Under what conditions would you buy from a distributor that did not accept returns?
Would the following conditions help in your decision?
- The manufacturer has a solid reputation and accepts returns.
- The distributor has a solid reputation of selling undamaged goods.
What other factors might play into your decision to buy or not buy from a distributor that doesn’t accept returns?
Provide a small annual return allowance. Maybe 10% and they have to buy the same value as the return.
Our products are made to order and often custom for the client, so we don’t accept exchanges or returns. Now if something is damaged in transit, that’s another story altogether. We haven’t had any issues with this over the last 10 years.
The whole point of a distributor and their markup is to add value. If I have to deal with the manufacturer directly for defective items, why am I paying a markup to the distributor? What value are they adding to the product to justify their markup?