Customer service... I swear people are getting dumber
 

I ordered an alternator for my son's Rav a few months ago from an ebay seller with a lifetime warranty on their alternator (first mistake)

Forward to now, the voltage regulator is going bad. I contact the seller letting them know I'm getting pretty extreme voltage fluctuations and that I'll need a replacement. They reply that they're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and that if I'll just package up the old one and send it back, they'll gladly send me a new one!

Hey!!! F'king great!!! Let me remove the alternator from my car, send it to you, and wait for a new one! That won't be inconvenient at all! Holy SH.T have people gotten dumber??

An alternative is you pay for a new one, and then when they get your old one, you get a refund. That equally sucks.

But it's not really any different than if you bought it at a FLAPS. You'd still have to take the bad one into the store to exchange it. The only difference is waiting for the shipping.

They are hoping you and others will have the same attitude and just go away . It is a very short sighted business philosophy. I would buy locally if possible, make the repair and send the deceased unit back . In the end you will have a spare .

That's actually an acceptable thing for me. I get that they run the risk of a customer not returning the allegedly failed unit. I would have no problem paying for the replacement and having them credit me once the return is received.

I'm going to ask if they'll just issue a credit for the failed unit once it is received and order a better alternator if they'll do that.

The problem is not the quality of the customer service. Its the honesty of the customers they sell to (not a reflection on the OP).

Sadly, it's the honesty of everyone. In that situation, I'd be concerned about getting my money back after the second purchase too. These days, there are too many crapweasels out there trying to scam anyone that they can both customers and sellers.

I know and I get why they're doing what they're doing. How do they know my alternator is actually bad?

But the suggestion that I send them the failed unit and they'll send me a replacement after saying "I'm sorry for the inconvenience" of having had the original unit fail is just dumbfounding. The failure is a slight inconvenience where I can still drive the car. Taking out the failing unit, sending it back, and waiting for the new one... now THAT is an inconvenience where I, or rather my son, loses the ability to drive the vehicle.

Out of curiosity, was there a core charge?

No there was not. No core required. I thought that was really weird.

I like buying from my local store.
Looking at the guy behind the counter makes it hard for him to ignore me or give me some dopey runaround stories.
He will most likely take care of my problem quickly.

I don't do anything with ebay anymore.

I'm typically that way. But they offered a product with a 1 year warranty for a lot more than the one I bought with a lifetime warranty. I had no idea the lifetime meant I'd be replacing alternators for the rest of my life.

I'm assuming the alt that you bought was new. That's usually the only reason why there would be no core charge.

hahahha

Last year I bought rotors and pads from Parts Geek for one of our Land Rovers. It came as a "kit". When I started going through the parts I found one of the rotors was not correct. So I contacted Parts Geek to get a replacement.

They told me that I needed to send the entire "kit" back to them then they would send out the correct "kit". Note that the "kit" contained individual boxes for each rotor and pads were in 2 box for front and rear. So the notion of "kit" is a bit off as I'm certain some guy went through the warehouse and pulled individual parts.

I told Parts Geek that if they can't fix this by sending one rotor then I wouldn't do business with them in the future AND tell everyone I can about their pitiful service.

Ended up getting a rotor elsewhere to avoid the delay and expense. Now here I am telling everyone I can about this and not doing business with Parts Geek

Remember that many folks can't afford to buy a 2nd unit while waiting for the first one to be return/refunded. Also, some would be offended because they would thing "these con artists aren't going to refund me and I'll be out the price of two alternators". Its a no win for both parties.

I haven't been in retail in MANY years (thank goodness), but I've had many folks tell me that they could be trusted and get offended when I clearly didn't.

I've also had some seriously stupid crap. Two instances that I can remember. A guy bought a can of wax. I think it may have been Nu Finish. He came back a few hours later, with the can completely empty. The can said "money back guaranty if not satisfied" so he got his money back. It was clearly a scam. I'd have liked to tell him where he could stick it.

In another case, we had an add that said "if you purchase product number 1 and product number 2, we'll give you product number 2 for free." THe guy came in and bought product number 1 and left. He called and complained because we didn't hand him product number 2. I told him to pound sand. He called the toll free number, and I got a call from corporate that I had to deliver product number 2 to him at his home. Fortunately, his home was probably only a mile from the store.

A separate incident, when in college, I was working at a Publix grocery store. Across the street was an Albertsons. One night and old lady came into Publix wanting to get her money back on a gallon of milk. The problem was that it was Albertsons brand milk. The manage tried to explain that we didn't sell Albertsons milk because they were the competition and they were across the street, but she was having none of it. She insisted that she never went to Albertsons and had bought the milk at Publix. He eventually refunded her. In her case, I think she was confused more than malicious.

^^^^

I was in HEB (a huge Texas grocery chain for those that don't know) a couple of weeks ago and this woman was returning a few potted tree looking bushes/plants because she basically killed them. Her version was that they died.

The manager held it together pretty well but I was about to yell at her and tell her to adjust her expectations.

Many years ago, our customer service line got a call from a chap who advised our milk cartons were leaking in his fridge. I was directed to take replacements to him and send the leaking cartons to quality control. Done and done. A couple of weeks later, same thing. QC advised it was not a production fault, but that the cartons had been dropped on their corners.
When the third call came, I advised the customer that our product was not meeting his needs and he might consider purchasing our competitors product.
A few months later I was talking to the sales representative for the other company and asked him if he had ever heard from the guy. Seems he had and had made several trips to the home to replace product which had been (probably) willfully damaged. I rather enjoyed the rant from my competitor for referring the scammer to his company. :D

Best
Les

The normal way to do this is they your Credit Card info and if you don't return the old one, they charge you for a new one.

There are times when I wish I was likely to say to people what others can't/won't. I don't because I know it's not likely to change the moron one bit, but will likely just make a situation worse.