So we went to a certain chain electronics store over New Year's weekend. Without much hesitation we bought the TV we wanted because the financing was available for a limited time. We thought we would just take it home in David's tiny car. But as soon as they brought the box up front we knew there was no way it would fit. So we arranged to have it delivered the following Wednesday, which was agreed upon partly because the teenage sales associates at the store assured me that the delivery service would arrange a convenient time for me (considering I do have a day job!).
The following Tuesday the delivery service called and said the delivery was scheduled for 11:30-1 pm the next day. I told them that didn't work for me and that in the store they explained I could find a mutually-agreed upon, flexible time. Their response: "that's not how this works, sir!" So since we were going to be in Minneapolis the following weekend, I had to reschedule the delivery for over a week later, Saturday the 16th. I wasn't happy but went along with it.
Fast forward to Friday the 15th, the day before it was supposed to be delivered. I got a call from the delivery service informing me that, "unfortunately, sir", the delivery of our TV didn't come from Samsung. Forget the fact that I had a TV I could have taken out of the store a week and a half prior. So they were hoping that the shipment would come in at the end of the following week and rescheduled me for a week out, the next Saturday. The more I thought about it, the more pissed I got. Add to that the fact that I could find the same TV on Amazon with a guaranteed 2-day delivery for $500 less.
I decided I was done with this particular electronic store. I was going to cancel the TV ("return" is the wrong word 'cause we hadn't gotten it yet!). So I called the 1-800 #. The woman couldn't direct me to the order number (which didn't exist!) on my receipt and told me to call the delivery service to cancel the order / get a refund (she didn't even try to talk me out of it or ask why I was upset!!). I called the delivery service and they cancelled the delivery but informed me that I needed to contact the store it was purchased from in order to get my money refunded. (Again, no questions regarding WHY I wanted to do this or any attempt to talk me out of it!). Sooo I tried calling the store....SIX TIMES with no answer (and yes, they were open). D and I decided to drive 20 minutes out to the store.
We got to the store and waited in line at customer service and when it was my turn, I took the receipt to the girl working and she was like, "OK, let me get someone from Home Theater..." As annoyed as I was that YET ANOTHER PERSON couldn't help me and was passing the buck, I didn't say anything. But no one from Home Theater came up. But the girl didn't explain why they needed to come up. Then a manager found out what I was trying to do and got on the headset to Home Theater with an urgent, "I need someone to customer service right now... we have a $3000 return!"
With that frantic message, someone from Home Theater was there in less than a minute. He introduced himself and asked what the problem was and I explained. At first he said, "so you initially missed the delivery..." and I abruptly corrected him with "NO, I was told they would work with my schedule by people here in YOUR store!" I then said I was done dealing with them and that I could get the TV for $500 less on Amazon. So he said, "That's not how we do business and this isn't acceptable, we will make this right so my manager and I will take $100 off the TV AND I GUARANTEE you will get your TV tomorrow." I reluctantly said okay. But his manager was right there and actually told him to take $350 off the price (read: they have a price-match policy).
They took our phone numbers and as we were walking out, the manager said they would give us a call the next day.
Sure enough, the next day I got a call at 12:30 asking if we were going to be home as they were about to leave the store...
When they got to our place, we looked out the window and realized that they had loaded our TV in the manager's personal pickup truck!! He and another Home Theater employee brought our TV up. I was so shocked that I tried to tip them but they wouldn't accept it. Long-short: we bitched and got the manager to personally drive our TV to us!!!
I was done with this company UNTIL the manager did this. Don't get me wrong, I still think aspects of their customer service are shitty as hell. And I also know that this wasn't a completely altruistic action: I'm sure the higher ups really frown on the loss of a $3000 sale and such a loss would have hurt this particular location's sales for the month.
Was it worth it, you ask? OMG, you have to see this TV for yourself. Come visit. That's for another blog post. I'm tired...
2 comments:
That is a great ending to an all too common situation. I helped a friend buy a laptop at BestBuy recently, er, um, I mean a certain electronics retailer. We had to deal with the sales person, someone at a table outside of the Geek Squad area, an actual Geek Squak Geek (more like Russian mafia though) and the cashier who informed us that "her stalker was in the store". Every question was asked 4 times and we both walked out feeling dirty. I was reminded how truly pathetic customer service has become at most retailers. It's a WalMart world....
Chances are very high that the "customer service" person you talked to on the phone was right here in Joplin, MO.
I was very much expecting that story to turn out differently. Kudos to you for sticking with the bitching until you got a good result. I usually burn out well before then -- guess I need to work on my righteous indignation!
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