About "Restocking Fees"

I will try to keep this simple.  Sometimes you take a risk, and it doesn't work out.  I have a 42" DLP HD television.  It has performed flawlessly since I have bought it around 5 years ago.  When I bought it, I was told that there was a bulb inside that was user replaceable, and that it would last about 8,000 hours of use.  The TV worked up until 3 weeks ago, when a loud buzzing noise came out of the set, along with a diminished picture.  I thought one of the fans went out, so I pulled the lamp (which is in a plastic housing) out of the TV to check if I could see anything wrong.  There were 4 screws to remove the cover, and one screw that retained the lamp housing.  I slid out the lamp assembly.  I saw nothing.  I put the lamp back in, and the noise was still there.  I checked it out on the internet and the consensus is that a moving part in the set, called the color wheel, had gone bad.  This little unit spins at very high rpms (some said up to 11,000 rpms) and it had broken.  There were tutorials on how to replace the wheel, but I saw various prices on the wheels, a couple of different types, and found that several manufacturers had made these sets, and . . . they were all constructed differently.  So no tutorial was going to prepare me for what I would find if my set was different than the one I saw on youtube.

Then I saw the comments of those who were successful, and those who were not.  There were more in the latter than the former, so I decided to call around and see who would repair my TV.  I got prices high and low.  I found a guy who does a lot of them as he is a warranty tech for these brands.  He said it was a color wheel without seeing it, and it would cost $310.00, installed (+ tax).  I asked him to order the wheel, and he said it would take a week.  He came out and replaced the wheel, which had shrapnelled inside its little housing.  He replaced it with a newer wheel with "air bearings" that is supposed to last a lot longer.  However, when he put it back together, the wheel worked, but the lamp didn't.  "How much for the lamp?" I asked, knowing the lamp had been living on borrowed time.  He said $229.00, + tax.  It would take another week to get an original equipment lamp.  I knew I could change out the lamp myself, and he agreed.  I used my Visa card and ordered what was supposed to be a genuine OEM lamp from an internet company for $179, including free 2-day air shipping with a one-year guarantee.  What could be better?  The lamp came when it was supposed to, and I carefully took it out of the package with rubber gloves on and inserted in the tv.  I slid it in and pushed it home.  I heard a click as I tightened the screw to lock it in place.  I put on the cover, correctly tripping the safety switch, and put in the 4 retaining screws.  I plugged in the TV and pressed the "on" button on the set.  I looked and it was . . . dark.  The bulb did not light.  Fast forward to today.  I called the repair guy who came back out and checked it out.  It was the wrong lamp, not OEM, and that click I heard on installation was the lamp breaking the male plug from the ballast that fits into the mating socket in the bulb.  The ballast is $150.00, the bulb is wrong and has to go back, and the repair guy can get the right bulb for $229.00 plus tax, in another week or two.  I called the lamp outfit and told them the story.  They said they will take the lamp back and refund my money, but there is a 15% restocking fee.  I told them I ordered the right bulb for my set by model number, and I didn't get a bulb that fit.  The representative said that there was still a restocking fee.  I said, OK, let's play it this way.  I will keep the lamp until they give me a full refund, and I will call Visa and put a stop on their payment until this is straightened out.  "There is no need to do that, sir," he said.  "I will talk to my boss and see what can be done."  He came back and said that I should repackage the lamp in the original box and they would credit me for the full amount and they would pay for the shipping.  I just saved about $40.00 through negotiation and the power of a credit card.  Whoopee!  The repair guy took pity on me and said he had a ballast that he wasn't going to charge me for (to replace the one I broke), so I saved $150 there.  On the downside, I took a gamble and opted to fix a 42" 5-year-old obsolete TV, and let's total what it cost me:   around $336 for the color wheel (with tax), and around $249 for the lamp and I have close to $585 in my old set.  If I added about $15, I could have gotten a new 42" LCD set with a one-year guarantee.  I also have been without my TV for 3 weeks, and it still isn't working yet.  I have learned a lesson here.  I hope I am smarter and luckier next time.