BEGIN RANT

I ordered a transportable gas cylinder from a reputed chemicals/lab supplier (hint: it has acquired a leading chromatography company based in State College.) I usually order stuff from them because their website is more user friendly than their competiton, albeit their prices are costlier. I ended up not using it for my research and tried contacting them to see if I could return it. Their argument was that

  1. They could not return anything costing less than 200 $.
  2. Their reputed catalog (which serves a better purpose as a mini pillow) had this policy in the front pages.
  3. Their online ordering form has this information.

I told the customer service rep that I look up ordering information online, write the product # and price on a purchase order and get it processed through our accounts staff at my workplace. She was initially adamant that no returns below 200 $ were possible. Even in those cases, there would be a 20% restocking fee. I did not use their catalog (they do not stipulate that one needs to), or personally go through their online ordering system. When I tried to make her aware of this, after 20 minutes, the customer service rep asked me for the order # and after conferring with her boss, offered me a 30% refund on my unused product. I would still have to pay S&H on this. (Another feature of this company is that it does not allow anyone to drop off/collect small transportable gas bottles (14 L) from their facility – for obvious safety reasons.) When I confronted her that the company did not want people returning things below 200 $, that is why I probably am getting a 30% refund, she told me yes in a tongue-of-cheek manner. This is when I decided that it was wise not to waste any more time with them about this.

The above example just shows to what extent people go to enforce arbitrary rules. The logic behind the return limit of 200 $ is beyond me, but it certainly seems that the company in question just wants to get rid of additional restocking and handling expenses. Given that these companies make decent profits by selling chemicals (mind you, this is one of the more pricier cos.) I do not understand all that goes behind the 200 $ limit for returns. (I do not think other large chemical/lab suppliers have a similar policy or atleast a similar limit for returns.)

END RANT