Returns Nightmare

<p>Last year I purchased an external hard disk drive (Western Digital My Passport Ultra 2.5" Portable External Hard Drive (3TB)(Blue)) online from Loot.co.za.</p> <p>This device never really worked as it should have. At first it was very slow in terms of reading/writing data. Then I had a few instances where it stopped responding and data could not be written to, or read from it. The only way to get it to work again was to format it, thus losing all data.</p> <p>Eventually in December, the re-format process took over 30 hours, and the device stopped responding when writing data to it.</p> <p>Attempts to re-format it failed and files could not be written to it (it asked for the drive to be formatted first).</p> <p>I have ALWAYS stopped USB devices in Windows, to enable safe removal, and never just unplugged it from my PC.</p> <p>I tried this external HDD on different PCs and laptops, running windows 7 and Windows 10 and experienced the same problems.</p> <p> </p> <p>On 2017-02-06, I contacted the Loot.co.za returns department, explained my problem and arranged a return.</p> <p>2016-02-17: Collected by Fedex</p> <p>2016-02-24: Loot queried the tracking number as they could not locate the returned parcel.</p> <p>2016-02-28: Loot ‘found’ the parcel</p> <p>2016-03-22: After I queried progress with Loot, their feedback from the supplier was: ‘"It was no fault found , report will be inside the unit box"’</p> <p> </p> <p>So, after 6 weeks without my device, Loot and their supplier do not see any problem with this device which I’ve had problems with for over 6 months.</p> <p>I phoned their call-centre (only way of contacting them apart from e-mail which they take 2 days to respond and they never acknowledged my requests for someone to call me in the 6 weeks I’ve been asking them).</p> <p>Spoke to a Meghan who re-iterated that there was no fault with the HDD, and who offered a refund minus a ‘handling fee’. I asked to speak to her manager and after a 3.5 minute wait, she came back on line to say that her manager (Laura) was in a meeting and that I could call back at 14:00. She would not allow me to speak to her manager’s manager (the MD) and wouldn’t give me any other telephone number except the call centre telephone number. I asked her to get her manager to phone me at 14:00, which did not happen. (I’m not surprised)</p> <p>Now Loot, I have a product which is useless to me, and which is still within the manufacturer’s warranty period. I cannot explain why they/you say there is nothing wrong with it, when I tried it on multiple PCs and laptops, and on different operating systems and experienced the same problem everytime. I do not see why I need to pay a ‘handling fee’, especially when you are prepared to give me a refund.</p> <p>Your returns department are terribly slow and extremely unhelpful in assisting customers with after-sales service. Kevin takes 2 days or longer to reply to e-mails and never phones customers when asked to.</p> <p>Your organisation is not customer-centric, and you seem to operate within a co****, denying customers access to key decision makers. I have spoken to your callcentre agent and a supervisor and as expected did not get the help I need. Your ‘manager’ does not return calls. Your staff have closeted away your MD from customers. And yet you want the public’s money!?</p> <p>I have been a customer for many years, but will now take my money to your competitor who has much better after-sales service (no wonder they are the country’s largest online retailer).</p> <p>Please tell me why I should not cancel/delete my user account, boycott your business and ask family and friends to do likewise?</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>