Please explain to a confused New Zealander.

It's no secret that reddit is very American centric. I am but a simple PC gamer from the far off land of NZ, and our PC building market is quite different here.

There is a much smaller selection of PC components on offer, and previous generation parts tend to go out of stock and stay that way. There is also very limited second hand market for PC parts, and what is on sale people way overvalue so most people buy new. You guys would also not believe some of the prices (5090 around $6000NZD which is about $3400USD

Anyway on to my question:

I keep seeing comments where people say things like "I bought a 3090 but returned it and got a 4080" or people commenting with advice saying "if you don't get the performance you need just return it and get something else"

What do you mean??? Can you just return open, used items in the US and they just give you your money back? You can just buy something, use it and then change your mind? How long can you use it for and still return it?

This is not how it works in NZ. Sure you can return something if it's broken, and we have the Consumer guarantees act which gives you the right to a refund even outside the warrantee period if the item didn't last a reasonably expected amount of time. But you can't just change your mind on an item you have already used. Most good stores will let you refund or exchange if you change your mind but usually you're out of luck if you've opened it.

Maybe I've got completely the wrong end of the stick, but can someone please explain what you guys are on about?