Advice in pursuing my RMA request

Hi all, I have an 8gb Fuze that I purchased NIB from a seller on eBay 7 months ago. The item arrived and worked perfectly (with the normal little glitches that we talk about around here) until a couple of weeks ago, when it started up with just a white screen. No, it wasn’t dropped - it sits on my desk all day, in the felt pouch even. I’ve already done the research on the firmware-related white screen problems, and even manual firmware updates to the latest version have not solved anything. Since it’s still within the 1-year warranty period, I am trying to send it back to Sandisk.

But when I filed my RMA, after the usual “try updating your firmware” run-around and 47-hours-and-59-minute response time for emails through my Ebox, I am stalled trying to provide a proof of purchase. I sent them my original Paypal transaction details which show the date, seller, description, and everything else relevant, but Sandisk would not accept it. They asked for an original invoice provided by Ebay. Well, Ebay deletes those after 60 days, as does Gmail (no, I didn’t save it, I figured my proof of payment was sufficient). Besides that, all it would say is that I had purchased the item on such and such a date, and that I should proceed to Paypal to make my payment. It doesn’t have any unique identifiers like the Fuze’s serial number, so I don’t see what the problem is with my transaction details. I can send them a screenshot of my Paypal page if they want. . . .

Anyway, I’m curious to know if anybody has any advice for how to proceed with this. I’ve already responded in my Ebox with this same petition. The player is well within the warranty period, why won’t Sandisk just RMA it. If they’re really bent on screwing me, they could just say they determined it was damaged by me somehow when they do inspect it (which I wouldn’t rule out even if I do get over this hurdle, but I’ll hold my breath if I get that far). Tips anybody?

probably best if you call and explain the situation to them. this has happened to be before with ebay purchases with other manufacturers.

if you do it by email you’ll wait three to four weeks just to hear back from them.

Sandisk is not trying to screw you. You screwed yourself by buying a unit on Ebay form a seller that could not provide a warranty. There are no manufacture’s warranties that I know of that will accept PayPal as proof purchase. They need to see where it was bought from, not who it was bought from. PayPal is only a money exchange point between a seller and a buyer. If the seller is an authorized retailer, they will provide a receipt that is proof of purchase that you would receive with the item. If it is bought from anyone else, you get no receipt and no warranty. NIB means nothing on Ebay. It could easily be a stolen item NIB so there is no proof of purchase because it wasn’t purchased.

Your only hope as far as I can see is to contact the seller and see if they can provide a receipt. You can search any of your transactions in your PayPal history to find the seller and contact them if they are still registered.

Good Luck, but your odds aren’t looking to good on this one!

@jarrycanada wrote:
if you do it by email you’ll wait three to four weeks just to hear back from them.

My experience was that it mostly took  ~1 day to respond to Ebox queries, over several different queries and an RMA. And the people replying were generally helpful. Appearently YMMV…

It’s not that they’re not helpful, just that it’s so difficult to just have a defective unit replaced. Replies aren’t that slow, but I don’t really have the time to call them either. Oh well, live and learn.

@silverzero wrote:

It’s not that they’re not helpful, just that it’s so difficult to just have a defective unit replaced. Replies aren’t that slow, but I don’t really have the time to call them either. Oh well, live and learn.

RMA is aquick response. Sometimes it takes longer to get a response for help with a player problem, but in general RMA takes about a day (Given you dont send it on the weekend).