Complaint Review: RCA - Internet

I am writing this on behalf of a buddy of mine that I rent a house with. He had purchased a RCA DLP television set from Wal Mart. This was his first bad move, I would never buy an electronics item from Wal Mart myself. But, he ended up making the $1200 dollar purchase, and has regretted it ever since.

The story goes as follows:

The lamp had blown out on the TV sometime in the middle of August '08. After I did some research online, I told him you will most likely never see anything from the company. He told me that he spoke to somebody in the customer service department, and the process was quite simple. He had received an email with the proper tags for the box to send the lamp unit in, free shipping for him, not bad. He then called RCA and asked when he should be expecting his replacement. They told him 7-10 days from the day they received it. Well, they had received it on August 29. He called at the conclusion of the "guaranteed" 7-10 day period and was wondering why he had still not received the lamp. He was then told that the replacement in fact was never actually shipped to our house, sorry for the inconvenience, it will be sent out on Monday(he called on Friday).

He then decided to make a follow up phone call on Tuesday to verify that the lamp had actually been shipped. This is where it gets good. The rep on the phone had then explained that there weren't any lamps in stock,(after having been promised it to be shipped on two separate occasions) and they had no idea when they would be receiving any more lamps. He then asked to speak to a supervisor that could be of a little more help. He was put on hold, and I had the pleasure of listening to the hold music for all 40 minutes that he was on hold. That's right!!! 40 minutes!!!!

He called the warranty number from a different phone line, while still remaining on hold with the first call, just to have the same guy answer the second call!!!! The guy played dumb and made like he had no clue what was going on. How funny is that. With the conclusion of the phone call all he was told that it isn't in stock. So, he decided to call the RCA warehouse directly. The RCA warehouse told him that they have plenty of the lamps in stock, and they were not sure why they told him otherwise!!!! You have to be kidding me. Well, I decided to make a phone call to RCA today to see if anything was being processed or if there was any new information.

Spoke to a guy that barely could carry a conversation, was told that no supervisor/manager was available to speak with, and wait another 7-10 days. For what?!?!?! To be told that we will not receive the lamp for another 7-10 days from that point. It seems as if RCA has no intention on keeping their word and standing by their warranty. I wish my friend had read some of the reviews that you guys have put on here so he could have made a more educated purchase.

This company is absolutely terrible and has done nothing but lie to us on two separate occasions. At this point we have a $1200 plastic box sitting in our living room, and we are not happy at all. Does anyone have any idea why they do not make good on their warranty claims, and just constantly give customers that have trusted them with hundreds of dollars the run around. I would never feel comfortable buying a product from a company that does not believe in satisfying the customer, especially one that has a customer service department that operates on washing their hands of customers with some lies. Tell the customer the truth, not what they want to hear.

This is pathetic and my friend is looking to jump on with a couple of other guys that are filing a suit against RCA. This company should be liable for a warranty that they provide, and should operate in a more professional manner than this. Well, I hate to tell my friend this, but it looks like it's an "I told you so" on the fact that he will not receive a thing from RCA.

Alex

New City, New York

U.S.A.

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