What is the best way to handle RMAs when we are the customer? It seems all guides on RMAs are geared towards customers returning product to us, but what about the reverse? To be clear, I’m aware of the vendor return feature, but this seems to only handle the situation where we return product for a refund or credit.
I am far more concerned about tracking expensive components that we return to the vendor for repair or analysis. In these instances, the vendor may hold onto the parts (which we still own) for weeks or even months, and then either return replacement parts, repaired parts, or the original parts - good or bad - depending on warranty or who is at fault for the failure.
The question is how do we track this process? In particular:
How do we remove these from inventory temporarily. We don’t want to mistakenly believe we have more inventory than we do.
How do we keep track of parts returned to vendors, to ensure they are not lost or forgotten (return PO?)
How do we track costs associated with the return, for example a repair fee or shipping?
How do we receive the product back into inventory, without losing traceability?
Will do. I posted here because I assumed others would benefit from it. I searched the forum and found one or two similar questions, but they were either more specific or didn’t have a clear answer.