I recently purchased a new LCD panel for my laptop. When the panel arrived, I installed it and immediately realized it was the wrong resolution of 1366x768 instead of the advertised resolution of 1920x1080. Since the item was not as described, I opened an item not as described return and picked the option for the seller to give me an appropriate replacement. They responded back that they didn't have an appropriate replacement in stock, but were willing to give me a partial refund. I refused and requested a return for a full refund since the screen they sent was not as advertised, which should warrant a full refund and a pre-paid return shipping label at no cost to me (I assume). They replied they were sorry to hear that I wanted to return the screen and sent me an RMA number and told me to ship it back to them.
Now this is where I started to get suspicious, as this seller has a return policy that states the buyer pays for return shipping and a 20% restocking fee, so I messaged them back inquiring about what I should expect regarding this. This is the exact response I received. "If you can close this return case on your end now, I will send you a return label, and waive restocking fee when we get this part back from you in original condition. Please let me know." I read this and stopped dead in my tracks. I have recently dealt with a few returns and I have never had to do more than state my return purpose, have it be accepted, print the return shipping label, and mail the package. I did some more research and found on these message boards that closing an open return case is just asking to lose your money. I responded that I would not be closing the case. Three days later they got back to me (over the weekend) stating again, "Sorry to hear that, here is the RMA (RMA here), please write it on the box, pack well, ship back to: (return address here). During this process, the back and forth usually says "You sent a message", then they'd respond and their response would say "The seller sent you a message." Well, this most recent response from them said "Seller sent a return shipping label." Naturally, there was no return label, just an RMA number, return address, and request to pack well and ship back. So I once again contacted them telling them that as this was an incorrectly advertised item, they should provide me with a pre-paid return shipping label (again, assuming here).
After all this, they finally sent a shipping label to my e-mail address. So I open it and it's through FedEx, which I thought was odd, but then I thought maybe they didn't have direct USPS mail service to that particular address, except they sent the package via USPS originally. I then read over the details of the label and it says in the top right corner, "Bill Sender". At this point I now ask, what is this supposed to mean? Do I count as the sender to be billed because I'm going to start the shipping process, or do they count as the billed sender because they created the return label? Because on the label it says FROM: (My name and address) then below that it says TO: (sellers company name and address.)
Also, since the return process has already started and the seller is "working with me to resolve the issue" I'm not able to escalate the situation to a dispute, although it originally said I'd be able to escalate the case on July 1st, which I would love to be able to do at this point. Will I still see that option appear tomorrow on the first, or is it permanently closed off to me because the return process has apparently already started? Based on the information herein, what do you fine people suggest?
