What it looks like

The sales page says it in large type: “Try it risk-free for 45 days. Not satisfied? Full refund, no questions asked.” It is often the reason you finally buy. Then the product arrives, it whistles, it hurts, or it does nothing, and you go to send it back.

The support line rings out or drops the call. The email autoresponder promises a reply in five business days. The reply, when it comes, says you need a Return Merchandise Authorisation number, which they will issue after a review. The review takes until day 46. Or the number comes, along with news of a 30 percent restocking fee, a requirement that the box be unopened, and a return address overseas where shipping costs more than the refund.

Why it works on us

Because the guarantee removes the last objection at the moment of purchase, and the obstruction happens weeks later when you are tired, embarrassed, and dealing with the thing in your ears instead of the thing on the screen. Older buyers, who are the target, are also the least likely to fight a company through a chargeback. The seller knows the numbers: most people give up.

The obstruction playbook

• The clock starts early. The trial period runs from the order date, not the delivery date, and shipping takes two weeks.
• The RMA gate. No return accepted without an authorisation number, and the number is issued slowly or not at all.
• The restocking fee. Thirty to fifty percent, disclosed in a policy page nobody reads, sometimes only in the confirmation email.
• The condition clause. Refund only if returned unused in original packaging. A hearing device you have not used cannot be evaluated, which is the point.
• The overseas address. Return shipping to a warehouse abroad, tracked, at your expense, with the refund contingent on arrival.
• The store credit swap. A refund that quietly becomes a credit for the same company’s other products.
• The disappearing phone. Numbers that route to a queue that never ends, or a voicemail that is always full.

How to spot it in ten seconds

1. Read the policy page, not the banner. Search it for restocking, authorisation, unopened, and shipping.
2. Check when the clock starts. Order date or delivery date. The policy will say, quietly.
3. Call the number before you buy. One call tells you everything about what happens after.
4. Search the company name with the word refund. Complaint boards and the Better Business Bureau are full of people describing the exact obstruction you are about to meet.
5. Pay with a credit card, never a debit card or a wire. A card gives you chargeback rights when the seller stops answering. A wire gives you nothing.

The guarantee is printed in 40-point type. The restocking fee is printed in 9. Read the 9.

What to do instead

• Buy from sellers whose return process is described in full, with a domestic address and a phone that is answered. Our Real Choices list the return terms for every product.
• Photograph the box, the device and the serial number the day it arrives, and keep every email. If it goes wrong, that is your evidence for a chargeback.
• If you are stuck, file the chargeback with your card issuer before the trial period ends, and file a complaint with your state attorney general. Attorneys general have taken action over exactly these practices.
• Send us the policy and the emails. Documented refund obstruction is how a seller earns a Case File.

Case Files

Products and sellers we have documented using this tactic are linked here as Case Files are published. Sellers with hundreds of formal refund complaints on public record will be the first entries. If you have been caught by it, send us the listing, the emails and your order details. Dated screenshots are the most useful thing you can send.

Evaluated by Scott West. Data scientist. 40 years of hearing loss. Method: How We Evaluate.

Sources

Every claim above rests on a public record or a named organisation. Read them yourself.

• MacDonald Audiology: Beware hearing aid scams
• Better Business Bureau: Bossa Hearing complaint record
• National Council on Aging: OTC hearing aid scams
• Federal Trade Commission: report fraud