Expert Management of RMA Returns for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and system integrators
Everyone loves to ship product, but managing returns can be time consuming, costly, and a high risk for customer dissatisfaction and negative online reviews. RMA Management is not what you focus on, but its what we live for at Green Wave Electronics.
We offer a wide array of different Returns Management Programs for Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Distributers, Retailers, and System Integrators. Depending on the program, Green Wave Electronics professionally represents the entity requesting (claimant) the RMA or issuing the RMA. No matter which side of the fence we stand on, our KPIs are aligned with your KPIs.
Solutions for Manufacturers:
For Manufacturers, Green Wave Electronics is the RMA Issuer, responding directly to customer requests to return product, or requests coming through your customer service department. Our standard RMA Program for Manufacturers includes the recording of the SKU and serial number of the failed unit and the customer complaint. Green Wave Electronics then creates a shipping label, with the embedded RMA number, which gets emailed to the claimant. Upon receipt, the product is fully inspected, reset, and tested and a finding is recorded including warranty status at time of RMA request, inspection findings (including any customer damage which may void the warranty terms), observations of manufacturing defects, and recording of any functional defects discovered during testing. Each returned part is fully photographed, with special attention made to include closeup HD images of any customer damage or manufacturing defect detected. An RMA finding is recorded consistent with the Manufacturer's TOS, which would include Rejected for No Fault Found (NFF), Rejected Out of Warranty (OOW), Rejected Customer Damage, Credit Approved, New Replacement Approved, or Refurbished Replacement Approved. Rejected RMA request can be returned to the customer in received condition or, optionally, be repaired by Green Wave Electronics and returned to the customer for a repair fee.
Solutions for System Integrators and Large-Scale End Users:
For System Integrators and Large-Scale End Users, Green Wave Electronics represents you as the RMA Claimant. Before requesting an RMA return from the vendor or manufacturer, each part is sent to Green Wave Electronics for physical inspection and testing. Green Wave Electronics catalogs the part, recording the serial number and manufacture date to determine warranty status with the manufacturer or vendor, and performs a thorough inspection and functional test to determine if, in fact, the part is covered under the manufacturer's or vendor's RMA TOS, and also verifies the part's warranty status. If Green Wave Electronics determines that the part exhibits a covered failure and is within the warranty return period, Green Wave Electronics opens an RMA Claim with the manufacturer or vendor and manages the entire return cycle. The RMA return cycle includes: receipt of RMA number, shipping of product back to issuer, communication with issuer when RMA response is late, incomplete, or inconsistent with Green Wave Electronics's findings, verification of receipt of credit to our customer or replacement, and forwarding of replaced unit to our customer.
Solutions for Wholesalers, Distributors and Retailers:
The Green Wave Electronics Solution for Wholesalers, Distributors and Retailers (collectively called Vendors) is a hybrid solution, whereby we represent the Vendor as the RMA Issuer in issuing RMAs to the end user (the Vendor's customer), and also represent the Vendor in requesting an RMA from the Manufacturer as the Claimant. In the first half of the process, Green Wave Electronics issues a Green Wave Electronics-assigned RMA Number for the end user to return product to Green Wave Electronics, consistent with the procedure described above, under "Solutions for Manufacturers." When the parts are received by Green Wave Electronics and inspected and tested and determined to be not covered under the Manufacturer warranty, they are returned to the end user or repaired at end user's expense. Those returned units which are determined by Green Wave Electronics to be covered under the Manufacturer warranty, are processed in an RMA back to the Manufacturer, similar to the process for System Integrators, described in the section above.
Financial Benefits:
Regardless of where your company sits on the RMA supply chain, you are undoubtedly spending a lot of time managing and testing your returns or are choosing to skip steps which result in issuing credits where no credit is due.
For Claimants, if you are not returning product because it is too difficult, or you are returning everything and pushing the headache to the RMA issuer, you are definitely not minimizing the cost of your reverse supply chain.
For Manufacturers, your costs to process and reject a high percentage of RMAs is eating away at your profits. Under the Green Wave Electronics Solution for Manufacturers, you also get detailed reports of actual failure modes, which can alert you quickly to deficiencies in the manufacturing process and help avoid expensive, and reputation-damaging, product recalls.
You will also save on shipping fees, and the lost time associated with returning product to the Manufacturer which ultimately gets rejected for credit or replacement. Finally, by only returning actual failed, in-warranty product to the manufacturer, you improve your relationship with the Manufacturer and could potentially negotiate better terms with the Manufacturer for reducing the amount of wasted technician time your Manufacturer expends in triaging your RMA returns.
