Quote:
Originally posted by jyl
You're talking about retailers.
I'm talking about manufacturers.
Retailers have a substantial initial markup (e.g. 50% on clothing), and a business model that allows for large markdowns (hence the 20%, 30%, 40% off sales). And after a jacket is returned, they can put it back on the rack and sell it as new.
Apple has a smaller gross profit margin (around 25% for MacBooks) and cannot resell the returned machine as new. With the discount that it has to offer on refurbished machines, plus the labor to refurbish/repackage/restock, plus the credit card processing fee, its profit on reselling the returned machine would be pretty low (maybe 5-10%). Not such a sales success after all.
Would allowing consumers to try out a MacBook, change their mind, and freely return the machine really help Apple's business? It has probably studied this and concluded "no". It probably decided to allow some returns and draw the line at "custom" configurations because, well, you have to draw the line somewhere.
If Dell, H-P, Lenovo, etc all permitted consumers to freely return ill-chosen PCs, then you might conclude the economics favor such liberal return policies. AFAIK they don't.
If you want to buy a PC with no-question-asked return privileges, look into buying from a Best Buy or similar retailer. They usually follow the more liberal "retailer" return policy.
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The mark-up on clothing is normally closer to 100%.
When a manufacturer sells directly to the public, they are in the retail business -- even if their margins are lower, they have to expect customer returns/exchanges to be part of their business.
"campbellcj" does imply that he would have been willing to pay a restocking fee too. With a restocking fee and a new purchase of another machine -- which Apple would make a profit on -- your economic argument from Apple's perspective loses strength.
We're also not really talking about "economics" on this particular sale -- we're talking about "marketing and product image."
This one transaction -- and dissatisfaction with an Apple customer service experience (whether right or wrong) -- has now been read by more than 100 people. I don't know how long the thread will last, but this one dissatisfied customer could now influence the potential purchasing decisions of hundreds or even thousands of people.
Your suggestion that adding RAM now makes it a "custom machine" and that Apple has to "draw the line somewhere" demonstrates a lack of understanding of the trends in customer service.
Current trends are all about
NOT "drawing lines." The goals of customer service are about having
thinking customer service representatives who will look at the circumstances of the
individual case they are dealing with and try to make a decision where the customer will be satisfied.
"campbellcj" was not satisfied. Apple can spend the millions of dollars on their very cute advertising campaigns, but if they "blow up" on the customer service attempts and do not try to work with customers for a satisfying conclusion, they are probably wasting their money on the advertising end.