In the early spring of 2007 I was looking at some of the latest radar detector technology and was considering updating my Escort 8500 X50. Valentine, Bel and Escort all advertised $ back guarantee so I decided to try them all for myself and see which one fit my needs the best.
I was very impressed with the 9500, STi and V1 but ultimately decided to stay put with the 8500 X50. I rarely travel much more than 5-7 mph over the speed limit so the ultimate detection ability of the V1 was not worth the significantly higher level of false alerts. I was finding the chirping a bit too annoying when I was talking (hands free) on a phone, transporting sleepy kids and I just found myself tuning out the detector because it was alerting so often.
Fast forward about 9 months when I was looking to hard wire into my motorcycle. There I may push speeds a bit more and the added protection of the V1 seemed to be the ideal solution.
I placed my order for the V1 the last week in January and a few days after placing the order got a message to call Valentine. When I called I got a rude lady on the phone who stated since I had ordered and returned in the past I could not order again without accepting a $50 restocking fee if I returned the detector for any reason.
I was pretty put off by this. I kind of looked at the V1 as an acquired taste and from my perspective thought their initial 30 day money back guarantee was what got me hooked into ultimately buying the detector. I kind of thought they would be happy to have somebody change their mind and ultimately purchase from the.
I then took a step back to look at their side. I am sure they do not want to be restocking from the same customer time after time (though there was only one return and unknown to them, had purchased one for my father in law in 2006 when I lived at a different address).
Wanting the detector and having no intention of returning again unless the unit was defective told the rude lady that I would agree to the $50 restocking fee though they advertise 30 day money back if they agreed I could return a defective unit without a restocking fee.
She sounded put off and said not, I could not return a defective unit without a restocking fee. I explained to her I was not comfortable with that because my experience with electronic devices is once you have a defective unit, it is often a problem unit and I would want to return a defective unit if I got one. I asked her to see if she could make that stipulation.
After a few moments she came back and told me that they would make their best efforts to fix a defective unit but they only way I could return it was if I paid the $50 restocking fee. I asked if that would be true if they could not fix the unit and she said yes, no matter what the reason for the return, I would be charged a restocking fee.
That pretty much killed the deal for me. I could see their point of not wanting to restock several times for one customer. I was disappointed that they do not state this policy anywhere, but could see their point. What I could not understand is them not being willing to take back a faulty unit. That coupled with the fact they seemed to be making up the rules on the fly contrary to what they advertise led me to cancel the order.
It has been said may times on this forum to take advantage of the return policy to find the detector you want. Those looking at the V1 need to be aware of what their true return policy is.
Keep safe![/b]
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