My name is Elizabeth Barratt-Mollah, I live in Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean and I have been an Amazon member since 2011.  I have been utilising Amazon to ship via shipping companies to my country and also when I visit the US which is usually about three times or more per year.

In December 2020 due to the pandemic and the borders being closed, I decided to do my annual and gift shopping online and ship with a company to my country.  Amongst all the items I purchased from Amazon, were two laptops one for my daughter for online schooling and a more expensive one for myself for work purposes.

The one for myself was the Lenovo Flex 5 14″ 2-in-1 Laptop, 14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) Touch Display, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Processor, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, AMD Radeon Graphics, Digital Pen Included, Win 10, 81X20005US, Graphite Grey which was delivered to the shipper on December 14th, 2020.  This together with all my items were shipped and received in my country on December 31st, 2020. I spent the next couple weeks unpacking the items and setting up the HP laptop which was needed for my daughter’s school in January.  Then I set up mine (the Lenovo), read the instructions, tried out the options including the touch screen and other features.  I spent one day to set up, read all the instructions, charge, another day was used for light browsing, checking emails and on the third day (20th January, 2021) I did a report in Microsoft Word.

The Saturday after that (23rd January, 2021) I powered up the laptop to use it for the fourth time since I got it.  At the log on-screen I was about to enter the log on credentials when there was what appeared to be a flash, then a screen came up saying that the laptop was not booting up properly and would need to restart.  I did that but it did not boot up and the message still came up. I turned it off and spent the next couple days trying the other options that were being suggested by the laptop (restore, recovery, re-install the windows) but nothing worked. I also tried Lenovo online and their diagnostic tool, still nothing worked. I was panicking thinking that I was sold a used product so I went onto Lenovo website and entered the model number to see what will happen. The details of my laptop were recognised and I saw that I had a one year warranty that commenced in December 2020.

On January 30th/31st, 2021 I messaged the seller Courage Deals advising of the issue that I was encountering and I enquired if it was a refurbished laptop I was sold because in intentionally selected a pricier brand and specifications to ensure that I would have a durable and long lasting product.  I also read all the information about the product to ensure that it was new, I read the reviews about the seller and the seller profile before I purchased it. On February 01st the seller responded and apologised for the problem and advised that it was indeed new but being new did not guarantee that it was immune to manufacturer’s defect. The seller suggested to me to seek technical support from Lenovo or return it to them for a full refund.  I felt optimistic about the feedback I got and decided to try Lenovo support first before trying to return because my concern was that I was not even sure how I was going to ship the laptop back to the US from my country plus the costs associated with that.  I had already paid the shipper to ship the items initially, paid to clear them and paid customs duties and taxes. So I had all these costs in addition to the cost of the item.  I contacted Lenovo via phone and got onto a customer service representative in the Philippines and unfortunately the person was not understanding what the issue was and could not offer any help.  Then I had to resort to doing my own research online to figure out how to get support.  Finally I got information about a local company that is contracted with Lenovo to offer support called Memory Bank located about an hour away from my home.

Around the second week in February I was able to take time off from work and dropped the laptop off the company.  They contacted me twice within the next couple of weeks to reiterate the problem that I was having.  The third time they contacted me they advised that the board was defective and would need to be changed.  They were seeing that I had warranty on the product but they had to order the board from Lenovo and I would have to pay TT$1000.00/  US$142.86.  I stated that I was not going to spend any money to have this new product repaired so I would arrange to retrieve the laptop.  I again took time off from work and collected the laptop.   This is what happens next:

*22nd February, 2021 – I again contacted Courage Deals and gave an update of what was happening at that point.  I told the seller that I was not going to put out any money, I was also fearful of any future problems at this point. I asked for their address to send it back.

*25th February – the seller responds and tells me that I have to go through the standard return process on the Amazon page.  I them attempt to do that but I keep getting a notice saying that January 31st was the last day to return the item.

*01st March, 2021 – I tried the Amazon Assistant and the message I got was that this seller handles their own shipping and that I should liaise with them. and I am once again reaching out to the seller and relaying this message.  The seller responds again and says that I need to start the amazon return process first.

*02nd March, 2021 I message the seller again and sends a screenshot of what was happening when I tried the return.

After this two days passed and the seller did not respond. I reached out to Amazon Customer Service and chatted with Kuldeep and told him of the whole issue that I was experiencing. He advised that he would contact the seller and request them to help me with the return label for a complete refund as soon as possible.  He said if the seller did not respond that I could file a claim.

Another two days passed and I tried Amazon Customer Service again. This time I got Akiladevi who was telling me that the seller asked for a return on January 03rd and I did not respond until February 03rd. I told him those dates were wrong and I then tried to relay the entire problem again.  He told me he would contact the seller again and if I don’t get a response to file a claim.  I told him I was already told this already but them he tells me that the seller has a reason to deny as email confirmation was late that it was a month difference.  I tried asking him how he was checking the month, what about global customers but he left the chat.

I was then reconnected to Syeda. She looked back at the messages and advised that I have a right to claim against the seller and she could do that on my behalf.  She said the seller would receive notice straight from Amazon and it will be taken care off by the leadership team. I was supposed to receive an email within the next 2-3 business days.

*08th March, 2021 – Courage deals emails and tells me that January 31st was the last day to return.

I again contacted Amazon Customer Service and they filed a claim under their A to Z guarantee however a few hours later it was denied.  I then appealed and that too was denied.

At this point I am frustrated and very angry, I feel like I am getting a run around from the seller and amazon.  In all my years of shopping I have never had an issue or have to return an item. I have bought hundreds or thousands of items from Amazon and just my luck that the most expensive one, the one that I deliberately spent more to ensure that I did not get headache is causing me the most stress.  I am angry every time I look at the box that I spent so much money for and it is not functioning.  The other HP laptop is working fine and I have resorted to resume using my ten year old Dell laptop with a bad screen which is still going after ten years.  To purchase a new one for US$749.00 plus my shipping, clearance fees, have to be constantly messaging to get help, taking time off from work, driving to get support for a laptop that worked for three days and ridiculous.  Who is honoring the warranty? I tried to fix it instead of retuning thinking that the seller is honoring that one year warranty.  Why did he not advise of the return date the first time I reached out to him? He takes days to respond and answers with one lined information that does now answer my questions or concerns.  What help does amazon have for global customers? I have been liaising with the seller from day one when the issue arose so it is unfair that I am being bounced around and stuck with this item.

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