Refunds on warranty exchanges?

[dlundblad]

I read this in another thread and asked about it, but it never really went anywhere. It was suggested that a warrantied part could also be turned in for a refund. I believe it was said that Oreilly or AZ could/ would do this? Is this true?

I have some calipers from AAP that I planned on just getting replaced under warranty and selling on CL to recoup some of my cost when I purchased OE. They've been replaced several times for various reasons so I imagine I'd have a pretty good case for getting a refund. It just stinks because they have my cores as I've basically been "renting" these until failure the last 5 years.

 

[Wolf359]

It's usually worse. Usually they try to refund you the purchase price and then you buy the new part. But usually between the time you buy the part and when you return it, the price has gone up so you'd end up paying the difference for the new part. I usually just yell at them and tell them to just do an even swap.

 

[BigD1]

Advance gave me a refund on a power steering pump that was bad twice in a row. One never worked...no power assist. And the other one had a loud bearing squeal. The manager of the store did admit that Dorman had some bad apples in their parts system. I said how about some power steering fluid too, and he gave me some store brand fluid which was fine.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
It's usually worse. Usually they try to refund you the purchase price and then you buy the new part. But usually between the time you buy the part and when you return it, the price has gone up so you'd end up paying the difference for the new part. I usually just yell at them and tell them to just do an even swap.


Sorry, they're pulling a fast one on you if they try that. That's without question NOT how it works.

 

[PandaBear]

I'd personally shoot for store credit instead. Stores have a lot of resistance if you try to get cash out of them.

Wait till Black Friday and use those credits to buy oil.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: hallstevenson
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
It's usually worse. Usually they try to refund you the purchase price and then you buy the new part. But usually between the time you buy the part and when you return it, the price has gone up so you'd end up paying the difference for the new part. I usually just yell at them and tell them to just do an even swap.


Sorry, they're pulling a fast one on you if they try that. That's without question NOT how it works.


Yeah, I think both Autozone and Advance Auto have tried that on me. I just told them here's the old part, it's an even swap, I don't care what you do with the paperwork, not paying any extra.

 

[Trav]

I don't think you will get cash back but they will swap them like for like then peddle them on ebay.

 

[dogememe]

you should never have to pay anything when doing a warranty exchange, warranty replacements for the same part number are free even if the part has gone up in price. it only gets iffy when the part number has been superceded and the new part number is more expensive, in that case warranty return the old part and then override the price of the warranty return to match the new part's price. at least that's how i/we do it at the o'something i work at. now if you're doing a warranty return for a different brand part (perhaps you have a masterpro part that failed under warranty and you want to pay extra for the bwd part) then you just pay the difference. seems pretty obvious and simple to me, and anybody who does it a different way is stupid.

 

[sxg6]

I know you asked about brick and mortar stores, but I was very surprised when rockauto helped me out in a situation like this. After getting a second power steering pump that leaked, I told them I didn't want another, and very nicely asked if I could just get a refund instead. To my surprise, they agreed to give me a refund.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: dogememe
you should never have to pay anything when doing a warranty exchange, warranty replacements for the same part number are free even if the part has gone up in price. it only gets iffy when the part number has been superceded and the new part number is more expensive, in that case warranty return the old part and then override the price of the warranty return to match the new part's price. at least that's how i/we do it at the o'something i work at. now if you're doing a warranty return for a different brand part (perhaps you have a masterpro part that failed under warranty and you want to pay extra for the bwd part) then you just pay the difference. seems pretty obvious and simple to me, and anybody who does it a different way is stupid.


I 100% agree. Sadly, each time I've gone in there to do an exchange, they've wanted me to pay the difference between the normal price and the discounted price since I bought them online with 40% off promo codes.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: sxg6
I know you asked about brick and mortar stores, but I was very surprised when rockauto helped me out in a situation like this. After getting a second power steering pump that leaked, I told them I didn't want another, and very nicely asked if I could just get a refund instead. To my surprise, they agreed to give me a refund.


I'm going to just try this. During my last lockup, I am assuming the rotor got cooked too.. Hopefully I can get that exchanged as well.

 

[dogememe]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Originally Posted By: dogememe
you should never have to pay anything when doing a warranty exchange, warranty replacements for the same part number are free even if the part has gone up in price. it only gets iffy when the part number has been superceded and the new part number is more expensive, in that case warranty return the old part and then override the price of the warranty return to match the new part's price. at least that's how i/we do it at the o'something i work at. now if you're doing a warranty return for a different brand part (perhaps you have a masterpro part that failed under warranty and you want to pay extra for the bwd part) then you just pay the difference. seems pretty obvious and simple to me, and anybody who does it a different way is stupid.


I 100% agree. Sadly, each time I've gone in there to do an exchange, they've wanted me to pay the difference between the normal price and the discounted price since I bought them online with 40% off promo codes.


that's bizarre. at o'something it's two different buttons. warranty replacement is a $0 exchange for same part, warranty return is if you're getting a different part. are my coworkers that dumb?

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: dogememe
that's bizarre. at o'something it's two different buttons. warranty replacement is a $0 exchange for same part, warranty return is if you're getting a different part. are my coworkers that dumb?


Warranty should be straight exchange no matter how you purchased the original part. Now if by using a coupon you agreed to a shorter or non-existent warranty that would be different but would have to be in plain writing upfront.