Shipping a PT back may cost $2.I agree that its a bummer when things dont work properly,but I have never recieved a refund for any product that I didnt return from any company but V4L,have you?Do other companies that you buy from just say keep it and we will send you a refund anyway?Ive never heard of that.How can they figure out what the problem is if they cant inspect the item?Im confused.
I've been fortunate in not having many bad experiences purchasing things anywhere and haven't had many online purchases period, but the fw times I've had to return an item online varied in how it was handled with return shipping. With consumer electronics (probably the thing I've bought online the most and also typically more expensive an item compared to things like consumables) there is no universal standard but sending a shipping box is pretty common.
Now a PT is a pretty inexpensive thing, even though it's an electronic device so paying shipping costs could eat up a big hunk of any margin that exists. However, as a consumer knowing the failure rate is an advantage. Even if one consumer feels it is pretty small (I suspect it must be) each individual consumer should have the ability to make the most informed decision possible. If I get gunshy about one or two problems even if those one or two are such a tiny percentage as to be insignificant then it's my right to make a silly choice.
I think the bigger concern for many users who have not yet (or have no desire to ever) started a stockpile of supplies would be knowing if there is a trend in missing items or mispacked items. Even if there is no shipping charge for replacing them it's an issue of potentially being out of something essential like juice and thus slipping back on to analogs.
This is the very reason I went with V4L in the first place, and I've not had reason to regret that choice. I had an order in with V2 initially and they were jerking me around for two weeks on shipping and not being up-front about the status of inventory. I had a deadline for quitting analogs and V4L had the rep for getting product out quickly so I took my business there. Now if I felt there was pressure for people not to report issues, even trivial ones, no matter where the source of the pressure (peer or purveyor) I'd have to really begin to question who I was doing business with.
Thus far I've no complaints about how the V4L people handle complaints, and as a user and client I personally encourage people who have all ranges of experience to communicate openly about them so long as they do so with respect and the kind of moderation they would show if they were dealing face-to-face. I'm an adult, I've owned and operated a a retail store with three physical presences; I know crud happens. If I never saw a complaint of any kind I'd think something suspicious was going on.
