Did you ever...

[RP]

Order or purchase something only to find that an inexpensive but necessary part was missing? So you complained to the store and were given a full or partial refund, only to find that that the errant part had found its way to a dark crevice under the table. I'm asking for a "friend."

[RalphH]

LOL. Never to me of course, but it happened to one of my "friends".

what to tell us what happened to yours?

[mr. beaumont]

No, but the only time I ever stole something in my life stemmed from a somewhat similar situation.

I had just bought my first decent guitar, which I still own and play often-- a Fender Telecaster. It was on the floor at the Guitar Center, and was missing the switch tip.

I pointed this out to the salesman as he was ringing me up, and asked if he could grab me a switch tip off another tele. He instead said I needed to buy a new switch tip.

I was 18, had just spent more money than I ever had on anything in my life ($700 was many paychecks at $4.25 an hour!) and this guy had the nerve to tell me I had to buy a switch tip?

I said "no thanks" and swiped one off another tele as I walked out the door. Still don't feel guilty about it, either.

[Ozzy the dog]

This is one of the positives about Ikea. They have a wall full of 'help yourself' tubs filled with different nuts, bolts and brackets to replace those 'missing' bits from your flat pack. I haven't had any missing bits but my wife still has to stop me filling my pockets whenever we go.

[RP]

Originally Posted by RalphH

...Tell us what happened to yours?

My friend ordered a pair of relatively inexpensive (<$100) computer speakers from Amazon, and they arrived missing a male-to-male audio cord. He knew he could easily get one at Walmart, but in the meantime he chose to let Amazon know that the cord was missing. After running through five automated "What else can I help you with?" cycles on the Amazon website, which offered no assistance at all, a seemingly live Customer Service person entered the chat. He explained the situation, and asked if they could send him the cord in question, probably a $4 item. She said she could not do that but he could return the whole order and they would issue a refund.

In the mean time, he had found a usable substitute cord from another audio device and liked the way the speakers sounded so he was reluctant to send them off to exchange them for a veritable pig-in-a-poke. The CR person then suggested that she give him a return-free refund. This meant that the entire purchase price would be refunded, and I, I mean he, wouldn't have to return the speakers. That sounded good. So she put in for the refund.

The next morning while straightening up under the table, he found the errant cord....