My Victory Over the MAN!
About 2 weeks ago our TV started to start acting funny on us, but I didn't think it was funny. It would just randomly turn off and also it was making a noise like there was a bad bearing on a fan or something like that. So, since I bought the 5 year warranty from RC Willey (I normally don't buy the store warranty, but it was the floor model, so I made an exception) for $100, I decided to have it taken to the repair shop. The shop came and picked it up from my house and then a few days later they called and said that it needed a part that they ordered and it would be ready later that week. Two days later I got a call from the RC Willey warranty dept. and they said that they would not repair the TV, but rather give me in-store credit on what I paid for the TV. I was not happy about this, becasue I had been given a really good deal on the TV because the sales man was my friend, and he hooked me up. So I told the lady on from the warranty dept. that I wanted to be given a similar TV since I could not buy a similar one with the in-store credit. She told me she couldn't do that because they did not have a similar one available. So I told her to give me her manager. This guy was the worst. He basically gave me the same spiel that the first lady gave me, but when I asked him about getting my money for the warranty, he told me "No, we don't do that, your warranty goes with the TV" meaning thanks for the $100 bucks loser, now give us even more of your money. Further, they would only give me in-store credit. At this point I was getting mad. What really pushed me over the top was when I was pressing him on the warranty, he told me "We take a big risk on the warranties... blah blah blah." which is total B.S. They wouldn't push warranties unless they make a good profit on them. He even tried comparing the warranty to insurance, even though it says right on the warranty itself "THIS IS NOT INSURANCE". So I asked to speak to his supervisor. He gave me the number to the corporate office and a name. I called it and got a voice mail, so I called the corporate operator and had her put me through to this guy (he was the vice president of something). He was a little more humane, but kind of told me the same story, but also to go down to the store where I bought the TV and talk to the manager there and gave me a name. Fast forward to that night. I went into the store ready to smash some heads because I was so upset, I found the manager, and told him the story. He was like "Ho-hum...." until I told him who had told me to go and talk to him. Then he perked right up. It was kind of funny, he was kind of like "c'mon guy, I want to go home" until I said the VP's name and then he was like "Oh crap, he went to the top, I better roll out the red carpet". So he looked at my account and started apologizing for the jerks on the phones and long story short I end up getting a brand new 50'' 1080p for my old 42'' 720p straight across. I was pretty happy with that. The morale of the story is: Fight The Power, Damn the Man, and all that. You just have to scare these people by keep on going up the ladder until you find someone who is scared of the high up you talked to.
Score one for the little guy.
DAVE