Complaint Review: Wal-Mart - Internet

On september 10th, 2012, I purchased a refurbished 46 inch Sanyo LCD TV on Walmart.com.  I also purchased a 4 year protection plan with it.  

I received the TV within a week and I was really happy with my purchase, and even more excited that I purchased (what I thought was) peace of mind along with the TV for at least the next 4 years.  

Early July 2013, my HDMI inputs all went dead.  All I was getting was "no signal" no matter what device, input, or cable I tried to use.  My TV literally became a large paperweight.  So...Thank goodness I paid for the protection plan right???

I followed the instructions in the terms of the protection plan by going to www.productassist.com/walmart and went to file a claim.  I provided all of the information required to file a claim, and when I went to submit, I got a "Good News! No need to file a claim. Your product is covered by your original Manufacturer's Warrany." And it provided me with Sanyo's number.  

So I called Sanyo.  Sanyo tells me that because my product is refurbished, my purchase date doesn't count and the warranty is only covered 1 year from the ORIGINAL purchase date which was May of 2012.  Therefore, the Manufacturer's Warranty ended May of 2013, even though I purchased my TV in September.  So Sanyo sent me back to Wal-Mart to tell them they needed to cover it.

"No problem." I thought.  "I'll just call them and explain the situation to them.  They'll get it.  They're a large, reputable company and they'll take care of it."

BOY WAS I WRONG.  

I called them and explained the situation.  The representative said he understood and that the system didn't know the difference between Refurb and New, only the purchase date with the agreement.  So he had to transfer me to a "supervisor" who would take care of the situation for me.  I explained the situation to the "supervisor" and she said that a company would get a hold of me within two days to schedule an appointment.  She provided the name and telephone number of the company.

Two days came and went and I heard nothing. So I called the company using the phone number that the "supervisor" had provided to me and I spoke with someone with that company and they said they had no knowledge of the situation and would research and get back to me.  No one got back to me.  I had to call back a day later.  They put me on hold and said they were able to get information on the claim but would not be able to service my TV for 10 DAYS.  I reviewed the protection plan and they have a guarantee of a 3 day turn around, and it had already been 3 days.  So I called Wal-Mart again to try to get another company to fix it for me.  They assigned me another company and they called me within the hour to discuss my television.  The man on the phone said that based on my problem he would have to order a specific part, and that the part had to be ordered by Wal-Mart themselves even though he had the part.  He said he would call me back within 3 days once the part had arrived and he would schedule an appointment for someone to come out and fix the TV.  

3 days later, I get a phone call, not from this new company, but from WAL-MART.  Unfortunately I missed the call, but the voicemail just said that they were calling about my claim and my claim was denied because the Manufacturer is still responsible for the Warranty claims.  I WAS LIVID.  

I called Wal-Mart back and explained to them my situation AGAIN.  And AGAIN the representative transferred me to a "supervisor" who she claimed would be able to assist me further.  The "supervisor" came on and said "So I understand that your product is still under Manufacturer's Warranty and you disagree, is that correct?"  I kept my cool, and said "No sir, I don't disagree necessarily, but this is the situation."  And I explained it all over again.  The "supervisor" put me on hold for a few minutes and came back and said "Well sir the best I can do is forward this to our authorization team and they can review the situation and make a decision from here." I asked him what his role as a "supervisor" was and why he couldn't take care of the situation for me and he responded with "To assist you sir, and that's what I'm doing."  I asked him if I could talk to someone else that could ACTUALLY take care of the situation and he said "no", that someone would call me about it later. 

I still haven't heard back from anyone and I have a worthless TV at this point with a worthless protection plan that Walmart refuses to honor.  I did everything correctly according to the terms of the protection plan and Wal-Mart is refusing to keep their end of the deal.  SOMEONE PLEASE HELP.