Commodity Examination: Friend or Enemy of the Seller?

The buyers, trying to return the goods, really like to scare the sellers: “I will contact the organization for the protection of consumer rights! I’ll do an examination! ”For some sellers, these threats act like a boa constrictor for a rabbit, and money for the goods quickly returns without aleatherg for details. But you should not be afraid of expertise, because it exists precisely to decide who is right in a dispute about the quality of shoes - the buyer or the seller. Everything you need to know about merchandising expertise, says expert Angelica Novitskaya.

Angelica Novitskaya - expert merchandiser of non-food products in an independent expert organization “Laboratory of expert research”.
Laboratory of Expert Research - an independent expert organization that provides a full range of services in the field of conducting independent examinations and valuation activities. The company has been operating in the market since 2006 of the year. Two offices are currently open in Moscow and representative offices in St. Petersburg and Omsk.

www.expertizalab.ru

In general terms

Examination appears in the field of view of the owner of a shoe store when it becomes necessary to resolve a controversial situation between the seller and the buyer about the quality of the goods. Most often, this situation begins with the fact that the buyer identifies a defect in the shoes he purchased and comes to the store to return it to the seller. Sometimes an oral account of what happened to the shoes is enough. But in most stores, buyers are asked to make a written complaint, for which the seller has 10 days to review. During this time, the store must make a decision, and if the situation seems to be controversial, then with the consent of the buyer it is necessary to conduct an independent examination. All costs of the examination should be borne by the seller. The buyer has the right to be present during the examination.

Returning new, unused boots or boots is easy. This can be done without explaining the reason within 14 days, not counting the day of purchase, if the presentation and consumer properties of the goods, factory labels and packaging (box) are preserved. To return, you must have a passport and a cashier's check confirming payment for the goods. But in case of a defect, the buyer has the right to file a claim with the seller within two years from the date of purchase or during the warranty period if it exceeds two years. It should be remembered that the absence of a cash or sales receipt is not a reason for refusing the buyer to return or exchange the goods.

If the consumer is wrong, then he must reimburse the store for research costs. If the seller simply refused to return the money and did not offer any steps to solve the problem, then the buyer can conduct an examination at his own expense.

How is the examination

The purpose of the examination is to identify whether the product is of good quality and whether the defect is operational or operational. To conduct an examination, the object of research itself, that is, shoes, is first of all necessary. For examination, shoes must be brought clean, preferably in the individual box in which they were purchased.

Examination is of two types. The first is organoleptic examination, when the quality of the goods is established with the help of the senses (vision, smell, etc.) for compliance with GOSTs and regulatory documents. When conducting an organoleptic examination, various tools are used, for example, a ruler, microscope or magnifier. Depending on the nature of the defect, a laboratory test may be necessary, which is the second type of examination. In the laboratory, shoes are tested on special machines, for example, the material of the upper and the lining are tested for breaking, soles and heels - for kink. As for the duration of the examination, it depends on the complexity of the study. For example, in our company, an organoleptic examination can take from 2 hours to a week, and if laboratory testing is necessary, then the period is extended to two weeks.

What happens after

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After the examination, the buyer receives an expert opinion and a cashier's check confirming the fact of payment and the cost of the study. If it is revealed that the defect is a manufacturing one, then with these papers the buyer goes to the store. According to the law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, the buyer has the right to several options for the development of events: to replace the product with a similar or different one with recalculation of the price; to reduce the price in proportion to the defect; for immediate gratuitous elimination of defects in the goods or covering the costs of their elimination; to return the amount paid for the goods.

If one of the parties does not agree with the results, then she can go to court. In practice, it rarely comes to court, but not because of the indecision of the buyers, but because of the unavailability of the store itself, because the seller must pay all legal costs.

If a manufacturing defect is detected, the seller may make a claim to the manufacturer based on an expert opinion. The manufacturer must reimburse the store all the costs associated with the examination, and take back the goods of inadequate quality.

It often happens that customers spoil the product unknowingly, for example, they put on leather-soled shoes in the rain, which leads to swelling and deformation of the sole, or they use demi-season shoes in the winter, which violates the operating conditions. In such cases, the examination always proves that the buyer is wrong, so do not treat this procedure as a deliberately unprofitable case for the seller.

Side cut next to this block

Not only leather soles are subject to deformations that occur during socks. Read about the features of various materials of soles and recommendations for their operation in the article by process engineer Igor Okorokov, published on ... page of this issue.

Some stores offer customers to contact a specific expert company for examination. As a rule, this does not mean that there is a conspiracy between the seller and the research organization to solve all the problems that arise in favor of the store. Most likely, between these parties there is simply an agreement on the price of the examination, depending on the number of studies performed. Such partnerships are practiced by large retailers with large sales volumes and, accordingly, a greater number of defective samples. But, of course, it is impossible to answer for everyone, because there are dishonest experts.