B&H mixed up my order and I got a free upgrade from 10W to 40W laser
A good friend of mine was in New York and offered to bring an H2C back to Brazil for me. Of course I accepted, since even paying the import tax plus excess baggage weight would be almost half the price compared to buying it in Brazil.
She picked it up at B&H and brought it to her hotel. She was about to leave and sent me a picture, and I noticed the laser module was 40W. I had ordered 10W, so B&H had accidentally sent me a free upgrade.
I wanted to do the right thing and return it, so I contacted B&H to sort it out. It was her last day in New York, she was out with her son, and she couldn’t bring the whole package back to the store because it was already at the hotel and she was far away. She did bring just the laser box with her, in case she could stop by and exchange that piece.
This call was a horror show: 37 minutes talking with two people and a really rude supervisor. I explained that the order ships in two separate boxes: a 100-pound printer box and a small laser module box. I only needed to exchange the small one.
Here’s how the call went:
First, they offered to have me ship the whole order back via UPS once she arrived in Brazil, and exchange it from there. I explained that wouldn’t work because of Brazil’s import tax rules. I’d have to pay tax on the full value of the product and shipping again.
Second, they said I’d have to pay the price difference myself, since I was the one who reported the mix-up.
Third, they said that if she was still in NYC, she would need to bring in the entire order, both boxes, not just the laser. I explained, patiently, that the only reasonable option was for her to bring in just the small box they’d mixed up. My friend had nothing to do with their error, and she couldn’t afford to lose her last few hours in NYC lugging around a 100-pound box. I also pointed out that the serial number on the printer box matched the invoice, so there was no reason to bring that one in at all.
The supervisor got rude and insisted she had to bring everything in, or my only other option was to pay the $600 difference. I said neither was going to happen, thanked them for the free upgrade, and hung up.
Edit: changed the order of the events to be more clear to understand.