Complaint Review: HH Gregg And GE Tops

The follow is a copy of a letter sent to HH Gregg CEO, Jerry Throngmartin. HH Gregg is provides no or terrible customer service.

Date: April 25, 2006
HH Gregg Co.
4151 E. 96th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Office of CEO, Jerry Throngmartin

RE: Poor Customer Service

Dear Mr. Throngmartin,
I purchased a $3.7K Mitsubishi Big Screen 62 in. DLP Television from on 8/29/04. The TV is Mitsubishi Model No. WD62525; S/N 105381. I purchased at considerable cost ($499.99) a 5 yr. Extended Warranty & Service plan from HH Gregg at the time of purchase.

I am writing to you due to the deplorable and unacceptable service I have received from both HH Gregg on the first repair and now HH Gregg and GE, Tops on the 2nd repair which is still not completed at the time of this communication.

THE FIRST REPAIR
The TV ceased to operate (no picture complete failure to work) the last week Sept. 05. The complete time I was without my TV was 9/2705 until the week of 12/5/05. The TV was delivered back to me on 11/26/05 but ceased to operated hours after drop-off and a 2nd in-house service call the week of 12/5/05 was able to correct the problem. The first repair was related to a failed DLP Light Engine.

During the first repair I was treated with indifference and never had any of my calls returned by HH Gregg Customer Service even though I was promised they would get back to me and provide me update as to my repair. Not too mention, I was without my TV for over two months.

THE SECOND REPAIR still in progress.
The TV, once again, ceased to operate (no picture complete failure) on 3/27/06. After calling HH Gregg and then getting re-routed to GE, Tops; a service call for Saturday, April 8th (4/8/06) was set-up. On the morning of Saturday April 8th, GE Tops canceled the service call stating my part was on order. How can the part be on order when the service call was not completed and the Service Tech would not know for sure what part (if any) needed to be ordered? No one at HH Gregg or GE Tops has been able to answer that question. Not too mention, I could have made alternative out-of-town weekend plans for Saturday April 8th. Of course by now, I know neither HH Gregg nor its service provider GE Tops care about me THE CUSTOMER!

I was so displeased I went to the HH Gregg store on 96th Street on Saturday, April 8th. I asked for a store manager and spoke at length with Jim. Jim was sympathetic but really did nothing for me no loner TV of comparable size, features was offered even though I asked for one. On April 8th I purchased another TV from HH Gregg for $1700.00. By this time I knew that HH Gregg and GE Tops were incompetent and would not be able to fix my Mitsubishi TV quickly. What I surprise I was correct!

Jim called back once I believe to tell me the part had been ordered and then nothing else. Someone named Heather called the week prior to Easter to say she had talked to Jim and would be handling my case because it was important. Well, neither Heather nor Jim has really did anything. For the past two weeks, I have heard nothing. So today (4/25/06) I called HH Gregg and was once again re-routed to GE Tops. The GE Tops service rep (Angela) said my part arrived Wed. April 19th (nearly one week ago). Wow! I'm glad I called to check who knows how long the crack Customer Service staff at HH Gregg or GE Tops would have waited to call. Angela said well it probably would have been some time this week. I am sure Jim and Heather were hard at work expediting my case as evidenced by the lack of follow-up phone calls and the fact my part had been received six (6) days ago.

So today I not Jim, not Heather, not the service Tech who canceled my April 8th service call nor anyone else from HH Gregg or GE Tops scheduled a follow-up service call for Sat. May 6th. You see I have started to schedule service calls for Saturday because I can't afford to miss work during the week to deal with your incompetent staff or GE Tops. And who knows when one of GE Tops super techs will call and cancel the service call because he/she can detect by some extra-sensory-powers that it was not the Light Engine that failed and another new part must be ordered with out ever even looking at the TV set. In my ten years in the electronics industry I have never seen techs who can troubleshoot product without ever seeing it. You and GE Tops Mgt. are to be congratulated for your best-in-class service techs.

By the way the Mitsubishi Customer Service Rep (Chris @ 949-830-8364), I called to report how poorly HH Gregg & GE Tops was supporting the customer and associated Mitsubishi product was keenly interested in how HH Gregg & GE Tops was giving away $997.00 Light Engines without even looking at the TV set.

So if every thing goes well on May 6th, I will have a working big screen TV (after another 6 week wait). I am not holding my breathe though.

A few points in closing;
1. I will never purchase another product from HH Gregg, nor will any of my extended family. I have spent probably close to $10K with HH Gregg over the years.
2. I have attached a copy of my HH Gregg ($499.99) Warranty / Service Plan. Of particular interest to you should be statements under Priority Service. I find these statements false; in short HH Gregg is in breach of the service contract.
3. If you Google HH Gregg on the internet you will find that the 2nd listing after your home page is for a site called Rip-off Report.com - badbusinessbureau.com. I went to the internet to find out who was the top manager or CEO, which is you. So I stumbled on to this customer complaint site, which documents other HH Gregg customers that are dissatisfied. If you Google most any other company, try Best Buy or Circuit City, the number two listing will not be a customer complaint website.
4. Also I imagine when HH Gregg outsourced or sold product service & repair to GE Tops that HH Gregg did not put in place systems or metrics to make sure the original Warranty Service contracts, like mine issued in Aug. 2004, could or would be supported.
5. I will be forwarding this memo to a few lawyers. I will not pay for any lawyers but you never know - one of them might want to sign me and the other people listed on the Rip-off Report.com - badbusinessbureau.com website for a class action lawsuit.
6. A copy of this copy of this memo is going to be provided to the Investigative Report Team at WRTV. They sometimes high light on-air poor customer service and try to get the customer's issue resolved with the company in question.
7. A copy of this memo will be sent to Mitsubishi upper management. I am going to contact Mitsubishi Customer Service (949-830-8364) once more to get the appropriate names for distribution.


Sincerely,

Brian
Indianapolis, Indiana
U.S.A.

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