A local woman who faced a huge hassle when she tried to return a product she bought online turned to NBC4 Responds for help.
Recently, Deborah Taylor had both knees replaced and needed something to keep her active.
“Your knees can, like, tighten up on you, stiffen up on you,” she said.
She bought a treadmill small enough to fit in her home but powerful enough to do the job.
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“My price range was no more than $250,” she said.
Taylor found the treadmill on Walmart.com and bought it. She says it worked for a few months before it didn’t anymore.
She contacted Walmart customer service to start a return thinking it would be easy.
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“I had dealt with Walmart before and I really hadn’t had any problems with Walmart,” Taylor said.
But this time was different.
“I thought I was dealing with Walmart but come to find out I wasn’t dealing with Walmart, I was dealing with another party,” she said.
Though Taylor shopped on Walmart.com, the item she purchased was sold and shipped by a company from China. Walmart allows third-party sellers to sell their goods directly to customers, and those companies may have their own return and refund policies.
Taylor contacted the company from China directly.
“I called them. They asked me to write them a letter, email them a letter. I did. No response,” she said. “Then I called them back again. They said they never received it.
After trying four more times, even sending the company a video of the broken treadmill, Taylor still heard nothing.
NBC4 Responds contacted Walmart since the company in China was not responding.
“I reached out to you because my neighbor told me that you were an excellent person and you will solve the problem, and you solved it just like that,” Taylor said.
The company reached out to Taylor and offered her a full refund, which she got a few days later.
Target, Amazon, Etsy and Overstock also are among the major online retailers that use third-party sellers, and while the majority of those sellers are good companies, there are some bad apples.
Before purchasing the product, find out who the seller is and read its reviews, not just the product reviews.
Look for the return policies. Walmart.com has a page dedicated to purchases made by third parties and how to return or get refunds.
At checkout, see if the seller is PayPal or Amazon Pay verified. That’s usually a good indicator it’s a legitimate seller that’s been vetted – though not a guarantee, so still read the reviews.
Not all major retailers make it clear a purchase is from a third party, so it may take a little digging.
Taylor’s not giving up on getting back on a treadmill, but this time she’s going in person to buy one with her refund.
“I never got a response from this company until you notified them, and I want to say thank you very much,” Taylor said.
When dealing with an unresponsive third-party seller, write a review about the experience. Major online retailers may pull the third party off the website if it sees a pattern of problems.
