Surplus Computers RMA is all lies

It seems Surplus Computers has a shady business practice when it comes to sending back non working merchandise. I purchased an MP3 player that worked initially, but became defective through no fault of my incorrect operations. I contacted Surplus Computers and spoke with a technician. He had me run a series of tests and told me that the unit was dead and to send it back.

I returned the item within the guidelines that were specified on the website. Jadi contacted me after the RMA was received and told me I needed to wait for a replacement to arrive. On 4/25 I was sent an email notifying me that the unit was not in stock and that I needed to go to the website and choose another product or I can have a credit issued back to my account of $42.99. See email for exact verbiage. I opted for the refund as nothing on their website interested me.

Email 1:

"Dear Customer,

Regarding your current RMA # 860631

The following item(s) are no longer in inventory.

1. Ces11083 PNY 512MB Vibe MP3 WMA MP3 FM player

Please go to our website and choose another product or I will issue a
credit to your account.

The total credit will be $ 42.99

Please advise of your choice by replying to this email within 10 days.


Thank You.

The RMA Department
Surplus Computers"

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About 7 business days went by, but no refund was issued to my account. Suspicious I decided to call Jadi and speak with her over the phone. She apologized for the delay and told me she would process the refund. After 3 more business days the refund was credited back to my account but there was a 20% fee deducted.


My response email:

"Jadi,

I was only given a partial credit for my returned item that was
defective. I should have been refunded a full $42.99 and not the
partial $34.39. You need to credit another $8.60 back to my credit
card. I have taken preventative measures and contacted my credit card
company of this error. They said I needed to contact you again so I can
provide them with your response. Please reply as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Jared"

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email back from Jadi

"Jared, I don't have the authority to process refunds. The reason why you
only received $34.39 is because our tech
tested the item and it was working, therefore as per our return
policy(http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/Main.aspx?html=returns), a
twenty percent restocking fee was applied.


Jadi
RMA Department
www.surpluscomputers.com"

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Not once was I told the unit was confirmed working and there would be a 20% fee on my refund or was I give the opportunity to have the unit sent back to me. Again the email mentioned I would receive a full refund of $42.99. You can see that I am being duped out of the $8.60 from this company.

To be honest is the 8.60 worth the aggrivation and time? My guess is you make more than 8.60 an hour. I'd just let it be, my time is much more important to me.

Like Ramlean said, is the $8.60 worth your time. Hit the bastiges where it hurts instead; rate them badly at resellerratings.com and any other place they are listed at, such as BizRate.com or Yahoo stores or wherever else they might be at. Be factual with your ratings, but knock the hell out of them for their RMA and support service.

It was worth my time. I just needed to send over the details to my CC company and they took it from there. As of 6/7 I have my $8.60 credited back.

im glad you got the $8.60 back, its the principle of the whole thing guys, 20% is bs. Now if it were me i would go further and leave a negative Reseller Rating.

Nathan0490 said:

im glad you got the $8.60 back, its the principle of the whole thing guys, 20% is bs. Now if it were me i would go further and leave a negative Reseller Rating.

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To be honest, 20% restock for a working item isn't really B.S.

From a vendor perspective, if we take back an item that is supposedly defective, but it is actually working, now we're stuck with an opened and used item, that the manufacturer won't take back. So, our only option is to try and re-sell it.

From a customer perspective now, how much of a discount would you expect to get on an open and used item? I'd be willing to wager most people would say at least 20%. Bingo, that's where the restocking fee goes. Usually though, we have to discount it more like 30% or more, so we lose money on them.

Many people erroneously think that us vendors just pocket the restocking fees and that it's some sort of profit lever for us. I wish In fact, returns cost us a lot of money, even with restocking fees.




That's not to say I think this case was handled well. The OP should have been contacted, and had the option to have the item returned. All I'm doing is defending the 20% restock fee

TankGuys said:

To be honest, 20% restock for a working item isn't really B.S.

From a vendor perspective, if we take back an item that is supposedly defective, but it is actually working, now we're stuck with an opened and used item, that the manufacturer won't take back. So, our only option is to try and re-sell it.

From a customer perspective now, how much of a discount would you expect to get on an open and used item? I'd be willing to wager most people would say at least 20%. Bingo, that's where the restocking fee goes. Usually though, we have to discount it more like 30% or more, so we lose money on them.

Many people erroneously think that us vendors just pocket the restocking fees and that it's some sort of profit lever for us. I wish In fact, returns cost us a lot of money, even with restocking fees.




That's not to say I think this case was handled well. The OP should have been contacted, and had the option to have the item returned. All I'm doing is defending the 20% restock fee

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I agree that a 20% restocking fee is fine as long as I know that they tested the item as working and I decide I don't want it returned. I was never given the option to have it sent back and was ONLY told I would receive my full refund. So it was a surprise to see a 20% fee deducted and it ****ed me off.

10-15% is the industry standard for restocking fees. and the item wasnt working for him.

I have never paid a restocking fee myself. Since I never returned an item that was not actually broken or malfunctioned beyond my control. I have had many items that were broke out of the box. If it did not meet my needs, or had time to look for something else that does and.. hey xmas gift/b-day for someone. lol ( if offered credit)

Reading the emails, it looks pretty much they are in the red here. I would take the time off the forums and general fun I have online to make good and 'check' the vendor.

Now if I was told upfront, well I would work with them and possibly take a hit. If I liked them. If they change up on me, well I will make it an 'adventure'.

Don't worry Tankguy.. if I had more hits on my site.
I would let you "impression" on my domain for free. It is a give and take in this world. I know you do the best you can. That is hard to come by. I would hook you up like you do, for so many folks on the net.

Ri0 said:

... I was never given the option to have it sent back and was ONLY told I would receive my full refund. So it was a surprise to see a 20% fee deducted and it ****ed me off.

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Yea, that's bad service by them, no debate there

I would have contacted the buyer to let them have the option, but that's just me.


Returns suck for everyone, to be honest. Unless the item is just plain broken and won't work at all, someone is getting the shaft.

Why am I not surprised?
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8196.html
-Dave

baltoos said:

Why am I not surprised?
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8196.html
-Dave

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Heh, looks like they have a history of testing items that are dead as "working," once they receive the RMA. The MP3 player I sent back was completey dead and not working. Filthy crooks! How have they stayed in business?

I have had some good luck buying from these guys, mostly small parts and stuff.

But, they sell stuff onEbay, and I got a laptop from them, listed as not working, and a T22. (Uses PC100 SDRAM memory.) What arrived, was a T23, in almost perfect shape, and when I put the RIGHT memory (PC133) in, it booted right up. It had 4 or 5 post-it stickers on it, saying that they tried about 10 different sticks of memory, and kept getting beeps. "Tried 20 diff sticks, got 2 diff beep codes. Bad memory socket? Sell on Ebay!"

So, yes they have some "tech" problems, but my newest T23 was $75. It should have been $175.

Their loss, my gain!

steve

baltoos said:

Why am I not surprised?
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8196.html
-Dave

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Seems like they got new management, an ex-ebay scammer....

since their rating was fairly good for a while, then went right down the toilet.

I have ordered a few things from them a long time ago and things weren't too bad. given the pages of bad reviews, looks like its goodbye to them.

i would of told them send the item back to me to confirm it is working and then you can take the money back off my CC.



but sure it is $8.60 - but if people dont stand up and doing something about it, then people will keep getting ripped off.


It is not the money - it is the principle! behind it.

To update this, I again won an ebay auction from them. On the 25th of August.

To this time, I have heard NOTHING from them. No shipping number, no "sorry, we've been ****ing off." No, WTF are you? Nothing!

I've already left some ****ty feedback, and have filed with ebay, but still nothing.

Tomorrow, the soonest I can, I'm filing with Paypal, to get my money back.

steve

To continue the story;

I filed with Ebay as well as Paypal, which only did one thing. These ID10TS finally shipped out my lappy. It came today.

The reason I got it, was because it was dirt-cheap. It was a "buy-it-now," of $49.99, plus $17 shipping. It was so cheap, because they stated the HDD controller was bad,and it needed a HDD, battery and memory.

I get it tonight, put in a battery, mermory, and a HDD. I'm currently formatting the HDD, so I can install 2000. It is formatting just perfectly!

Not only does this company have some pi**-poor business practices, but their tech support guy must be dumber than a "box-o-rox!"

This is the second lappy I have gotten from them, the first was billed as an IBM T22, that wouldn't run any memory they put in it. They tried 5 or 6 sticks. It arrived as a T23, that runs different speed SDRAM. Put in the right memory, and it fired right up.

ID10TS!!

steve

Well, I found out the ONLY problem with this lappy.

The CMOS battery was UNPLUGGED! It was still good, just unplugged! (Yes, an unplugged CMOS battery will cause all kinds of diagnostic problems, in an IBM lappy.)

I swear their tech guy couldn't find his posterior, if he was sitting on both hands!!

steve