Consumer protection legislation question
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
to a wedding at the weekend, but even before the party started, the
stitching of the hem started falling out,in at least three places!
To cut a long story short, I told her to take it back to the shop she
bought it and request they fix it (a standard obligation for shops
under UK law, for instance) but she said something about how they'd
tell her she should have checked properly before buying, etc, etc.
What does Japanese law say about this kind of issue? I find it
difficult to believe that it would be "cave emptor" as my BYJW
implied.
Ken
John W.
and her angry gagin husband has to pay them a visit!
If it was bought at, say, Gap or a store like that, I'd probably try to
return it and they'd probably accept; not sure if they have to for any
legal reason, but that's just good customer service, and we all know
that Japan has the best customer service in the world....
John W.
Ryan Ginstrom
"Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson" <ken_ni...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6afefaef.03082...@posting.google.com...
> To cut a long story short, I told her to take it back to the shop she
> bought it and request they fix it (a standard obligation for shops
> under UK law, for instance) but she said something about how they'd
> tell her she should have checked properly before buying, etc, etc.
Although I am not sure of what the law says, I am pretty sure you have a
right to return defective merchandise. If the dress were bought used, it
might be another story. I suspect your wife's reticence to be based more on
a personal aversion to confrontations of this sort than what the law
actually says.
--
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom
Rindler Sigurd
> difficult to believe that it would be "cave emptor" as my BYJW
> implied.
It's too expensive to take a lawyer, but there are other ways to deal with
it.
I was turned down a couple of times, but showing ones teeth and getting
noisy does the trick. (Works very well in Japanese banks!)
1) The salesman/lady tells me that "sold as seen" has to be accepted: Ask
for the store manager. In case of reluctance, get noisy! It works wonders
since the manager might hear it and rush to the scene before being told...
Just make sure that it is indeed the store manager and not some colleague
who rushes for help.
2) If this one doesn't work, and no higher god can be reached, write a
registered letter to the head of the company and ask - if anything should
fail - whether he objects to air your grievances at length by showing the
evidence to the press, and discuss it at NIFTY and in various newsgroups on
the Japanese Internet!
This hint was given to me by a Japanese friend who happens to be a lawyer.
All you have to do is not accusing the other party of anything that can be
used against you. Your determination and whining in conjunction with the
company's name is usually enough to make them react.
I have usually done that with certain shops in Akihabara, but also got the
immediate ear by Sanyo and Sony after having been trashed by a low-level
employee. No problem during the past 8 years, however.
Never take a "no", "does not work or exist", etc., at face value! The soft
approach is the right thing to do, but as soon as you feel that stubbornness
sets in, present your full set of tools to remedy the problem. It saves a
lot of running and writing.
Sigi
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John Yamamoto-Wilson
We have had goods we wanted to return on several occasions, sometimes
because we spotted a flaw and sometimes just because we had second thoughts
about them after getting them home.
It's usually my wife who does the shopping, and what she does in cases like
this is telephone the store in advance. She has done this on occasions when
there is no flaw at all in the goods as such, she has done it on occasions
when she has lost the receipt proving the goods came from that store, and I
have done it myself on an occasion when the goods were bought months before
(that was when I bought some fittings for some DIY work that were the wrong
size and I'd set them aside and forgotten about them; I didn't have a
receipt, either).
In all cases we have got a full money-back return without problem. You might
have to register surprise if you meet with initial reluctance, or enquire as
to whether the person you are speaking to has the necessary authority, or
whatever, but most times that isn't necessary. You should always get the
name of the representative (tantousha) who's dealing with your request as
early in the conversation as possible (ask with icy politeness if they're
being unhelpful!); that person will then move heaven and earth to sort the
situation out in a way that will not lead to his or her name being brought
up in a customer complaint. And, of course, you should cite the tantousha's
name when you actually go to take the goods back.
I don't know what the law says, but I've never had any occasion to have to
try and find out; we've had total satisfaction every time.
Oh, I do recall that the first time it happened my wife was somewhat
reluctant to telephone, but she's a dab hand at it now!
mtfe...@netscape.net
> What does Japanese law say about this kind of issue? I find it
> difficult to believe that it would be "cave emptor" as my BYJW
> implied.
Well, it wasn't a dress, but I returned something once, with relatively
little problem. I bought decent boom box (couldn't fit a real stereo in
my "mansion") and when I got it home, the CD player didn't work. Took
it back to the store, explained the situation, and asked for another. First,
they tested it themselves (of course; a foreigner cannot be expected to push
the "CD" button that's labelled in English.) They then asked me to read
the directions; I told them I had, and read the instructions to them (which
seemed to surprise them.) They then took the book, and read the instructions
themselves (mysteriously, the words didn't change in that time. Nor did the
results.) Finally, they said they'd exchange it, but it would take 4 days for
them to get the replacement. No problem, I said; give me my money back for
those four days. At that point, the manager, no doubt noticing that other
potential customers were paying close attention to a conversation involving
1) a foreigner and 2) the possibility of defective merchandise (not to mention
3) the possibility of having to RETURN money) came rushing over and offered
to exchange it for some other model. I couldn't find anything I liked, so
I offered to take the floor model of the same boom box in exchange for a 10%
discount and 2 blank tapes. He agreed, and everyone went away as happy as
they could, under the circumstances.
Mike
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
"John Yamamoto-Wilson" <jo...@rarebooksinjapan.com> wrote in message news:<biei5a$8edog$1...@ID-169501.news.uni-berlin.de>...
>
> Oh, I do recall that the first time it happened my wife was somewhat
> reluctant to telephone, but she's a dab hand at it now!
Now that I think about it, if the situations were reversed I'm sure
she'd be pestering me non-stop to phone up the company. We'll be going
into Osaka this weekend, so either singly or together I'll go to the
shop to complain.
Ken
John Yamamoto-Wilson
> Now that I think about it, if the situations were reversed I'm sure
> she'd be pestering me non-stop to phone up the company. We'll be going
> into Osaka this weekend, so either singly or together I'll go to the
> shop to complain.
Phone 'em first - that always works a treat. I don't know how good your
Japanese is, but in my experience if you can arrive with the name of someone
you've talked to on the phone that really smoothes things over.
Is your wife's mother of the older generation that had to struggle (my
mother-in-law is), or a child of the bubble generation? If the latter, your
wife my have been brought up in a less hard-headed way. My wife grew up in
the bubble, but basically her family has always been very hard-headed, and
it didn't take much for me to get her to revert to type!
I think, in the clothes industry in particular, stores are actually
*grateful* when customers report shoddy workmanship. Japan being what it is,
there are probably a dozen people who *don't* say anything for every one
that does, but don't believe that dozen just forgive and forget. In my
experience (I keep saying that - it's just to provoke Eric, in the hope that
he'll spring some objective "truth" on me!) Japanese people don't generally
forgive and don't generally forget. They're more likely to make a point of
never going to that store again, and what's more they'll warn their friends
off. The store loses out hands down.
So the people who complain are like gold dust. The store will do what it can
to keep your custom, to make sure you don't bad-mouth them to others and,
above all, to pitch into the manufacturers and tell them they won't continue
ordering from them unless they raise their standards.
I'd be most surprised if you don't get your money back.