Reasonable time to expect low cost earrings to last?

[helloglory]

Hi all, I'm needing some advice as I find the consumer law is too vague regarding how long someone can reasonably expect a product to last. It's way to subjective to me, and considering I'm neurologically wired differently to the average person, don't feel that I can rely on my own opinion!

Anyhoo, I sold a pair of handmade stud earrings (for $8), and the buyer was happy with the purchase and have been happily wearing them for 5 months. They have now broken (don't know why). Is it reasonable for the buyer to have expected them to last longer than 5 months?... or is it reasonable that given their low cost and months of use that they have broken? I guess I'm just after everyone's general opinions on what their expectations would be as the buyer in this situation. (Please don't get into topics such as providing good customer service, and maintaining good feedback, etc.. I want to keep my buyer happy, but I'm trying to work out what's "reasonable").

[jellybirddesigns]

What does the buyer say that they want?

It's too late for them to leave feedback for you, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect.

I'm sure the others will come up with a polite reply that you can send along the lines that unfortunately after such a length of time, you are unable to assist them

[lyndal1838]

Probably not what you want to hear but Istill have cheap earrings that I bought in the 1960s and they are perfectly wearable.

No matter what I paid for a pair of earrings today I would expect them to last longer than 5 months.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

It would really depend on HOW they broke. Was it just with normal use, or did they catch on clothing or something like that?

Unfortunately the buyer will probably tell you they didn't do anything to break them.

[helloglory]

Thanks for your response 🙂

[helloglory]

I don't know how they broke... it may have been with normal use, or may have been with misuse. The buyer has not given an explanation.

[springyzone]

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@helloglorywrote:

Hi all, I'm needing some advice as I find the consumer law is too vague regarding how long someone can reasonably expect a product to last. It's way to subjective to me, and considering I'm neurologically wired differently to the average person, don't feel that I can rely on my own opinion!

Anyhoo, I sold a pair of handmade stud earrings (for $8), and the buyer was happy with the purchase and have been happily wearing them for 5 months. They have now broken (don't know why). Is it reasonable for the buyer to have expected them to last longer than 5 months?... or is it reasonable that given their low cost and months of use that they have broken? I guess I'm just after everyone's general opinions on what their expectations would be as the buyer in this situation. (Please don't get into topics such as providing good customer service, and maintaining good feedback, etc.. I want to keep my buyer happy, but I'm trying to work out what's "reasonable").

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In my opinion if i paid $8 for a pair of earrings & they broke after 5 months of wear, I would just toss them out.

A while back I paid about $15 for a pair of earrings in a jewellery store & one of the earrings went out of shape after 3 wears but as it had been about a month since I bought them, I just tossed them. 

Having said that, I do have some earrings that were low cost and are still going okay.

But as for expecting a guarantee, I think after 5 months, no.

It can be a bit annoying as a consumer, I know, when you don't use something but time passes and then when you do use it, it breaks, but I'll put it this way. That happened to me with a Tupperware tea pot. It cost over $120 the set yet the teapot cracked on second use. It was several months old (though I had kept it in the box, unused). The reaction? Too bad, one month warranty.

So I think it would be fair enough if you declined to refund or replace after 5 months.

PS I am wondering if the ebay guarantees have a lot to answer for. i doubt this woman would front up to a shop after all this time but maybe she thinks she has 6 months with ebay so she may as well claim & get her money back.

[digital*ghost]

I make jewellery as well. I would be a little surprised if someone contacted me about an $8 pair of earrings 5 months down the track, but depending on how they were made and the materials involved, I might also be a little surprised they broke. I work with very strong materials, mainly, though. What kind of materials were used in the item the buyer purchased? I'm assuming it's base metal, but some are of noticably better quality and will last longer than others - eg an iron based alloy earring finding I would expect to tarnish or even rust in that amount of time, but stainless steel should last longer. They type of finding would also affect longevity as well (eg a plain earring hook can last longer than something that has soldered joins). 

Aside form materials used, price is actually one of the main factors when determining what is a reasonable expectation in terms of qualtity and longevity (this is the consumer law bit) - this obviously means an $8 pair of earrings will generally not be (reasonably) expected to last as long as a $30 pair of earrings. The other factors are advertings slogans / jargon / language. If you used words like "high quality", "strong", "sturdy" or variations thereof, in your listing, it's reasonable for a buyer to expect they will last longer than another pair of $8 earrings that doesn't use this kind of language. Use is obviously another factor - if worn a few times on certain occasions, they obviously would not be subjected to the same conditions as if worn daily, including in the shower or when swimming, so it can be a good idea to clarify that with the buyer.

I have actually repaired items I made that became damaged after a year or so, at no cost to the buyer. Perhaps this is a good compromise? i.e. They sent the item to me, I fixed it, and sent it back, so it technically cost me time / money in postage and material cost, and it cost the buyer postage to get the item to me. I don't think a full refund or replacement is necessarily warranted, particularly if the earrings can be repaired, but again that depends on the above factors. Maybe a good exercise if, regardless of consumer laws, others interpretations of it, etc and this case aside - what kind of warranty, if any, whether explicitly stated in listings or not, are you prepared to provide for your items (it can vary according to the mentioned factors, eg you might be more prepared to offer a longer warranty on a $50 item than you do for an $8 item). Because, aside from anything else, this is still your work, and you would know better than anyone what kind of conditions they're capable of standing up to, and kind of timeframe is reasonable for it to last (JMHO). 

[countessalmirena]

@helloglory

I agree with the points made by digital*ghost; I would (as a buyer) not be surprised by or in expectation of a refund or remedy for the breaking of an $8 pair of earrings five months down the track.

I have bought costume jewellery for stage use, and if it's glittery stone stuff I'm used to wielding a bottle of glue to fix the falling-out stones. I remember buying some long faux pearls for a 20s party. One of those strands has a clasp which broke a year later. I just shrugged and dashed down to a $2 shop for a replacement; it was for costume purposes, not a presentation to the queen, after all.

If something similar happened to my real pearls or other serious jewellery, I'd definitely be hopping mad! Or for high-quality costume jewellery, ditto. (If the issue were caused by my failure to care for the jewellery, or being careless - tearing at a necklace so that the silk threading broke and all the pearls went tumbling onto the ground, or putting a ruby into a blender, or dropping a piece and driving over it... anything along those lines - well, I'd be angry at myself, not the jeweller or the seller.)

For an $8 item, I would like to say I'm surprised by the buyer's apparent expectation that you ought to provide a remedy five months after the purchase. However, I am not surprised - not because the apparent expectation seems unreasonable to me (it does), but because I think buyers on eBay nowadays do have unreasonable expectations, and it even seems to me that the cheaper the item, the higher the unreasonable expectation. Postage would eat up any remedy provided in her getting the item back to you for repair, surely! (Or does the buyer expect you to fix or send another, at your cost?)

In terms of providing good after-care, hmm. I love the approach which digital*ghost has mentioned taking. That's definitely over and above my expectation for a low-cost item.

If the earrings were made by you, perhaps you might have that feeling of pride in workmanship which might impel you to want to do as has been suggested - i.e., tell the buyer to post the earrings to you (I would actually think it should be together with return envelope or satchel or whatever it might be), you'll effect a repair at no cost, and you'll post the earrings back (again, my suggestion - in the envelope/satchel provided by the buyer).

But if by "handmade", you mean they were made by someone else and you were simply the seller, I doubt you would feel any responsibility, even a vague responsibility, to provide a fix. This would be especially true if the buyer treated the earrings as they would treat a more costly pair, and expected (unconsciously?) the same strength/resilience from the cheaper pair.

I think the bottom line is this: what would you expect if, let's say, you bought a pair of $8 earrings from a market stall or in one of those small low-cost jewellery boutiques in a shopping centre, and five months later they "broke"? Would you think that it's normal to go to the market stall/boutique and say "I bought these from you five months ago and now they're broken, so what are you going to do about it?". I do not. If I bought jewellery for $8, I would not expect it to last. If it broke within the first week - yes. That would come within the consumer expectation of something being fit for its intended purpose. But five months... no.

[helloglory]

Thanks for your response digital*ghost. 🙂

The stud earrings were made with stainless steel posts with bamboo findings glued onto the flat pads. (I use high quality materials and adhesive... although do not make any claims in this regard). One of the bamboo findings has detached from the post.

I have thought about what I would expect if I were the buyer.... and in the past, when I have purchased an item and used it for a number of months and then it breaks, then I feel disappointed but go "Oh well, it was good while it lasted...", throw it in the bin and move on. (Unless it was a high-value item that you would expect to last longer).

But I also don't like to disappoint... so I was thinking of offering to repair the earrings, just like you suggested. The buyer is located in the U.S. though, so I don't expect they will like to pay to send them back to me. They are currently asking for a replacement (which I can't do as I'm out of stock for that design and won't be getting more as I'm closing down my business!).