"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...


Hell, that might not be a bad idea. I once bought a Commodore 64, at a
local K-Mart (Similar store), and it stopped working. I packed it up and
returned it. They gave me an exchange for a new one. No customer support
hassle. No waiting for repairs. No haggling for prices.

Stores like K-Mart and Wal Mart will accept returns on just about
anything if you keep the receipt.

Dave


That won't last long. Customers often returned perfectly good merchandise
because there was nobody in the store who could assure that they were buying
the right thing for their needs. This is half of the problem. The other half
is that the things being returned are often cosmetically damaged or missing
parts, manuals, etc, which makes them undesirable to the next customer. So,
they're returned to the manufacturer, who decides, after enough punishment,
that it's simply not worth doing business with Wal Mart if they have to
triple the size of their repack/refurbish staff.

You pay for this in the end.

Stores like Best Buy check that all the parts are there and then repackage
the item to sell as "Open Item"...usually at huge savings to the consumer.
I bought a Toshiba E740 pocket pc for $125 less than the same exact model in
a new box. Same warranty, etc. It has WiFi internet capability and I
figure the last guy that bought it probably didn't realize that WiFi means
you still need a router hooked up to a broadband connection.




"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...


Hell, that might not be a bad idea. I once bought a Commodore 64, at a
local K-Mart (Similar store), and it stopped working. I packed it up and
returned it. They gave me an exchange for a new one. No customer support
hassle. No waiting for repairs. No haggling for prices.

Stores like K-Mart and Wal Mart will accept returns on just about
anything if you keep the receipt.

Dave


That won't last long. Customers often returned perfectly good merchandise
because there was nobody in the store who could assure that they were
buying
the right thing for their needs. This is half of the problem. The other
half
is that the things being returned are often cosmetically damaged or
missing
parts, manuals, etc, which makes them undesirable to the next customer.
So,
they're returned to the manufacturer, who decides, after enough
punishment,
that it's simply not worth doing business with Wal Mart if they have to
triple the size of their repack/refurbish staff.

You pay for this in the end.