SaveMyLight is seeing a dramatic increase in Customer Returns where products have been stripped, taken apart, warranty stickers removed, PCB’s swapped over and products damaged through fitment.
Products are being mishandled by customers and then placed into packaging without any protection believing it is no longer their problem and the retailer will now ‘take care’ of the matter by issuing a refund.
Some customers are DIY test fitting products and unintentionally damaging the product. Of course when the product is retested upon its return we have to refuse it.
A growing number of customers are not having their product installed by a qualified electrician and instead trying to DIY fit the product without any knowledge of how to fit the product correctly and safely.
This in turn causes repeat phone calls and emails claiming ‘the product does not work’.
All items must be fitted by a qualified electrician. Using a voltage tester pen does not qualify a customer as an electrician or being a ‘competent DIY person’.
Some customers are also deliberately returning products that they know full well have been damaged during installation claiming they ‘received it in that condition’.
The manufacturer will not accept these products back under the guarantee and the return will be refused.
And it gets worse! Some customers are even swapping the PCB (printed circuit board) with an older PCB claiming the product is faulty (when infact they are actually returning their own faulty product). This is theft as well as fraud!!
Security measures in place:-
- All units have multiple warranty void stickers in place that display the word VOID if the sticker is removed.
- All products are security marked – this will be a combination of items including ‘Smartwater’ for high value items.
- All products are photographed before despatch and stored under the customer’s sales log.
- All units are tested before despatch and noted under the customer’s sales log.
- The packaging department has CCTV which can be reviewed to see the exact moment a customer’s order was processed and packaged. Very handy for claims of an item not as described or a different item received.
- All returned units are retained should they be needed in the future for reference.
A refund will be refused if:-
- A product has had the warranty stickers removed / reattached / or are missing.
- A part/s are missing that were supplied with the product.
- A product has been stripped.
- A product has been damaged through use or during installation.
- There is evidence the PCB has been swapped.
- The product returned is not ours.
- The product returned pre-dates the product that was despatched to the customer.
- The product returned was not sold by SaveMyLight.
SaveMyLight reports all matters of fraud to ActionFraud UK and in very rare instances issues civil proceedings against customers who file a false chargeback to obtain a refund.
Fraud is a crime and as a retailer we will do everything we can to stamp this practice out.
Fraud costs our company money and increases the cost of products for other law abiding customers.
We would rather do away with the above security measures but unfortunately in this day and age it is simply not possible.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
