Complaint Review: Repairs Universe Inc - Henderson Nevada

First, let it be noted that repairsuniverse.com specifically warns people to be critical of sites such as rip off report and other sites that house negative reviews for them. This is a red flag to begin with, and it’s a testament to the quantity of bad reviews that they are getting and their poor damage control. I am an actual customer with receipts, attached to this report. 

I purchased a 160GB headphone jack replacement for my IPOD classic (http://www.repairsuniverse.com/ipodclassic6thgenheadphoneaudiojackswitch160gb.html) for 9.99+shipping on August 16th. First, after purchasing there was no repair guide of any sort included. When I repeatedly contacted them about this they first sent me a link to their repair guides page, which had no guides for this topic. See here to verify that claim: http://www.repairsuniverse.com/fitting-instructions.html. They eventually caved to subsequent emails explaining this, giving me a youtube video made by a different company. This is deceptive advertising to begin with, but I was willing to let it slide.

The item showed up fairly quickly, and I was able to get the repair done with “their” instructions. The part did not work, however. How do I know this? First, the item was correctly installed, as the “HOLD” switch, which was also part of the same replacement component, worked correctly. Second, upon closer inspection comparing their component with my original it was clear that about a dozen very small surface mount resistors were missing from their part. Without these it is no wonder the jack didn’t work. Third, after ordering a part from a different seller (see item here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180544434611&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160 ) I was able to effortlessly repair the component using the exact same procedure. Point is that he part did not work and this is not a case of repair man incompetence. I emailed them describing the problem and they finally told me to send the product back at my expense.

Fast forward about a week. I get an email from them claiming: “The part we received is not ours. It does not have our manufacturers [sic] stamp imprinted on it plus it is corroded. We will not be refunding this order since this is not our merchandise.” I explain to them that this makes no sense but they are adamant on their position and even claim that I am being highly dishonest and attempting to defraud them. Let me spell out why this doesn’t make sense:

1) The original ipod component snapped during uninstall, but more importantly the part I sent them had all the surface mount resistors missing. No way could I have removed them myself, let alone have an ipod that functions prior to the part replacement. The part they received must either be a defective replacement from them or the seller. I’ve had the ipod for 5 years or so. If the component was defective on arrival I would have gotten it fixed by Apple for free.

2) In addition, this would have meant that I either had to send them the other replacement part that I purchased and claim it was broken in order for them to refund me, or I would have to have resent them their own. Since the other replacement part was substantially more expensive I would have been a very poor con artist if I bought the 18 dollar item in order to defraud someone for 10 dollars.

Even in light of this they claim that I have kept their merchandise and am attempting to defraud them even after providing a receipt for the Ebay purchase of the second item. At this point they have stopped responding to my emails and I’ve given hope on actually getting a refund without disputing the claim on my credit card. It is, however, highly dishonest of them and really unprofessional given the fact that all this stink is being made over a ten dollar transaction. Buyers beware, there are much better wholesalers out there. You might pay more but in this case you get what you pay for.