Do retailers suffer in the returns process?

necronaut

I brought a garden fork with a 5 or 10 years guarantee two days ago and one of the prongs has snapped off already whilst turning over some heavy clay.

I'd like to return it because I wasn't satisfied which the strength of the product. I just wondered if I managed to get a refund is this harmful for a small retailer or do they recoup the cost from the manufacturer?

lateandlive

If the item's faulty then they return it to the manufacturer and get the money they paid back for it. The money loss comes when people (not aimed at you!) try and abuse the process and return things that aren't faulty, and therefore the retailer won't get reimbursed for.

Only time they have issues are when they make the products they sell.

pendulum

Wasn't a Spear and Jackson was it? I had one that didn't last two days.

Even if the retailer loses money, that's not your concern. They will be making profit on each sale and from that pool of profits, deductions for returns can be made (where they cannot be recouped from the manufacturer).

davemorton

I also had a S & J fork snap on me after a few days use.

Red_Cat

I bought a Homebase fork and one of the tines has bent, not snapped yet. What sort of mild steel are they using these days?

neilmcl

necronaut wrote: »

I'd like to return it because I wasn't satisfied which the strength of the product. I just wondered if I managed to get a refund is this harmful for a small retailer or do they recoup the cost from the manufacturer?

That's not your problem. They (the retailer) chose to stock and sell that particular item, they have a duty to sell you an item that is free from fault and fit for purpose. I wouldn't worry too much about whether they are left out of pocket or not. Rather them than you.

DreamerQ

No they won't be losing any money, especially not the small local stores, because they usually go for the secure/guaranteed products because imagine if 10 customers brought back a few expensive products they don't want anymore.. that would put them out of business in the long run! If the product is faulty they will simply return it to the manufacturers with whom they had a contact regarding faulty products.

DCFC79

necronaut wrote: »

I brought a garden fork with a 5 or 10 years guarantee two days ago and one of the prongs has snapped off already whilst turning over some heavy clay.

I'd like to return it because I wasn't satisfied which the strength of the product. I just wondered if I managed to get a refund is this harmful for a small retailer or do they recoup the cost from the manufacturer?

If a prong has snapped off then return it, whether or not a retailer gets the money back isn't your concern but yes they get compensated for any genuine faulty items.

Nilrem

Red_Cat wrote: »

I bought a Homebase fork and one of the tines has bent, not snapped yet. What sort of mild steel are they using these days?

In the case of Homebase I would suggest they are using pewter for their tools, except I suspect that is more expensive than whatever cheap low quality rubbish they tend to use.

Homebase stuff with metal tends to be the cheapest pig iron they can get away with using - their screws are better used as nails and their nails are probably better used as paperweights in my experience:p

I may be exaggerating a little, but homebase own brand hardware (even just the nails/screws) seem to be the cheapest possible materials, even when the cost difference between it and a branded product is a tiny percentage (we now keep a large stock of Screwfix screws in our garage, largely to avoid being in a situation where we need a particular size and get tempted to buy from HB).

necronaut

It was Spear and Jackson. It's a good fork but the soil i'm working with was particularly dense clay. I got a contractor's own brand fork from B&Q and the finish isn't as nice, it's twice as heavy too, but it really does the job well.

bap98189

If it was a S&J fork, rather than go through the retailer, I suggest you take a photo of the fork and write a letter to S&J. I did this a few months ago after my fork snapped and 2 days later a brand new one was delivered to my door.