Neil McCauley
15-04-2011, 15:52
Here is an extract from a posting on PFM: "All sounds very poor and explains why there are so many "open box" units being offered with large discounts already. Clearly a lot are being returned under warranty and repaired. I have also noticed a lot for sale after people have only had them a few weeks." http://bit.ly/gufmEv
Now then, looking at this as a 'civilian' rather than a retailer I find this of concern. The writer states as fact that which might be fact - but not necessarily so. But that's not the big point for me. I had this self same experience with the PS Audio PPP debacle a couple of years back.
Until I resolved this through resigning the agency from the then importers I was faced with a tricky dilemma that had no apparent resolution in Law. Let me explain if I may. The end-user is customer 'b' i.e. they buy from me as retailer and I, as the retailer are customer 'a' in that I buy from the supplier.
Customer 'b' expects and pays for brand new. I on his/her behalf order and pay the supplier for the same albeit at a lower price. I found numerous PPP units described as elsewhere in the original PFM thread. And so a seemingly endless debate started about what truly constituted 'New'. After that, given that I felt my obligations were to the end-user {notwithstanding my legal obligations} and wow, did that make me unpopular, thoughts strayed toward legal definitions and so on.
Without going into the minutiae, this led to two conclusions by me:
1. The Law is not particularly helpful re defining what new actually is. All of us, inc me as the ‘civilian’ think we know. We certainly know what it should be. But the law thinks otherwise. Consider the delivery of what you believe is a brand new car. All cars have delivery mileage on them. Perhaps only a handful of miles – BUT – you cannot in Law it seems use that fact to dispute that you car isn't new i.e. had prior use. And so it goes –unless of course it's an Alfa 166 that I once owned – in which case it won't!
2. When I buy anything new in the way of cameras, watches and so on I inset on a sealed box. Moreover having been in this industry so long, I check underneath to see if the box was opened and resealed and thus hoodwinking both customers ‘a’ and ‘b’.
Now then, looking at this as a 'civilian' rather than a retailer I find this of concern. The writer states as fact that which might be fact - but not necessarily so. But that's not the big point for me. I had this self same experience with the PS Audio PPP debacle a couple of years back.
Until I resolved this through resigning the agency from the then importers I was faced with a tricky dilemma that had no apparent resolution in Law. Let me explain if I may. The end-user is customer 'b' i.e. they buy from me as retailer and I, as the retailer are customer 'a' in that I buy from the supplier.
Customer 'b' expects and pays for brand new. I on his/her behalf order and pay the supplier for the same albeit at a lower price. I found numerous PPP units described as elsewhere in the original PFM thread. And so a seemingly endless debate started about what truly constituted 'New'. After that, given that I felt my obligations were to the end-user {notwithstanding my legal obligations} and wow, did that make me unpopular, thoughts strayed toward legal definitions and so on.
Without going into the minutiae, this led to two conclusions by me:
1. The Law is not particularly helpful re defining what new actually is. All of us, inc me as the ‘civilian’ think we know. We certainly know what it should be. But the law thinks otherwise. Consider the delivery of what you believe is a brand new car. All cars have delivery mileage on them. Perhaps only a handful of miles – BUT – you cannot in Law it seems use that fact to dispute that you car isn't new i.e. had prior use. And so it goes –unless of course it's an Alfa 166 that I once owned – in which case it won't!
2. When I buy anything new in the way of cameras, watches and so on I inset on a sealed box. Moreover having been in this industry so long, I check underneath to see if the box was opened and resealed and thus hoodwinking both customers ‘a’ and ‘b’.