I think this sort of support has to be good because your alternative is to return it to the store, and this costs them way more.
In the past few years, I’ve noticed a proliferation of material included in the box that attempts to preempt this. “Don’t return this to the store! Call us at 1-800-WHAT-EVER for help.”
Where the customer’s remedy isn’t so easy and costly for the business, it’s much more hit or miss.
An incentive may be process improvement, combined with competitive products.
Faulty items returned to the store may or may not be returned to the manufacturer. In trying to suss out what went wrong, having the actual failed hardware in hand is useful.
And certain sectors (especially manufacturing) face numerous other competitors. A few bad reviews can have a large impact on purchases.
The defect rate for a lot
Of big box stores is something like 1:100000. Which seems really low but when you move millions/year it can be volumes. And once you reach a threshold they can cancel and even clawback money.
1:100000? That's a nonsense number because as a consumer we care about failures. A single purchase of a lemon good, and the observed failure rate for an individual consumer will be far far less. I haven't purchased 100000 items, and I have observed multiple failures in goods.
Also as a consumer, I would never notice the difference between 1:1000 and 1:100000000 (non-safety related small goods).
I’m just remembering what I heard from a documentary about Walmart. A company, like Rubbermaid, had a contract with Walmart to build millions of widgets. But they wanted it at a certain lower price and it had to meet contractual requirements. Someone in management was lamenting how the defect rate was too low and they might not make revenue. In the end it worked out, they bought new machines with better tolerances. Until Walmart came back and asked for an even lower price...
HD probably doesn’t have anyone returning their garden soil or electric wire because it didn’t work, but will have more returns on electromechanical appliances.
In the past few years, I’ve noticed a proliferation of material included in the box that attempts to preempt this. “Don’t return this to the store! Call us at 1-800-WHAT-EVER for help.”
Where the customer’s remedy isn’t so easy and costly for the business, it’s much more hit or miss.