Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tail light warantee

People in the NOB are spoiled.

You can buy merchandise and use it, then if you want make up some excuse and return it for a full refund.

Most of the time, now savvy merchants have started either charging a restocking charge or a time limit of 30 day to return electronics in the original package with everything in tact.
In Mexico you purchase a light bulb. You bring it home and screw it into the socket.

You turn it on and if it lights up you are in luck.

If it lights up for a fraction of a second, you are screwed.

If it doesn't light up at all you are screwed and stupid.

Most hardware stores will check the light bulbs as you get them prior to checking out and paying for them. This is done since there is no guarantee.

Zip. Nada. SOL, Kaput.

Say it isn't so..... Yep, most of the stuff you buy, when you exit the store, it is yours. Period.
Bad light bulb? You should have tested it before you paid for it.

For some reason that is done in most Latin American countries. At the check stand they have several light sockets placed especially to do the testing.

The only possible derivation of that policy is possibly in large stores like Liverpool or Costco. I do remember signing a warantee agreement slip when I bought the last clothes drier, and I had 5 days to return it if it didn't work.

Kind of makes sense from a product abuse kind of way. I remember people bringing back cell phones after they were obviously used for several months , scratched, dinged, and in a condition that they could not be sold, saying that it "didn't work right". Or better yet, they didn't like it!
What do you mean you didn't like it? Especially after 4 or 5 months.

What option did we have?

We went to small claims court once.....that was a great learning expereince. You might as well hand over the wallet to the consumer. We decided at that point to get out of the "retail" side of business.

The consumer laws were against the merchant from the get go.

At least in Mexico it is considerably more even.

Another plus for ol Mehhico.....

4 comments:

Mike Nickell and Cynthia Johnson said...

Nice post! I remember one time we tried to return a shower drain cover to a hardware store in Guaymas. It was the wrong size and we had just bought it the day before. We had our receipt in hand and the counter people looked at us like we were crazy. And just shook their heads. Mike got so mad he slammed it down on the counter and told them to go ahead and sell it again! jajaja

Tancho said...

Been there done that, what prompted this post was I needed a new florescent bulb for a new fixture. Bought two that look right, not so when I tried to stick them in the socket, seems there are keys that were not the same groove even though the pins were the same.
So now I have two bulbs ( I bought a spare, real stupid) that don't fit my fixture.
Great reminder lesson..... Gotta laugh.

Don Cuevas said...

Oye, Tancho, what a coincidence! We had the same thing occur when Sra Cuevas bought an under-the-cabinet fluorescent light fixture. It didn't light, so she brought it back, but they wouldn't give a refund. They offered a replacement, but it was a size too big to fit.

So mi esposa, que Dios le bendiga, brought it home and with pliers, fiddled the contact prongs until it did work. And, get this: she never even had a shop class in electrical wiring.
Now I use that light every day when I brew the coffee.

Saludos,
Don Cuevas

Calypso said...

A Mexico credo: Let the buyer beware. Now how do you say caveat emptor in Spanish again?