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posted Sep-29-2010

Forced to Pay Restocking Fee on Defective Item

Before you make a purchase from PC-Pitstop, you should read here what happens if you try to work with this vendor to resolve a problem, instead of just forcing them to give you a refund:

I purchased a 4 Bay Hotswap SATA RAID Enclosure from PC-Pitstop, and initially, the product seemed perfectly functional. However, after I had owned it for a few weeks, I discovered a serious problem: one of my drives was permanently stuck in the "hotswap" drive bay.

I contacted PC-Pitstop and made my fatal error: instead of demanding a refund for the defective product, I asked "how can we work together to solve this problem?"

I sent a series of emails back and forth with their technical staff for a few weeks, and in hindsight, I should have realized that they were stalling for time. For, you see, even though the original email was sent within their 30 Day Return policy, I did not specifically ask for a refund at that time.

Eventually, the technical staff recommended that I PURCHASE a replacement part to fix the problem - this was the last straw for me - so I told them that I was done trying to work out the problem and that I just wanted to return it for a refund. I was given an RMA # and I returned the product.

About six weeks later, I received a notification from my credit card company saying that since I had not returned the product, they would not honor the disputed charge. After a series of angry phone calls, it turned out that they HAD received the returned product - it must have been sitting on their loading dock for a month. Here's what Paul Haley, President of PC Pitstop, wrote in response to the chargeback:

" If we get the unit back, we will refund him the 399.00 minus 15% restocking fee because he wants to return the product outside of the 30 day return window. We did not have to accept the return but we are doing so to be "nice". "

After much discussion with a dispute specialist at my credit card company, it turns out that Paul Haley is "right." Even though I started trying to resolve the problem WITHIN the 30 day return window, since I did not specifically ask for a refund in my original email, I have no recourse whatsoever at this time. All PC Pitstop had to do was drag out the emails beyond the 30 day window, and then suggest I PURCHASE something to fix their defect - and as far as the credit card company is concerned, they honored their policies and I can no longer dispute any part of the charge.

Live and learn, learn to never purchase anything from PC-Pitstop again.

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