eCost

Full review
I purchased a TomTom Go 510 GPS system from ecost.com. It was about my 4th purchase from the vendor. The item was refurbished but those are usually solid products and good deals.

Upon receiving the product I had errors in completing the initial set-up. Per the shipping document from ecost.com, I contacted the manufacturer first and created a case with them. They advised that the memory card or internal processor was defective and that a replacement was required.

I then called ecost.com and they said I could do an exchange but in order to do that I would first need to purchase another one and then send the defective one back and hope that it would be accepted for return and I'd get a credit on my card. Huh? You want me to buy another, at which point you'd charge me right away, but then will only state that it could be 14-21 days before the other credit was processed and put on my card. So you get to hold on to $200 of mine during the holidays (I paid with a check card)? And then you won't even authorize the return until I buy another one so I don't even know if my return is going to be authorized before I buy the replacement? That seems a bit risky.

I advised eCost that I would not be allowing two charges for the same item on my debit card during the holidays. They advised that a customer care specialist would call me back.

Instead of receiving a call, I then received an email the next day stating I needed to contact customer care again. I called them and they said that instead of charging it on my card I can use an ecost.com Preferred Account for the new charge. However, a Credit Report (potentially damaging to my credit rating) authorization would be required and inquiry would be conducted. That's not acceptable. I just want to return a defective item and exchange it for one that works. Why do I need to have either a credit report check or multiple, excessive, charges on my credit card?

So, beware of shopping at ecost.com. I'm done. I just would have been quite happy to exchange this unit for one that worked but they want to do all of these shady charges, reversals, credit authorizations, etc. I had an iPod that I needed to exchange from Amazon. They sent me the item before I even sent mine back and it was a wonderful experience. This is definitely far from that!