Product Sellers: Do You Mark Items For Warranty / Returns?

[Damage Inc.]

Hey guys. I'm considering strategies for marking products for warranty/return purposes. I'm wondering if/what other sellers are doing. My concerns are on 2 issues.

1: I've had a couple of returns recently on electronic items that are tough to test and could be tampered with or switched out. So far I've just been operating as though this is just a cost of doing business. The scammers are the minority, so I generally just play nice guy and take returns and write it off. I obviously don't want to become known as a pushover or a target for scams though.

2: I'm beginning to offer a warranty on certain items. If I need to do an exchange a year from now, I think I should have a method of verifying and tracking the part, both to avoid scammers and for my own information on tracking the defective inventory.

Is anybody engraving serial numbers in their products, or using a sharpie or something else to mark them in secret locations? Or do you guys just write this off as the cost of doing business and figure that the dishonest customers are few and far between? Right now my gut feeling is that I should figure out a method to engrave whatever I can. Any input from people with experience in this would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Inphinity]

The specifics will depend on the product itself, but we have on some products in the past applied a label on the inside of the casing with a serial number and date of manufacture. Of course, you also need to store this information somewhere so you can refer back to it later if needs be.

 

[Damage Inc.]

Thanks, yea a label would definitely be possible for some of my items and might be a good way to go. I use Excel for pretty much everything inventory and numbers related right now so it shouldn't be too hard to incorporate a system like this.