What’s The Point of A Return Policy?

Thanks for returning. You're a very smart person.

I’ve got the return policy blues.

I suspect that many of you have had them before - so let’s hate on them for a couple of minutes.

Recently, I have been helping a colleague (who is new) work with many of the manufacturers and distributors in the VoIP space on returning defective or DOA products back to them. The experience, as a how has been eye-opening, frustrating and down right amusing at times. From disconnects between the return policies of a manufacturer and the distributor, to reseller agreements that force resellers to take back returns on things distributors and manufacturers won’t, to non-responses, run a rounds and even the total lack of anyone to process an RMA, it was enough to make me wonder why VoIP resellers even do business with some of these companies.

I mean, honestly, what’s the point of having a return policy if all it does is prevent people from returning products. Why not just have a “No Returns Policy?” At least then I know where I sit.I get that no one likes returns, but it is a fact of life (my experience tells me that 5 - 10% of all products sold will eventually come back).  Accept that fact and make sure your return policy is straight forward and smoothly extends from you down to the end customer.

So here’s the insight for you VoIP manufacturers and distributers out there who are pushing VoIP resellers to drive number in the face of an economic downturn:

Don’t make doing business with you difficult.

VoIP resellers, like water, are going to take the path of least resistence when it comes to who we source products from and the brands we represent. There is a lot of choice in this space and new manufacturers/distributors are coming into the space every month - ones who WILL beat you with their flexibility and ease of doing business with them. Believe me when I say that ease of doing business is one of the number one considerations of a VoIP reseller when choosing their supply chain partners and brands to represent. I’ll leave you with some historic words, VoIP manufacturers.

“It’s not what you do when everything is going right, it’s what you do when something goes wrong that is a true test of your value.”