Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I purchased a second hand -20 freezer ($1995 + $1653 of freight cost) from this company in preparation for my laboratory move from TX to CA. It turns out company accidentally sold me a 4-degree refrigerator rather than a -20 freezer by mistake, resulting in damage of more $5000 worth of temperature sensitive reagents. Company refunded the $2000 for the fridge but refuse to return the freight cost or a requested compensation of $2000 for damage. Attached document include the ******* **** ********** of the sold product and the manufacturer reference that show this is a 4-degree fridge rather than a -20 freezer.

  Business response

  10/31/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2022/10/01) */ ***Document Attached*** Customer purchased a -20°C lab freezer, -80°C ultra-low freezer and an incubator from our company on 6/27/22. The items were shipped to customer on 6/29/22 and delivered on 7/5/22. We did not hear from customer until 8/31/22 that there might be an issue with the -20 freezer. We responded the same day and asked what the issue with the freezer was. We did not hear back from customer until 9/19/22 when customer let us know that the model number of the freezer was actually a refrigerator. We investigated internally and discovered that we had mislabeled the refrigerator as a freezer. We promptly apologized for the mistake and issued a full refund for the mislabeled freezer. Customer claimed he put product valued at $5,000 in the mislabeled freezer. When I spoke with customer to verbally apologize about the mistake and offer a full refund of the purchase price for the mislabeled item, customer became agitated and insisted on a refund for the damaged product. When I asked the customer if he verified the freezer was at the correct temperature prior to placing product inside he stated he did not as there was not a digital display on the freezer. I suggested that it is common and good practice for users of cold storage units in a laboratory setting to verify the temperature with external thermometers or some sort of temperature monitoring system. Customer did not want to hear what I was saying and insisted it was our fault that he placed valuable product into a cold storage unit without verifying the temperature was suitable for storage of the product. I told customer we would refund the full purchase price of the cold storage unit only. Customer threatened legal action and contacting the BBB to report my company if we did not offer additional refund of freight charges. I asked how he would like the refund for the freezer returned and he requested a refund to credit card used for purchase. Phone call ended. I immediately initiated refund by credit card, sent receipt acknowledging credit card refund by email to customer. Customer promptly responded acknowledging receipt of refund and again threatened contacting BBB if we didn't offer refund of freight charges. I responded stating we consider this matter closed. We made a mistake, we issued refund. A buyer has responsibility to alert us in a timely manner if there is an issue, as a reseller of pre-owned lab equipment we provide a 30-day warranty on all products we sell. We did not hear from customer for almost 60 days about a potential issue then another 3 weeks when we were alerted to the mislabeled issue. Even though his initial contact about the problem was well outside of our stated warranty period we still refunded the purchase price of the mislabeled product because it was the right thing to do.

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