Making up her own policies

There was a major online sale going on and this blogshop participated in it selling Mirror sets that were originally priced at nearly RM60 excluding postage, but because of the sale the price was brought down to RM1x.xx. It wasn't something I badly wanted or needed, but because of the bargain I thought "why not?". But the discount only applied to the first 2 buyers. So I hurriedly placed an order and stated "If I'm one of the first two buyers, I'm confirmed! If not then it's okay :)"

Turns out I wasn't one of the 1st 2 buyers so okay, let it go (and I should've let it stay that way). A week later she e-mailed me saying one of the buyers backed out so I'm next in line to take up the offer. So "why not?" again I thought. I promptly paid the very next day RM2x.xx (she charged postage for RM10!! But since it was so cheap I thought it's okay to spend a bit more on postage) and informed her.  I'll have you known that all her mails sounded very cold, distant and formal, no smileys, no "hey"s, no emotions, and not very friendly, just "Dear (name),". The only time she ever showed any semblance of emotions is when she received the money. I didn't like her customer service at all but i thought, just tolerate it lah. It'll all be over once I've received the item... NOT!!

I opened up my package and guess what, she sent the wrong item. Below is the conversation, the gist of it, condensed.

Me: Hey, I've received the parcel already but you've sent the wrong item. I ordered Vintage XX, not XXs. So what do we do now? I'd still like to have Vintage XX. (I thought XX was the ugliest of them all!)

Seller: I’m really sorry. If you want to you can return the item and I will refund you the purchase price (purchase price referring to RM1x.xx).

Me: I can't exchange?

Seller: It's sold off already, before the sale, at a bazaar. (i'm thinking "what"? From the day of the sale until i received the item which was already over a week, it didn't show 'sold!'). Just send the item back to me and give me your bank account number and i will refund the purchase price.

Me: But why should I bear the postage cost for your fault? Why should I be RM20 poorer for YOUR mistake while you lose nothing?

Seller: It's policy!

I checked her Shop Policies and guess what? NOTHING on refunds and exchanges. I even took screenshots of them as evidence, because she eventually changed it.

Me: But it's not fair for me to bear the burden of YOUR mistakes! YOU should be the one to bear the postage cost to send the item back to you, and refund me the full purchase price + postage cost that i paid.

Seller: It's not like I sent you a defective item. It's made of very very good quality and i'm already selling below cost price!

Me: It doesn't matter whether you're selling below cost price or not, because that was your choice in the first place. In the end, this is not what I ordered, and this is not what I wanted. If you ordered something and that seller sends you the wrong item, would you think you should be the one to bear the postage cost for the seller's mistake?

She completely avoided the question and harped on about how good the quality of the item was and yada-yada.

Me: Then what about we meet up to exchange or refund? Like COD, just exchanging the item for either another item or for the full purchase price + postage.

Seller: I don't do COD.

Like WHAT?? Don't even wanna make a reasonable exception to take responsibility. Eventually she increased her refund to ONLY RM2x.xx but still insisted that i bear the postage cost to return the item to her and must do it within approx 3 days (wasn't in her T&C when I transacted with her!). Talk about taking responsibility for your actions. If i returned it, I'd be RM10 (based on her postage price) poorer and would have gotten nothing for it, for a fault on HER part. Hence it's still with me, in its original packaging, collecting dust and reminding me of the bad bad experience and customer service she provided.

And now it's in her policy that if a refund or exchange is wanted for an error on her part, customers have to bear the postage cost to return the item to her, and refunds are capped at only the purchase price. So no matter what, customers have to bear ALL postage costs, even for the fault and negligence of the seller. Meaning she can conveniently send an unsellable item to any customer even if that's not what they ordered, and because of the policy, customers would most likely just keep the item rather than become a few RMs poorer and gain nothing at all for it. It's better to not even transact with her in the first place, don't you think?