Luxury Dog Leashes. But Where Does It Say Returns Are Guaranteed?
When pet lovers know they can return goods purchased online, like high-fashion dog boutique products, even if they simply change their minds about the purchase, it makes for a far more relaxing, pleasurable and exciting browse right from the start.
It greatly improves the quality of the "retail therapy." And that's the good news.
Unfortunately, There's Also Bad News
On the other side of the coin, it's no great pleasure to make a purchase that you think is just fine only to discover later that you don't like it after all - and the retailer won't accept the return of goods just because you've changed your mind.
Yes, it still amazes that in 2010, there are retailers on the Net refusing to take goods back other than where they're legally bound to; where items are wrongly delivered or are otherwise faulty.
And There's More. Bad News That Is.
For them, there are no exchanges, no store credits and certainly no cash-refunds just because customers change their minds.
This made me wonder. In this day and age, what was the Online Pet Industry's take on the vexed subject of cash-refunds? Would you believe this?
In a recent survey of the Google Search Engine Results Pages, I found that just 25% of dog boutiques actually offer cash refunds. That's just 1 in 4.
But Now A Big Surprise
These boutiques have found different cash-refunds to offer:
30% offer full cash-refunds within 30 days of original receipt. Not too bad. But there are better.
A full cash-refund is offered by 10% of them within 21 days. Less acceptable than 30.
10% offer full cash-refunds within 15 days of original receipt. Not as good as 21 or 30.
Within 7 days of receipt of original goods, 20% offer full Refund. 15, 21 and 30 days are better.
20% of boutiques offer full Refund less 10% Restocking Fee. What do you get for this additional fee?
10% offer cash-refunds less 20% deducted as Restocking Fee. I ask again, what's a Restocking Fee for?
Usually, another major proviso is that you return the goods in their original packing and in brand new, pristine condition that allows the supplier, in all good faith, to offer them to the next customer without a possible charge of selling off second-hand goods as new. Which is fair enough, I'm sure you'll agree.
But Beware The Over-The-Top Supplier
A friend of mine, not so long ago, purchased a dog coat from an online retailer and unfortunately managed to get the size measurements wrong. Sending it back for exchange, the supplier refused to accept it as brand new because he "found a dog's hair on the garment." My friend was convinced that this could not be true and, lo and behold, she could find no hair when eventually the supplier sent the coat back to her. This is a sad story. But these things happen.
Perhaps This Is The Answer
How about this? As soon as you land on a webpage containing products that are immediately attractive to you, check out the site's "Shipping and Returns Policy." You need to know right away what is and what isn't on offer by way of returns of unwanted goods. And don't be put off, if you can't immediately find the rules governing returns. T hey are there somewhere. So just persist.
Your aim? A full, 100% Cash-Refund guarantee, of course.
FashionMutt also gives full refunds in cash for returned luxury leashes and of course also for unwanted luxury dog collars.