Careful! Media Markt refuses to return the money to its customers

The customer is always right, right? It all depends in the end on the company that makes the sale. While there are chains that boast of returning their items for the simple fact that the buyer is not satisfied, the German chain Media Markt has decided to tighten the nuts even more on its potential customers to avoid cases of return.

“If the product is defective, we will change it within seven days, but remember that it must not have been used and It has to come in its original packaging and with all unopened accessories”. That is what they answer in Media Markt when asked about the return policy and what for a few weeks has even been included in the purchase receipts.

7 days to change the product

The term to change an item has been reduced from 15 to 7 days and, the worst thing, in theory, is that in order to make a change, the product must be closed and fully packaged, making it difficult to check its status. The policy also varies from one store to another, as this newspaper has verified. Although in a minority they do assure to return the money, in others they reject it emphatically.

“The instructions that they have given us from above is that the money is not returned and that what we must do is give a gift card or another similar product,” they say from the customer service department of one of the stores in Madrid. “In no case will we refund your money, not even if the product is in poor condition. We will only give you a gift card,” they say in an establishment in Alicante.

The company admits mistakes

The company insists that “there must be an error and we are trying to correct it, because our instructions must have been misinterpreted, since the law requires us to refund the money if the client so wishes.” Of course, a spokesman for the group acknowledges that “what is intended to be avoided is an abuse in the returns”, because, according to him, “we are not a company to rent items and then return them”.

As elEconomista published on March 20, consumer organizations are receiving an avalanche of complaints and claims against companies for problems in changing purchased items that present problems.

Media Markt denies, on the other hand, having more claims than usual in the distribution sector, although it does also admit that it has received numerous requests for information in recent days. “We are answering all the questions that have been asked before the change in the return policy,” says the company.

Facua, the Federation of Consumers in Action, insists that “Dozens of complaints have been filed in practically all the autonomous communitiesbecause the German group breaks the regulations and instead of attending to the claims of customers who have purchased a defective product, it sends them over and over again to the manufacturer”.

reprehensible practices

Along the same lines, Pedro Varela, vice-president of the Consumers Union of Spain, assures that “Media Markt has been the first company that has entered the list of Companies with Reprehensible Practiceswhich we have just launched”.

Varela describes the attitude of the German store chain of “real violation of consumer rights” and insists that “its advertising aggressiveness announcing the lowest prices on the market does not correspond to reality.”

The question that many consumers are asking now is: will Media Markt keep its commercial motto Because I am not stupid or will it change it? Time will tell.