Defrauded by Sherper's

It seems as though everyone is on the take these days.  Wal-Mart, Amazon, and similar entities only enable it further by leveraging outside suppliers, but not making that readily obvious to the average consumer.

Recently, I purchased a set of luggage racks from Wal-Mart.  I thought I did, at least.  After receiving said item, I discovered that some company named Sherper's had fulfilled the online order.  It was not apparent at the time and I really did not care, when I heard that the purchased had finally arrived.  I was anxious to get my kayak out on the water again.

The box looked a little more abused than most and I was immediately a little suspicious. As demonstrated in the photo above, it showed signs of having been opened and resealed.  This was particular true on one end of the box.  Before I opened anything, I took a photo of each side.

Lifting only one flap of the box, I was immediately presented with an Amazon Return Authorization Slip.  That was curious enough.  Even more so, the Order ID was not mine and was in now way related to my order.  It was obvious that someone else had returned this item and Sherper's had simply redistributed it.  Very likely, they purchased it from one of the Amazon return stores that have been popping up lately.

Maintaining a certain level of optimism about the situation, I went on to open the box.  In the light of my living room, all appeared well and good.  It appeared as if someone had simply decided they did not want the product and returned it.  All the parts were there, except for the Allen wrench.  That is not unusual these days though, and I had one.

Under the bright and harsh fluorescent lights of the garage, another story emerged.  It was apparent that someone had used these, having clamped something or another to them.  They didn't appear damaged to a greater extent, but one can never be too sure when it comes to steel.  Generally, once bent it is considered compromised.   An email immediately flew off to the Wal-Mart explaining this situation.

Wal-Mart forwarded the message to Sherper's, who quickly replied... 

"Hello Todd, Our apologies that the item arrived to you in the condition you described. Can you please send me some pictures of the item, including the signs of use and Amazon invoice? Thank you, Jeremy at Sherper's"

And so the above images were forwarded along, to which Sherper's replied ...

"Hello Todd, Thank you for the images. Our shipping department will occasionally reuse boxes from returned items for shipments as boxes of this size are hard to come by. As for the item itself, it is my conclusion that this was indeed an Amazon return that our receiving department inspected and determined was acceptable to resell as new. Looking back at the return details itself, the customer said that he tried it on his car and it just didn't fit correctly. Given this feedback, our receiving team inspected it and determined that there was nothing materially defective about the product's functionality that justified reclassifying it from the "new" condition labeling. Clearly, you disagree and I can understand your perspective. If you would like to keep the item as is, we would be willing to offer you a 10% discount in the form of a refund. However, you may also return the item to us for a full refund. Thank you, Jeremy at Sherper's"

The offer seemed reasonable enough at the time, so I accepted the 10% discount and moved on.  Further inspection revealed that the steel was incased in some sort of hard rubber or other resin and it was likely not compromised as much as initially thought.  There was no way of telling for sure and the Malone's VersaRail was an inexpensive stop-gap anyway.

Thinking about it now, the feeling of being defrauded only grows.  That last response from Sherper's is partially a lie.  Their inspection team did nothing more than restore the box.  The enclosed Amazon invoice was proof of that, since it was right inside a flap of the box and not inside.

Wal-Mart asked for a review today.  They got one that expressed my disappointment in their not making it more obvious that I was actually purchasing from another supplier (Sherper's), who had gone on to defraud me and them, presenting their product as new, when it was really used.  

Lesson learned, I suppose.  

The more I purchase on the internet these days, the less I really want to any longer.

Hopefully, nothing breaks.  In case it does, Malone's is not to blame.