Who's absorbing the cost?

The other day I purchased a couple of albums from HMV.

Got them home and discovered that one album (with two discs) was damaged

The damagewas to both discs and looked identical, it was though they had been jammed into a thin slot and had pressure applied to actally bend them.

I returned them to the same HMV store only to be told that I could either

• Get a gift certificate
• Get an in store credit
• Exchange for another album of equal or greater value
• BUT Refunding my money was against corporate policy

So I contacted HMV and got the same reply.

They also said they had no option because the Record companies refuse to take back damaged goods

However, most other stores I deal with do offer refunds on damaged albums.

My point to HMV - even if I exchanged the album they would still be left with an album they could not sell and would have to write off. So they could actually give me a refund and glean a lot of customer goodwill, but instead chose to alienate me.

Sometimes corporations cannot see the wood for the bottom line.

So who does absorb the cost if not the record company 

1. The distributor
   
2. The retailer
   
3. The store
   
4. The customer, i.e. built into the price of each album
   

#4 you say? That's what I believe

Thanks in advance 😩