There is a local "scratch and dent" appliance store that I will NEVER darken the doorstep of again.
On Friday afternoon, our AC went kaput. We didn't have the money to just buy a brand new one, so I checked Craigslist. They had the AC I was looking at on the site of a big box hardware chain, but for $100 cheaper. The only issue is that while new, it had no packaging (I assumed floor models, but I am assuming nothing after this...) The price seemed great to us, so we went yesterday and got it. It looked just like the one I saw on the website for the chain store (I do at least that much research, I am not a passenger on Turnip Truck Mass Transit, thank you). He turned it on, verified that it worked, we signed the receipt to that effect, he told us there were no returns (who would expect that there would be at a scratch-n-dent?) and we brought it home.
Now, it works. That is so not the problem. I did notice it didn't cool the room as well as the previous one before it died, so I thought "what if it just looks superficially like the model I wanted?" So I went looking for the model information label. NOTHING. Not on the side, the top, the bottom, inside the filter door, nothing. I was not deterred. I measured the chassis, went to the manufacturer website, and looked up specifications. It turns out they have two air conditioners with the exact same chassis, with one being xBTU less powerful than the one we were looking at. After careful examination of the images on the site, I realized that the less powerful one was lacking a feature (with a corresponding light on the front panel) that the one we wanted has.
And of course, the one we bought has no such feature. So we paid x$ for an AC worth <x$. There's no way we'd get an exchange for the unit we asked and paid for, because A), like I said, it's an as-is type place, and B) there's no proof... the way these are made, we could easily have wanted an upgrade to the better model, then brought in the lesser model and asked for our money back!
Either he knew (in which case he cheated us) or he didn't (in which case his goods are inferior), but either way I am never shopping there again.