I know what I think I am going to do (or rather, try to get the husband to do since he's the account holder) but wanted to ask the general populace as we're kind of flabbergasted at the current situation (the dishonesty part)...
Ordered two holiday items from two different sellers. One was a long time marketplace member with 98% positive reviews. They listed the item as used but "like new" and indicated that the box and the product was slightly scuffed up, but in perfect working order (only cosmetic issues). Received item, well packaged and padded and it was exactly as described. Great experience.
Second seller just registered with Amazon, and I think we were their first sale. We don't usually buy from sellers with no ratings at all, but I argued that everyone has to start somewhere, and the item was not expensive ($16 + 6.50 shipping), so chances are they would be eager to do right by us to earn a good rating. Item was listed as new, but without box. Placed order, received item, and it was poorly packed (box was twice the size needed, with no padding at all, item was loose in torn plastic bag). All parts present, but item was obviously used with scuffs all over, cord loose (not coiled up like a new item would have it), but most importantly, the cord itself was seriously damaged. Item plugs in and runs a motor, and the plug area looked as if it had been cut and chewed up with the wiring showing through. So item was definitely not new, not even "like new" and serious fire hazard if we even attempted to use it as intended.
And if the cord hadn't been damaged so badly, I would have just kept it and rated them down for lying about the "new" part, but this is so seriously messed up, I'm afraid to even plug it in.
So we contacted the seller and said item was not as described, that it was used and damaged, and we want a refund. Seller refunds ONLY the purchase price (not the shipping) and then says we have to pay to ship the damaged item back. We say no, seller needs to refund shipping and provide return shipping as they misrepresented their item as being new and it was seriously damaged and unusable in the condition we received it in. Seller replies back that they are already losing money on this transaction because of the Amazon cut and they were going to be stuck with a damaged unsellable item (how is that OUR fault?), but then stated that the item was fine when they sent it to us and that they would not provide shipping (either refund or to return item).
This is a lie; there is no way the item left his hands in new condition and we contacted them within 4 hours of receiving said package to let them know there was a problem, so there's no way we could have done this sort of damage ourselves (and no, we did not, I didn't even plug it in since it had exposed wiring and I'd rather not have a fire hazard in my house, thanks).
I think seller is an asshat liar and trying to sell items that are old and/or damaged and listing them as new and thinks he'd somehow get away with it. There is no way the damage to the cord could have happened during shipping (even tho he did pack it with no padding or even paper/bags to cushion it).
I think at this point husband needs to escalate to the A to Z guarantee and demand the seller pay us for the shipping if he wants it returned.
Husband is starting to get a sick feeling in his stomach (his words) dealing with this, and just wants to mail the thing back and give the guy a bad review. I say fuck that as I'm not giving him free shipping for a defective/misrepresented product - and it will cost us a minimum of $13 to even mail it back and that plus the $6.50 to receive it means the damned thing cost more to ship than the purchase price... and I noticed that he did a prepaid label for his shipping to us and lied about what the package was - this thing weighs around 4 pounds and is a 12x7x5 inch box, but the label said "express envelope" so I guess the mail carriers didn't catch that he cheated them out of the correct postage?
So if we do escalate it with Amazon, will we get the shipping costs or will it cause more trouble than its worth? I just hate to let this go, but the husband is worried that it's the seller's word against ours and he hates confrontation. (but we do have pictures showing the damage and the original box to show how we received it).
SO any experience with this type of thing?
