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Hello Steve and List, Please make this one public, I want to
hear the answers. I am not a seller just a buyer, But as a buyer I would never
ask for a refund for that reason. If the meteorite was misrepresented, that
might be different. I know I have paid to much for meteorites before, But that
was my fault, not the sellers! I bet most people paid to much for their first
meteorites. Steve, unless you were misleading, do not do it!
Thanks, Tom
The proudest member of the IMCA 6168
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 7:59 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Dealer
Refunds
Hello List,
I have an ethical question I would like
to get some feedback on.
I just got a request from a customer that I
give him a refund for a specimen he purchased a month or so ago from me that
he wants to return now. His request was not based on the fact that the
specimen was damaged or otherwise in a different condition than described when
it was sold to him.
The request he felt was justified because he thinks
the specimen is now not worth as much as he paid for it bach then. He
seems to think he can get the same thing for a lower price elsewhere. So
I assume he wants the refund to go buy the other cheaper specimen to replace
the one he wants to give back to me.
While I do guarantee authenticity
and that the specimens are as described on all my specimens I sell, I do not
have a Walmart style lowest price guarantee, that the person cannot find a
similar specimen somewhere else in the present or in the future for a lower
price. If someone bought something and didn't like it for whatever
reason and wanted to return it promptly for a refund, that would be one thing
but this is another.
I find this refund request unreasonable and
bordering on unethical. A similar but opposite request would be if I
would contact buyers a month after I sold them a specimen and demanded that
they let me buy back a specimen I sold them a month earlier because new
information tells me that I sold it to them too cheap and that if I had it
back at the price I sold it, I could turn around and sell it to someone for an
even higher price. That request would be absurd.
As I recall,
there is just one dealer that offers a written lifetime guarantee to buy back
any specimens at the customers purchase prices. However, one would
expect that having a stated guarantee such as that would help such a dealer to
generate more than enough extra sales to cover the losses when a meteorite
genuinely drops in value and a few people decide to take that dealer up on his
offer. But without offering that incentive to make all the extra sales
along the way, a dealer could go bankrupt giving refunds on demand for price
fluctuation reasons.
I guess my question is, how would some of the
other dealers respond to such a request? Has anyone had such a request
nade if them? And for collectors out there, do you feel making such a
request (and expecting it to be fulfilled) is reasonable? Would a direct
purchase be different from an ebay purchase?
Steve
Arnold
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