Need To Make Some New Connections

Bad Behavior, California, Current Events, Employees, Liars/Scammers, Online, Retail, San Francisco, USA | Working | June 5, 2020


It is during the quarantine period. I am experiencing some mild symptoms and have been advised not to leave my house at all for the full fourteen-day period. I am abiding by the rules perfectly.

Since I am stuck at home, I am watching a lot of shows and movies and my HDMI cord has broken, so I use a common delivery app to order a new cord. An HDMI cord is $5 to $15. Upon receiving the item and looking at the receipt, I realize the person had purchased a $75 HDMI cord. This is a common scam, since the commission is based on the price of the item.

Immediately, I contact the app company.

Me: “Hello. I used your service to order an HDMI cord, which is about a $10 item. The person purchased a $75 cord, though. This is ridiculous. How do we fix this?”

Company: “Oh, we’re so sorry to hear that! All you have to do is go return the item to the store and send us a picture of the return receipt and we’ll refund it.”

Me: *Pause* “I can’t leave the house; I’m quarantined. I cannot be in public right now. Is there any other way to fix this?”

Company: “Oh, we’re sorry about that! Unfortunately, we cannot control what price a merchant charges for an item.”

Me: “I understand that you cannot control what a company charges for an item, but that is not the issue. The issue is that I requested a $10 item and your delivery person bought the most high-end version of HDMI cords for $75 when I requested a $10 cord.”

This was the last correspondence I heard back from the company. I continued calling and emailing them with no response for the next two weeks. I finally reached out to my bank to file a claim. A few days later, the delivery company issued a partial refund for the price difference between the expensive cord and the normal cord. They sent $65; I was still responsible for the delivery fee, of course