Returning Faulty Equipment

clairus99 · 22 May 2021 at 11:52AM

First of all I need to say.... bear with me, I have a disability that gives me cognitive issues at times, which is frustrating, and this complicates issues at times. This is really why I'm here in the first place, so please, no negative or rude responses necessary or helpful. i'm partly putting the whole story here as a record for me (and hoping that ultimately i won't need to, of course!). That said (and i apologise to those for whom that intro doesn't apply), I'm hoping this will be simple. I suppose I'm just checking I'm doing the right thing.

I bought some electrical equipment (specifically a home studio pack) that was highly recommended by a company whose website I've subscribed to for a couple of years. They're technically not a sales website, but they boast to only sell the equipment they recommend and use themselves. I waited ages for it to come back into stock - presumably they were out of stock because, as i say, they're technically not a shop, and apparently there's some kind of pandemic going on. knowing i was interested in buying it, they said they'd let me know when they were back in stock. out of the blue, early april, i got an email letting me know they'd had one come into stock. as excited as i was about it, i thought it was a bit odd that they just had the one, and i asked if it was a return. i was told it wasn't. thinking that ultimately it didn't matter, as long as it was working and all good, i bought it, and received the next day. in my mind, there were very minor signs that it could have been owned by someone else, just little signs, but, again, i figured - probably in my excitement - that it was okay, as long as it all worked okay.

like i said, i have cognitive issues, and i'm not really a techie type, so it took me a while to set up - even as simple as it was to put together. but i noticed issues. thinking maybe my non-techie-ness was to blame i had to ask someone else to have a look - he's not much more techie minded than me, and it took a little bit of a while to get around to looking at, but he agreed that there was an unidentifiable (by us) problem. we asked the advice of 3 other people who know more than us - none who have physically been here - and, long story short, they agreed that it definitely sounded like there was a fault with the equipment.

i got back to the company, who put me onto someone at another company - not sure why but why would i not be happy with that? ultimately, he agreed that the equipment had a fault, and recommended returning it. he sent a cc of that email to the company. in the meantime, the company have responded and told me i need to swap out on or other of the components, and arrange that with the manufacturer.

so here are my feelings. i paid the full price in the belief that i was being sold brand new equipment, presumably with the normal distance selling type laws (which is moot anyway, because it's faulty, and there doesn't appear to be any dispute about that). in my view, i should be able to return it and get a refund, and let them sort out any issues with the manufacturer, or their supplier. am i right? i shouldn't have to be swapping bits out - especially at my own time and cost.

the only possible complication i see - and i don't believe it should be be an issue, but, just in case they raise it - is that i no longer have the original packaging. i had wanted this equipment for months and knew i wasn't going to change my mind. so i got rid of it after a few days (the boxes, etc). as long as i carefully pack it in returning it (and, believe me, i would go OTT in ensuring i did!), that should be acceptable, right? i would only imagine that should be an issue if it were all working and able to be resold. this is faulty, so it's not resellable, therefore, original packaging not needed. well that's my logic, anyway - i just wonder what the legal thing is.

the customer service has been pretty crap in all of this, and i've politely but firmly told them so, and tweeted the company founder to get his input, hopefully. ive been paying a monthly subscription to them for about 3 years (and that ain't cheap) and feel like i deserve a bit better support. they won't be getting that any more if this isn't properly sorted out - and, to be honest, they've already lost my trust and damaged their reputation, which is a shame, because before that i thought they were great.

anyway....