I’m sure we have some Kalenjis or Kipstas gathering dust somewhere in the house. If you haven’t heard of these brands before, then perhaps you can give this post a miss. Otherwise, it means you’re very familiar with Decathlon popularity over the years.
But there’s one little known fact about Decathlon which I recently learnt about which i think not many have heard of, and that’s their return policy. Now before I go on, I just want to state upfront that I’ve not been sponsored in any way by Decathlon, but this presents such an amazing cost-saving opportunity that I can’t resist writing about it!
The return policy only works if you’re a Decathlon member. And we should all be one anyway because it’s a no-regret move — it’s free and lifetime membership!
So with that out of the way, the return policy is as follows:
Yes, you’ve read it right. Lifetime exchange or refund for all Decathlon Products. Second Life Products can be refunded but not exchanged. Second Life Products provides a sustainability angle to the whole enterprise where they essentially take back these products, refurbish them, and then resell them at a lower price, effectively giving them a second life. Brilliant!
So it all seemed too good to be true. There’s nothing else like that in the market. Most of the time, there is a time cap like 30 days warranty period or disclaimers on what kind of exchanges are allowed, e.g. 1-for-1 exchange and no personal items. Not for Decathlon – they are so keen on this that they even allow different modes of returns, such as home pick ups for a small fee.
So if I were to be writing an article on this, I should put it all into practice and see how seamless the process was. There was a pannier rack and baby bicycle seat bought in 2019 that I’ve been longing to sell on Carousell since our daughter has outgrown them and I don’t cycle as much anymore.
So before I had to lug this thing from the car to Decathlon in vain, I went to the counter staff and verified whether they really took back Decathlon products for refund. The counter staff response was reassuring, “Yes, everything. Just bring it back.”
A short queue later, I was $94.90 richer, with a refund based on the original purchase price or listed price of the products at the current time. The refund would be made to the credit card that I had used for purchase which will take some time, though I suspect they may also accept debit cards.
The counter staff duly took the products and just placed it in the bucket behind her. Judging from the fact that our items were the only things there, it seemed like not many people are still aware of the refunds policy.
One can only imagine how such a policy can be financially sustainable in a place like Singapore, with customers constantly kiasu about securing the best deals. Anecdotally, I’ve heard of people returning used socks (washed, I hope) amongst other things. On the other hand, there were some bicycles lights which I had also bought in the same time, but because those were bought from the store and I was not a member then, there were records of these purchases and they could not be refunded.
Moral of the story: Be a Decathlon member!
In any case, it’s got me thinking on the many other Decathlon products that are due for a refund because they’re no longer used as much as before.
Another way of putting it is that I’m probably going to be a very loyal customer of Decathlon moving forward, and that’s a very big thing because I’m not really a customer that goes shopping all that regularly to even begin with!
Have you heard of such a returns policy at Decathlon before? How about at other shops?
Making Cents 