Supermarket return policies in Arusha
July 11th, 2009 • ICTR Internship
Two funny anecdotes about “return policies” here in Arusha – which to be honest I didn’t even bother trying out and just assumed didn’t exist.
First, a friend of ours went to the local “Duty Free” store – that prices everything in US dollars and has a large sign out the front saying “DIPLOMATS ONLY” – to purchase some wine to go with dinner. She selected a Californian white cask wine. We have since found out that white wine is not the recommended option here in Arusha, as it doesn’t hold up well to the travel and time does not seem to treat it well. The Californian white had turned into vinegar by the time my friend bought it and was undrinkable.
So she tried to take it back – twice. The first time, they sampled the wine, and gave her a new box (of the same wine) that also turned out to be bad. The second time, in addition to testing the wine she returned, they also sampled the wine they gave her and declared it to be “Delicious! No that is how it is meant to taste!”. It was at that point we gave up.
Second, my wife bought some peanut butter at “Clocktower Supermarket” only to find that it had gone rancid. She returned it to the supermarket and was told that they couldn’t give her a refund or exchange, as they had to wait for their supplier to come and check out the peanut butter to see if it was bad or not – and of course the supplier wouldn’t be coming for a few weeks. So she left the peanut butter with them and was planning to go back to “talk to the supplier”, but at some point decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
So in the end I think it looks like I was basically right and that, even with a receipt, the return policies here in Arusha aren’t exactly as customer friendly as we have back home.
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