Been accused of returning a differant item from purchased

bfarrell

 Hi all. Could really do with some guidance on what to do. I bought a car stereo off a uk enternet retailer who has several shops through out the uk. The unit was bought just last month (janurary 2021) and was delivered quite quickly. Few days later I went to fit the unit into my vehicle and found it to be faulty. Contacted the shop by phone and they were happy for me to return the unit to be checked in their workshop and exchanged if there was a fault. I boxed the unit up and filed a return on their website, a return which was paid by the shop. I returned the item through the post office which was tracked. Two days later I recieved an e-mail from the shop to say the item I returend was not the one they sent out to me. They said the serial number on the unit indicates it was never a stocked item by themselves but the serial number on the box was correct. I was mortified and confused because I honestly sent back what was originally in the box when i recieved it. I bought the stereo using Paypal credit so decided to seek advice from paypal. They opened a dispute on the grounds " item not discribed" but denied me the claim 2 days after. The shop have informed me through e-mail that they contacted the stereo manufacture and found the stereo in the box was sold from a completly different retail shop on October 2020. I'm really worried about this because i have spent alot of money here and have nothing to show for it and dont know what i can do about it.

Aylesbury_Duck

bfarrell said:

 Hi all. Could really do with some guidance on what to do. I bought a car stereo off a uk enternet retailer who has several shops through out the uk. The unit was bought just last month (janurary 2021) and was delivered quite quickly. Few days later I went to fit the unit into my vehicle and found it to be faulty. Contacted the shop by phone and they were happy for me to return the unit to be checked in their workshop and exchanged if there was a fault. I boxed the unit up and filed a return on their website, a return which was paid by the shop. I returned the item through the post office which was tracked. Two days later I recieved an e-mail from the shop to say the item I returend was not the one they sent out to me. They said the serial number on the unit indicates it was never a stocked item by themselves but the serial number on the box was correct. I was mortified and confused because I honestly sent back what was originally in the box when i recieved it. I bought the stereo using Paypal credit so decided to seek advice from paypal. They opened a dispute on the grounds " item not discribed" but denied me the claim 2 days after. The shop have informed me through e-mail that they contacted the stereo manufacture and found the stereo in the box was sold from a completly different retail shop on October 2020. I'm really worried about this because i have spent alot of money here and have nothing to show for it and dont know what i can do about it.

Every so often, a thread pops up where someone wants to return something and have discovered they can't, and someone will  pop up and suggest they buy another, swap the boxes and return the product in the new box for the refund.  This situation is the possible consequence of that sort of gameplay/fraud.  You're either a victim of someone else's fraud, or you're playing the game yourself.

On the face of it, the evidence seems to be totally against you.  They are quoting serial numbers and seem to have the evidence that you've returned something they didn't sell you.  In all honesty, all you can do is send them a letter before action with the threat of small claims court, but bear in mind that they seem to have good evidence to back up their side of the story.

Sandtree

bfarrell said:

They opened a dispute on the grounds " item not discribed" but denied me the claim 2 days after. The shop have informed me through e-mail that they contacted the stereo manufacture and found the stereo in the box was sold from a completly different retail shop on October 2020. I'm really worried about this because i have spent alot of money here and have nothing to show for it and dont know what i can do about it.

Why would you open it as "not described"? What grounds did they give for denying the claim?

Normally if you can show the item has been returned PayPal will side with you, if the merchant states they are not accepting the return for whatever reason then PayPal may rule in their favour but will want evidence that the item was returned to you before closing the case. 

It would seem the merchant's checks on items returned for change of mind etc are not as thorough as for faulty items hence someone appears to have managed to do a switchout. 

Spank

The retailer said it was "not described", not the OP

Sandtree

Spank said:

The retailer said it was "not described", not the OP

bfarrell said:

I bought the stereo using Paypal credit so decided to seek advice from paypal. They opened a dispute on the grounds " item not discribed" but denied me the claim 2 days after. 

The OP is actually saying PayPal opened the dispute on the ground of "not described" but it fundamentally feels the wrong category as the OP stated it was faulty so hence asking why they'd agree to PayPal using that option.