Frustrating customer service experience

[ladypanther]

A couple of years ago...I purchased a small Vizio TV to have set up by my computer ( I work from home...at that time all the time).  The Vizio TV sucked....  was a "smart" TV but could not handle it...buffered constantly...impossible to watch anything.....Their tech told me they had an update (they did not)...after many complaints Vizio sent me a replacement...which had the same problem (did not matter whether wi fi or directly connected).  Gave up on that mess. It will now be a computer monitor at some point. Won't buy another Vizio product.

A few days ago Best Buy had a sale..there was an Insignia TV at a really really good price.  Bought it online.  Works great!!  But......the stand (2 feet) are installed with 4 screws which were not in the package.  Called Best Buy...no help...they told me I would have to take the TV into a Best Buy store for an exchange of the entire TV.  There is not a Best Buy where I live...why I shopped online!  I said "No Thanks."  A few days later they sent me a $5 gift card.

Called Insignia.  They were nice...said they would ship out a new stand kit which would have the feet and the screws.  Cool.  Got it today.  The outside of the box said it was the stand kit.  Inside was a circuit board.  Called them.  Their best answer was to send me a $10 Best Buy gift card.  I asked if they wanted the circuit board back.  They said to drop it off at a Best Buy at my convenience. They could not send a shipping label to send it back.

So....I needed 4 little screws.....not happening but have $15 in gift cards. And a circuit board....lol.

[hepcat]

Main lesson learned here is never go to the retailer for customer service and always go to the manufacturer first. 

I bought a leather recliner from Wayfair last year that started falling apart after 3 months. The arms started getting lose and then a piece of the wooden frame in the back beneath the seat snapped in half and was spewing out bits of particle board all over the floor every time I sat in it. I reached out to Wayfair who said it was beyond the return window for the item and told me to pound sand. I posted pictures of the issues with the chair on Twitter and tagged Wayfair and also filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. Within a day Wayfair gave me the name and contact of the manufacturer to redeem any possible warranty. I contacted the manufacturer who told me that they do not work directly with customers and forwarded me back to Wayfair to redeem the warranty. I sent the correspondence with the manufacturer back to Wayfair and to the Better Business Bureau. I received a call from Wayfair the next day and they offered to allow me to return the chair (shipped back at my own expense) or accept a credit back for the item. At this point I had already repaired the chair in my garage with a piece of pressure treated pine I had laying around after building a garden bed and reinforced all the crappy joints with wood glue and longer screws. The chair is actually decent now. So after some back and forth I accepted a 20% credit back from what I paid. It took 3 months to get to that point. 

It is a true test of perseverance to be able to withstand the customer service process when you've been screwed over but it's a rewarding one when it works out in your favor. 

[ladypanther]

12 hours ago, hepcat said:

Main lesson learned here is never go to the retailer for customer service and always go to the manufacturer first. 

In my case, when I called the manufacturer they said I needed to contact the retailer 1st (which I had done).

[PanthersATL]

14 hours ago, hepcat said:

I bought a leather recliner from Wayfair last year that started falling apart after 3 months.

From what we've heard, 3 months is almost 2x the lifespan of the typical Wayfair product

[toldozer]

Just now, PanthersATL said:

From what we've heard, 3 months is almost 2x the lifespan of the typical Wayfair product

Yeah wayfair is almost exclusively crap

[PanthersATL]

16 hours ago, ladypanther said:

A few days ago Best Buy had a sale..there was an Insignia TV at a really really good price.  Bought it online.  Works great!!  But......the stand (2 feet) are installed with 4 screws which were not in the package.  Called Best Buy...no help...they told me I would have to take the TV into a Best Buy store for an exchange of the entire TV. 

Tier 1 support isn't always the most aware, as they're typically reading from a script with standard answers.  It's unclear how far up the #CustServ chain you went, but it is understandable why they don't happen to have screws lying around to send to customers vs sending the customer to the manufacturer for the missing part.

That said, we'll assume that you just needed some VESA screws for the mount  - in which case, Amazon could have been your friend in this case.

[PanthersATL]

16 hours ago, ladypanther said:

The outside of the box said it was the stand kit.  Inside was a circuit board.  Called them.  Their best answer was to send me a $10 Best Buy gift card.  I asked if they wanted the circuit board back. 

sounds like they sent you a package that had been returned by a different customer (fraud-related).  While a gift card is nice, it doesn't help solve your issue or help their fraud situation.

[OceanPanther]

[cookinbrak]

Bought a six pack of fire logs from Amazon, they sent a single log. Chatted with customer service, the refunded the money and said I could try again. Tried again, same result. Chatted again, pointed out that it was a box of logs, not a single. Said they would fix it. Sent a single again. Called and talked to a human. He saw the problem and said they would fix it and send a box. Got a single. Called again, explained the issue, and was told "If you know it's the wrong product, quit ordering it". Told them maybe they could fix the problem or stop selling it. They said they already took the item down. It's still there. But I did get 3 fire logs free.

Replacement complete

There’s no need to return your item. Your replacement is complete.

Pine Mountain Traditional Firelog, 2-Hour Burn Time, 6 Logs

 

 

Buy it again

View your item

 

It plainly says 6 logs. And it's still available. Look at the customer reviews.

View return/refund status Write a product review

[hepcat]

On 7/1/2023 at 10:33 AM, toldozer said:

Yeah wayfair is almost exclusively crap

I needed a new recliner fast and it was a decent deal for an “all leather” recliner. And to their credit the sitting parts of the chair appear to be leather. The guts of the chair were beyond trash. Cheap doesn’t begin to describe it. I basically had to rebuild the entire chair.