Bought a “bolt on” cat back exhaust that didn’t fit. It is supposedly designed for the year and model of my car (C5), but it doesn’t line up to the factory mounting brackets, by about an inch. Took it to the local shop that works only on Corvettes and they confirmed it does not fit/line up.
I haven’t called the vendor yet, but will in the morning. If they balk at reimbursing me for return shipping, should I threaten to chargeback the total purchase if they won’t? Is the card issuer likely to back me?
I’ll likely call the issuer before contacting the vendor, but I imagine they will not give a binding answer.
I have, but I think you need to contact the vendor first and see what they say… They might just make it right and exceed your expectations. If they give you a hard time, then a chargeback is what you do if they try to bone you. Or, better yet, does your CC have return protection? Either way, I’d see what they say first.
If you received the wrong item, I’d expect the vendor to pay for return shipping.
Winning a chargeback does not absolve you from your debt to the vendor, and the vendor can try to collect it by other means. You should always try to resolve the problem with the vendor before doing a chargeback.
That’s only true of Chase and some MasterCards, both Amex and Citi will pay for return shipping. Infact Amex will pay for return shipping to the vendor if the vendor won’t.
Thank you, Griz. That’s very interesting. During the last decade, I have used return protection several times with Chase and once with Mastercard, and in those instances I did have to pay return shipping. The one time that I used return protection with Citi, it was for 2 similar items with low value, I think a little over $20 for the two. Citi just gave me the credit and said don’t bother shipping them back. The rep did say that they would have paid the postage. I thought it sounded too good to be true that they would pay postage.
I don’t have an Amex card, so no experience there. Discover has return protection too, but I’ve never used it.
Paypal has a free service that anyone can sign up for. It pays return shipping to the vendor. Of course, that’s only if the original payment was made via paypal.
Turns out the vendor had no problem sending a call tag to pick up the item. I was unable to get a clear answer from the card issuer Thanks for the insight from your experience.