Store Policy

It's important to remember that customers always have a choice. If there isn't a direct competitor, there is still the choice to not do business at all. Therefore, it is always a good idea to make sure that your policies have everyone's best interest in mind.

Seth Godin had a recent post touching on this subject. Most policies are designed to protect the business from unfair consumer behavior. And while certain rules will help deter those that would abuse the trust, the problem is that the policy will likely harm most of the honest customers as well.

The policy that is causing me all of these headaches is the Scootertronics Refund Policy. The policy reads:

"All SALES ARE FINAL there are no returns on scooters go carts or ATVs due to shipping expenses."

Run-on sentences aside, this isn't necessarily a terrible policy. It does two good things for potential customers.

1. It sets a customer's expectation. This is useful for deterring excessive and unwarranted returns from customers with simple buyer's remorse, or those who can't decide on a specific model or color.
2. It provides a reason for the policy. Scootertronics is very clear that they cannot accept returns for scooters simply because they pay for the shipping costs.

However, just because they have defined a fairly reasonable policy does not mean that it should be overreaching and non-negotiable. My reason for wanting a refund is not due to a change of heart. I want a functional scooter- that's it. Since this does not seem to be happening, it's in both of our best interests to stop wasting our time and resources and cut our losses.

If the only reason they cannot accept the return is because of the shipping cost, couldn't they refund the other portion of the cost? Since the problem lies with the faulty Vento scooter, shouldn't their issue be with the manufacturer? It seems unfair for the customer to be mistreated in a case like this.

I spent $1460 to buy a scooter, and have spent 9 months of endless struggle to try to get it functional. I can't imagine how much time and money has been spent by Scootertronics to work on picking up/delivering my scooter, as well as ordering replacement parts and actually working on it. Somehow, I doubt it's worth it.