I bought it from you, YOU take care of it! (long, ranty)

[Dips]

This isn't about the merits of protection plans or whether retailers ought to be responsible for products they sell but don't make.

This is about an SC who is blaming a reseller for something that isn't their fault and which they are still doing their best to "make right."

You want to debate the fine points of consumer law, take it to fratching.

[Dave1982]

14 days, 30, 90....doesnt' really matter, because it's 5 months old. Computers cycle over every 3 months or so, so no matter what we'd still be well past the point where it could be handled as a straight return.

[jackfaire]

I hated when I was building networks for my friends and I would have to delve through antiVirus software just to get the computers to see eachother

[Mike Taylor]

Personally, I find it a fairly horrible state of affairs that after you buy an item, you then have to pay extra to make sure it works as advertised. I think the OP stated that 14 days is the limit if you don't buy a protection plan. 2 weeks. If I buy anything other than dairy products, I expect it to last more than 2 damn weeks.

If I go to a store and buy a computer/Xbox/stove/water heater/MP3 player/cell phone/etc and it goes belly up in a month then I certainly will go right back to the point of purchase and say "You sold me a turd - make it right, please," whether I bought a protection plan or not. That seems blatantly obvious. I wouldn't be an SC about it but I would still expect the retailer to make it right, whether that means service or replacement or refund or whatever.

Now obviously that protection isn't forever, but 14 days? Sorry, but if you can't stand behind your products any longer than the local deli stands behind it's corned beef, something is very wrong. Any retailer who sells "stuff" should stand behind said "stuff." If the Bissel I just bought from Target shits the bed next week, I'm dragging it's carcass back to Target.

Certain products have a 14 day return policy on them to discourage people from buying them, using them for a month, and then bringing them back. For example, imagine a SC buying a camera to take on a trip to another country and then returning it after the trip is over, fully functional and defect-free. My employer not only has a 14 Day policy on cameras and laptops, but we assess a 15% restocking fee if the unit is found to be 100% functional.

Another employer of mine had a similar policy in place for certain highly collectible merchandise, namely limited edition dolls and action figures, because we had issues with "eBay auctioneers" coming in, snapping them up, and then trying to return any unsold merchandise.

It's not always a matter of "not standing behind the product". It's a matter of trying to minimize dealing with people who abuse return policies.

[Seshat]

Certain products have a 14 day return policy on them to discourage people from buying them, using them for a month, and then bringing them back.

There's a difference between that and bringing back something that broke under normal use.

[Mike Taylor]

There's a difference between that and bringing back something that broke under normal use.

I am aware of that, I was explaining why the policy is normally put in place for particular products. 14 days on a vacuum cleaner or refrigerator IS unreasonable. 14 days on a laptop or a camera is not, because past experience (at least at my employer) has shown that a sizeable portion of those returns were not related to product defects. Where I work, we are up front about this, both explaining it to the customer and pointing out the label on the packaging which shows it. The customers have no problem with it.

[Broomjockey]

You want to debate the fine points of consumer law, take it to fratching.

There's been stuff after this post that seems like debating the finer points of returns, instead of consumer law, maybe thinking that's enough of a distinction. It's not.

[otakuneko]

And I've bought memory (as in RAM) from a place that has a 3 day return policy. Bought it for my very first computer build when said store was pretty much the only way to get memory cheaply. I haven't bought anything that critical from there since (mainly BECAUSE of said return policy), though I still love to go in and browse. It's like Forrest Gump's box of chawklits, but for computer stuff! They have all sorts of old and new stuff.

...And every once in a blue moon, I find something useful, like an original Memory Stick (as in Sony Memory Stick) for my PictureBook (think Netbook's ancient ancestor!). It was $15 for a 128MB stick, but well worth it because it freed me from having to plug in a usb drive AND it doesn't stick out, so can be safely left in when I toss the picturebook in my backpack or zip it up into my notebook.

Much of their stuff is, quite obviously, used, so the return policy is at least somewhat understandable in that regard. Still doesn't mean I'd trust 'em as far as I could throw 'em. Just means if I get anything there I have to remember to test it immediately.

[Andara Bledin]

Just means if I get anything there I have to remember to test it immediately.

This should be SOP everywhere and always.

^-.-^