This age-old warning has created many a nightmare for a consumer who may go home and find that either he does not need the items or they are not up to the standards he desired.
Goods once sold will not be taken back or exchanged—This age-old warning has created many a nightmare for a consumer who may go home and find that either he does not need the items or they are not up to the standards he desired. Is he then saddled with such goods and to suffer a loss as a consequence?
Till recently, shop owners and retailers would use clauses to prevent return of such goods. The Union Ministry of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has in a circular made it abundantly clear that such clauses do not have any validity in law and in fact, amount to ‘unfair trade practice’ on the unwary consumer.
Earlier, when goods were not available freely, the industry would give several excuses for the insertion of the ‘No Return’ clause in the bill. The arguments for such clauses were: 1) A consumer would ‘use’ the product and return it to the retailer, in effect reducing its value due to its second hand nature 2) Taxes paid on the goods could not be recovered and hence a return was not possible 3) People would take goods ‘just for the fun of it’ and then return it after a few days causing nuisance to the seller 4) Accounting problems and storage of such goods were also cited as a reason.
The scenario prevalent in western countries is different. Retailers in those countries return, exchange and redeem items purchased from them even after some time in order to keep the customer happy and as part of their overall sales and PR strategy.
However, there is some responsibility on the consumer also. Certain conditions have been laid down in the circular of the Consumer Affairs Ministry. Prominent among these is the necessity of the purchaser to prove that he has purchased the item from the particular store, returning it back in the size shape and contents in which it was taken, returning or exchanging the goods within reasonable time, providing the goods back in the packaging in which it was taken etc. Certain items are not normally returnable like perishable goods, inner wear clothes for reasons of hygiene and the like.
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