I bought a set of Tozo earphones from Amazon, great price and to be honest, a great pair for music listening. I did want a pair of Apple Airpods, but really £199 is outrageous, to the point of beyond reasonable, and I am an Apple Boy! The said earphones/earbuds fit nicely, worked perfectly for a week, then a few cutouts that I thought could be due to interference, but being Bluetooth I thought this should not happen as my large headphones/cans are Bluetooth and connected to my iMac and work like a dream, granted they cost a lot more than these little earphones, but the principle is the same, it should work without dropouts.
Move on 7 weeks later (yesterday) I decided to wear them out whilst walking the dogs. They were quite frankly appalling. The right one, which is the main connection dropped out every 10 or 15 seconds, just for about a quarter of a second, but the left one which is connected again via its Bluetooth to the right one was constantly dropping out, to the point where there were more dropouts than there was music. In the end, I turned them off and pocketed them and walked in silence with the dogs.
Last night I went on to return them, and the window was shut for returns. So, to the help section and chat to an Amazon person about returning them for a refund. He (Amazon employee) had to think about whether they should be returned, but before I had chance to spout the consumer rights act he relented but decided to do as Amazon does best, throw a spanner in the works. The earbuds have rechargeable batteries in them, and as such are subject to certain EU laws (EU fuckery), but Amazon read this return of goods with batteries incorrectly, and deem that they cannot arrange for return of the goods and the consumer has to pay for them to go back, as they “cannot produce a paid return label”, which turned out to be a complete lie. They state that only UPS and DHL can carry goods with batteries in them, again I later find out was another lie. To make matters worse this dickhead decided that I had to use UPS and he would send me a UPS label so that it could go back that way, but again I had to pay for the return (legally Amazon have to pay for the return, not me). After what felt like the whole night dealing with dickhead arguing my rights, he decided to leave the conversation.
I printed off the label and this morning took it to the shop in the village that happens to take UPS parcels. However, the label and barcode was generic and not a UPS one. The lady was very nice and apologised that she could not do anything and advised I speak to Amazon to get the right label. Knowing that he was full of shit and did not know his job, I went to the Post Office and asked the postmaster there if this item could be sent. He smiled and said that anything with a battery enclosed within it can be sent by Royal Mail and that the Amazon guy does not have a clue, or just “couldn’t be arsed” which is very apparent now. The postmaster also told me that they Amazon can do a postpaid label with the hazard sign and that I should not be paying for this. The said that EU regulations state that if it is a battery on its own, i.e. a laptop battery, then no, it has to go via a carrier, but if it is within an item, like my earphones, then it has a place to discharge to and is safe to send.
I got home and put in a call to Amazon and the guy I spoke to acknowledged that I should not have to pay for it and whilst on to him email the receipt and he would refund me the postage. I did my part, and he arranged for the refund.
Usually, I get emails confirming what went on and I am given the option to rate the person I dealt with, but alas the guy last night ensured that did not come my way, otherwise I would have given him big fat zeros.
I sometimes wonder if there is a mark on my account that says “he dared to complain back in 2013, so fuck him over as much as you can. Maybe I am becoming pessimistic in my old age, or maybe, just maybe I am right.
Mr Knitter 