Dirty Sales Tricks
The “Repack”
Sometimes, for what ever reason a customer returns something that isn’t broken. They got cold feet or their spouse disagreed with the decision to make this purchase. More often then not this customer will get a refund minus a restocking fee. This fee usually ranges from 10% to 20% of the purchase price of the unit. The rationale here is that the product is now technically used and can’t be sold again as new. This is completely fair as long as the unit is actually sold to the next customer at a discount! My second day on the job I was shown how to do a “Repack”. Basically I was shown how to place everything back in the package in such a way that it looked factory sealed. This was done so that the item could then be sold again as new and for the full price. Some even go so far as to open the box from the bottom when they remove product for demonstration purposes. I have actually seen demo equipment that’s been on the sales floor for over a year, cleaned up, repacked and sold as new! You can sometimes spot a repack. Manuals will be dog eared and creased, tie wraps around cables won’t match. If you’re thinking you can even look at the box if you can see two layers of tape on either the top or the bottom there’s a good chance it’s a repack!
The Warranty Shuffle
Things always seem to break down just as the warranty expires! In some cases, if a shop has a good relationship with the distributor they can ask to have something fixed under warranty even though the warranty has recently expired. Sometimes this works out for you and the shop passes the savings on to you. Sometimes they tell you that there’s nothing they can do because the warranty has expired. Then after having it fixed under warranty, charge you an arbitrary amount in order to make some quick cash!
Sometimes, for what ever reason a customer returns something that isn’t broken. They got cold feet or their spouse disagreed with the decision to make this purchase. More often then not this customer will get a refund minus a restocking fee. This fee usually ranges from 10% to 20% of the purchase price of the unit. The rationale here is that the product is now technically used and can’t be sold again as new. This is completely fair as long as the unit is actually sold to the next customer at a discount! My second day on the job I was shown how to do a “Repack”. Basically I was shown how to place everything back in the package in such a way that it looked factory sealed. This was done so that the item could then be sold again as new and for the full price. Some even go so far as to open the box from the bottom when they remove product for demonstration purposes. I have actually seen demo equipment that’s been on the sales floor for over a year, cleaned up, repacked and sold as new! You can sometimes spot a repack. Manuals will be dog eared and creased, tie wraps around cables won’t match. If you’re thinking you can even look at the box if you can see two layers of tape on either the top or the bottom there’s a good chance it’s a repack!
The Warranty Shuffle
Things always seem to break down just as the warranty expires! In some cases, if a shop has a good relationship with the distributor they can ask to have something fixed under warranty even though the warranty has recently expired. Sometimes this works out for you and the shop passes the savings on to you. Sometimes they tell you that there’s nothing they can do because the warranty has expired. Then after having it fixed under warranty, charge you an arbitrary amount in order to make some quick cash!
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