[PcarPhil]

Hey there Pelicans,

I've got a bit of a situation that I'm trying to figure out. I'm curious how the Pelican brain trust would proceed. Here goes:

Recently I was considering purchasing a new expensive aftermarket part for one of my cars. The supplier is what I consider a 'boutique' parts company. Basically a couple guys that make some neat parts.

I had never seen this part in person but it looked nice in the pics but I wasn't 100% sure it was exactly what I wanted. I decided to check their return policy (part of their terms and conditions web page) and at the time the policy was pretty simple - "return within 30 days for a full refund as long as the part is unused". Ok that seems fair enough so I went ahead and purchased the part on their website thinking if it wasn't what I wanted I could simply return the part for a refund.

The part arrives and I spend a few days trying to figure out if I wanted to install it or not. In person there were a few things I did not care for in the design of the part that was not readily apparent in the pics on the seller's website. Also trying to get clarification on a few specifics was proving difficult.

Within a week of receiving the part I decided it wasn't for me. The part is new and unused. I never attempted installing it on my car. I send the company an email explaining the situation and telling them I would like to return the part for a full refund minus shipping costs (per their terms and conditions page). I apologized for wanting to return this expensive part as I too am a small business owner and dealing with these types of returns is a pain. I even offered the part for sale locally to my car buddies at a slight $$$ loss of my own instead of having to pack it up and ship it back to the company for a refund however nobody stepped up.

The next day the company replies saying no problem send back the part and you'll be refunded minus a 25% restocking fee. Uhh... what? The seller says yeah per our terms and conditions page we charge a 25% restocking fee. I check their terms and conditions page and sure enough there is now wording about a 25% restocking fee. Great...

I check Google's cache of the terms and conditions page and while they don't have my exact purchase date cached they have the cache of the week before and sure enough there was no mention of a restocking fee on the cached page. I am 99.9% sure they added this wording sometime after I made the purchase.

I replied to the seller saying the terms when I made the purchase simply said "return within 30 days for a full refund as long as the part is unused", and I included a link to the Google cached page from the week prior to my purchase. He replied simply saying this is 'inaccurate'. I asked the seller when they changed their terms to include the 25% restock fee but he never responded.

So... now I'm trying to figure out how to proceed. The 25% restock fee amounts to roughly $175 which is not the end of the world however I'm a bit annoyed at this situation. Do I just suck it up and deal with the restock fee? Or do I get my credit card company involved and try and get the full refund as per the terms and conditions on the date I purchased the part?

Please understand I'm not trying to screw this 'boutique' parts company. I do think it's a bit unfair that they changed their terms after I made the purchase and now want these updated terms to apply to my purchase from before these updated terms were in place. Of course hindsight is always 20/20 and looking back I should have clarified with the seller that I wasn't 100% sure this part was for me and there would be a possibility I would be returning it.

How would you guys proceed in this situation? Thanks in advance for the advice,