AnimateTed (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} animateted) wrote,@ 2005-08-26 17:00:00 |
|
Customer Skirmish Representatives
This past week and a half have been absolutely maddening for me. I don't know if I told you, but Larry bought a new TV. A very expensive 50" HD plasma screen TV with Ambi-light from Best Buy. We had it professionally mounted on the wall, and paid the extra $400 for the full parts and labor warranty for 4 years. But since we purchased this electronic device while Mercury was in retrograde, we were destined to have issues with it. Lo and behold, less than 30 days later, the TV begins to flicker. We tried to find out exactly what was causing it.. Could it be the automatic aspect ratio transitions? Could it be the subtitles on the screen? Perhaps the audio input to the stereo system??!? Who knows. All we know is that the TV shuts off and turns on, the screen flickers green, and we paid TOO MUCH Damn money to Best Buy for all this nonsense.
Nonsense - non·sense (n
n
s
ns
, -s
ns) Subject matter, behavior, or language that is foolish or absurd. That is exactly what I got from Best Buy's so-called Customer Service. Larry made the first call to the number on the warranty and told them of the issue. They said they would set up a time and day for the Repair Group (an independently contracted repair agency that Best Buy outsources to) to come out and take a look at the set. This was Sunday August 14th.
nsns, -sns) Subject matter, behavior, or language that is foolish or absurd. That is exactly what I got from Best Buy's so-called Customer Service. Larry made the first call to the number on the warranty and told them of the issue. They said they would set up a time and day for the Repair Group (an independently contracted repair agency that Best Buy outsources to) to come out and take a look at the set. This was Sunday August 14th. On Monday "Sammy" from Best Buy left a message, saying the Repair Group is aware of our issue and will be calling to set up a time. If they did not call back by 7:00PM on Monday, to contact Best Buy. Needless to say, the Repair Group never called. Tuesday was a rather hellish day, and the earliest I was able to get a hold of Best Buy was Wednesday the 17th. I spoke to Jessica, a rather inept low-level-er who informed me that The Repair Group would need me to take the TV off the wall before they came out there. I was like... "um... no they don't. I have the type of wall mount that allows you to pull it a foot away from the wall in case you need to get back there." The clueless telemoron replied "I don't know what that means... I'm just telling you what they told me" with vitriol in her voice. I said "you know what... I'm not even going here with you... let me speak to your supervisor." Then... I got Flossy.
Yep... Flossy... that was her name. She was just as obnoxious as Jessica. With the same sort of arrogance in her voice she told me the same thing. I then posed this little conundrum "What if I were an 80 year old woman... or a boy in a wheelchair, would they expect me to help them take it off the wall then?" She said "But you're not sir." And I said... "You know what else I'm not... - I'm not going to take the damn TV off the wall! I Paid to have it installed.... and I paid for the FULL PARTS AND LABOR WARANTY.... Get someone to the house, get them to fix it... and let's end this!" By now... my blood pressure is up there, and the Italian is really coming out.
She then pauses... and says "you had Best Buy professionally install your TV?" I said in a very relieved breath "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees." "Well then we require you to have it professionally uninstalled at the customer's expense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She matter-of-factly stated. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" I yelled... "let me speak to your supervisor." She said "What do you want from me sir?!" I said... in the most blanket, heartbroken, exhausted voice "I want what I paid for. I want customer service, I want the 6 thousand dollars that I sunk into this TV to be worth it!" She was completely unsympathetic to my concerns. Heartless and cold like the Borg... all tied in to a collective blue and yellow mind that repeatedly let's me know that resistance is futile.
Finally I posed it like this, "Flossy...Best Buy is a HUGE corporation... they can bite the cost of having someone come out and professionally take down my TV so the repair people can look at it. What they cannot afford is the small claims suit that I will file for breach of warranty and contract, which could turn into a class action suit, and cost Best Buy MILLIONS of dollars from potential customers, now weary from bad publicity, avoiding the shady warranties for faulty merchandise sold at Best Buys all across the country... that's what you can't afford!" She put me on hold.
When she came back she said...that the repair group would be at my house on Saturday with an extra person to help take the TV off the wall. I asked her who decided that Saturday was a good day? She said... "Jessica set up the appointment when you were on the phone with her.... sir." I said, "If she did... she sure as hell didn't tell ME!!!! - Saturday is not good... Any day next week will work" With attitude dripping from her teeth, caught between her tongue and lips, she spat out... "WEDNESDAY THEN." I said... thank you and asked for a name and address to where I could lodge a complaint... I received none. I was told they cannot give that information out?!?!? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT!??!?!
So... While awaiting Wednesday... I get the mail on Monday and notice on my Credit card statement that there are four charges from Enterprise rental car for $300 each! Now... FYI I was rear ended in at the end of May (and not in the good way). And my car was STILL in the shop as of yesterday. Broken parts delivered, delays with insurance etc... caused my car to be in the shop for 78 days. The woman who hit me's insurance stopped paying for my rental car on July 13th. And though my insurance was picking up the remaining days... Enterprise didn't do what they had to in their system to make that happen. No one at Enterprise ever called me to authorize those charges, and if I didn't call to find out about them... they STILL wouldn't have called. So needless to say... I was aggravated.
Tuesday afternoon comes and I haven't heard what time the Repair Group was supposed to show up. I'd like to only take a half day off from work... so I left a message on their voice mail to call me back with the time they planned to be there. Tuesday night, had a delightful dinner with some friends at my friend Leland's place...then got home to hear a voice mail message... "Hello, this is the Repair Group, please call us back, we have no record of us coming to look at your TV tomorrow!"
I freaked.... I lost it.... I don't remember what happened for the next 10 minutes... it's all a blur. But my cat's affraid to come near me.
Now... Larry took the reins... he was on the phone with them ALL DAY on Wednesday... to the point where he called me while I was at lunch with a visiting exec from Disney NY, and said... be at the house in a half hour.. they're coming to look at the TV. Now... I should have known that when you want something done right - you go to Larry. But what he didn't tell me was that the guy was like 70 years old, barely spoke English... and NEEDED ME TO HELP HIM TAKE THE TV OFF THE WALL ANYWAY!!! I was livid. Between the TV... and then finding out that my car was ready that night... I was fried.... cooked... done.
So after getting the car last night, we went to TRU where we usually wash our sorrows away. Larry bought me a PSP. :-D Not because I REALLY wanted one... not because I was sad ... but because he just wanted to see me smile. He's such an angel. I love him. I told him just the thought of him buying it for me made me smile. He didn't have to actually go through with it. LOL! Sometimes I think to myself, is it pathetic to find joy in the purchase of meaningless plastic? And the answer is yes. I KNOW! I know that all these "things" that I bound to myself, my toys, my dvds, my ... things, are all meaningless in the microscopic twinkle that is my place in the universe. And there are probably Buddists that are cunvulsing at the thought of such an idea, but really... I know what matters. I know what is important in this world. Friends, My family, love. Some people snort their sorrows into oblivion. Some, drink their pains away. Some people never find ways to get rid of their trouble. Me? I fill up plastic boxes with with brightly colored objects meticulously enclosed in bubble wrap, that acrue in value and keep me in a perpetual state of arrested development. So fuck off... I know what I'm doing! IT MAKES ME HAPPY DAMMNIT.
