Warranties, Returns and Paperwork...

[wrc3]

Could someone please explain to me why I need to have an invoice when I return a purchase part for warranty service?

Isn't all that information available from the store's database? Isn't this the 21st Century?

B

 

[Yoda]

Bill

You make a darn good point about documenting for warranty... sure makes one wonder ....

Bud

 

[LVMYVT76]

Thats part of having the warranty, the paper work. After doing warranty returns for over 20 years, I can see why they want the proof of purchase and so forth, to prove the part is under warranty. I have seen times when people try to cheat the companies out of money for parts that were not under warranty. They all think the company can loose a little money with them getting credit under warranty when it is not under warranty. If everyone takes a little, there soon would be nothing left. Put yourself in the other person's shoes, how would you fell??

 

[wrc3]

Thats part of having the warranty, the paper work. After doing warranty returns for over 20 years, I can see why they want the proof of purchase and so forth, to prove the part is under warranty. I have seen times when people try to cheat the companies out of money for parts that were not under warranty. They all think the company can loose a little money with them getting credit under warranty when it is not under warranty. If everyone takes a little, there soon would be nothing left. Put yourself in the other person's shoes, how would you fell??

I guess I still don't get it. How does the piece of paper differ from the electronic data? The paper is just a print out of information they already have and maintain. Are you saying that if my house burns down and my car title burns with it that I no longer own my car because I don't have the paperwork? Of course you aren't. The bank and the state both have electronic records that prove my ownership.

So with a parts supplier why would I be required to retain a piece of paper for say 5 years when they have all the information about what I have purchased from them?

B

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

So with a parts supplier why would I be required to retain a piece of paper for say 5 years when they have all the information about what I have purchased from them?
B

'Cause it's you that has the vested interest in getting your money back, not them. Why should the retailer invest in a fancy system that captures every possible detail of every transaction AND assume the cost of retaining the data for the entire warranty period?

In other words, if you can't be bothered with keeping records, why should they?

 

[LVMYVT76]

O'relly automotive out of springfield, mo. does keep computer records of part's warranties. They use your phone number as reference. You don't need a piece of paper. They aren't nationally across the states yet, but they are growing fast.

 

[wrc3]

'Cause it's you that has the vested interest in getting your money back, not them. Why should the retailer invest in a fancy system that captures every possible detail of every transaction AND assume the cost of retaining the data for the entire warranty period?

In other words, if you can't be bothered with keeping records, why should they?

Well the records keeping already exists. It's part of their business plan. They keep information on orders already for purposes of marketing and maintaining stock and supplies, so the information is already there. It is in the business' best interest to know who ordered what and when. That's how you get catalogs mailed to you and how they send out messages about specials. So while they don't keep the records specifically for purposes of warranty, they maintain them for their own purposes which also could fulfill the warranty tracking other than this silly need to have a piece of paper.

The retailers also have a vested interest in their own warranty programs. If a company is selling rebuilds or something that they are actually manufacturing it is in their best interest to know if that part is flawed or not. They can't possibly test everything leaving their doors, so when consumers return products because of warranty issues it alerts them to possible problems in their manufacturing process. This also speaks to reputation of a company as a good or poor manufacturer.

So again...not really convinced yet.

B

 

[WhiteKnight]

Fist off.. I completly agree with you that in this modern day and age a company should be able to keep electronic records of my transactions with them.. even 5 years ago they should have had that ability.

Most companies have policies on warranty ruturns that are based on the laws of the state or states they opperate within. Usually these are based on the
Set of standardized state laws governing financial contracts. Called the Uniform Comercial Code dating back to the 50's when paper documents were the norm.

The code was drafted by the National Conference of State Law Commissioners, and was adopted in the 1950s by most states and the District of Columbia. (Louisiana, the only state which has not fully ratified the code, has adopted Article 3 of the UCC, dealing with Checks, Drafts, and Negotiable Instruments.) The code has nine separate sections, called articles. The most important of these are Article 3, dealing with negotiable instruments; Article 4, dealing with bank Deposits and Collections Article 5, dealing with Letters of Credit Article 7, dealing with Warehouse Receipts and other documents of Title and Article 8 and Article 9, dealing with Secured Loans.


http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/7/

It has been re-written and updated for todays electronic commerce but not all states have accepted the amendments.


Since most companies policies are some what flexable it is sometimes possible to have it overridden by customer service. Also some companies will provide a copy of that required document, for a small fee of course, so that the return may be processed per thier policy.

 

[wrc3]

Called the Uniform Comercial Code dating back to the 50's when paper documents were the norm.

The UCC! You are taking me back to my first year of law school and I did terrible in Contracts!

B

 

[WhiteKnight]

Yeah.. your question really got my thinking as to why is it required.. some digging started pointing to state laws and that code and the post was the result.. I have not been to law school myself, unless Murphy's counts.

 

[Pseudomind]

It should not really be all that hard in this day and age. Enter in a number on a database and the information pops back. If it was small company and I am talking very small, then maybe an issue.

 

[JohnZ]

Businesses are required to maintain certain records (for tax audit reasons), but there's nothing that says they have to be in searchable electronic database format; many small businesses still operate with paper records, or with basic electronic systems that simply maintain files for bookkeeping purposes without a database structure.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

I guess none of you 'it must be so easy' guys have worked in any sort of retail with a huge customer base.

People change addresses, phone numbers, use inconsistant name forms, have multiple accounts, multiple addresses etc, etc, never mind credit card number changes.

Being able to retrieve details of every sale of every item to every person years after the fact is virtually impossible.

 

[WhiteKnight]

I never said it would be easy.. I just said it should be able to be acomplished.. I know that the company I work for does this and as Mikey said customers changing things make it a challange some times to locate the records as well as the way my companies systems are setup. Where I work, unless the customer lets sales know they are a returning customer and provides their existing customer number a new one is created each time they order. Although with larger corporate and gov acounts this is not an issue as they have deadicated sales teams. Although it takes a lot of $$ to make this work.. but it is a $55B company.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

I never said it would be easy.. I just said it should be able to be acomplished..

And also very expensive to maintain and make worthwhile. Why should the vendor spend all this money just for the few buyers who can't be bothered keeping their own records.

The cost of this massive database would be passed along to everyone- including packrats like me who keep everything.

There's always somebody new over at the NCRS site who thinks it would be a good idea to set up a database that records which vendors and which parts are 'NCRS approved'. I always reply thanking them for stepping forward and volunteering to do it. Amazing how fast they disappear..............