Beware of CARiD

I recently ordered a pair of alpharex taillights from CARiD. They were delivered today. Box was undamaged and I pulled the first one (drivers side) out of the box and installed it in my truck.
Tail light and blinker worked but no brake light. After double checking the connections and still no luck I pulled the passenger side out of the box and noticed a couple pieces of plastic in the bottom of the box. Well shit. I immediately knew one of these tail lights was damaged. It was the passenger. At this point I called CARiD customer service and after going in circles with them I am out of luck. Since I installed the drivers side tail light they cannot take them back now for being damaged. Lesson learned. I should have never said I installed the drivers side one. I understand this policy and why they have it, but at that point I hadn't installed the damaged tail light. When I asked about a warranty return since the brake light doesn't work I was again told no. Again because one is damaged and I had already installed. I still don't understand what that has to do with the brake light not working. At this point I could glue the broken pieces back on the passenger side and move on but this isn't an option if the brake lights don't work. Before I sat down to post this I went ahead and tried the passenger side. Same issue, no brake light. Anyone have any idea on how to trouble shoot the brake light issue? If I can't get them working it's an expensive item going in the trash

 

I've avoided them like the plague. Clearly a mass distribution house with no real storefront and no Amazon style customer care.

 

If you bought Alpharex, and the seller already denied a return, why wouldn’t you go to the manufacturer? They are the ones who administer a warranty.

 

Installed or not, if they’re not workings properly, they should be covered under warranty.
How would you know they didn’t work without installation?

 

Of its both, I would check the fuse or connect the OEM set and make sure they work. If the brake lights work on them, you know the fuse is good.

 

OEM tail lights are back in and everything works. I'll see what I can do contacting alpharex directly.

 

This was my first thought too. That’s pretty bad customer service.

 

Did you pay with a card?

Dispute the charges until it’s resolved

 

I cannot recommend them anymore either. I bought a set of Fuel wheels. Two of them were used. They had damage and were full of mud on the inside. They blamed Fuel for it and that may be true. At first they were not going to give me a refund or replacement wheels because the tire shop put tires on the wheels before they told me about it. I insisted the tire shop take them back off.

Long story short, CARID finally agreed to send me two replacement wheels, so in the end they did the right thing. For now on I buy big items like wheels from a local shop even if it costs more.

 

In my experience, when you dispute charges with a CC company or bank they will usually refund the amount right away while they do their investigation, but almost always side with the seller and charge it back to your account.

 

I used paypal. I opened a dispute with them

 

I also sent an email to Alpharex usa so will wait to hear from them.
It's not like I spent a large sum on these tail lights. If I'm out the money it's not that big a deal for me. Just pisses me off that a company can get you on a technicality like this and tell you to f### off

 

Recently had a similar experience with AutoAnything but eventually got my money back.

 

If PayPal says to send them back make SURE the method you use shows tracking all the way to the actual address. I disputed a claim once and PayPal gave me the address to send them back to, I explained to them that the return address on the sellers box was different. They said send to the address they gave me (the one they had on file and not updated by the seller). When the package was returned to me stating "wrong address" PayPal refused to refund because the tracking showed delivered to the street name but not detailed down to the house number. I used usps and will use ups or fedex for now on.....just FYI and good luck!

 

Good on you. I recently bought an item using PayPal and never received it. Calls and e-mails to the seller went unanswered until I filed a PayPal dispute. The seller responded within an hour and refunded my money only after I filed a dispute. I’ve had similar luck with the BBB, too. If you ever don’t get a satisfactory response to an issue with the seller/retailer file disputes and demand they correct your issue!

 

Sometimes it’s not worth the fight if you are not out too much. These online auto parts brokers should care enough about their reputation to be so rigid on their return policies. Eventually they will lose enough business to competitors as me either change their policy or shrink as a company. Whenever possible I try to give my local shops my business.

 

So after thinking on this some more while watching some football I thought what are the odds that both brake lights don't work? It's got to be something I did wrong. Sure enough I didn't have the connector pushed in far enough. The tail light and brake light work off the same connector so since the tail light was working I thought the connector was plugged in okay. I feel dumb on this one but it did take a lot of force to get it plugged all the way in. This still doesn't change the fact that the passenger side was broken but since I installed the drivers side before I noticed, it's not returnable. Why would I have admitted to installing if I'm the one who broke it during said install? I glued the broken pieces back and from a few feet away it's not that noticeable. It's all good, CARiD just won't ever get any business from me in the future.