Chile Forum

I thought it would be nice to open a thread on returning things (or not being able to return things) in Chile. What stores have you had luck returning things, and what have they accepted?

This came to mind because I just got burned by Paris for 70,000 pesos printer. They told us that once we use it, we could no longer return it. How am I suppose to know a printer works until I use it?

I had a similar issue last year with Ripley. 3 weeks after purchasing a hard drive, it developed the click of death. Went in and they told me that if I did not return it within 10 days of purchase I could not exchange it. They said they could examine it. Turns out the kid in the tech department had no tools at all to check a hard drive, and thus I must be making it up that there was something wrong with the drive because windows Vista could read it just fine (just a regular mount, no scan for problems or other diagnostic tools). The only other option they gave me was to send it back to the manufacture, which the rep only comes to Temuco every 30 days.

So far, the assumption I operate on is that when I buy it in Chile it is disposable. If it does not work, don't expect any returns. I have rather nice shelf full of junk computer parts bought in Chile.

My pareja managed to exchange an electric coffee maker she bought for me as a gift that was discovered to be defective/broken when the box was opened. I believe it may have been Ripley but she is in Santiago at the moment so I will need to ask later.

admin wrote:I thought it would be nice to open a thread on returning things (or not being able to return things) in Chile. What stores have you had luck returning things, and what have they accepted?

This came to mind because I just got burned by Paris for 70,000 pesos printer. They told us that once we use it, we could no longer return it. How am I suppose to know a printer works until I use it?

I had to buy a printer last year and it was faulty.. the black ink cartridge was empty!.. I took it back all opened and 'used'.. they tried to tell me that they would not accept it because it was used.. I suggested that perhaps the printer itself was not faulty but just that the ink cartridge was empty.. they put in a new cartridge and turns out the printer was faulty... much to their surprise... so they had no option but to exchange the printer.. mind you it was the day after I had bought the printer.. later on when I bought a replacement cartridge from Ripley for said printer I got an empty cartridge but they would not exchange or refund it under any circumstance.. needless to say I dont shop at Ripley.. I did buy another cartridge from Lider and returned the faulty one I bought from Ripley.. they exchanged it no worries...

As its always stated here.. all depends on the person that attends you.. cos if you speak to 5 different people you will always get 5 different answers and solutions to your problems.. Every time I get a clerk that wont solve my problem to my satisfaction I ask to speak to someone else.. until I reach a manager and if at the end of it all I am still not satisfied.. well I simply dont buy from that company... Ripley isnt the only company in Chile.. they are on my black list

Lider seems to be the best at refunding/exchanging in my experience as I have returned many things and managed to get refunds and exchanges.. not always with such ease but the end result has always been the same..

A month ago, or so, it was possible to buy a bottle of wine for $999.00 (the normal price was from 1500 to 2000) at several 'Santa Isabels' in Vina.

On two separate occasions in the past month I checked my bills, and the first bill I was charged 1299 for a bottle which should have been 999. The second time, at another 'Santa Isabel', I was charged 1699.

Both times I requested to either refund the money or just bill me 999, as per their own price labels.

The first time I brought the $999.00 price label to the check-out desk, and the cashier took it and went somewhere, then she returned with another label in her hand showing 1299. Eventually, they refunded the money, but it took about 20 minutes and some paperwork, and they even needed my passport.

The second time, at another 'Santa Isabel', I again brought their $999.00 price label to the check-out, the cashier went somewhere and returned with another lady, they discussed something, and after about 5 minutes they decided to bill me 999 (i.e. refunded the $700 peso difference).

So please take a moment to check your 'Santa Isabel' bill.

I find pricing policies in Chile to be lacking in keeping the supermarkets honest.. back home if something is scanned at a different price to the one displayed in the shop then the customer gets that item for free and any other items at the ticketed price.. in Chile you may find one or more locations for an item inside the shop and all may have different prices to what is actually being scanned at the register..
ALWAYS check receipts and never leave the store until its is all resolved.. I am not aware of any of the consumer rights here but I do think that good business practice would suggest a customer leaves happy... then again this is Chile and business practices here are quite unique...

I totally agreed that returning stuff in Chile is a royal pain in the "back", there is however a resource that few people use but is getting more popular because of all the complains, check the following link:

http://www.sernac.cl/

It belongs to the Servicio Nacional al Consumidor, most stores will bend over backwards not to be contacted by that service.

Thanks Hughjb!

Just a quick look at the "Manual del Consumidor" and i feel empowered to base my complaints and insist on my rights.. Information is power people!

http://www.sernac.cl/leyes/manual/manual_bn.pdf

It seems to me this year in February there was a lot of local press on a new law for consumers, warnings about shopping around for school uniforms and supplies, and a TVN special on the hassle of returning an item. We almost called TVN. Lisa bought several pairs of standard issue uniform navy blue/black? school pants for our daughter from Corona in downtown Puerto Montt. Didn't fit. We're in town a couple days later, went to the same store, bought two in the next size up, and we were off the weekend along the Carerra Austral. Paid cash. Saved receipts all around. We returned home on Sunday, went to town on Tuesday, and Lisa had the original smaller sized tagged pants, receipts + the receipt from the size larger purchase. We've learned to anticipate that documents we didnt' think are important are actually quite important, and true enough, both receipts played a role in the solution. We then talk to someone on the sales floor who indicates returns are handled by X clerk, but X clerk refers us to Y clerk, who, because we simply want the $14,000 pesos back vs. store credit, sends us to Z manager, who wouldn't listen to Lisa at all - until she produced the second receipt and made a comment about store loyalty, etc. Even that didn't help much but it at least stopped the automatic dismissal. I believe the manager thought twice about repeat business, which is not something I see everyday. They couldn't address her issue, kept the pants, gave her the receipt back and nothing to document they had the pants, said the computers were down and to check back in a couple days. A couple days later on our trip to town we stop by - Murphy, as in Murphy's Law - was at work. First, do you remember us? Then, can I see your receipt, then that manager isn't here, then the computer that communicates with Santiago won't work, then, where are the pants, staff X, Y, and Z aren't here right now, then please come back later. Wash, rinse, repeat. It happened a couple more times, and remember we're rural, so trips to town aren't everyday. After two weeks, a TVN special program aired on return hassles, and most of the Corona staff were coming to recognize us on site, the finally said they could issue a new receipt with only the pants on it, cancel it, and refund - why were the school socks we kept important? I still don't understand but after all that Lisa had $14,000 pesos in her hands. Of course I calculated cost/benefit and thought store credit = I'm on my way, but she really wanted to see how they would resolve it. I was curious too, and thought it might make a fun article for the Patagonia Times or Santiago Times. They gave us a refund, but there is always next year

Putenio wrote:Didn't fit.

What a pleasure it was returning a small pan (with a capacity of about 1½ litres) at an IKEA store in Europe using exactly the same reason:

- Anything wrong with it?
- Yeah. It didn't fit.
- Oh, I understand, Sir...

Manual del Consumidor wrote:Cuando no le gustó el producto o, por ejemplo, le quedo mal la talla. Algunas empresas ofrecen una garantía voluntaria que complementan la garantía legal. Ejemplo: El plazo de 10 días para arrepentirse de la compra que otorgan algunas tiendas o la entrega de reparación gratuita durante un año.

So if Corona had/has this 10 day refund policy then you would have been within your rights to demand a refund.. as it says on the "manual del consumidor' (http://www.sernac.cl/leyes/manual/manual_bn.pdf) if they have state such a policy then they must abide by it.. hence why Lider is such a great place to return things to as they have this policy...

tonyakaserg wrote:So if Corona had/has this 10 day refund policy then you would have been within your rights to demand a refund.. as it says on the "manual del consumidor' (http://www.sernac.cl/leyes/manual/manual_bn.pdf) if they have state such a policy then they must abide by it.. hence why Lider is such a great place to return things to as they have this policy...

Exactly, while we were well within rights to request a refund the application of policy was an adventure.

I believe that law had just been passed and there was a customer education campaign in the popular media, but regardless of national law the individual interpretation is often far from law or stated policy. As it's been stated previously concerning legalizing documents or the list of documents required for X or Y transaction, adoption, etc., while there may be a published list or "standard policy" there is a wide range of intepretation at the individual level, public or private institutions. Having patience with that individual intepretation is often a key to being successful.

Lider in PM has some advantages but it is on the north side of town - and Sodimac is next door to it so the truck always seems to go home full

Just reading the Diario Austral and found this article
http://www.australtemuco.cl/prontus4_no ... 915&pag=13
It talks about how Chile is changing in how the consumer deals with bad service/products.. unlike in the years gone by where Chileans where either too embarrassed to exercise their rights or simply lacked the confident to demand these rights things are changing with websites such as http://www.reclamos.cl , www[dot]exige.cl and http://www.atinachile.cl where bad service/product providers are reported.. the report says that nowadays 82% of consumers are prepared to make a claim and 62% will 'punish' the company by not shopping there anymore.. looks like things may eventually change here but I believe Chile is still years if not a decade from reaching any sort of global level of customer service (JMO)... bring on the change!

As a rule merchants in Chile are all smiles when they are selling something yet is a whole other story if you try to take back merchandise, they put on they "cara de palo" (ugly face).

By merchants I mean small stores, big department stores and even banks that issue credit cards, and they have mount big lobbying efforts to keep that way.

So it was a rare victory for consumers when last year the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a lady who's credit card was stolen and even though she notified the bank of her lost, the bank try to make her liable for the purchases that were charge to her card (or at least that was my understanding), low and behold she won the case which in the states would not have been a big deal and never made to the Supreme Court, but as it turns out it was a landmark decision in Chile.

Last January I believe that Dell computers had an ad for a full blown laptop for a very low price and a whole bunch of people purchased the machines, Dell tried to back away from the deal but at the end they had to honored.

In other words consumer protection is not big in Chile but slowly but surely inroads are being made.