I'm being scamed by Amazon!

[Klenex]

I'm not even exagerating!!

 

 

To put this into context.

 

I bought an X99 Asrock Motherboard from an acquaintance of mine a few months ago, and he bought it from Amazon.

He has since left the country and i have no way to contact him.

 

Unfortunetly the motherboard stopped posting, so I contacted Amazon about this, explaining that i'm not the original buyer but I have the invoice and everything. They said it wasn't a problem and told me to send the motherboard to their return center, and once it arrived the refund would be made to the credit card associated to my account.

 

So far so good, I sent the motherboard (paying a little fortune on account of the weight/volume of the package) to them.

 

Fast forward 4 days, and I sent them an email saying that I got confirmation that the board was delivered and that I would wait for confirmation on the refund.

 

To which they replied, and I quote:

Quote

One of my colleague mistakenly informed you that the refund will be proceeded in credit card of your account.

I would like to inform you that the we’re obliged to treat all the refunds via the same payment method and same account used in the original order

Are you kidding me?!?

 

I then told them that if they cannot refund me at least they could giove me a replacement....

 

To which they replied:

 

Quote

I have well received your message and thank you for informing us that you want replacement of your item.

Following your message, I noted that you have no way to contact the person, you  bought the item from, He is in another country.

In response of your message, I request you to ask your friend to contact us from his e-mail address so that we can help you.

 

 

I'm completely baffled. They are actually contradicting themselves, asking me to contact someone they KNOW I have no way of contacting!

 

 

At this point I just asked them to give me back the dead board, and they just started giving me the same automated responses every time:

 

Quote

I would like to inform you that the we’re obliged to treat all the refunds via the same payment method and same account used in the original order.

 

 

 

TL;DR

 

-They told me to return the motherboard, and that they would refund me.

-When the board arrived they said they could not refund me, only the original buyer.

-When asked to give me a replacement, the told me the same thing above.

-when asked to return the faulty board the said the same thing above.

 

 

Conclusion, I don't have the money or a board.....

 

 

I honestely don't know what to do at this point....

 

Sorry for the long post, I just needed to vent a bit.

[AshleyAshes]

Why would you use Amazon for the return, months after you bought it, rather than the manufacturer?

[Klenex]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

Why would you use Amazon for the return, months after you bought it, rather than the manufacturer?

Because AsRock told me they do not accept RMA's from the final customer, only from re-sellers/vendors.

[Theguywhobea]

This doesn't sound like Amazon scamming you. This makes complete sense. If you could just send anything you wanted back to Amazon claiming you bought it from another Amazon customer, they would go out of business from people ripping them off. I'm surprised they even talked to you at all since you didn't buy it from them. 

[Himommies]

6 minutes ago, Klenex said:

Because AsRock told me they do not accept RMA's from the final customer, only from re-sellers/vendors.

That's a load of bullshit.I've sent at least 2 mobos in the past back

[Klenex]

Just now, Theguywhobea said:

This doesn't sound like Amazon scamming you. This makes complete sense. If you could just send anything you wanted back to Amazon claiming you bought it from another Amazon customer, they would go out of business from people ripping them off. I'm surprised they even talked to you at all since you didn't buy it from them. 

I don't need to claim anything, I have the original invoice, in paper!

 

The problem here is that they said that they would refund me if I sent them the board.

And now they won't refund me or give me back the board....

 

I don't know how this makes sense to you honestly....

[Guest]

Its probably policy to refund it back the way the payment was made. Makes sense.

[Himommies]

2 minutes ago, Klenex said:

The problem here is that they said that they would refund me if I sent them the board.

And now they won't refund me or give me back the board....

 

I don't know how this makes sense to you honestly....

Amazon is not responsible for the MOBO pretty much after their 3 week return period

Demand it back and send it to Asrock

[Klenex]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

Its probably policy to refund it back the way the payment was made. Makes sense.

I asked them in plain English: The refund will be made to me or the original buyer?

 

And they said they would give me the refund.

 

This is the bit that bothers me.

 

I know that this is their policy, but that's why I contacted them first....

[Guest]

Just now, Klenex said:

I asked them in plain English: The refund will be made to me or the original buyer?

 

And they said they would give me the refund.

 

This is the bit that bothers me.

 

I know that this is their policy, but that's why I contacted them first....

probably some rookie's first day at life

[Klenex]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

probably some rookie's first day at life

That's the funniest bit.... (not that this is funny in the slightest)

 

Every time I get a reply from them, it's always a differente name signing the email

[AntiTrust]

6 minutes ago, Klenex said:

That's the funniest bit.... (not that this is funny in the slightest)

 

Every time I get a reply from them, it's always a differente name signing the email

it sounds like you need to escalate your issue to the next level (ie a manager in their customer service) and focus on getting your motherboard back given your situation where you cannot contact the person you bought the board off of. Of course they will not fix, replace or refund you.. even if someone slipped up and said they would. 

 

when you get it back, contact Asrock and don't give up, they will probably let you warranty it.

 

or, if you don't want all the hassle, just buy a new motherboard (you can spite Asrock there if you want to )

 

good luck

 

 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Klenex said:

That's the funniest bit.... (not that this is funny in the slightest)

 

Every time I get a reply from them, it's always a differente name signing the email

Online support is the worst. If you can call them up. 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

18 minutes ago, Klenex said:

I have well received your message and thank you for informing us that you want replacement of your item.

Following your message, I noted that you have no way to contact the person, you  bought the item from, He is in another country.

In response of your message, I request you to ask your friend to contact us from his e-mail address so that we can help you.

I've seen moronic responses like that from Amazon numerous times back before I started boycotting them (except for e-books). I thought maybe they were using customer "service" agents in a foreign country where English was not their first language but, after reading an article about some vendors using bots instead of real people to respond to customers, I suspect that is what was going on.

 

The sad fact is Cueball Bezos and, thus, Amazon do not give the north end of a southbound furry little rodent about their customers or their employees and Amazon has gotten big enough to get away with it. Their employees are overworked, underpaid, and generally treated like dirt. Amazon's own shipping carrier uses poorly vetted, questionable employees that deliver lousy service.

 

That said, most companies, if not all of them, either issue refunds based on how the original payment was made, such as to a specific credit card, or issue store credit. Since you were not the purchaser, you are out of luck unless you could convince Amazon to give you store credit (not likely since, as I pointed out, they don't care about you).

[Jtalk4456]

So I'll address several issues from the perspective of being customer service agent myself. The first person told you wrong. At some company there IS a policy for gift returns, but it's a big hassle and will never be as easy as the first associate said, if they even have the ability to set that up.

As for Amazon scamming you, the policy described by the second person is very normal. Having said that though, they should be more than willing to send that product back to you for free. I wouldn't expect a replacement or money back. I would call and get in touch with a supervisor and get it sent back then ask for a supervisor at ASRock and ask him why they were unable to fulfill their manufacturers warranty and get them to take care of that the way they should have already. As mad as you are at Amazon, remember as much as they might try, they cannot prevent every bad customer service experience. And just because one person told you wrong and you want to hold the company accountable for that statement, their hands are tied. If they accept returns and put refunds back on other people's cards without clearing this with the original purchaser, it becomes a fraud risk and this could get them sued heavily. The first person messed up bigtime and the second person should NOT be holding your board hostage, but the actual policy is a good policy and takes care of consumers. You've sadly had a few bad eggs in this process, but I can't tell you how many times I've sat there and been doing my job perfectly to the book and nice and empathetic and then Fred calls in saying George said this and that and nothing he said was done and I have to be the bad guy saying, I'm sorry you were told that, but we cannot do this and that, we have no physical way to do that. Get your board back and hassle asrock, but don't be eternally hateful of amazon, I've had bad experiences from them and good experiences too, it all depends on who you talk to

[NumLock21]

Amazon didn't scam you. They have to refund to the original purchaser who bought the board. Even Newegg does the same thing.

[AnonymousGuy]

1 hour ago, Himommies said:

That's a load of bullshit.I've sent at least 2 mobos in the past back

In certain countries ASRock might require RMA's to go through resellers and not be handled directly.  I don't know.  A couple years ago they directly RMAed my Z77 OC Extreme.

 

@OP, retailers can't just hand out refunds to random credit cards.  You don't have any orders with them so they have nothing that they can click a "Refund" button on.

[GoodBytes]

13 hours ago, Himommies said:

That's a load of bullshit.I've sent at least 2 mobos in the past back

In Canada and US, the manufacture is responsive for warranty processing. So if your product breaks within warranty, you contact the manufacture for repair or replacement. (pretty logic and simple).

 

But in Europe, they have this screwed up model, where you deal with the RETAILER. And if they close their doors during your warranty period, then too bad for you. You have little to no recourse unless the manufacture wants to be extra nice with you. This model of return also makes warranty transfer difficult if it was not paid in cash the product and a refund needs to take place (say the company can't process the warranty replacement due to some issue on their side) , and makes the warranty impossible to get, if you have the product is second hand and it breaks and you bought it online.

 

The Europe model is amazon back in the old days before the internet and credit cards, or you never buy second hand. Where you just go to the retailer to quickly swap product or have them repair, avoiding shipping complications, and delays (shipping and processing time) for you to get the product back. The only issue is if you bought the product at retail that could close their doors.  But now that time have changed, the law didn't, and now it has major flaws.

 

This is not the first time I read on this forum people being screwed by the Europe return policy model. They should just switch to the North America model. Forcing companies to process warranty replacement. This is also connect the customer of the product with the brand. If the brand has horrible after sale service (support and warranty servicing), then the brand image is affected regardless of the product. For example, look at Logitech. Logitech is a popular brand, and have this excellent reputation, not because their product are necessary the best of the best. They are better on just about any categories. But people;e buy Logitech, as if the product breaks, in most cases you don't even need to send back anything, a quick call with near 0 waiting to get your info and they just send you a brand new, latest version, retail box of the product you have bought, and quickly as well, so that you are back and running as soon as possible. You can read many stories of Logitech support. Including mine, where my mouse started to double click due to faulty switch, a quick call, and 3-4 days later I have received in the mail a brand new, same model, mouse in its retail box with everything. I had to send nothing back. It is a relationship that a company can build with the customer. But in Europe that is gone. You are at the mercy of the retail store being this middle man.

[maartendc]

20 hours ago, Theguywhobea said:

This doesn't sound like Amazon scamming you. This makes complete sense. If you could just send anything you wanted back to Amazon claiming you bought it from another Amazon customer, they would go out of business from people ripping them off. I'm surprised they even talked to you at all since you didn't buy it from them. 

Sure, but he does have the original invoice, and it sounds like they agreed he could send it back to them.

 

If they werent gonna help him, they shouldn't have offered to accept the return in the first place.

[maartendc]

19 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I've seen moronic responses like that from Amazon numerous times back before I started boycotting them (except for e-books). I thought maybe they were using customer "service" agents in a foreign country where English was not their first language but, after reading an article about some vendors using bots instead of real people to respond to customers, I suspect that is what was going on.

 

The sad fact is Cueball Bezos and, thus, Amazon do not give the north end of a southbound furry little rodent about their customers or their employees and Amazon has gotten big enough to get away with it. Their employees are overworked, underpaid, and generally treated like dirt. Amazon's own shipping carrier uses poorly vetted, questionable employees that deliver lousy service.

 

That said, most companies, if not all of them, either issue refunds based on how the original payment was made, such as to a specific credit card, or issue store credit. Since you were not the purchaser, you are out of luck unless you could convince Amazon to give you store credit (not likely since, as I pointed out, they don't care about you).

This is true, I have gotten moronic responses from Amazon customer service before. Mostly they are helpful, but usually they are very weird responses. Just something seems off about them.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was bots, or at least people who's native language is not English, and who are forced to reply in the same repetitive phrasing and sentences. (a different kind of bot I guess).

 

Most of the time, when you talk to bir corporation's customers reps on the phone, it IS like talking to a robot. These people are trained not to talk like a real person but just regurgitate the canned sentences to you.  Scary times we live in.

[RoyalGamer1]

if you never told them you didn't buy it you would have been fine, you just need the order number to constant support, its agsint amazon TOS to give warranty to a person who didnt buy the item. most companies have this policy. thats why second had is cheap because there is no longer a warranty anymore after it trades hands. 

 

so just try again with another rep and you should be fine.