My wife ordered a $50 item with a “30 day return” and “100% satisfaction guarantee” from a small business located ≈400 miles away.

After receiving it, we realized it wasn’t for us and request a return. They accepted it under the pretense that we pay for shipping. We cut our losses, returned everything back in it’s original packaging, and paid the $14 to ship it back.

USPS “could not find a secure location” and left a notice for pickup or redelivery. The tried delivering it again, and again, a total of 3 times with 3 notices and nobody claimed the package, all shown on the tracking details.

Today, a little over a month later, I received my package back as “unclaimed” and “returned to sender.”

I contacted them, again, and they replied about sending it back to them, again. I am not about to pay an additional $14 (a total of $28, or over 50% of the original purchase price). They tell me that they can’t refund me if they don’t receive the product and they will not pay for the shipping themselves “as per their return policy.”

What do you suggest I should do, and what do you consider fair, as a small business owner dealing with this issue from someone who won’t be a repeat customer? Do you feel a chargeback is justified if the business is unwilling to help fix their mistakes?

Edit: for those saying how “it’s not for us” isn’t an acceptable reason to return, the only reason we even bothered ordering directly from them is because of their “100% satisfaction guarantee” and “30day return” policy. We would not have risked ordering it from them otherwise. We could have bought an exact copy of the same thing on Amazon for 1/4 of the price but wanted to give our money to the actual business, not some Chinese knockoffs.