Poor handling of SNAD returns

soolin

I've just had an interesting one, bought an item from a UK business seller who had all the hallmarks of a drop shipper but with good delivery times and a UK business address.

Got my item and it was the completely wrong colour. Contacted seller who got back to me within 48 hours saying he would give me a discount of the right one if I kept the one I had and re bought the correct one. Otherwise I could post it back. I didn't actually mind the colour I received, but asked them to give me the discount as a part refund and then let me re order the right colour. That gor sorted out eventually and I reordered.

New one came and this time it was completely wrong, as an example I ordered a green t shirt and got a pink hat. Told the seller, got the same offer as before but this time I didn't want the wrong item at all, it is completely useless to me so I insisted on a return. They wouldn't send a label so I opened an SNAD claim. Seller then sent a label which was out of date, I got it on the 2nd May and it needed posting by the 1st May, and was for a large letter under 100g when I am returning a parcel that weight 300g.

Emailed them again and they said it was fine, don't take it to a post office just drop it in a mail sack, untracked and without a receipt and as soon as their warehouse got it back and checked it they would refund me. Obviously I declined and phoned ebay who said they would call the seller to sort this out. Phoned ebay again yesterday and was given an immediate refund direct by ebay as they had been unable to contact the seller for a new label.

It struck me this is a clever ploy to get out of refunding, they just keep sending the wrong things and either people do post them back and they get lost, or they don't bother. Or, as in my case ebay step in and refund so seller doesn't lose out.

Seller has fair feedback, 99% and it runs into tens of thousands, I've bought from them before and they are very cheap, easily as cheap as AliExpress but with a 7 day delivery window rather than 30 days.

I've also left my first negative for many many years

Gary123456790

Sounds like hard work for the seller but there must be enough money in it.

On a related-ish note, I buy stock direct from China - it is cheap items, usually £1-£2 each but i'm buying 10 or 20 of them each time - the last few months i've had a few orders from China arrive within 7 days and delivered by a UK courier, with their label stuck over an international label.

It seems in that if the order is a reasonable value they send them by some kind of faster air mail and then pass them on to a courier in the UK. Another variation on the UK fulfilment house model.

kangoora

I had a strange one today.

Bought a cheap charger (£7) yesterday evening around 8 pm on Ebay for a laptop I picked up at a carboot (£8) on Sunday. Seller was Hong Kong based so I was resigned to a 2-3 week wait even though delivery was promised much quicker.

It arrived this dinnertime, less than 24 hours after placing the order! They must hold stock in UK somewhere close to me.......

Even better news, laptop worked fine after installing a few security updates and battery life great for a 7 year old laptop. I was a bit worried I'd wasted £15 and I'd just have someones dead laptop.

ThinkingOfLinking

kangoora wrote: »

I was a bit worried I'd wasted £15 and I'd just have someones dead laptop.

I have sold dead laptops before, making around £45 (clearly stating BROKEN FAULTY FOR SPARES/REPAIRS etc) so you could still have been OK had it not been working!