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Read
This Horrific Tale of Screen Burn And Bad Customer Service.
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TV Horror Story |
I
was working at a retail outlet in the UK that will remain nameless
except to say that they normally
specialise in PCs (they have yellow and purple livery, and the second
word of their 2 word name is World ;) ) but have recently started
offering higher end Plasma & LCD TVs.
A nice chap came in with his young son (probably 6 or 7). They brought
a slimline PC base unit and a 42" Samsung PDP
recommended by PC World as a "Home Theatre System". Oops did I say PC
World? The total bill was £2899 once the extended warranty/insurance
had been added on. I heard my colleague say, "It covers everything!" I
felt like interrupting
and pointing out that actually it covered only the things that would
probably never happen or where already covered by the customers home
contents policy. But I didn't. They left the store £3000
worse off but
with a lot of exciting looking boxes and a copy of Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire the PC game.
This happened at about 10 am on a
Saturday. It was a very busy day and by the time I had sold a few LCD
TVs (and taken the trouble to warn customers of the pitfalls like image retention)
it was already the afternoon and I noticed Nice Chap was back
looking... Well not so nice anymore. His 42" Plasma TV was up on the PC
Clinic (Customer Service Section) desk for the whole store to see.
Nice Chap was demonstrating that no matter what he played on the TV a
rather vivid incarnation of Chris Tarrant
appeared permanently over about 80% of the screen. Anyway Nice Chap was
passed from team member to team member. Nice Chap went through the
common retail complaint experience where first you dealt with the,
"flippant self righteous blame it on the customer b***h", proceeding
through the "Caring but pathetic bald chap", not forgetting the
inevitable "Trainee manager who is highly trained in saying NO but cant
justify why".
Eventually Nice Chap played his joker. He pulled
out of his back pocket a piece of paper. He was going to remind them of
the extended warranty that covered "EVERYTHING". By this time the real
manager had arrived who politely pointed out that Screen Burn In was
not covered by the guarantee and although he sympathised enormously he
was unable tho change the TV or give a refund. Nice Chap swallowed
hard. I actually saw his Adams Apple rise then fall. I sensed he was
beaten and sure enough with Chris Tarrant grinning on from
his 4 hour old £3000 pile of miss-sold junk he burst into
tears.
It
was no act and it quickly evolved into uncontrollable sobbing. Of
course his 6 year old son had no option but to join in and Nice Chap
just sat on the floor with his head in his hands wailing, floods of
tears wetting his shirt, Flippant B***h, Caring But Pathetic, Trainee
Manager & Real Manager looked on (as of course did Tarrant)
almost
wishing that for once they could give him his money back.
By now a packed store was silent except for the sound of misery. And
that is when it happened. As Chris Tarrant took his final
grin Nice Chap FLIPPED! He took the slimline Packard Bell PC base unit
and jabbed the corner into Tarrants world record
breaking annoying grin. And with a quick crackle and a surprisingly
quiet smash the Plasma was gone. "Where is the f**cking
c**t who sold me this pile of f**king s**t. He said it covered
Everything"
Anyway,
shortly afterwards the police arrived and escorted Nice Chap to a car
and drove him away. A woman police constable took the inconsolable
little boy in a separate car.
The matter was resolved by post and I don't know how it ended... Sorry.
Thanks
to Johnathan for the story (changed to protect identities by eliteintegrity)
I
suppose you have to have a little sympathy for the innocent staff who
might have felt threatened but this story I believe is a perfect
example of how consumers are losing out to the big retailers who have
everything squared away in the small print. More on this soon.
Want to learn how
to buy a plasma or LCD TV.
or
How
to avoid Screen Burn.
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Copyright
2007 EliteIntegrity
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