I will preface this report by saying that it will be long. In the interest of being honest I will be transcribing my full email correspondence with the person involved. I type some long emails. I was very angry, and I may have been harsh in some things I typed, but I feel it was necessary, and I do not regret anything I typed.
I work for a local computer repair shop, and we frequently have to order parts from vendors who are not the original manufacturer of the part, for various reasons. In this particular situation, we had a MacBook Pro 13 with a bad logic board, and a MacBook Pro 17 with a bad battery. We ordered replacement parts from UsedMac Inc, because they had the most reasonable prices and offered expedited shipping. And that's where everything started to go bad.
We placed the order and chose 2-day shipping. I assumed it would take a day or two for processing, so expected maybe four days at msot before we received our items. Eight business days (10 actual days) later, we still had not received the package. I both called (multiple times, and they never answered the phone, left a voicemail and got no response) and emailed (twice), only to find out they had not even shipped it yet! They did ship it that day, and we did receive the package two days later.
When we tried to install the battery in the MacBook Pro 17, it did not work. The battery was not the correct one for that model laptop (though it was listed that it was) and did not provide enough power. When the battery was plugged in, the battery would not charge and the laptop would not even turn on.
I emailed, using their online form, to notify them the part was defective and we would like to return it for a refund, and also complained about the time it took them to ship the order, and asked if we could get a refund for the extra shipping fee we paid for 2-day shipping. Here is the email correspondence:
3-6-14, 1:01 pm, Me: ""The battery we ordered does not work in our Mac. We plug in the battery and the laptop will not turn on at all, even while it is plugged in. We left it plugged in to charge for a while and still nothing. This battery is definitely defective and we need to return it for a refund, with return shipping paid by you. In addition, I'd like a refund on our original shipping for the order, since we paid $15.25 for 2-day shipping and it took 10 days for us to get the items. 3 or 4 days would have been ok, but 10 days is completely unacceptable!
Your Request an RMA link is broken, and no one is answering your phones. Your Live Chat says ""online"" but when I click it, ""there are no operators available to answer your call."" I don't know what is going on with you guys, but this whole experience has put a bad taste in my mouth about ordering from you again. As I said in my previous email, we have ordered from you several times before and never had any problems, but this experience has just been one big problem.""
3-6-14, 3:07pm, Mike, Sales Manager: ""battery was brand new.when you need something rush you need to order fedex express not USPS.refund is only 7 days.send it back for replacement
Thanks""
3-6-14, 3:42pm, Me: ""I'm glad the refund period is 7 days, because today is day 6. We received the item on Feb 28. And brand new or not, it is defective. We want a refund.
We didn't need it ""rushed"" we just needed it in a reasonable amount of time. It wasn't the shipping option we chose that took so long, it was the time your people took to process our order before shipping it out. Taking 8 days to process an order before shipping is way too long. Nowhere on your site does it say anything like ""please allow 8 days for processing."" If that is your policy, then you should state it somewhere on the website, like on the Shipping Policy page (which has practically no info on it).
I understand you run a business, but so do we, and when I have a customer expecting a repair in 3 days and it takes almost 2 weeks, that causes problems. I'm sure you understand.""
3-6-14, 4:15pm, Mike: ""send it back for refund.shipping is not refundable you can see we have fedex option .we have many vendors order via fedex for fast service.we first cover preople who order and pay lot more for rush shipping via fedex.""
3-6-14, 5:04pm, Me: ""That's no excuse. Orders should be taken care of in the order they are received. It doesn't matter how many orders you have that want fedex shipping, that's not an excuse to take over a week to process an order for regular post. At this point I am tired of arguing with you because it is obvious that you don't care.
I will send the battery back first thing in the morning. The post is done for today, here.""
After this, I had to ask three times for the RMA information and address to send the battery back to. Once I sent the battery back, we did in fact get our money back for it.
A few days later (3-13-14 to be exact), we discovered the logic board they sent us had a faulty backlight connector on it. Granted, it is only the backlight connector that is bad. Everything else is functioning just fine. But, it is still partly defective and I don't feel that we, as a business, should have to give our customer a computer that, after having been repaired, is not functioning 100% to our standards.
I contacted UsedMac the very next day, using their online form again, and got no response. On 3-25-14 I sent, ""Hi. I'm just wondering why I haven't gotten a response to my enquiry yet."" No answer. On 4-1 I sent, ""Hi. Can you please stop ignoring my emails?"" to which Mike responded ""hi what is question?"" Here is the next correspondence:
4-1-14, 3:01pm, Me: ""I sent this on March 14:
""Hello.
Our order number is 14018.
I am not happy about this development, but the logic board we ordered has a faulty connector on it. We discovered this yesterday when the backlight for the keyboard would not light up. When pressing the F5 or F6 keys to adjust the brightness level of the backlight, it shows the symbol of a circle with a line through it, indicating that there is no backlight installed. We have two backlights, both tested working, but neither of them work with the logic board we got from you. We have made sure the ribbon is plugged in all the way, and we have tested them with another logic board as well. They both work fine with that other board, but not with this one.
I'd like to get a replacement board, but would like to know if you have one in stock, in order to expedite the exchange.
Please let me know. Thanks.""
So, please let me know. Thanks.""
4-1-14, 3:15pm, Mike: ""board was brand new.not accepted.""
I was, of course, already upset that I had been ignored for two weeks. And his nonchalant response irked me, especially since he tried the same thing with the battery. I tried to be polite but...I don't think it came across that way.
4-1-14, 3:18pm, Me: ""Can you please give me a little more detail than that? As I have said before, we both know that brand new does not mean it's 100% guaranteed working. ""brand new.not accepted"" is not an acceptable response. Please take a little more time to formulate your response before you just brush off my issue.""
He did not respond, again, so I sent (upset at being ignored yet again):
4-4-14, 10:12am, Me: ""And what about the ""90 day Usedmac warranty"" statement on the item listing? It has certainly not been 90 days. Or are you going to tell me that only used parts have the warranty, and brand new parts do not have a warranty? That seems backwards. In addition, nowhere on the item listing does it state that the board was brand new, nor does your warranty statement specify new or used parts. Although on the item listing it says 90 days, but in your ""Return Policy"" it states 60 days in one place and 45 days in another.
Here are some excerpts from your return policy, with pertinent phrases in bold:
""USEDMAC Online provides this 60 day limited warranty on hardware only. Software is warranted solely by the manufacturer of the software title. USEDMAC warrants to the original end-user purchaser (""Customer"") that the product(s) will be free from defects in materials and workmanship as stated on your invoice from the date of purchase. In accordance with terms and exceptions of this limited warranty, USEDMAC will either repair of replace any product, which is shown to be defective.""
""Defective products returned for replacement will be replaced with the same product or model as the original unit. We accept DEFECTIVE EXCHANGES on products within 45 days of original invoice date . Ship a replacement product, exchange or we may repair the item and return it to you.""
That all being said, we are still within even the 45 days. It's terrible that I apparently have to educate you on your own return policy. But, it seems to me that you don't much care about that, or doing right by your customers. It seems to me that you read my email, and didn't even bother to look up the order, just replied saying that return is not accepted. I don't understand why you are so resistant to providing even a semblance of customer service. I don't understand why you refuse to give me a proper explanation. I don't understand how your company is still in business if you treat all of your customers the way you have treated me.
I know $700 is a lot of money to have to refund, and I know that no company would want to have to do that, but that's not even what I was asking for. I was only asking for an exchange, for a working product, for you to honor your return policy.
Dealing with you is exhausting. This is the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I'll be bluntly honest with you. Even if, after all this, you do decide to honor the warranty, I don't trust that we will get a working part back from you, or even get a part back at all. I truly think that if you say send it back for exchange, we will send it back to you and never receive another part, and you will never speak to us again after that. That is how bad the attitude I'm feeling from you is. I have absolutely zero desire to ever do business with your company again. If you are the only vendor who has a part we need, I will go without the part rather than order from you.""
I got a response just a few minutes later:
4-4-14, 10:31am, Mike: ""in our records in the past (12 years),all new parts from apple used to be good.we never had defective brand new part from apple in the past. my point is that it is logical that your tech ,my tech,or any companies tech can damage the part.please ask your tech what he did....""
After reading this I was livid. Mike was not only exhibiting irrational reasoning, but he was insinuating that we broke the board ourselves. I was the technician who worked on this (though I did not tell Mike that), and I know for a fact that I did not damage this board. We all take the utmost care when working with sensitive parts. We use anti-static mats and tools, and always handle the parts in a cautious manner. I took this as not only a personal insult, but and insult against my company. So, I replied...
4-4-14, 11:57am, Me: ""I know for a fact that we did not damage the board in any way. It shouldn't matter that ""all new parts from apple used to be good."" That means nothing to me, because what I see is a bad part, and it doesn't matter if it was new or not, because it's not working. Whether it came from Apple or not does not matter, because it's not working. Just because you haven't had it happen in the past does not mean it can't happen. Just because you haven't stepped in a puddle of water in the past does not mean you won't in the future. Just because you haven't been in a car accident doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. That's just idiotic reasoning.
My point is, your website says you offer a warranty on defective parts, and we have a defective part, and you are not honoring the warranty. As I said before, at this point I don't trust you to honor it anyway, even if you change your mind and say you will. I guess I'm damn lucky the board is mostly functional, otherwise we'd be out $700 and still have a broken laptop. If you aren't going to honor a warranty, then you shouldn't say you have one at all.
I don't even care if you change your mind. You've lost a customer forever, and I will tell everyone I can to never buy from Used Mac. As far as I'm concerned you are crooks who only sell bad parts and then refuse to take responsibility. You only make excuses.
I'm done with you. Don't bother to reply.""
And he certainly should not have replied, because this is where I feel he incriminated himself and his company:
4-4-14, 1:40pm, Mike: ""i knew board is ok.i do not care at all if i lose you as customer or not.i do not care and we do not care in usedmac.just do not lie to other company if you buy from them and say part is bad and then say i am lucky!!!!! and it is good!!!. we know these BS at all.forget it.""
He doesn't care and UsedMac doesn't care, that they have lost a customer because they don't honor their warranty. I mean, I'm sure Mike is glad that he won't have to deal with me again, because in his mind I'm probably a belligerent harridan, or something akin to that. I didn't respond, of course. I don't think we needed to escalate the situation any further.
We have reported them to the Better Business Bureau, and found that they have several other complaints on there already. I also filed a complaint with PayPal. I don't wish this experience on anyone. I would not be sad to see this company put out of business.
UsedMac Inc. Reviews
I will preface this report by saying that it will be long. In the interest of being honest I will be transcribing my full email correspondence with the person involved. I type some long emails. I was very angry, and I may have been harsh in some things I typed, but I feel it was necessary, and I do not regret anything I typed.
I work for a local computer repair shop, and we frequently have to order parts from vendors who are not the original manufacturer of the part, for various reasons. In this particular situation, we had a MacBook Pro 13 with a bad logic board, and a MacBook Pro 17 with a bad battery. We ordered replacement parts from UsedMac Inc, because they had the most reasonable prices and offered expedited shipping. And that's where everything started to go bad.
We placed the order and chose 2-day shipping. I assumed it would take a day or two for processing, so expected maybe four days at msot before we received our items. Eight business days (10 actual days) later, we still had not received the package. I both called (multiple times, and they never answered the phone, left a voicemail and got no response) and emailed (twice), only to find out they had not even shipped it yet! They did ship it that day, and we did receive the package two days later.
When we tried to install the battery in the MacBook Pro 17, it did not work. The battery was not the correct one for that model laptop (though it was listed that it was) and did not provide enough power. When the battery was plugged in, the battery would not charge and the laptop would not even turn on.
I emailed, using their online form, to notify them the part was defective and we would like to return it for a refund, and also complained about the time it took them to ship the order, and asked if we could get a refund for the extra shipping fee we paid for 2-day shipping. Here is the email correspondence:
3-6-14, 1:01 pm, Me: ""The battery we ordered does not work in our Mac. We plug in the battery and the laptop will not turn on at all, even while it is plugged in. We left it plugged in to charge for a while and still nothing. This battery is definitely defective and we need to return it for a refund, with return shipping paid by you. In addition, I'd like a refund on our original shipping for the order, since we paid $15.25 for 2-day shipping and it took 10 days for us to get the items. 3 or 4 days would have been ok, but 10 days is completely unacceptable!
Your Request an RMA link is broken, and no one is answering your phones. Your Live Chat says ""online"" but when I click it, ""there are no operators available to answer your call."" I don't know what is going on with you guys, but this whole experience has put a bad taste in my mouth about ordering from you again. As I said in my previous email, we have ordered from you several times before and never had any problems, but this experience has just been one big problem.""
3-6-14, 3:07pm, Mike, Sales Manager: ""battery was brand new.when you need something rush you need to order fedex express not USPS.refund is only 7 days.send it back for replacement
Thanks""
3-6-14, 3:42pm, Me: ""I'm glad the refund period is 7 days, because today is day 6. We received the item on Feb 28. And brand new or not, it is defective. We want a refund.
We didn't need it ""rushed"" we just needed it in a reasonable amount of time. It wasn't the shipping option we chose that took so long, it was the time your people took to process our order before shipping it out. Taking 8 days to process an order before shipping is way too long. Nowhere on your site does it say anything like ""please allow 8 days for processing."" If that is your policy, then you should state it somewhere on the website, like on the Shipping Policy page (which has practically no info on it).
I understand you run a business, but so do we, and when I have a customer expecting a repair in 3 days and it takes almost 2 weeks, that causes problems. I'm sure you understand.""
3-6-14, 4:15pm, Mike: ""send it back for refund.shipping is not refundable you can see we have fedex option .we have many vendors order via fedex for fast service.we first cover preople who order and pay lot more for rush shipping via fedex.""
3-6-14, 5:04pm, Me: ""That's no excuse. Orders should be taken care of in the order they are received. It doesn't matter how many orders you have that want fedex shipping, that's not an excuse to take over a week to process an order for regular post. At this point I am tired of arguing with you because it is obvious that you don't care.
I will send the battery back first thing in the morning. The post is done for today, here.""
After this, I had to ask three times for the RMA information and address to send the battery back to. Once I sent the battery back, we did in fact get our money back for it.
A few days later (3-13-14 to be exact), we discovered the logic board they sent us had a faulty backlight connector on it. Granted, it is only the backlight connector that is bad. Everything else is functioning just fine. But, it is still partly defective and I don't feel that we, as a business, should have to give our customer a computer that, after having been repaired, is not functioning 100% to our standards.
I contacted UsedMac the very next day, using their online form again, and got no response. On 3-25-14 I sent, ""Hi. I'm just wondering why I haven't gotten a response to my enquiry yet."" No answer. On 4-1 I sent, ""Hi. Can you please stop ignoring my emails?"" to which Mike responded ""hi what is question?"" Here is the next correspondence:
4-1-14, 3:01pm, Me: ""I sent this on March 14:
""Hello.
Our order number is 14018.
I am not happy about this development, but the logic board we ordered has a faulty connector on it. We discovered this yesterday when the backlight for the keyboard would not light up. When pressing the F5 or F6 keys to adjust the brightness level of the backlight, it shows the symbol of a circle with a line through it, indicating that there is no backlight installed. We have two backlights, both tested working, but neither of them work with the logic board we got from you. We have made sure the ribbon is plugged in all the way, and we have tested them with another logic board as well. They both work fine with that other board, but not with this one.
I'd like to get a replacement board, but would like to know if you have one in stock, in order to expedite the exchange.
Please let me know. Thanks.""
So, please let me know. Thanks.""
4-1-14, 3:15pm, Mike: ""board was brand new.not accepted.""
I was, of course, already upset that I had been ignored for two weeks. And his nonchalant response irked me, especially since he tried the same thing with the battery. I tried to be polite but...I don't think it came across that way.
4-1-14, 3:18pm, Me: ""Can you please give me a little more detail than that? As I have said before, we both know that brand new does not mean it's 100% guaranteed working. ""brand new.not accepted"" is not an acceptable response. Please take a little more time to formulate your response before you just brush off my issue.""
He did not respond, again, so I sent (upset at being ignored yet again):
4-4-14, 10:12am, Me: ""And what about the ""90 day Usedmac warranty"" statement on the item listing? It has certainly not been 90 days. Or are you going to tell me that only used parts have the warranty, and brand new parts do not have a warranty? That seems backwards. In addition, nowhere on the item listing does it state that the board was brand new, nor does your warranty statement specify new or used parts. Although on the item listing it says 90 days, but in your ""Return Policy"" it states 60 days in one place and 45 days in another.
Here are some excerpts from your return policy, with pertinent phrases in bold:
""USEDMAC Online provides this 60 day limited warranty on hardware only. Software is warranted solely by the manufacturer of the software title. USEDMAC warrants to the original end-user purchaser (""Customer"") that the product(s) will be free from defects in materials and workmanship as stated on your invoice from the date of purchase. In accordance with terms and exceptions of this limited warranty, USEDMAC will either repair of replace any product, which is shown to be defective.""
""Defective products returned for replacement will be replaced with the same product or model as the original unit. We accept DEFECTIVE EXCHANGES on products within 45 days of original invoice date . Ship a replacement product, exchange or we may repair the item and return it to you.""
That all being said, we are still within even the 45 days. It's terrible that I apparently have to educate you on your own return policy. But, it seems to me that you don't much care about that, or doing right by your customers. It seems to me that you read my email, and didn't even bother to look up the order, just replied saying that return is not accepted. I don't understand why you are so resistant to providing even a semblance of customer service. I don't understand why you refuse to give me a proper explanation. I don't understand how your company is still in business if you treat all of your customers the way you have treated me.
I know $700 is a lot of money to have to refund, and I know that no company would want to have to do that, but that's not even what I was asking for. I was only asking for an exchange, for a working product, for you to honor your return policy.
Dealing with you is exhausting. This is the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I'll be bluntly honest with you. Even if, after all this, you do decide to honor the warranty, I don't trust that we will get a working part back from you, or even get a part back at all. I truly think that if you say send it back for exchange, we will send it back to you and never receive another part, and you will never speak to us again after that. That is how bad the attitude I'm feeling from you is. I have absolutely zero desire to ever do business with your company again. If you are the only vendor who has a part we need, I will go without the part rather than order from you.""
I got a response just a few minutes later:
4-4-14, 10:31am, Mike: ""in our records in the past (12 years),all new parts from apple used to be good.we never had defective brand new part from apple in the past. my point is that it is logical that your tech ,my tech,or any companies tech can damage the part.please ask your tech what he did....""
After reading this I was livid. Mike was not only exhibiting irrational reasoning, but he was insinuating that we broke the board ourselves. I was the technician who worked on this (though I did not tell Mike that), and I know for a fact that I did not damage this board. We all take the utmost care when working with sensitive parts. We use anti-static mats and tools, and always handle the parts in a cautious manner. I took this as not only a personal insult, but and insult against my company. So, I replied...
4-4-14, 11:57am, Me: ""I know for a fact that we did not damage the board in any way. It shouldn't matter that ""all new parts from apple used to be good."" That means nothing to me, because what I see is a bad part, and it doesn't matter if it was new or not, because it's not working. Whether it came from Apple or not does not matter, because it's not working. Just because you haven't had it happen in the past does not mean it can't happen. Just because you haven't stepped in a puddle of water in the past does not mean you won't in the future. Just because you haven't been in a car accident doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. That's just idiotic reasoning.
My point is, your website says you offer a warranty on defective parts, and we have a defective part, and you are not honoring the warranty. As I said before, at this point I don't trust you to honor it anyway, even if you change your mind and say you will. I guess I'm damn lucky the board is mostly functional, otherwise we'd be out $700 and still have a broken laptop. If you aren't going to honor a warranty, then you shouldn't say you have one at all.
I don't even care if you change your mind. You've lost a customer forever, and I will tell everyone I can to never buy from Used Mac. As far as I'm concerned you are crooks who only sell bad parts and then refuse to take responsibility. You only make excuses.
I'm done with you. Don't bother to reply.""
And he certainly should not have replied, because this is where I feel he incriminated himself and his company:
4-4-14, 1:40pm, Mike: ""i knew board is ok.i do not care at all if i lose you as customer or not.i do not care and we do not care in usedmac.just do not lie to other company if you buy from them and say part is bad and then say i am lucky!!!!! and it is good!!!. we know these BS at all.forget it.""
He doesn't care and UsedMac doesn't care, that they have lost a customer because they don't honor their warranty. I mean, I'm sure Mike is glad that he won't have to deal with me again, because in his mind I'm probably a belligerent harridan, or something akin to that. I didn't respond, of course. I don't think we needed to escalate the situation any further.
We have reported them to the Better Business Bureau, and found that they have several other complaints on there already. I also filed a complaint with PayPal. I don't wish this experience on anyone. I would not be sad to see this company put out of business.