Wrong airspeed sent and shipping costs

Camillo · #1 09-07-2007, 04:40 AM

Hi.

I ordered a United Airspeed with outer knots scale and inner mph scale.
I also ordered a custom range marks. I received an outer mph scale a.i. (and inner knots) without colour marks.

I wrote to the company complaining of this and they answered me to send item back as per return & exchange sheet. In such sheet, it is stated that COD returns/exchanges are not accepted. Since I live in Italy, I paid about 90 USD for shipping. Why should I pay shipping costs to USA (and probably one more time from there to Italy) if it was not my mistake?

I wrote again to the company asking this. No answer. Now the 30 days return period is about to expire. I don't know what to do.

I would like to know from you of praxis and/or if you have any suggestion.

Thanks.
Camillo

briand · #2 09-07-2007, 09:37 AM

That sounds pretty standard. Whenever I have ordered anything, yes even if its the sellers mistake they always expect you to pay the shipping back to them. They always pay for the shipping when sending the replacement back to me though.
You should be able to do some kind of really slow boat mail or something for around $10 to $15. I have ordered many items from Italy and UK in the past and that's about what I paid for the smaller packages. Box it real good, take it to your local post office and check it out.

Mel · #3 09-07-2007, 09:47 AM

This is one of the reasons that I use credit cards. If there is a problem, just refuse the charges. When they don't get paid, their attitude improves.

Paul Thomas · #4 09-07-2007, 12:23 PM

Credit cards are we know them don't exist in Europe; there it's more like a debit card... yet they have debit cards just to confuse you.

Radomir · #5 09-07-2007, 12:57 PM

I don't know what shady outfits you guys are dealing with, but no I don't think you should pay for shipping back if it was merchant's mistake. And from my experience, that's not a common thing with any reputable merchant.

Mel · #6 09-07-2007, 01:03 PM

The few times I've had problems like this, the merchant shipped out the correct item with a pre-paid shipping label for return of the incorrect item.

briand · #7 09-07-2007, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radomir

I don't know what shady outfits you guys are dealing with, but no I don't think you should pay for shipping back if it was merchant's mistake. And from my experience, that's not a common thing with any reputable merchant.

One of those shady outfits you refer to is Vans. I had defective rudder pedal parts and I had to cough up the $$ to ship the parts back. They wouldn't replace them until they had the defective ones first. I didn't think much of it because like I said before this has been my experience with other vendors as well.

No, I didn't ask for them to cover the cost I just figured they would not. I was just glad to not have to pay for the new parts.

Camillo · #8 09-08-2007, 12:43 PM

Finally, I got an answer. They apologized and offered me to send instrument directly to Mid continental (to have plate replaced) or to them. I chose the latter.
I will pay shipping in advance, put the receipt inside the box and they will give money back on my credit card. It seems all is going well. Customer service appeared to be a bit slow.

Thank-you for your answers.

Anyway, I discovered that shipping costs from USA to Italy are far cheaper than the opposite way (almost 1/2). Maybe atlantic jet-streams...