Returns

The other week we broke the hinges on our toilet seat, a seat made by a US corporation by the name of Bemis. We liked the seat and wanted to replace like for like and for once, despite the fact that the broken seat was several years old, it turned out that we could do this.

One might think that with thousands if not millions of the things being sold in this country each year, it would be easy enough to buy one from a shop, maybe Homebase, but in the event Amazon seemed to have the better offering, including natty diagrams which convinced one that one was looking at the right thing. So click to purchase and a few emails and a few days later the thing turns up, nicely wrapped up in a sturdy cardboard box.

A flat pack sort of thing complete with pictorial instructions which were supposed to work in any one of the scores of countries in which the seats were sold - and a plastic bag full of cunning flatpack fittings. However, it was clear that of the dozen or so items that should have been in the bag, one was missing, a cunning white plastic washer, cost of manufacture probably a penny or so.

Off to Amazon to see about the missing washer. Eventually I work out that the only option available is to send the thing back and get a new one. Presumably Amazon policy is return and replace with everything, no messing about with spare parts or phone calls. Which seemed a bit strong for a washer, but they probably know what they are at.

Instructions and labels printed off without problem. We had not thrown the original packaging away. So within hours, the seat complete with its missing washer had been deposited with the newsagent up the road which handled Amazon returns (to somewhere in Scotland).

Within days the replacement seat, with a complete set of fittings, had been delivered and installed. Installation taking maybe 10 minutes, most of which was getting to grips with the instructions.

All that remains to do is to check my credit card statement and make sure that I have only been charged once. I would be surprised if I had been: in what must be dozens of purchases, Amazon have only made one mistake, the present one apart. And that was some years ago now.

We are only left wondering how people who do not have or do not get on with their computer manage. So much stuff now which is difficult otherwise.

PS: perhaps a sign of improving times that when I visited our library a couple of days ago, mid morning, there were a couple of computers available (from a total of twenty or thirty). A couple of years ago I often had to wait, but I guess now that even our students and other indigents have access at home or even on the move.

Reference 1: http://www.bemismfg.com/bathroom-products/.