paulr

....what happens to stuff that gets returned to shops.I returned a cheapo DVD player to Argos this morning(it was crap) and there was a bit of a queue of people returning stuff.
Are they allowed to just send it back out again?

JohnMcC

When I worked for a certain high street electrical store during my GAP year, it made me vow to never buy a 'Managers Special' - ie returned goods.

To be fair, some of these were fine, and worked perfectly well - the 'fault' that the customer had returned it for was to to their incompetence rather than and actual problem with the appliance.

But for those that did actually have a fault, they were more often than not just left in the wharehouse for a few days, then bubble wrapped and put out for sale again.

JohnMcC

...so to actually answer your question a bit more specifically , yes I think they are just sold again, especially if they were not returned for a fault.

Sometimes they were really sneaky, and the product was re-boxed and sold as new, even if it had been taken out of the box, set up at someones home, then returned. Sneaky, very sneaky.....

Whether this is 'allowed' or not, I do not know.....


The other thing I learnt while there, is never buy extra cover....9/10 if the thing is gonna break it will do so within the normal manufacturers warranty - otherwise it will probably last its intended life. The extra cover plans are really where they make their cash.....

paulr

Thats one thing i hardly ever do...buy extra cover.As you say if it works OK in the first few days it should last.Most electrical items i've owned have become obsolete before they stopped working.

As for the first point,i bought a video from Curry's a couple of years back and when the woman brought it out, the box was in crap condition.She insisted it was new,but when i looked inside, the instruction book was dead grubby.I took it cos it was the only one they had left-10% off,but it was obviously a return.

BuRR

My mate recently bought a digital camera from Argos, and when he got home he found a load of pictures on it, which had obviously been taken someone who had returned it for some reason or another.

Good job there weren't any "bedroom" scenes

RichB

I know of someone who was buying palettes of Argos stuff, probably where all that stuff ends up. He never knew what would be in the palette. I think it got shifted down a market or something

dowser

Faulty items get repaired and resold as B-Grade stock.

Of course, you have to ask whether it's B-Grade, they wont tell you....never, never buy anything that's in an opened box unless you've seen it working and get a healthy discount

All those wierd intermittent faults end up doing the rounds of being sold, being returned to shop as faulty, being sent to workshop, being sent back no-fault-found, being sold....blah, blah, blah.....

If the box still looks new, but is open, then it's maybe OK - could be a normal return or a DOA easily fixed....but if the box looks used & abused......

Richard