Consumer World Blog by MrConsumer

[See update at end.] MrConsumer has a favorite saying: if you have consumer transactions, you will have consumer complaints.

My purchase of an 8000 btu Goldstar air conditioner was difficult from the start. Best Buy had advertised it in its circular for $30 off -- $139 -- a great price. I ordered it online despite the fact that the website had not been updated with the sale price yet.

Customer service refused to issue the $30 refund saying that not all Best Buy advertised prices are honored online. Not taking no for answer, I climbed to the top of the corporate ladder. Less than an hour after complaining to the president's executive resolution team, I received notification of the $30 refund.

Now it comes time to plug in the little darling after sitting in its sealed box all winter. The thermostat is between three and five degrees off. So in order to get it to 68 degrees, you have to set it to 63 or 64. Since I like it even colder, it would never be possible to get it to achieve the coldest setting. So I called Goldstar repair.

They set up an appointment for a Monday. I called the repair shop the day of the appointment to find out what time they were coming. The repair shop that Goldstar had hired to do the work had no record of such a work order. When I called Goldstar back, I was connected to their air conditioner customer service department, I believe in Santo Domingo (or some such place again). The person there is baffled, and transfers me to a US person.

John in the US was most apologetic and said that sometimes orders just don't go through the system. He found a different, closer repair shop and did the paperwork himself. I asked for his extension just in case I had to call back. 4775.

The local repairman showed up several days later, no part in hand... but just to verify that the thermostat needed changing. He said he would order the part, since they don't stock it... and it should take about a week.

It is now two weeks, and the a/c man has not returned. I called the local repair shop, and they said they ordered the part two weeks ago today. They suggested that I call Goldstar to complain, because Goldstar is more likely to expedit the shipping if I called rather than the repair shop.

I called the main (only) Goldstar number and got the parts department. They refused to talk to me about the order because I wasn't the local repair shop! I called back at least five more times, and got shuffled from department to department and to Santo Domingo and back a few times. Ultimately I found out from the parts department that there was an "accounting issue" with the repair shop and they were not shipping out any parts to them. "Accounting issue" is apparently a euphemism for "they owe Goldstar money."

Now what do I do? I'll call my helpful friend John at extension 4775, I thought. Do you know that Goldstar does not have an option in its voice answering system to enter an extension? I called multiple times asking people in parts and departments unknown to transfer me. His line was busy I was told twice. Somehow I figured out he was in their Huntville, AL office (not at headquarters in NJ where they don't even answer the phone numbers listed by Verizon) and called directly bypassing the 800 number.

I wound up with someone (Becky) who said John was not in his office. My luck. I gave a sketch of what was happening and she put me on hold. I gave her no identifying information, however. She came back on the line and said they will either clear up the "accounting problem" or find another installer to come to the house (and they will ship the part to him). She said I should expect a call (presumably from the new repair shop) soon.

How could any company have such a screwed up phone system, ordering process, and (lack of) follow-through? (See Panda story below.)

Maybe before the warranty expires the repair will be done. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 6/28: Now it is a week since Becky said she would arrange to have another repair shop do the repair... I have heard nothing.

I called back "John," the original very helpful customer service person, and he arranged for another shop to do the repair. He said they could not just send him the parts ordered by the previous shop. The new shop would have to come out to diagnose the problem, and order parts after that. Uggg. John did say that maybe the new shop would agree to short-circuit the process.

I called Mr. Appliance (and probably should have introduced myself as Mr. Consumer) and believe it or not they agreed to order the necessary parts, thus only having to make a single trip to my house.

Stay tuned.

For more consumer news, visit Consumer World.

[See 6/22 update at end.] I love Panda anti-virus software, but this is the story of their rebate gone awry.

Back in March, it was advertised free after two rebates ($30 and $35) at CompUSA. MrConsumer hussled over there and snagged a box for future use. I mailed both rebates to Parago (the rebate processor) in Miami, FL, at the same PO box number. They may have even been in the same envelope.

The $30 rebate arrived on schedule, but the $35 had not been received after 8 weeks. So in mid-May I called Parago and they had a real hard time finding my rebate under promo number 05-98682. In fact, they had no record of receiving it. They said I should get it in 30 days, however. Fast forward to mid-June... still no rebate, and a total of five calls to Parago were made. I was told the real number for the rebate is 06-98682 ... but looking under that number, no rebates have been processed because of a "technical problem." Today I learned that the offer number printed on the rebate form was in fact incorrect. So presumably everyone who sent in the rebate to the incorrect offer number just wound up in limbo. No notification, no processing, no rebate. I have resubmitted it again under the correct promo number at Parago and Panda's suggestion.

What makes this fiasco worse, is that I contacted all the relevant parties multiple times: Parago, CompUSA, and Panda. Not one of them took responsibility for the problem, and most pointed fingers elsewhere. CompUSA said deal with Parago. Panda said deal with Parago, and they would not send me a $35 check for their rebate promotion gone haywire. And Parago said there is an error and technical problem.

Clearly, MrConsumer is not the only one affected by this bungling ... and it still isn't resolved. Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter.

UPDATE 6/22: Early this morning the vice president of sales at Panda called me and was very friendly and quite interested in getting the problem brought to the attention of the proper group at Panda. I subsequently received an apologetic email from the head of their customer service department. And just now, Parago sent an email confirming that my $35 rebate had been received and was in the final stages of processing.

In all, the number of contacts required to obtain a solution was inexcusable:

Panda: 1 calls and 5 emails to cust serv; 2 phone messages to sales VP

Parago: 5 phone calls

CompUSA: 3 emails

In the end all appears to have been worked out (and hopefully for all the other consumers who participated in the offer)... but no consumer should have to spend the amount of time MrConsumer did on this matter.

For more consumer news, visit Consumer World.