Just to give a little insight as I was a district, and store manager for the largest consumer electronics retailer in North America in my previous life and the amount of money that is lost in retail business do to open box returns/exchanges on merchandise is significant. Restocking fees don’t even come close to making up for it.
Also take into account profit margins are not what they used to be across many tech, audio, entertainment technology categories do to the amount of online retailers in the space now.
Of course customers should be afforded a return policy in most cases, however let’s be clear different sized companies have different operating models, profit levels, overhead, and tax structures. If a person doesn’t like a business’s return policy there is usually a pretty simple solution IMO, don’t shop there.
Nothing wrong with voicing ones opinion to help change your favorite retailer but it’s important we all remember the top priorities of any business IMO should be Profitability and providing a world class shopping experience.
However if the business can’t be profitable then they will go out of business and be unable to provide a world class shopping experience at all.
So I think there is usually an answer in most situations and cases that is a collaborative effort on the part of the customer and the business to find the best solution for both parties involved so each side can protect their interests. I have found that simply reaching out to a customer and having a one to one talk in my previous life in consumer electronics retail or reaching out to a business I shop with now to reach a solution is usually the best course of action rather than doing it in a public way. Food for thought
Yea and Outlaw, Emotiva and hand made headphones from Ollo, Fischer and Kennerton allow a direct to consumer purchase with trial periods with no restocking fee if returned in resell-able condition. To buy or not to buy- let the consumer decide. Im really finished debating it. I wish you all great shopping in the future
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Yeezus! I take off for 24hrs, and still at it huh… well, I think this has been beaten to a pulp at this point… let’s all give it a rest and move to a different topic now
So this afternoon I got a text message from USPS that a package (Bifrost 2) was delivered at my neighbours.
I get home all happy and excited, neighbours gone, probably for the rest of the weekend as usual. Normally they’d just drop the package off in our hallway since they have the keys to my home, so I don’t know if they actually delivered it at my neighbours or not.
Check my texts, USPS message vanished. Disappeared.
I check online track & trace, but USPS only keeps track of updates within USA borders (I live in Europe).
Noone to ask for an update due to USA having a national holiday, and my local postal office is closed till Tuesday.
I was hyped up for having a Schiitty night, which now turned out to be an ordinary shitty night instead. Just needed to get that off my chest.
Why is it that I can order a replacement pressure cooker ring at 11 PM on Friday and have it delivered before noon on Sunday? But audio equipment seems to take 10 days to two weeks? Can it be that pressure cooker rings are essential equipment in the Covid-19 world?
You can also order audio equipment on a Friday at 11PM and have it by Sunday, as long as that audio equipment is some unknown brand of TWS earphones or it has flashing RGB lights.
Not really a complaint. But I’d like to complain. I’ve been Mr. Setup boy all day today. Wanted to try the Hive e-stats. So that meant finally cleaning up the workstation area. Put the old UPS with the new battery back where it should be. Cleaned dust bunnies from under everything. Damp wiped computers, screens, hubs, router, etc. Unboxed Bifrost 2. I declined doing an unboxing, you have all seen this Schiit before. Crawled around high and low with hand-held light, finding every last USB port, Ethernet port and what have you. Updated TIDAL and ROON.
Had supper.
Then, activated my wife’s new iPhone 11 Pro and transferred stuff from her old cracked iPhone 6. I’m done… Until tomorrow, when it’ll be time to do bluetooth pairing with her car.
Well I just weaned myself off of them. Original tires were run-flat. Then I went to Bridgestone Drive-Guards - a much nicer tire than the original but freaking expensive. And when I had issues, I always got towed because it was more than 50 miles. Plus I don’t really like the idea of driving on flat tires. So I’ve now got tires I like - better traction, snow and wet handling, better tread life, and if I get a blowout, I’ll get towed. No spare in my hybrid - battery space takes up trunk space.
Tell me about it, in the last 12 years I’ve replaced 6 sets (4 tires) of run-flats, and associated rims 3 times. Damn winter pot-holes in the DC Metro area!
One would learn after the first 1-2 times, and not buy another car with run-flats. Nope, I am a dumb-ass.
I usually get over 4 years per tire set and no rim damage. Got a 2011 beater with low miles that still has original tires in good shape. Got to worry more about salt usage in the winter in Ontario - the pavement mix up here might be a bit more resistant to temp changes. Plus potholes are usually fixed within a reasonable time frame when the temps warn up. Both vehicles run summer and snows; I dont think there is such a thing as all season tires, at least nothing that will resist winters up here, maybe in more moderate climates.
Oh, I should have added they are not all season but performance tires. Again, self-inflicted waste as when they are running optimally during non-winter months it is a great driving experience on the highways, or the GW Parkway.
Now it does not snow much here, not like it does up in your neck of the woods, or my previous home of Ohio. They tend to over react and dump excess salt during dusting of snowfall, which tears up the tarmac. Then they don’t bother fixing them all until about this time of the year. I’m convinced it’s all a scam, and as taxpayers we are getting ripped off, I’ll save that rant for another day.
I did have a second car when I first moved here for winter months, however with registration, taxes, insurance, and extra parking was not logical. So the tire expense has saved me money in that regard.
That’s an insane number. I hope you buy road hazard insurance on them. Over the years, I’ve seen the progress from a standard 80 aspect ratio tire to having most new cars come with 75 or 70 aspect ratio tires. As cars got sportier, or marketing made them seem so, the wheels got bigger and inches of rubber from rim to perimeter smaller.
My 1995 Impala SS had 50 series tires, as did my 2012 Infiniti M35h. The 2013 Infiniti Q50s has 40 series. While the handling may get better, the cost and vulnerability to road hazard gets worse. I go with grand touring and not “performance” because I’ll never use the performance. No Tokyo drift racing for me.
Vehicles with 60 or 70 series tires have far fewer road issues, and the wheels are far better protected.
There’s a road I go down every day, “Columbia Ave” aka route 462, part of the famous “Lincoln Highway”. It’s typical urban/suburban 5 lane, roughly parallel to US 30. They just completed tearing up a half mile stretch lengthwise, doing something about 8 - 15 ft down, then refilling and eventually properly paving it over. Less than TWO WEEKS later, they are now tearing up the new pavement to make some horizontal trenches for who knows what reason. The patches they make on the 4 foot wide trenches will certainly not be equal quality.
There is a discontinuity between NJ and PA. Driving from NJ on interstate about a year ago, I blew out one of those Bridgestone Run Flats, as we crossed the state line and climbed the unmarked 2 inch step created in the road by the difference in paving height. In traffic. At about 70 MPH.
Above all else, stick to old school (ideally 80 aspect or thicker) tires if you have a crossover or 4x4. These vehicles are made for rough conditions and off road use, so the suspension isn’t designed for stiff sports car tires. They’ll ride and perform poorly – skinny tires just aren’t meant for snow, ice, sand, dirt, mud, or rocks.
[I’m sick of seeing urban stylish Jeep Wrangers with huge chrome wheels.]
DC puts 3x to 10x the salt down as Chicago. I’ve seen people in power criticize the salt crew for too little salt, when they didn’t understand salt is ineffective below 26 degrees or so. Adding salt merely moved the ice around into slicker and flatter sheets. Ignorant but highly confident (not news in DC).
Chicago also has a fleet of probably 1,000 or more neighborhood ‘rusty old truck snow plows’ that clean up area roads as the snow falls.
DC will declare weather days for 1" of snow or less. They like a fragile transit system to maximize the number of stay-at-home days, so they don’t change it.
for thought 
Just needed to get that off my chest.