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Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

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Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, he was abusing it. The refund policy is for if you're really unsatisfied with the product. If you buy a product with the intent to return it for refund, that's abuse.

Again, why? It's tautology to say "That's abuse because it's abuse." The business offers a policy. You're simply using it. We can agree to disagree, but it's not X just because someone says it is.

I want to participate in a market where businesses typically offer refunds. When too many people use refund policies in that way, businesses stop offering them. That makes things worse for me, so I wish they wouldn't do that.

I don't know if that rises to definition of abuse, but that's why I don't want people to use refunds that way.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your position seems to be that if it's legal and within the technical guidelines, then it's not abuse. If so then what is abuse? I think the issue is people operating in bad faith. I recall a story about people buying big TVs before the super bowl then returning them the next week. My opinion is that's abusing a company's generous return policy. The people doing that never intended to buy. The company had the policy…

Finally, a logical comment. Thank you. I counter with the following observation: You note that a return policy exists so that customers can use it. Under what conditions are you allowed to use it and it not be abuse? Being able to return the product is often why customers buy something. How many times have you considered the return policy before buying? You can decide to return it for any reason you like: whether you…

> Under what conditions are you allowed to use it and it not be abuse?

If your plan wasn't to return it from the start, then it isn't abuse. This seems pretty simple. In your original example your "friend" was planning on using GPUs to test and then return them. At no point was he planning on keeping this purchase.

Now, I will say if you're friend bought 3 GPU's with the plan to keep one and returned two I would say that's not abuse, but there are certainly better ways to try before you buy.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#154
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you buy it via official reseller? Any reasonable country should have laws in place that will force the company to refund you for the defective goods. In that case Apple' policies shouldn't matter

AFAIK India doesn’t have refund policies for defective goods that are widely applicable. What OP must clarify though is that apples authorised resellers in India do actually perform a good job of replacing defective goods under warranty, which makes getting extended care for apple products in India of paramount importance. Outside of warranty you are so screwed!

I don't know about your experience but I have been buying Apple products here for more than a decade and the authorized service centers only replace iPhones and iPads (and they now repair iPhones) while macs are repair only. But the so called engineers are not well trained and I did have my MBP once that went bad thanks to the poor job they had done. If apple had an official service center I would not bother replacing or returning and just get it repaired since any repair comes with a 90 day warranty.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my experience Americans sort of take for granted the breadth and depth of consumer protection you enjoy. As a european, it's amusing to hear you say that as the majority of European countries have far, far more stringent consumer-protection regs than the US, such as mandatory 2 year warranties, distance-selling laws, legal rights to a refund or replacement, and so on. Apple's 90 day warranty is a joke when you c…

And everywhere in EU sellers have to accept a return within 14 days for any online purchases, for any reason. And no, they can't charge a restocking fee. You can only be asked to pay for the postage back. And in general, the responsibility for the goods is always with the seller first, manufacturer second. If your laptop breaks and the seller says "oh the manufacturer declined warranty" then sorry, tough luck, it's t…

In the EU however, you generally are paying for that extra protection in the form of higher prices from retailers. There's no free lunch. The market isn't perfectly efficient, but it's pretty damn efficient. It's not like companies operating in countries where warranty is the law will suddenly say "welp, I guess we'll just have to accept less profit in the EU then, hopefully global consumers don't catch on!"

Whether you pay for extra protections via higher prices automatically (EU) or as an a la carte add-on (US) is irrelevant. On a risk adjusted basis, the cost is the same.

The EU simply cuts off the consumer's ability to take more risk for lower cost. They force you to buy the warranty every time.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#156
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your friend was treating a return policy as a rental policy. I don't think that's in the spirit of a return policy.

Are we going to blame people for not buying WinRaR licenses next? These are businesses, they offer the policy for a variety of reasons, I am free to use them within the terms; it sounds a bit out there to categorise returning a product in a “no questions asked return” policy as unethical unless I actively sabotaged the product or did anything other than use it and give it back.

You shouldn't be angry that Apple is changing the terms then.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your position seems to be that if it's legal and within the technical guidelines, then it's not abuse. If so then what is abuse? I think the issue is people operating in bad faith. I recall a story about people buying big TVs before the super bowl then returning them the next week. My opinion is that's abusing a company's generous return policy. The people doing that never intended to buy. The company had the policy…

Finally, a logical comment. Thank you. I counter with the following observation: You note that a return policy exists so that customers can use it. Under what conditions are you allowed to use it and it not be abuse? Being able to return the product is often why customers buy something. How many times have you considered the return policy before buying? You can decide to return it for any reason you like: whether you…

There is a definite benefit to giving good faith customers confidence in their ability to return something if they aren't satisfied with it. If the majority of customers are not acting in good faith (meaning never intend to keep the item) that position becomes untenable for the business and as you state the terms are changed. The alternative is to drastically increase the price so that customers who actually want to purchase it can subsidize those that don't.

I'm not sure whether there's an ethical problem with acting in that way, but it resembles a "tragedy of the commons" situation. Or, "this is why we can't have nice things".

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#158

Apple retail policy in Hong Kong[0] is similar, no 14-day returns unlike most other countries, and even defective refunds seem doubtful (you can see that the policy only specifies conditions for exchange, though it does mention refund procedures it doesn't state when it would occur and so is likely open to interpretation by the management). [0] https://www.apple.com/hk/shop/help/exchange_return

Yes Hong Kong has had that since iPhone 4 or 5 if I remember correctly. A few years later Apple said the problem were people abusing the system, basically buying iPhone, taking out some component, or even the Screen, replace them with other parts and sell those official parts for profits. Then returning the iPhone to Apple.

They also raised the price of latest iPhone by $100 since iPhone 5 because of China reselling. So if you exclude VAT or Import TAX, ( which HK doesn't have ), It would be the most expensive iPhone with the least amount of services.

Mac and others products are normal though.

Re: Products purchased at Apple Store in India cannot be refunded or exchanged

#159
post #127
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my friends works at Costco. He says that before the holidays they sell a lot of furniture and after the holidays they see a lot of furniture returns.

This was also really common with TVs during the Super Bowl. People would come in and buy the biggest TV they could get, have their Super Bowl party and then return the TV.

That why the Costco policy no longer applies to electronics (they’re time-limited now). But it’s at manager discretion, so if you seem to have a genuine problem they’ll still take something back after the limit.
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