaflets about extended warranties or price promises instead.
All the leaflets were at pains to state that the offers they contained wouldn't affect our statutory rights - but that would have been more reassuring if there had been someone in the shop who knew what those statutory rights were.

Contact the head office
Even at some of the stores which were helpful, we were pointed towards the head offices. So save yourself some grey hairs by contacting the head office first. Be firm, explain that you think your product hasn't lasted a reasonable amount of time, and say that you'd like it investigated and repaired or replaced if it turns out to be faulty.
We'd always suggest taking goods back to the shop first, but if you are fobbed off then go to the head office. M&S, John Lewis etc are usually fairly good at providing refunds when goods are faulty.
The evidence
If the goods are less than six months old, it's up to the retailer to prove that the fault wasn't present at the time of purchase. For anything older, it's entitled to ask you to provide evidence of the fault.
If the views of, say, a local repairer won't sway them, you may need to get an independent expert to product a report. You should always try and agree with the retailer on an expert you are both happy with and the questions that will be put to them, before you instruct them.
Make sure you know how much they will charge, as if you win, you are only able to claim back a maximum of £200 towards expert fees in the small claims court.
The repair
Once you know that the problem is caused by a manufacturing fault, ask the retailer to repair or replace your appliance. If the cost of doing this is disproportionate, the retailer can offer a refund instead - though this might not be a full refund, depending on how much you've used the product. If you don't want to wait for the retailer to assess your claim, you can pay someone else to fix the item. As long as it provides evidence of a manufacturing fault, you'll be able to claim the cost of repair from the retailer.
If all else fails
If you have a claim that the retailer won't settle, you can take it to the small claims court. The judge can order the retailer to settle the claim and pay legal costs.
Hopefully, things will never get that far. But, until the shops sort their act out, you might have to force them to respect your statutory rights - because you'll probably know more about the subject than they do."