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Man Asks for Pixel 3 Refund, Gets 10 Pink Replacements Instead:
This is the tale of customer service gone awry as told by Reddit user Cheetoz, who said he was resorting to shaming Google to try to get some resolution to the apparent shipping blunder. In a post on the social network, Cheetoz describes returning a defective white handset for a refund of its $1,000 purchase price but receiving only $80 -- to cover the sales tax, he said.
His frustration was then compounded by the bizarre: Instead of receiving the approximately $900 he'd be owed, he was sent 10 pink Pixel 3s after placing a separate transaction for a single Not Pink Pixel 3. His thread included an image of the 10 phones, with the message: "Google, I have your phones. You have my money. Let's sort this out."
He admits that financially, he's coming out ahead, but says he wants to do the right thing and return them. But not without getting the refund he's owed in exchange.
OMG Pwnies!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @12:49PM
I ordered a car window seal pair (one for each side, came in a single package). I was staying at a hotel and got this big box one day. It had 10 pairs of them. I told them they can get the rest back from the hotels reception.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @02:30PM (1 child)
Yes Ill take "What fucking spies on me" for $1000 dollar Alex.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 19 2019, @02:53PM
"Yes Ill take "What fucking spies on me" for $1000 dollar Alexa."
"Yes, of course, Mr. Coward, we will get your $1000, sooner or later."
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @04:15PM (3 children)
When a company mistakenly sent me additional hardware during resolution of a customer service issue, I responded to them offering to send back the hardware at their cost. Until they sent me a way to return the hardware, I told them, politely, that I would store their property at my house, unused, in a safe place, but would begin charging a $X per day storage fee after the first 30 days (to give them time to take care of the problem for free), and that they would need to remit payment in addition to providing return shipping from that point on (beyond the 30-day grace period). At the point the owed storage fees reached the same value as the value of the hardware, I would accept full unencumbered ownership of the hardware as payment in full for the owed storage fees. Failure to provide return shipping in a timely manner (30-day grace window) would be deemed as acceptance of terms for storing property belonging to them.
IN several months, I owned the hardware outright. They never responded.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @04:23PM (1 child)
Nice that it worked for you, but I wonder if an unsigned contract (for storage fees) such as you describe is truly binding?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:41PM
If it works for software EULAs, it should work for customer support issues.
(Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Friday April 19 2019, @08:05PM
There's no need. In the US, you are not obligated to provide compensation for anything anyone mails you, every if accidentally. If a company sends you thing, you now own thing. This was to stop obvious scams of companies sending you a thing and forcing you to buy it, essentially.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday April 19 2019, @06:31PM (1 child)
When ebay was new, it was an insult to say "That came from eBay, right?". By now, I am having much more trouble with "established, respected, reputable, serious" businesses than with the smallest backyard shack that peddles its goods on the 'bay. To the point that if I have to mail order something, I look at ebay first. Stuff arrives within 2 days, and if sellers screw up (shit happens) they usually sort out any issue within hours and with conditions I didn't dare to ask for. Compare that to any big business where it's an epic quest to just communicate your problems to them in the first place, let alone making them also understand, or even do something useful about it.
I'd estimate from the point on where a company has a computer phone system screening away support callers, you can, bottom line, spare yourself anything less than opening fire with a registered letter from a lawyer, and if the company is so big that it's stock traded, you'll need accompanying social media coverage. Unless you get 10 pink Pixels - which is so hilarious that the social media coverage alone does it. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @08:23PM
Liability and an excess of lawyers killed customer service.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Saturday April 20 2019, @10:26AM (1 child)
ask to give back the 10 pink replacement, get 33 yellow phones, ask to give back those, get 100 brown phones, until you own all of google. Then move war against IBM. Then microsoft. Then apple. Then china. Then you're emperor.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 20 2019, @12:27PM
For those not megalomaniacs, I have an easier solution -- give away 9 of the pink phones here on SN. Someone has already given away unneeded items by posting in their Journal (forgot who). Keep one for yourself, perhaps wrapping it (like vinyl wraps used on cars) to change the color. Or keep 2 if you think you might need a replacement/backup before these phones are obsolete.