During the “legal guarantee” period (which has a default of 2 years in the EU), if an electronic appliance dies or stops conforming to spec consumers have a right to return it to the shop or the manufacturer. That is the consumer’s choice. Shops have an obligation to deal with the defective item on behalf of the consumer.

This is sensible since the shop has a business relationship and communication channel with the supplier. This approach rightfully gets consumers off the hook for shipping costs.

Aldi has a 60 day return policy, which is fine. If you are outside of that (in the range 60 days … 2 years) you are still legally entitled to return something that breaks. But Aldi simply refuses. The staff are trained and conditioned to refuse any returns older than 60 days.

Just a heads up… don’t buy anything from Aldi that will bother you if it breaks after 60 days unless you’re fine with tracking down manufacturers (who often ignore consumers in my experience). Consumer protection doesn’t really work in Belgium.

BTW, Aldi is split into 2 companies: Aldi North and Alidi South. IIRC some kind of falling out among owners caused it to split. All Aldi stores in Belgium are Aldi North (the same Aldi that folks should boycott anyway due to Israel ties and shenanigans with concealing the source of food from Israel). It’s quite possible that Aldi South respects EU law in case anyone is reading this from outside Belgium.