Originally posted by: dman
ZZF recently sent me a 'serviceable used part' instead of a new item as described. [A hitachi 40GB laptop drive] When I complained, they wanted me to send it back at my cost and they'd reimburse me up to $7 should it be as I described and then send me a replacement. (Now that 2day item is at least 10-14 day turnaround. I presume since they had no clue the replacement would also say serviceable used part on it as well... but who knows, maybe just a fluke.
I was a bit ticked at that, and could have raised more of a stink about it and maybe gotten different results (could have contested charges, etc) BUT I contacted the manufacturer and verified on the website it carries the same warranty as new and the drive tested OK so I just kept it w/ print outs of all documentation on the matter.
They still haven't updated their webpage that those particular items are possibly used.
Here we go. More of the same.
Why should ZipZoomFly take your word for it that the drive is a refurb, issue a call tag and send out another drive ahead a time? I realize the "customer is always right," but I've had people assume that a part is used simply because of a spec of dust.
I realize the turn around time is now much longer, so why not work out a deal with them? Return the drive for a FULL refund (part + freight) and the $7 and go ahead and just order another drive.
Why assume that yet another drive would be a refurb? You're acting as if they're knowingly selling refurb drives as new. Why assume that they're going to change their website to say that the drive "may be used" if they're certain that they SHOULD BE new?
Here's how this happens: ZipZoomFly has drives to RMA back to the manufacturer. If the drive's within a certain time frame or there's no refurb available, they get a new hard drive. If ZZF take a little long to return a drive and it's outside of a time frame, they probably will get a refurb as a replacement EVEN IF the original drive was a brand new, DOA drive. The drives go out to Hitachi, let's say in a box, 20 at a time and come back 20 at a time. They're going to put those drives right back on the shelf with the new ones because those drives are only going to make up about 5% of their total inventory of that model drive, and of that 5%, only 5 to 10% of them may be refurb drives. So less than 1% of your hard drive inventory may be refurb drives. So let's change the website to reflect this! Honestly, what they should do is pull all of the refurbs out and save them for RMA replacements for their customers, but sometimes $6/hour warehouse workers don't comprehend the importance of good customer service and 15% profit margins don't justify better paid warehouse personnel!