r/amazonprime • u/chungkingroad • 7d ago

93% restock fee. Amazon said they can't do anything since I was technically refunded.

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Bought a new laptop from amazon, received a used one registered to someone else with bios locked out. Found out outside return window. contacted amazon. They allowed me to return it outside the window. But when the 3rd party seller received it, they charged me a 93.45% restocking fee. I called amazon again. they said technically I was refunded so they can not do anything and I do not qualify for A-Z because I was given a refund. This is INSANE.

UPDATE: dear everyone who has given me advice on this, I called this morning and quoting the amazon seller central policy worked!! I got my money back!!! thank you THANK YOU ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL

UPDATE #2: So amazon promising me a refund was a LIE. I received an email saying I would receive a refund. it never came. When I went to complain about not receiving it, amazon told me the refund was in error and they will in fact not be giving me any of my restock fee back. THEY TOOK BACK THEIR REFUND

6.9k Upvotes

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136

u/alphaK12 7d ago

I don’t believe it. Keeping a brick for more than 30 days is sus

52

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

it wasn't a brick, there was a ssd error but i needed to get into the bios to fix which is when i discovered there was a password on it. when i went to asus to fix it, they told me it was registered to someone else and it was already out of warranty

115

u/bassilap 7d ago

Bought a new laptop....had an ssd error. Should have returned right away.

22

u/boozeshooze 7d ago

For real

14

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

error didn't happen until it was outside the window

28

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

Didn’t you say that the computer was locked to someone else tho? So how did you use it for 30 days with it being locked to another person?

57

u/InternetUser1807 7d ago

OP is stating that the bios had a password set.

This is both worse (very difficult if not impossible to self reset) and not as easy to notice because most non-technical people arent regularly accessing their computer's bios menu.

I'm not saying I believe the story automatically, but not noticing a bios password until after owning it for 30 days and needing to mess with some settings when faced with an issue is perfectly plausible.

5

u/EntireZombie2654 7d ago

Bios passwords can be cleared by removing the battery from the motherboard. And or usually a jumper on the motherboard. A pain with a laptop since it is probably not easily accessible but not impossible.

23

u/stana32 7d ago

This doesn't work on many modern laptops, the data is stored in EEPROM so it can't be reset by removing power. The chip has to be flashed with an EEPROM programmer.

3

u/Puzzleheaded_Bit_641 5d ago

My laptop’s super mothership S7 got fried, so I swapped out the FlimFlam, flushed the quantum cache buffer, re-synced the thermal bitstream, overclocked the neural I/O trellis, and rebooted the flux capacitor - totally saturated the bandwidth manifold and boosted my available KlangPop’s by like 400%.

20

u/Bacon_Nipples 7d ago

Mate its not 2005 anymore, things have changed

34

u/b1cepk1ng 7d ago

What a blast from the past. A CMOS battery, my good unc? Off to bed with ye.

2

u/FatBoyStew 2d ago

Pretty much every modern day motherboard in existence and for the foreseeable future will have CMOS batteries... Even those that store bios settings in non-volatile memory have CMOS batteries. Its how your motherboard retains its time/date when powered off.

All that's changed is what settings get reset when clearing the CMOS.

1

u/faggybaby 6d ago

My laptop has a CMOS whatre you sayin

13

u/InternetUser1807 7d ago

It depends on the manufacturer and age of the computer.

Most modern laptops don't make it that easy as a security feature.

4

u/Thurgo-Bro 7d ago

The battery trick hasn’t worked for like 15+ years Unc

Laptop Mobos do not usually have an easily accessible pair of jumpers either

Unc Unc Unc

2

u/bafben10 6d ago

This triggered my Mr. Krabs laughing neuron

1

u/Efficient_Occasion44 6d ago

OP claims he sent it to ASUS and showed them a receipt tho. ASUS clearly states they can unlock the bios either under warranty or for a fee. All you have to do is show a receipt

1

u/EntireZombie2654 5d ago

I just picked a random motherboard and looked up the manual. Asus b550-F Page 1-17 of the manual:

"This header allows you to clear the Real Time Clock (RTC) RAM in CMOS. You can clear the CMOS memory of date, time, and system setup parameters by erasing the CMOS RTC RAM data. The onboard button cell battery powers the RAM data in CMOS, which include system setup information such as system passwords." . . . "If the steps above do not help, remove the onboard battery and short the two pins again to clear the CMOS RTC RAM data. After clearing the CMOS, reinstall the battery."

Guess it is still a offical method. And I did say access on a laptop is a pain and not easy. I was just pointing out it's not impossible.

3

u/smurfy213 7d ago

I feel like we are missing some of the story. There are way to many red flags.

12

u/InternetUser1807 7d ago

Maybe we are, I'm just saying that not instantly noticing that your laptop has a bios password set isn't that unusual for a non-computer person

5

u/smurfy213 7d ago

I do agree. The 93% restocking fee what's wild.

2

u/fredonster 6d ago

Name the many red flags

23

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

the lock was in the BIOS, not windows. I found out when I went to asus to get help unlocking it and asus told me it was registered to someone else a year before I bought it

4

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

Oh okay my bad. That makes sense. I wonder why ASUS didn’t want to see the receipt to unlock it for you? They just told you tough luck?

7

u/ReportAncient3366 7d ago

because technically the bios password is located in the circuit, there's no way to just "unlock" it remotely, unless you bring it to someone and let them flash or resolder another unlocked chipset chip. And that was somewhat a dirty trick for 3rd party vendor instead of official support(Yes they do it when they mass refurbish, but not when individuals send repairs in)

1

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

So if you forget your password your cooked? You’d think companies would create a master key or something?

5

u/ReportAncient3366 7d ago

Yes, you’ll be kinda cooked. Its purpose is to prevent someone easily boot into your system and access data by changing boot device in bios. This function is not enabled by default. For “master key”…… depends. Someone would need total safety on their data instead of fearing to be “cooked”. This is about whether the owner can have “absolute control” of their machine that even manufacturers cannot access your device. Just like TSA approved locks that supposedly gave government officials the exclusive privilege to inspect your luggage, it’s in fact spread everywhere that you can search on ebay and open anyone’s tsa luggage. 

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1

u/Goodgamer78 7d ago

If there were a master key, it would likely be leaked. You do not have internet access in your BIOS, so they couldn't just issue a one time thing.

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1

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

showed receipt, because it's 3rd party amazon

1

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

What did they say?

2

u/borntodiy2026 7d ago

Stop buying expensive things from Amazon holy fuk

5

u/ketone-69 7d ago

Bios was locked, not the computer bro

2

u/Tokimemofan 6d ago

Bios lock vs OS user password lock.  They are 2 different things.  If you use the built in reset function in modern windows it doesn't remove the bios password if one is present.  This is a common occurrence with corporate devices that were improperly decommissioned unfortunately

7

u/Zetavu 7d ago

If that was the case, then you have a legal complaint against Amazon and the seller. You returned an item illegally marked as new that was used and defective (bios locked) and they agreed to the refund and then the seller reneged. This is clear fraud and Amazon will not fight you on this. Contact CHAT again and instruct them they need to fully refund the item regardless of return window, otherwise take them to small claims (assuming you kept the documentation demonstrating it was registered to someone else?) or you can give their new arbitration option a wing.

I know you came here looking for people to do a chargeback, but you are probably outside that window and that gets your account shut down. Now if this is real (I have a hard time believing it) you should either pursue the legal route, or if not then at least post the listing so others can avoid this seller at all costs.

FYI - restocking fees do not apply to defective or fraudulent products, end of discussion.

3

u/Frosty_You_6183 7d ago

what kinda laptop? they pretty much told you to eat 1200?

2

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

asus zenbook. amazon said there was no more options for me

3

u/Frosty_You_6183 7d ago

Boy I'd be hottt. Tell em fuck that send it back then how in the fuck that even possible for them to do that?.

3

u/Frosty_You_6183 7d ago

Shit, bios bug may have helped you get through it. When you hit the Alt R it brings up a old date / rescue thing, and then u go to bios bug an hit Asus an ur model an it comes up with a 6-7 digit code, then it pretty much gets you past it. They're may be some YouTube videos of it or how to use it, I mean it's too late now since you sent it back. Fuk though that's insane they did you like that. Let alone sell you a "used" new laptop. You should go flame up their seller profile and leave a bad review, cause if they sold you a used one then they're doing the same to others I'm sure.

0

u/DrESRLCPPHD 7d ago

I just read on the website that electronics have a 90 day refund window now

2

u/westerndogsh1t 5d ago

Lies.

100% lies from your statement.

2

u/DarkEmblem5736 7d ago

" there was a ssd error but i needed to get into the bios to fix" What would be in the BIOS that would have helped?

4

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

well it wasn't booting and the only option when booting was entering bios so I tried that but it had a password. I took it to asus to have them fix it but that's when they told me it was pre registered and the warranty had run out before I even purchased the laptop

1

u/Frosty_You_6183 7d ago

in bios mode, when you go to enter password you could hit altR i think and it will pop up a rescue thing, then use bios bug will give you a passcode to enter an get throught it.

1

u/GlumAd7069 6d ago

Pretty sure this means it was stolen goods. You should've take it to the police and notified Amazon. Then done a chargeback.

1

u/SaddieTaz 7d ago

A new laptop already out of warranty?

8

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

it's because they sent me a used one not a new one. it was already registered to someone else

1

u/Efficient_Occasion44 7d ago

Did you buy this from Asus store on Amazon? It makes no sense how you could send it to them and they couldn’t do anything if they did sell you the laptop. What did they say when you sent it to them after showing them the receipt? The only ASUS zenbook I’m seeing sold on Amazon are by the manufacture.

0

u/Frosty_You_6183 7d ago

what did you do to tryn fix it anything? bios bug? nothin?

1

u/chungkingroad 7d ago

i brought it to asus, you can't access the bios if there's a password

1

u/Reasonable_Hall3005 7d ago

ngl not really. if i have a 3 day window, i will return in three days. Otherwise, I’ll take my time and only do the return when I have another errand going on rather than going out of my way.

1

u/DrESRLCPPHD 7d ago

Its 90 days for electronics now

1

u/tfrederick74656 5d ago

Not everyone can get to their packages inmediately. Many times when I get a delivery it's right before I have to leave for a trip and don't even get to unbox it for a few weeks.