What’s an RMA?

A couple of days ago I had to help a young friend return an item that she’d purchased online. It should have been a fairly simply process but she didn’t understand what was expected of her, mainly because of the jargon used.

In this instance the problem was the retailer used the term “RMA” and worse didn’t explain it on their website.

RMA, stands for Returns Material Authorisation, which still sounds pretty scary to a novice internet user. Instead of instructing a consumer to ask for an RMA, why not tell them they need to request a Returns Number?

Terms such as S&H (Shipping and Handling), or DOA (Dead on arrival) should never form part of your customer facing communications. Making the customer feel inadequate isn’t a great way to get them to make repeat purchases.

What jargon or acronyms would you like to see banished in favour of plain English?