2019-04-23
In this session, we shall deal with the third function of inbound
logistics: Dealing with returned products.
A customer
returning the product he has purchased to the retailer for some valid reasons
like the defective functioning of the product, say, some electronics product is
called Product Return. The customer also receives a refund or exchanges the
returned product for another item generally of the same cost.
Customer
Rights guarantee him survival, enough food, clothing and shelter. The Right to
Safety sees to it that he gets goods and services that are not dangerous to
health and life. The Right to Information offers him the demand for facts and
information he may need to exercise a right choice. In other words, the
Customer or the Consumer has the right to choose products and services of his
choice among many different services and goods available and he has the right
to choose at competitive prices. If the goods or services do not satisfy him he
has the right to seek redress.
Based on
this Right to Redress, the Customer can return a product or reject a service on
the grounds of dissatisfaction with the product or the service.
Let us look
into some more reasons that influence the rejection or the return of the
product. When a customer receives a product purchased online, he may find the
size or the colour is not what he wants; he finds there is some difference
between what he saw online ad and what he gets when delivered. Or there is a
possibility that the customer wrongly clicked the box and finalized the
purchase he did not intend to buy it. In such cases, the customer may have to
choose an alternative to the same price of the returned product. Another
mistake that is known to happen is the customer orders more than he needs; this
mistake happens when products are sold in bulk. After purchase, the customer
may look into the prices of other companies for the same product and he finds
that he has paid more comparatively; therefore, he wants to return. Any
customer does not cherish the feeling that he has been cheated in a way.
Another popular reason points to the fact that after the purchase, he realizes
the same product can be acquired rather cheap during the festival season and he
does not hesitate to return the product choosing to buy the same one in the
festival sale spree.
Late
delivery will necessarily lead to dissatisfaction of the customer ending up in
returning of the product.
There is
unethical return of the product also.
Some customers purchase a product, use it for a day or two and then
return on some pretext and demand full refund. This practice is not new to the
retailers who once detected try to dissuade the customer from purchase.
Indeed,
there is some fraudulent practice among some customers. They return some stolen
items or items purchased on stolen credit cards. The company must evolve some
mechanism that detects these fraudulent practices.
It is said
by experts that the company must have some return policy in practice that
enables the customers to return the products and at the same time adequate
measures have been put into practice to deal with the customers who tend to
abuse the return policy.
We will see
some more of return policy in our next session.
