I am out $500 because this company wants to save $2 in shipping material.
Received struts and shocks thrown loose into oversize boxes with no buffer material.
They were not protected and pierced the boxes dozens of times. UPS refuses to help as it was a problem in packaging material. There was no way to determine if they were broken so we went ahead and installed them professionaly. What a mistake that was. I wish we had a chance to see the delivery real time and refuse it. It was left on the front door with no contact.
I had to pay to install the shocks, had to pay to remove the struts, had to pay to install new ones (fixed the issue with the bad strut)
I have to pay to send it back. They said they approved the amazon return but amazon system says waiting for the seller to approve.
They want me to send the items back at my expense with no recourse once they are shipped. No rma number, no address offered. No shipping label nothing. Just lip service that sounds friendly but goes to a dead end.
Other reviewers say you never see a refund so why even light more money on fire? For more heart ache?
A quick google search uncovered a clear pattern of angry customers from coast to coast. So I am eating the $170 and moving on with lesson learned. I will research merchants better in the future.
I am contacting KYB corporate to see what can be done about this. Filed an amazon claim but I have no confidence that will be successful. Apparently the business owner knows exactly how to work the Amazon system to continue this kind of activity daily.
David
Newhall,#2Author of original report
Tue, April 08, 2014
The merchant ultimately issued a refund. As I promised I would I am posting there was an ultimate resolution. It was far beyonddifficult and most people would give up but all in all it was ultimately rectified. It took the involvement of third parties and many many hours of wasted needless correspondence.
David
Newhall,#3Author of original report
Thu, April 03, 2014
The merchant has agreed to accept the return and has provided a shipping label at their expense.
The items are now in their possession and I will update the full resolution should I receive a refund.
I have posted this prior but it may have been too short to be approved I am not sure. Reposting this information so the seller will release my refund.
David
Newhall,#4Author of original report
Wed, March 26, 2014
As expected, I knew this thief would have an angle to beat the Amazon A-Z claim system. He approves the claim so the system shows hes compliant in the customers favor and somehow two minutes later he changes it to denied. Reason: return contains hazardous waste. Just laughable. It looks like KYB is ultimately going to fix this for me and for them. This is getting interesting.
David
Newhall,#5Author of original report
Mon, March 24, 2014
Wanted to update what this merchant does to dodge the amazon a-z guarantee system. He accepts the request and puts into amazons system he will accept the return. Then two minutes later you get another message from the A-Z system saying your goods are hazardous materials and the seller refuses to accept them.
David
Newhall,#6Author of original report
Sun, March 23, 2014
Amazon filed a claim against this seller and magically 10 minutes later my return request was finally responded to: Denied due to hazardous waste. Laughable. Heres the last message I will be sending to the merchant.
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I have found over a dozen reports online describing my experience exactly dating back many many years. Some of the reports are absolutely verbatim what I have experienced, sounds like I wrote them myself. My only fault is not immediately contacting you and amazon at the first sign of problems with the delivery. But being in the suspension business you know customers are handcuffed by the wait times associated with installation and removal of potential junk items. It can take time to discover a problem and that is not fair at all.
I see what is going on here and I am not going to be jerked around because you choose as a company policy to ship items unprotected, knowing that they have little chance of arriving unscathed. Why the struts are shipped in thin single layer over sized cardboard boxes just taped together is something only you have the answers to.
I am out $500 total to date on labor and parts. On amazon the return process just kept telling me waiting for sellers response. Its not even the money, now its the point. I see people all over the country returning items in good faith and getting no refunds. This should not cost me a nickle more than it has, and the whole process is not consumer friendly. Is it really that hard to put some packing material in the boxes to avoid the issues you have almost daily? You think I am going to shell out another $40 and get burned on no refund no contact? Nah.
If this was simply a glitch in Amazons system, for that I apologize but all information leads to being strung along with no ultimate satisfaction. Do you comprehend that my KYB strut was dragged across the ground outside the box? It was shipped coast to coast just exposed to whatever UPS does to things. People throwing the boxes around with the strut shafts outside the boxes on both of them. I had to remove both the struts because there was no way to know if the other one was 100%.
Wherever the shortcomings are I am not interested in trying to discover. I am taking my experience and my grievance to the masses. I have reported my experience with BBB,North Carolina Dept of Justice, Ripoffreport, Google, Yellow Pages, among others, and tomorrow I will be seeking California Consumer Protection. I am assuming you have the amazon process worked out to your benefit just like eBay sellers know how to work the system so I will expect my claim to be denied on some technicality that doesn't involve my purchase.
Why don't you prorate my refund on the struts part of the package ($110) and send me a return shipping label. Sounds easier than the other ways its going to go. If you find fighting these things to be a better business practice or you enjoy the game of fighting consumer protections, we can do that to. I really dont mind, I just dont get why it has to get so serious to do normal business transactions. My state protects me from exactly what has happened here regardless of your posted policies on amazon. We passed these laws a few years ago so we can go online and buy with total confidence. We are no longer bound by the laws of where the item originates. You send an internet purchase to CA and its on our terms at that point forward.
It looks like your a pro at this so we may have to take some time, and a few other platforms, to understand each other. Amazon left me no options but to file the claim. They actually did it not me. I simply wanted to inquire about my options if this went south. When that happened, magically there was a response filed on my return request just minutes later denying it for hazardous waste reasons. So you only replied to my return request once a claim was entered.
Next time pony up for a real shipping grade box and some brown paper. For all I know the strut was damaged prior to being packaged. They were not strapped down. Dont hose customers over a measly $100
A copy of this correspondence will be forwarded to Attorney General Ron Coopers Office as an additional attempt at resolution