I recently bought a desktop computer from Dell and by the time it arrived I was wondering if it was powerful enough, so, I took it for a spin and found out that my suspicious were correct. It was not powerful enough for my needs. We’ll, no big deal, all I had to do was give them a call to arrange for a return and a refund. Dell told me I had 14 days to return it.
When I started the process they asked me if I bought it as an individual or a business. Well, it was for business and it was paid by my business. I didn’t know it at that point, but that meant that the European Union laws for consumer protection didn’t apply.
The EU has a cool off period on online purchases of 14 days. Within those 14 days you can return an item without having a reason. This is for people, not companies. I was exempt of that protection and the terms of service of Dell is: no returns. I got so used to be able to return whatever I want, that this really surprised me. It was surreal.
Did you notice that Dell return policy is the absolute minimum that the EU requires? 14 days for consumers, no return for businesses. I thought most companies were accepting returns because keeping customers happy it’s good for business. Certainly some are, for example, Amazon never refused a return no matter whether it was a business or personal purchase.
This made me wonder: how many other companies look good because the EU is making them and not because they are good. What will happen when the UK leaves the EU? I bet many of these battles will have to be fought again, some will be lost, some will be won.
After a lot of whining and protesting, Dell accepted to take the computer back, but from now on I’ll think twice about buying things from Dell. Even when buying Dell products.
For example, for my new workstation I need a monitor and my research pointed me to one that Dell offers. If you I went to Dell’s web site, and clicked “For Work”, the monitor was 20% cheater than if I clicked “For Home”. Maybe that’s the cost of accepting returns, maybe it’s just dynamic pricing. Thankfully I found the monitor on Amazon, cheaper than the cheapest price Dell was charging, on prime, so delivery was even faster. I obviously ordered them on Amazon.
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