I purchased a Chinese brand scooter from a US-based dealer.
Their customer service was awful. They had a phone number that changed often and didn't work, and lied about their intent to honor warranty claims. It was broken for 4 months. In the end, they decided to cancel my warranty and refuse any further assistance because I dared to ask for a functional product.
I suggest no one ever buy a Kaabo scooter from any of the 3 major dealers in the US.
Kaabo itself is even worse providing no support to customers at all.
reverse the credit card charge, that usually works like a charm and weakens the company you bought it from, and enough do the same, they can't do business any more
That doesn't work in the US. Too much time elapsed and it's not something a credit card company would adjudicate. My one little encounter isn't something a credit card company would care about.
It could be a small claims court matter if they were in the same state.
It's cheaper to write-off the matter as a learning experience.
Voro Motors. They're a fly-by-night operation like the other Kaabo dealers I found in the US. Ship from China and expect no support or warranty.
Also, no e-scooter shops will touch Kaabos because they're not designed for repair and parts are difficult to source. The wiring inside looks like spaghetti with random colors that don't match their wiring diagram and wires that go nowhere. In addition, the early model forks would break spontaneously due to manufacturing defects that lead to a number of grotesque injuries and perhaps a death or two.
PS: BBB is itself a widely-held misconception and fraud, perhaps the inverse of Yelp. It's mostly a feel good badge businesses pay for. Any business can join it and they have little incentive to police their "members" because, like binding arbitration, the "members" are the customers, not retailer's customers.
I have never had a credit card dispute my challenge to reverse a charge (including in the U.S.). You are the credit card's more important customer, not the business. If you follow their steps, they will reverse the charge. It's not a lot of effort and bad business do go out of business when enough customers reverse the charges because then the business can't use credit cards any more.
> If you bought a product or a service online or outside of a shop (by telephone, mail order, from a door-to-door salesperson), you also have the right to cancel and return your order within 14 days, for any reason and without a justification.
I get the legal differences, but in practice EU-like return policies are extremely common in the US. Are there really significant cultural differences with regards to returns?
Depends on the goods. Not many places will accept returns for opened/used underwear, for example. Same with digital goods (dvd/cd/games), if the seal is broken the shop will not accept a return.
True, there are some obvious exceptions. But suppose I buy a vacuum cleaner and use it for a month and don't like it, doesn't matter how much I used it, I can return it in the EU.
The law doesn't seem to cover that, or one pretty large retailer in France is ostensibly not abiding by it.
Darty.com says that you can only return an item if it can be resold as new. Basically, you may only open it to inspect it. If there are signs of use, you won't get the full refund.
Other retailers, like Amazon, may not care about this and refund fully no questions asked. But in my experience, Amazon is pretty unique in doing this.
>If you bought a product or a service online or outside of a shop (by telephone, mail order, from a door-to-door salesperson), you also have the right to cancel and return your order within 14 days, for any reason and without a justification.
In my experience, all retailers (have not tried in France, though) follow this law.
I think the issue turns around the "any reason" part. It doesn't say anything about the condition of the item, which, in my opinion, is the crux of the issue.
Unfortunately, I only have French references. The actual French law is at [0]. It says that the buyer is on the hook for any depreciation resulting from handling, apart from what is necessary to determine the characteristics and good working condition of the goods. So opening the vacuum box to see that it's not missing a part or something is fine. Vacuuming your house for 2 weeks is probably not. "Determine the characteristics" is ambiguous to me, so it's not clear where the line is.
For example, Zalando, an online clothes retailer, will accept returns for garments that have been "tried on" but not "worn" [1].
LDLC, an online electronics retailer, will accept returns for items in "original condition and packaging". I expect that if I buy a mouse, use it for a week and there are marks on the pads, they won't accept the return. [2]
Not true. It may work. However your return period should serve as a way to test the item similar to what would be possible in store. Using a vacuum cleaner for a month may result in a partial refund if there are clear signs of usage. There are limits to what is considered appropriate testing.
Here are the B2C rules for e-commerce in the EU, which are supposed to be the norm: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/selling-in-eu/selling-... . Anything beyond that is retailer-specific. Note that this concerns all forms of remote selling, i.e. phone sales, webshops goods, but even door-to-door vending -- basically anything that does not involve the customer setting foot in your brick-and-mortar store.
> When can your customer withdraw from the contract?
If you have given all the necessary information about the right to withdraw, your customer has 14 days to withdraw from the contract - without any penalty and without having to give any reason:
For goods – this means 14 days after delivery
For services – this means 14 days after the contract was concluded
> What are your obligations after the consumer withdraws from the contract?
You must reimburse the money received from your customer (or cancel their payment) within 14 days of being notified they are withdrawing.
You may withhold this reimbursement until you have received the goods back from the customer, or at least received evidence they have actually sent them.
> Who pays what?
The Customer pays the cost of returning the goods (unless you failed to inform them of this in advance — in which case you will be liable for these costs).
In the US, there is no such law, though many retailers do it anyway. Some states, however, have implemented such laws, but it's not nationwide.