Not only that, but now Sam Narzarco is telling me that it arrived badly scratched and it will be an out of warranty repair. This is after weeks of back and forth emails over IF it was a bad unit or a bad power supply.
I even shipped it back it its original packaging.
I was in the process of replying to your ticket, but see that you have posted here before I had any opportunity to do so.
On 28th May, you reported that the item was not working.
I responded on the same day, asking for your order number and you stated that you did not have one.
A new power supply shipped for you next day on 29th May after we found your order on our system.
All devices are tested before dispatch, but unfortunately we are not able to test every power supply in advance because we ship to different regions. We wanted to get this to you quickly before getting things returned unnecessarily.
On 22nd June, you stated that the received power supply had not resolved the issue.
On 23rd June, I suggested that the unit was returned to us so that we can look at it and resolve the problem.
We do provide return labels / refund shipping for European customers, but this is not possible for other international customers. Typically, once the issue is confirmed, we then re-ship the item and reimburse the fees on our side (by effect of refund on the original order).
But what’s been received is a significantly worn item. We certainly didn’t ship it in this condition and this doesn’t seem to have been disputed by you via the ticket.
After some inspection, the item seems to have been damaged by powering the unit with the wrong power supply. This has damaged a fuse on the device, but fortunately nothing else. We don’t consider this to be an in-warranty repair.
We need to repair the case before resolving the issue, then we need to fix the board. In this case, we wouldn’t be charging you for the repair, but we would expect you to pay for the return shipping, which is £10. This is just under half of the actual shipping cost to subsidise your return costs as well.
Mistakes do happen (i.e. using wrong PSU) and it’s much easier to keep repeat custom than it is to gain a new customer, so we want to keep you happy. I do apologise if you feel you have been given the run around or this hasn’t been resolved for you in a prompt enough timeframe. I am quite keen to get this resolved for you as promptly as possible. I will update your ticket now.
Many thanks
Sam
On May 28th I told you that I never received a confirmation email. I also told you that I went and bought another 5v 2a power supply ($30) after you told me you thought it was the power supply and that this new power supply did the same thing.
You insisted on sending me a power supply to try anyways. So I waited 3 weeks get it, tried it and reported that it was doing the exact same thing.
Then I had to pay almost $25 to ship you the dead unit only to have you tell me its badly worn? and that I used the wrong supply.
I see you just emailed us to say it will be 10 pounds for shipping and you would cover the repair. You ask if it is agreeable. I suppose I have no choice but to agree, if I don’t I am out all this money for nothing.
I just wish it did not have to be this way.
Hi,
Yes, I do recall that.
You didn’t receive an email because of a slight typo in your email:
To be honest, we should’ve picked that up when shipping and corrected the email. I do apologise for that.
You mentioned that you purchased a new power supply, but we do not recommend using third party PSUs. You didn’t mention the cost ($30); but this seems really excessive. Do you have an opportunity to return the power supply? That’s a quarter of the cost of the unit itself.
One of the reasons why we suggest shipping just the device and nothing else, is to reduce shipping costs and to improve the turnaround time for returns. It’s much easier to say ‘Ticket Number 123456 has returned a faulty device, ship them a new one’ instead of storing what a user has returned until their device is repaired/replaced and shipping everything back with everything they’ve returned.
We’ve sometimes had SD cards and wireless mice returned to us, which aren’t in any way involved in the problem at hand. But it is the customer’s property so we have to take care of it by storing it safely, then take note of it to ship it back.
USPS put a price on their shipping labels. I don’t think this was 25 dollars.
I think considering the circumstances, the repair costs are reasonable. We are still losing on the repair, due to no fault of our own, as a gesture of goodwill.
Normally we would be happy to accept a refund, but if the unit is damaged by the customer, we cannot do so. The item doesn’t appear to have been damaged as a result of transit.
I will contact you to arrange the repair.
Sam