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I've had the worst experience with online used engine sellers. My question is how to receive my refund from the seller. Here's a short summary:

I've been trying to find a used engine for my old car. Found this seller (usedengines.us) that supposedly had the engine I needed. I contacted them on 20th, February, paid them with my credit card and had the delivery address be my car shop as I am not a mechanic myself. After a failed attempt from their side to send an engine they finally delivered something to my car shop around end of March. My car shop tried to work on my car but soon discovered that the engine delivered was absolute garbage. That was around mid April. I initiated a return process with the seller, which took a month because of the extremely bad quality of service. Finally mid May they took the engine back and initially were going to give me another engine, but soon told me they don't actually have it and said they are going to refund me.

It's mid June now and I still haven't received the refund. They keep telling me "we made a mistake, I'll forward that to this or that team, you are going to get your refund" or "there was this error trying to refund you" and attached a screenshot of some error happening on the screen. Everytime I've dealt with them it's been real pain. I feel like they are just BSing me and I am not sure what the best course of action is. Last thing they said is "we'll send you a check. Give us your name and address". I have not yet done that, as I am worried once they send the check they can just claim they've refunded me, even if the check bounces, etc.

Is accepting a check from a seller as a refund a good practice. This is the first time I hear someone having a hard time refunding a charge on my credit card. Everything smells very fishy but I am not sure what is the best way to get my money back. Maybe the seller is just utterly incompetent and are indeed having hard time to send me the money back, maybe they are just regular scammers.

TLDR: Bought a used engine with credit card, received broken engine, returned it and seller says can't refund my credit card and wants to send a check. What to do?

After I told them about not being comfortable with checks and told them about chargeback they suggested a wire transfer. I told them my bank info and got my money in couple days. Thank you for the suggestion.

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First off, review the store's return/refund policy for details (hopefully they have it spelled out...). Do you have confirmation in writing that they will refund you?

If you bought it with a credit card and they agree to refund you the money, they will just refund the card you used. I can't think of a real reason why they would have to mail you a check. I would not accept a mailed check for the reasons you spell out (could get lost, bounce, etc.)

Contact them one more time (in writing if possible) and state that if the refund is not processed within a week you will chargeback on the credit card. If the dispute isn't resolved in your favor at first, send the credit card issuer the email/letter from them confirming the refund.

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  • Thank you. Yes I do have email from them confirming that they will refund me. This is the exact quote from them on May 19th: Please be informed that the engine has been retrieved in our inventory. The refund for your 1999 Subaru Legacy Engine order will be initiated within 3 to 5 business days. I will do what you suggest. Hope they get scared by the chargeback possibility and stop BSing me.
    – Swetko
    Commented Jun 14, 2023 at 19:03
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    I don't disagree with the advice, but I'd go straight for the chargeback at this point, you've made more than enough efforts to sort it out with them. In my experience the credit card companies will just sort it for you smoothly.
    – Vicky
    Commented Jun 19, 2023 at 11:44

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