[vinay427]

In practice, it's far less effective than what most Americans enjoy. Return policies are usually abysmal in most of Europe, to begin with, and long term support is only technically better because of more regulations on warranties. In practice, American firms are far more lenient with their policies and credit cards alone provide more protections than most all of the EU regulations seek to implement.

[rb666]

This is just anecdotal nonsense, what factual sources do you have for this as it is completely contrary to my experience.

[vinay427]

It is definitely anecdotal. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I'll try to find some relevant data, though I'm not sure how easy that will be. Slightly more helpful are maybe looking up policies for most credit cards, which now let you return virtually any item within 90 days for any reason, extend warranties to a total of 2-4 years, cover accidental damage to items including breakage and theft for 90 days after purchase, and offer historical price matching for 60-90 days or sometimes even longer. These policies are extremely difficult to come by where I live (not in the US), and I've had a far more difficult time returning items that really should be returnable (dry pasta or something very shelf-stable) than I did in the States.

I did find this snippet, which at least indicates that Americans more often take advantage of return policies. However, I understand that this doesn't directly discuss the differences in policies:

"In the US, an estimated 8–10% of in-store sales is returned whereas online sales may result in 25–40% returns. [...] In Asia and Europe, less than 5 percent of purchases are returned." https://psmag.com/magazine/underwear-of-uncertain-origin

More anecdotes in that article, and countless other anecdotes are trivial to find online:

> U.S. retailers pride themselves on their generous return policies. At Costco, I can buy a barbecue grill, cook on it all summer, then return it in the fall for a full refund. (Which is not to say that I would.) Or take the proverbial television bought for Super Bowl Sunday, then returned. The days leading up to professional football’s championship game see a huge spike in TV sales. And just as reliably, the days after the game see a spike in TVs returned to the store.

[NeedMoreTea]

It is so much easier to get a refund in Europe if being stonewalled on support. The legal liability rests with the retailer (Certainly in the UK, I think it's EU wide), and there are the concepts of "merchantable quality" and "expected life" that vary depending on the product and cost. Plenty of case law establishing those as quite high bars. If they ever get problematic quote the magic words of the title of the Act. Refund usually agreed, even at 6 or 12 months, sometimes much longer.

That's after the UK took a step or two down in consumer protection in adopting the EU regulations.

Where we do less well, particularly among the younger generation, is a belief that 30 day return windows and other such fairy tales actually mean anything legally speaking. I think that might be thanks to reading so many US perspectives online.

[llampx]

You're saying that you are able to return stuff more easily than in the US? Or that there is more of a customer support culture in Europe? I have lived in the US and currently live in Germany, this is demonstrably false.