A warranty period that last only 3 days?
My sister and her husband went to Curve the other day to look for a birthday gift for a baby girl. After walking around for few hours, they decided to buy a RM 90 toy imported from Italy called Ch**c*. They wrapped it up, and gave the birthday gift to the baby’s parents (who are based in Melaka) 2 days later.
On the 3rd day, the parents called my sister to tell her that the toy is faulty. My sister got it back on the 4th day and went to the shop to ask for a warranty. The sales girl told her that the warranty period is only 3 days which means my sister was not eligible for it.
Ok, my sister is much prettier than this.
When my sister told me about this, I was quite surprised. I thought the global economy is really bad? The company is really making a big mistake here by doing this. It’s either the employees (management team included) don’t care, or they are really really bad in handling the customers.
In my opinion, there are few things they (the company) can actually do to improve this situation.
- Tell the customers that the warranty period is over and show the proof (it must be stated somewhere – in the receipt, the box, etc).
- Offer to repair the toy but informs the customers that there’s no promise the toy can be repaired. Do it Free-of-charge and promise to give the customers the reply within so and so number of days.
- Extend the warranty period to 1 week since 3 days is ridiculously short.
These 3 are very very common things a business can do to make the customers happier…or at least, lower down the “pissed off” meter to a manageable level. The funny thing is, most businesses don’t do these 3 things. The only thing that most businesses like to do is to piss the customers off.
No wonder so many businesses are closing down nowadays. Serve them right. 
UPDATE: The customer service officer in the HQ office managed to “fix” the toy up after we told them that we are VERY disappointed with their service and might even inform our friends about it. No warranty still but at least, they’ve fixed it up.
They must be joking. It can’t last more than 3 days
Harmony
9 Feb 09 at 10:51 am
That is one stupid customer! A child can spoil a toy in mere minutes, not to mention 3 days!
When you are born, there is no warranty to your parents that you are not stupid! how’s that for customer service!
It is also natural for people to hate you when you keep saying people are stupid!
STUPID!
Menj
9 Feb 09 at 4:51 pm
@ Harmony
In UK, you can actually return anything you’ve purchased for money back guarantee as long as you don’t remove the price tag. It’s so different than here.
@ Menj
Well, if you do care to use some of your brain power to think, the warranty here should have terms & conditions. It should not be broken by the user. The thing broke out of the box. The company actually told us that even if we bought it THERE and open it THERE, there’s no warranty if it’s broken.
And how can anyone related customer service with the birth of a child….is beyond me.
For your info, you’re quite rude and you’re one of those people who do not dare to put in your email and contact. To go to people’s blog and flame like this is very polite.
Alvin Lim
9 Feb 09 at 5:53 pm
Its strange for a store to practice an as-is where-is policy, unless its an auction or a garage sale. This practice ranks up there with “pay first, then only we let you test it” policy. You might want to lodge an ethics complaint with a consumer watchdog, if there is one.
Damien Tan
10 Feb 09 at 9:02 am
@ Damien
Consumer watchdog? I doubt there’s one in Malaysia. Even if there is, he is doing a good job hiding himself up.
Alvin Lim
10 Feb 09 at 7:22 pm
Toys from Italy. They should give a longer warranty period as it’s imported from “high class” country. I’m working in the warranty department, so I know how customers feel but sometimes customers also too stubborn to accept the fact that the warranty period is over.
My company gives 1 week warranty for goods imported from China.
Apples last blog post..100 MyBlogLog Community Members
Apple
11 Feb 09 at 8:24 am
@ Apple
Yeap, Italian brands are actually quite “posh” or “high class” brands as compared to Spain, China, etc. 1 week is reasonable since any defect out of the box should be noticed within that 1 week.
Alvin Lim
11 Feb 09 at 9:46 am