This the response from the company, pretty solid IMO. Thank you for reaching out to us. I have reviewed the forum and the posts. I know exactly of the situation that is being discussed. And although I do not wish to discount anyones concerns, I have to tell you that this claim is highly blemished and does not include the full details. * Let me begin by informing you that we do have a restocking fee under certain circumstances. I will highlight the main points of our return policy so that I do not drag this out too much * The first sentence in our return policy is: We do not charge a restocking fee on items returned to us when returned when the items are returned to us unused, uninstalled, and in their original packaging and condition. * Then there are some other statements relevant: Items not in their original packaging, Items that have been installed, Items that have been used, Or items that are otherwise not in their original condition are not returnable.* We may, at our discretion, accept the above listed items with the assessment of a 20% restocking fee. * If your order originally qualified for and was shipped free, our actual cost of shipping will be deducted from the refund amount. * As you can clearly see by the customers initial post on the forum, he clearly installed the merchandise. The product packaging was not the only reason why the customer was assessed a restocking fee. Aside from the manufacturers packaging being marked all over, the product had slight signs of installation. Because of this, we have to repackage the product (not a huge deal), but unfortunately has to be sold at a discount due to now being a used product. * The customers refund was indeed less the amount of $83.18, $63.31 for the restocking fee, and $19.87 for the original shipping cost. If it is any evidence, the customer has already filed an A-Z claim with Amazon and we defended it. Amazon did side with us, and did so because our policy clearly indicates the restocking fee procedures. * I assure you that at no time do we wish to lose a customer because of these policies but unfortunately we are a business and must be able to cover our losses. We now have to sell a new item as used because the customer was simply unhappy with the height of it. If the customer was interested, we would certainly be able to provide him with a discount on a future order in order to retain his business. * Also, just a note, we do have a storefront here in Cedar Park. * Please understand that there are always two sides of any story and when an individual is upset with their transaction, they will usually try to make it sound more extreme than what it really is. * * Thank you, Jason L. Customer Service
Take a picture of the box with the sales price clearly marked on the showroom floor and I'll retract my statement. My point is valid. If everyone bought stuff from you at full price and returned it, you'd be losing money on cc fees. Maybe thats not your dept. Regarding the seat and supposed install marks, take a pic of those as well so we can judge. It's not like the second it would be installed on someone elses bike it wouldn't have the same marks. If the seat cover was marked I can understand. My impression from the poster is that it was clicked on, sat on, too high, reboxed. It would be like me telling the snap on guy I want a deal on a tool chest because theres dirt on the wheels from unloading off the truck. It's not a carbon fiber wheel or something. Btw, I've bought plenty of stuff from you guys and never had a single issue. Now that you are here, how about an adv discount
I have actually just instructed my team to take it and list it on Amazon so you can actually view the listing here > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031BL8II You will see it listed as a "used-like new" listing and it should be activated in the next couple days. As for a request for discount, I am not sure I can post anything specific because of the forum rules. Just give us a call and identify yourselves as an ADV rider and we will have something for you. -Jason
Ah, what a sucky situation! It really sounds like a bummer. The vendor (from what we can tell here) played fair; still, you're out some money, and you'll never see it back. Have a cold beer, and move on. I'm surprised and even a bit relieved to see Amazon side with a vendor ... When I sell stuff through amazon (just used personal stuff, I don't have a business) and there have been disputes where imo the buyer was clearly in the wrong, amazon has forced me to give full refunds without restocking fees and eat the shipping costs, and my bank / credit card provider would side with them. Basically, the bank would show my claim to amazon and amazon would say, that's not true!, and I would not get the money back. I wondered if they would ever NOT side with a buyer, no matter what the situation. In a way, us buyers are to blame, too ... So many of us are completely anal about the cosmetic conditions of things we buy and expect discounts for small scratches on things that we know totally don't matter ... Just read the posts on the flea market here and how anal people are about tiny blemishes on bikes you can supposedly drive through the jungle ... The only cause for complaint I see is that the buyer/OP feels misled: he wanted to buy a low seat and the seat he got is not low. So naturally he feels cheated. He's not like those people who order the same shoes in two colors and then return two - he was playing fair. The question then is: was the seat misrepresented? I'm guessing that Sargent calls it their 'low seat', so there's probably not much room for blaming the seller ... Although if I bought something called a 'low seat', I'd expect it to BE low. Maybe it's Sargent who should rethink their nomenclature.
I see there are no "used" seats on the Amazon listing ... I'm wondering if anyone from advrider saw this thread and decided to snap it up ... That'd be sort of funny, especially if they'd been part of the ranting on the first page .
I'm sorry... but if you pay over 300.00 for a seat, then piss and moan about a restocking fee... then you really need to reconsider your purchases.
It still seems like weaseling to me. Anyone who opens a box no longer has a product "in original condition". You can't test-fit a seat? How about a jacket or helmet? Yes, you are technically correct, and your former customer was wrong. He should have read the fine print, and realized that the "We do not charge a restocking fee..." up front was BS. $86 seems like a pretty low price for losing a customer. Btw- I have no problem with you guys charging restocking fees, or simply not accepting returns, or however you choose to run your business. It's the mice-type backhanded bullshit that I don't like. Say what you mean, mean what you say.
My 2 cents - From what I read here, it sounds to me that the consumer had certain expectations regarding the returned the seat. When he contacted the vendor, there was nothing stated then that changed his expectations. With regards to the return, it appears to come down to communication. It seems the vendor could be a bit more specific about defining how the following conditions are judged. * Items not in their original packaging, * Items that have been installed, * Items that have been used, * items that are otherwise not in their original condition are not returnable. It also seems that the vendor may ask customers to put the product back in to the original packaging, and put that package within another box because it will get marked during shipment. This could help avoid the markings on the box. In this age of internet commerce, it is easy to get ripped off. Because of that, it is very easy to be an honest vendor, and be negatively judged. The best way to avoid issues is to communicate as clearly and openly as possible. On the other side, I never buy a large ticket item like this unless I have had a chance to fully research it. As the vendor pointed out, if there is one scratch or blemish, that product is no longer new, and the price drops significantly. Since they are not L.L. Bean or some other large internet vendor, they don't have outlet stores, and cannot simply absorb the cost. For them it is not simply, "the cost of doing business" Let's face it, if the vendor were to absorb the cost of every "test fit" that he ships out, he wouldn't be able to afford to be in business much longer. In truth, it is really quite decent of them to agree to take return on a part that was not defective. The vendors that won't work with me are the ones I would like to see go away. Regardless, it's a bummer that both parties left this deal unhappy.
When I called the seller to ask why there was huge restocking charge there was NO MENTION of any problem with the seat---only the marking on the outside of the box. Now this weasel has come up with a story that the seat was not "as new" because I put it on my 1200GS to see if it fit. I think he realized the "marked on the box" reason for the fee was not going to fly so he had to come up with something else. This ain't over......
Good Luck as I also think you were overcharged, return shipping would have been reasonable, but look at it this way you may have saved others from similar bad dealings.
I'm sure it's not over, but that does not mean that you are 100% right and that the vendor is 100% wrong. If you did not check Sargent's measurements or actually see one of their low seats before you bought off the internet, then how is the vendor to blame that the product you bought is not what you thought it would be? They shipped the exact item you ordered; it was returned in not-new condition, and you want them to eat the costs? It'd sure be nice if we could all test-fit items to our bikes without any consequence if we decided we didn't like it, but that's not the real world. I appreciate the PSSS manager's responses on this thread. They were factual and not emotional. In my opinion, the vendor has acted responsibly and reasonably in this matter. Sometimes, we don't get what we want. Lord knows it's happened to me, and I know I'm not the only one.
I was somewhat surprised by the reasonable and measured tone of the sellers posting. It was a very different tone from the rude and contentious guy I talked to when I called them for an explanation of the restocking fee. We all do a tremendous amount of business today via the internet and we blindly give out our credit card numbers to nameless/faceless people, and trust the system, hoping we don';t get ripped off, cheated, etc. I've been around for a long while, and I have never contested a charge on my credit card, I have never filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, I have never sued or been sued, I pay my bills, follow the rules and don't look for fights. Powersports Superstore of Austin Tx may not qualify for the title of "crooks" but they certainly are "ethically challenged". I returned the seat to them 9/19 ($26 return shipping). They then charge me an additional $82 restocking fee, specifically because I wrote the Return Authorization # on the shipping box. Then through this thread, the seller now has creatively claimed the fee was because of installation marks (ie: damage) and the seat cannot be sold as new. Check this guy's site and see if you find a discounted Sargent seat for a GS1200----you won't. He is clever, creative, and his postings here show he is glib and articulate----he just isn't truthful. Buyer Beware of Powersport Superstore in Austin Tx.
Just got a call from Jason at Powersports and he offered a compromise /settlement. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
If you look at that Amazon listing, below the "Sold by" line, there's a link for "10 new from $305.24". This seat is the first one listed, Condition states "New", sold by Powersport SuperStore. Then again, I really want to buy this seat, especially at $305. Alas, my Roadcrafter is only three weeks old, so I think I'm done until Christmas (of 2013).
Hello, WOW!!! lots of action. To bad Costco or Nordstrum doesn't sell all ADV products. You could just buy a Sargent and use it for 2 yrs then return when a new Corbin comes out. No restocking fee, no shipping costs. You could also have a Polish and Coke while you waited in line. Glad Jason is doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk, (backwards), as some will think that the company not having a used seat on Amazon looks a little Charlie Tuna and over a Benjie in costs to return is way to North. Maybe someone did buy it already but just the facts Mam! Heirhead
So the seller goes through all the effort to put up a "used" seat on Amazon for us to look at??? They even sign up for an account here on ADV so they can respond to this thread??? All so they don't look bad by charging the restocking fee??? How much do they have invested in not trying to look like a tight wad business at this point??? Can you actually take an item out of original packaging to look at with out damaging packaging??? OP should have put their name in the thread title so that more search engines could stumble across it! Obviously this business is more worried about us than the customer that spent his money at their business. :eek1
I agree with Yossarian (that would make a great T-Shirt BTW) and would take it a step further. US consumer law (I believe the Moss-Magnuson Act of 1975) says that once the product ships from the vendor, you own it. As Yo said, the vendor shipped you exactly what you ordered. That seat belongs to you. You decide you don't want it, you sell it to someone else (Craigslist, advrider, etc.). End of story. But you decided to sell it back to the people you bought it from and expect to get 100% back on it. What are they supposed to do with it? Sell it as a new seat? That won't fly, the guy/gal who buys it is going to say "whoa, that's not a new seat, WTFUWT?" If you weren't willing to sell your seat yourself and you weren't happy with the vendor's offer, why didn't you get your seat back and sell it to someone else? It's...your...seat. This kinda crap is exactly what is killing retailing in the US and killing American capitalism. Buyers take no responsibility for their purchasing decisions and expect the retailer to absorb the buyer's caprice. Keep buying mail order and the local vendors are out of business. Keep insisting on lowest price above all else and everyone goes out of business except for the likes of Amazon, who have so f***ing much money that they can absorb hits on returns. And aiding it all are internet forums like Advrider, where anyone can say anything about anyone without any fear of recourse or any sense of personal responsibility. We can destroy any business in a day through the libel that we're free to post here. The site host has no legal responsibility for the content. Any vendor that doesn't do exactly what we want when we want it is scum, a rip off artist, the lowest of the low. Even if they were a hero yesterday. The high entertainment value of this thread is the image of the OP with "this ain't over", adjusting his coon skin cap, ramming another ball into the musket, and taking potshots at the Hatfields and McCoys from the front porch. The rest of us are left to enjoy the distopian future of no local motorcycle stores, no small businesses, no skilled individuals making high quality products for our motors, eagerly awaiting our made-in-China tat arriving from Amazon.
