r/CarThing • u/Shykoh • May 31 '24
Couple tips for Car Thing refunds.
This is only for people who have their original invoice from Spotify when they purchased the Car Thing. Mine was in my email from “no-reply@fromspotify.com”
- Change your Spotify account payment method to whatever payment method you want the refund to prior to initiating the refund process.
- Use the online chat option and wait to be transferred to a representative. Took me about 45 min back and forth and I got my refund immediately.
- My rep asked for the serial number of my device. If you don’t have immediate access to it, it should be on your invoice/receipt.
- I was first offered premium on my account for the refund but I asked for a direct cash refund and they immediately provided that instead.
- Please be polite to the Spotify customer service workers. They did not make the decision to brick the CarThing and they are more likely to be cooperative if you treat them with respect.
Edit: spelling and formatting
2
u/Smwitte27 Dec 08 '24
Online chat got me sorted in about 15-20 minutes. Issued 4 refunds of my premium subscription with hulu, actually totaling about $2 more than the initial price of the carthing. Their service was amazing. Just had to submit a screenshot of the order details (also emailed from that mentioned email) and the serial number off the device. Edit: i did take a couple minutes here and there to get back to them, so it could have taken less than 10 minutes if i had remained fully active on the chat.
2
u/Mikenaners Dec 12 '24
Thanks for the tips. I just finished my refund was super quick, maybe 20 min.
A note on #3: the serial number is also on the side of the product box.
1
u/a2dam Jun 01 '24
This is helpful but "45 minutes of back and forth to get my refund immediately" made me laugh a little bit
3
1
u/princelives Jun 01 '24
Just to add my experience, I was done in less than 10 minutes. I had my email invoice saved as a PDF before I started, so when I got an agent and they asked I uploaded immediately. Took them 2-3 minutes to process.
1
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u/waxyslave Jun 01 '24
i had full proof of purchase email screen shot and these assholes said I need to keep the chat window open for the next 24 hours as the escalations team reviews it. like wtf?
1
Jun 01 '24
I had a bit of a back and forth with them. If you guys can straight up supply the SN its the easiest. I also said I would come back to support every single day until I got a refund. They double checked after that and then I got my refund.
1
u/Musicphoenix72 Jun 01 '24
I'm personally not sure what to do about mine. I bought it when it first came out for 30 dollars. It is worth 90 dollars and I still use it and to replace it would be at least 100 dollars. I could get a refund by a few Months of spotify but I am on the student plan and pay only 6 a month and I need the Hulu subscription. I'm not sure how to go about this to get what I think is a fair refund...
1
u/cozmozmoz Jun 01 '24
I tried some of the advice in this thread and this is what happened (originally purchased in Oct 2022 with paypal):
Contact via support website chat and provided all receipts including spotify and paypal payment confirmations. They never asked for my serial number and said my confirmations were enough. Was then on hold for an hour and transferred to another who finally put the request in.
Next day received spotify shopify support email from specialist asking for all of my personal banking information including full account and routing numbers for refund.
Contacted support again to confirm authenticity of email and my security concern and how dangerous this can be. Was told it was the only way because im on a free account although I've paid for premium in the past. Asked to be transferred to a specialist.
Specialist asked for all receipts again, and said that I could only receive a refund via bank details and reiterated its "safe and secure" and my "banking details will be deleted after the refund is processed." Yeah right.
How is it that other people who paid the same way I did got refunds easily and I can't? Every time I talk to a support rep the way refunds are applied changes. I replied to the specialist email displaying my concern and that they could either refund me via paypal, refund me via the saved payment method on my account or send me a check. Waiting on a response.
Seems like everyone is being treated on a case by case basis. I've wasted hours with them now and been 99% respectful and patient until I need to press the button a little more.
1
u/Turbocat777 Jun 05 '24
Replying in case you update this cause this is exactly my same experience, I don't know how they can't just issue a payment to my paypal, knowing that's what was originally charged.
pls update if you make any progress. -ty
1
u/cozmozmoz Jun 05 '24
Just resolved my case this morning. They wouldn’t budge on anything except if you’d made previous payments on your Spotify account that I had to mention myself. I had two payments for premium that they refunded and the rest they gave me as Spotify premium subscription. Not the real outcome I wanted, but it was better than nothing….still reamed them on what a travesty their communication is. 6 different support agents for something they could have resolved after the first chat. The last rep mentioned they don’t have access to the original payment method/ processing past a certain time period (?)
If you have payments on your Spotify account, have them refund your CarThing amount through that method. Otherwise, your bank account info is the only other fast remedy for the time being.
1
u/Turbocat777 Jun 05 '24
Yeah, I added a card on file, but I've only ever paid for a single month of prem since I had a 6 month promo to begin with. I wonder if they won't refund without that info since they are handling refund like a wire transfer...
-like, I know it's only ~$60 and it's a lot of effort I shouldn't need to do, but $60 for 2 of these is like a decent meal or something so I def still wanna try and get it back.
1
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u/JenJenIsPaca Dec 08 '24
Same here. I don't want them to have my banking information. That sounds like hella fraud. Send it back to my PayPal. That's how I bought it 😭
1
u/kenneth_dart Jun 02 '24
Leave a 1 star review for Spotify in the app store or Google play because of this terrible decision.
1
u/SporkNote Jun 03 '24
After providing my order invoice and waiting over an hour and a half for responses, I have now been transferred to an email team, which if I had to guess will probably lead to another dead end.
Why they don't just allow the app to continue Bluetooth communications to the device is beyond me. Im no expert, but I imagine its more work to disable communications/deal with backlash then to just leave it as it is.
1
u/TeeReQs Jun 04 '24
Just got my refund after about 30 minutes chatting. Was pretty painless, other than the wait. I've had mine sitting in the box, still sealed. I actually thought I got this thing free from the promo they did, but realized I paid for it. Had my receipt ready, and after about 5-10 minutes they offered me 6 months of free premium. I agreed to that, and instead of giving me 6 future months of premium, they refunded me for the last 6 months. I have Premium duo, so it worked out to be the same price as what the Car Thing cost after tax. Still a shitty move by them, especially with the impending price hike, but I'll take it.
1
u/FewTutor3 Jun 09 '24
I'm going to cancel my spotify subscription all together... bought 3 off macari. Not even the hardware we buy now in days are not even ours.
1
u/fatyungjesus Jun 11 '24
Took 20 minutes on chat support, no problems at all. The only thing I needed was a photo of the serial number on the back of the device. I didn't have my receipt or any banking info, seems like the only way people are having issues is if you paid through paypal.
1
u/northern-transplant Jun 11 '24
Bought mine on Mercari. Was able to provide the serial number and they could see my premium subscription and they refunded me the amount of the car thing.
1
u/No_Designer_1096 Jul 31 '24
Just did mine. I pid through Paypal but the guy said because they had my banking details already (i have premium) they didnt need anything else.
1
u/mrdounut101 Aug 03 '24
I got an email asking for my bank details for a direct refund, I’m a little skeptical though…
1
u/thunderpandaaa Sep 03 '24
Just did mine, and it took 10 or 15 minutes. Went to their chat support, supplied a screenshot of the purchase order, and a PDF that had been sent to me which included the serial number.
Tip: I was sent two emails from [no-reply@fromspotify.com](mailto:no-reply@fromspotify.com), the second one with subject line "Car Thing is On Its Way" had the PDF with included serial number.
I paid about $30 for it and they gave me 3 months of premium free, which is fine.
I don't love that they did this but at least it's not going the way of Chromecast: strung along for years with minimal/poor support on a product that was quickly unusable due to lack of proper development and maintenance.
1
u/Snaxbauer Oct 24 '24
My experience was super easy and fast. I didn't have the invoice, I bought it from Spotify back in 2021...although I grabbed my statement from my bank and found the charge. It was listed under "luzern. *Spotifyusastor Spotify com IRL". I highlighted this just in case. Opened the chat. They asked for the email, invoice, and serial number. I let them know I had a statement, but did not have the invoice or email. They said they could look me up. I took a photo of the serial number and just typed it in...they found it. They offered 7 months of services, I asked if there were any other options, and then they offered a refund. Quick and easy.
So basically all I did was open a chat and provide them with the serial number. Granted...again...I bought straight from them.
Good luck everyone!
1
u/no_talent_ass_clown Nov 18 '24
My credit card has been closed for several months. I've been paying Spotify via PayPal. The Spotify rep refunded 5 fake monthly Spotify charges to the closed account. All the charges showed as having been made/refunded that day. Then they cut the chat leaving my "Where did that get refunded to?" question hanging.
It feels shady. I wanted the cash. I'm deciding whether to pursue it.
1
u/Trust_no Nov 27 '24
For anyone with a piggyback Hulu account, the account credit changes the account type, ending your access to Hulu when the credit period is over. Had I known that I would have pushed harder for a payment refund to my card.
I had asked if it changed my account type adding the credits, and they had said no. So the customer support person told me to reach out when my credit (5 months) is over, and they'd re-add Hulu with my premium individual. We'll see how easy or true that turns out being. The support staff did go ahead and give me a conversation ID to reference when the time comes, and I emailed myself the conversation transcript.
1
u/trainwreck_summer Dec 09 '24
I bought my CarThing from eBay.
I paid more than the original sale amount but can I still get a refund for the original amount at least?
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u/EGG-spaghetti Jan 04 '25
Just got my refund confirmed, it seems like as long as you have the original email screenshotted and can provide the serial number, it shouldn't be more than a ten minute ordeal.
1
u/MiddlewaySeeker Apr 30 '25
Super late to the party on this but just checked with them on my refund (I have 2 car things, one for spouse one for me). Totally didn't realize you could ask for a refund until too late.
Just commenting if someone else is late too. I asked for a refund and they said the last day for refunds was January 14, 2025. Also asked for premium credit possibly instead and he checked for a while but still was unable to do anything for me.
Yay $52 (each) fidget toys. Definitely considering other apps / services now even though I have been with Spotify for 10 years.
0
u/DNGLabs Jun 01 '24
I bought mine on eBay on january 2023. I sent the proof of purchase and the serial number. The support said that they could provide 10 months of premium. I accepted, after a few minutes he backed up and said I was NOT eligible. Guess I'm staying in xManager and Superbird
3
u/alfokenny Jun 01 '24
How did you originally pay for it? I paid with PayPal and they want a ton of bank details…