A few weeks ago, my Laptop got water spilled on it.  I won't point fingers.
Fortunately, all that seems to be wrong with it is a burnt keyboard.

Unfortunately, I seem to be having a disconcerting amount of trouble procuring a
replacement.  I could have ordered one from Dell, directly, but they wanted card
numbers over the phone, which I don't do if I can avoid it.

So I went online looking for a replacement part, and thought I found one for a
good price, and the company seemed to have good reviews, so I ordered one.  It
took a week to get here, because they shipped it snail-mail instead of Fed Ex,
but that is not the problem.

The problem was that it arrived damaged. one corner was bent and the associated
key was broken off the mount. The box appeared fine.

So I sent the company an email requesting a return for refund, rather than a
replacement because, in addition to sending me a damaged keyboard, the
description -- which stated that the keyboard was a US model -- neglected to
mention that it was US-ISO, not US-ANSI.  But they asked nicely if I would
accept a replacement, and since I erred by not looking closely enough at the
picture beside the description, I decided to eat my mistake and take a
replacement.

Flash forward to today. I get home from work and I am handed... my replacement
keyboard. Upon opening the box, however, I find that this one is also damaged
(in a different corner, and not as badly, but still...)

The thing is, I can't see the keyboard mount plate being bent like that without
significant force.  Certainly nothing that wouldn't have also shown on the box,
had it been damaged in shipping.

Now, I could probably straighten it, and it might even work, but that's not the
point.  The point is that, after sending me two keyboards that were damaged --
and I have to return them at my own expense, since they do not provide a return
label -- I am considerably put out.

This time, I am insisting on a refund.  I'm still not happy about the return
postage: Not that it's expensive or anything, but my budget is tight at the
moment.

I suppose that I will have to get in touch with DELL, and order the part direct.
 At least with them, I can be reasonably sure they'll provide a return service,
and they'll understand the difference between US-ISO and US-ANSI.

A.D.B.

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That sucks.

I had a similar issue with my Macbook Pro (provided by work).  Apple 
doesn't have accidental coverage, apparently (or if they do, my employer 
doesn't buy it).

$1200 for the service. And even though I live walking distance to an 
Apple store, I had to send it to our corporate office in Denver, who had 
to send it to Apple (otherwise, I'd have had to pay out of pocket and get 
reimbursed, because Apple apparently isn't set up to do POs for that sort 
of work).

I think I was without it for 3 weeks (there was a delay in our office, 
not Apple's fault, AIUI), and basically I ended up with a new laptop - so 
my lid decal was gone (and it was a *really* cool one - so I'm sad about 
that, but I've got a nice replacement for it - just not the same one).

It would've been nice if I could've just taken it to the nearby store, 
though.

Jim

-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> That sucks.
>
> I had a similar issue with my Macbook Pro (provided by work).  Apple
> doesn't have accidental coverage, apparently (or if they do, my employer
> doesn't buy it).
>
> $1200 for the service. And even though I live walking distance to an
> Apple store, I had to send it to our corporate office in Denver, who had
> to send it to Apple (otherwise, I'd have had to pay out of pocket and get
> reimbursed, because Apple apparently isn't set up to do POs for that sort
> of work).
>
> I think I was without it for 3 weeks (there was a delay in our office,
> not Apple's fault, AIUI), and basically I ended up with a new laptop - so
> my lid decal was gone (and it was a *really* cool one - so I'm sad about
> that, but I've got a nice replacement for it - just not the same one).
>
> It would've been nice if I could've just taken it to the nearby store,
> though.
>
> Jim
>
> --
> "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and
> besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

What sucks is that, by the time I get a refund, I'll have spent almost 33% more
on shipping back damaged products.

So unprofessional.

and then I'll have to order one from DELL, which will cost almost $50.  Though I
might be able to get one through Newegg.

Regards,
A.D.B.

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> What sucks is that, by the time I get a refund, I'll have spent almost 33% more
> on shipping back damaged products.

Surely the seller pays the return postage if the item was faulty? In the 
UK at least they must by law. Also here if you paid for it on a credit 
card, the credit card company will help out, so much so that even just 
mentioning to a seller here that you've spoken to the credit card 
company will often force them to give you the refund.

Have you tried ebay?

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 02:00:50 -0400, Anthony D. Baye wrote:

> What sucks is that, by the time I get a refund, I'll have spent almost
> 33% more on shipping back damaged products.
> 
> So unprofessional.

Yeah, that's kinda crazy.

> and then I'll have to order one from DELL, which will cost almost $50. 
> Though I might be able to get one through Newegg.

Newegg would be a good option - generally cheaper and good reputation.

Jim


-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw

Post a reply to this message

scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > What sucks is that, by the time I get a refund, I'll have spent almost 33% more
> > on shipping back damaged products.
>
> Surely the seller pays the return postage if the item was faulty? In the
> UK at least they must by law.

There is no such assurance in the US that I am aware of, besides good Business
Practices.  I found the seller through Amazon, but their guidelines for sellers
don't really go into that except providing labels for international returns.

> Have you tried ebay?

I do not have an ebay account.  I've considered going through NewEgg, but from
reading the reviews, even the positive ones are only positive because of
customer service. It appears that most people will give a five star rating
whether they actually get a functional product or not, so long as customer
service is good.

Regards,
A.D.B.

Post a reply to this message

>> Surely the seller pays the return postage if the item was faulty? In the
>> UK at least they must by law.
>
> There is no such assurance in the US that I am aware of, besides good Business
> Practices.  I found the seller through Amazon, but their guidelines for sellers
> don't really go into that except providing labels for international returns.

That's a shame. The other thing here is that if you pay on credit card 
for the item and the seller is not following the rules, the credit card 
company is more than happy to get involved. But usually just mentioning 
to the seller you are contacting your credit company results in a refund 
pretty smartish.

I guess the only thing you can do is to leave a review for the seller.

Post a reply to this message

"Anthony D. Baye" <Sha### [at] spamnomorehotmailcom> wrote:
> scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > > What sucks is that, by the time I get a refund, I'll have spent almost 33% more
> > > on shipping back damaged products.
> >
> > Surely the seller pays the return postage if the item was faulty? In the
> > UK at least they must by law.
>
> There is no such assurance in the US that I am aware of, besides good Business
> Practices.  I found the seller through Amazon, but their guidelines for sellers
> don't really go into that except providing labels for international returns.
>
> > Have you tried ebay?
>
> I do not have an ebay account.  I've considered going through NewEgg, but from
> reading the reviews, even the positive ones are only positive because of
> customer service. It appears that most people will give a five star rating
> whether they actually get a functional product or not, so long as customer
> service is good.
>
> Regards,
> A.D.B.

Anybody have experience with Parts-People.com?

I don't normally like doing business outside of a few, carefully selected
websites (e.g. Amazon and NewEgg) but most of the reviews I've found for the
sellers on the usual sites are just talking about how "good" their customer
service is.

For the record: It's not that good. About all they've got going for them is that
they are polite and, so far, honest.

if it were a clothing store, that might be enough, but they're selling computer
parts, and I expect them to understand a bit more about computers than "It's a
US keyboard because there's a dollar-sign over the 4 key" (which, according to
google actually means very little, if anything)

Regards,
A.D.B.

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On 7/15/2015 8:52 AM, Anthony D. Baye wrote:
> "Anthony D. Baye" <Sha### [at] spamnomorehotmailcom> wrote:

>
> For the record: It's not that good. About all they've got going for them is that
> they are polite and, so far, honest.
>

Polite and honest are good. :-)

> if it were a clothing store, that might be enough, but they're selling computer
> parts, and I expect them to understand a bit more about computers than "It's a
> US keyboard because there's a dollar-sign over the 4 key" (which, according to
> google actually means very little, if anything)
>
Strangely, my UK k/board has a dollar-sign over the 4 key.
It is the # key, I look for.

With a lot or retailers, nowadays. It is up to you to spec it. The 
retailer just sits in the middle. The price of cheep components, I fear.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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> Strangely, my UK k/board has a dollar-sign over the 4 key.

Ditto here, the '$' is an important symbol for denoting string variable 
names in BASIC! I don't have too much use for the # symbol.

> With a lot or retailers, nowadays. It is up to you to spec it. The
> retailer just sits in the middle. The price of cheep components, I fear.

Yes. Often the seller doesn't know any detail at all on the item and the 
best you have to go on is the photo and any buyer reviews/comments.

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