Complaint Review: Joe's AV

I found a TV that I liked at BJ's but it was more than I was willing to pay for it. As I always do with any large purchase, I noted the model number and came home and searched the TV online and found it for much less online at Joe's AV. After talking it over with my husband, I made the purchase which was to include "free shipping". 

The next day, I received a call from Joe's AV trying to upsell expedited shipping. He informed me that for an additional $199 I could get the TV faster and with "white glove" set-up service. I let him know that I was in no hurry and he informed me that the TV was to be shipped via a trucking company and that it would be many weeks before the trucking company would be in my area. I was irritated with this and challenged this tactic and advised him that it felt like a bait and switch. 

The caller informed me that I was uneducated and didn't understand what "bait and switch" meant. Joe’s AV didn't sell me a product and then swap it out with something of lesser value. Hmmm... didn't they? They sold me free shipping and then called to advise me that it would be slow and they couldn't guarantee that the TV would be in working condition when it got here but with the $199 shipping they could. 

The caller then told me that he was about to do me a favor and drop the price of the expedited shipping with white glove service to $79. I told him he should have started with that I probably wouldn't be as aggravated with this phone call. Since he'd already insulted me, I asked him how much he was paid per hour to make the sales calls he made because I might just switch professions. If the job he holds nets him so much money that he can be so cavalier with my $1,000 purchase, then he must make a ton of scratch making these calls. (The caller made certain that he corrected me - "It's actually $954." - as if that $46 I added when I rounded up negated the heft of the purchase.)

I guess I irritated him because he told me that he was done with me and that I should enjoy my TV in good health and promptly hung up.  

(If I'm being totally honest, I have to say that he was never outright rude to me. He never raised his voice but he certainly didn't like being challenged and made that fact quite clear. This man, however, quickly became the exception to the rule. As a matter of fact, I think it might be the first line in the employee handbook for Joe’s AV: “Whenever possible, be rude and condescending to customers. Ensure that they know we are intellectually superior to them and that they are always left feeling greasy and uneasy after they’ve called.”)

Less than a week later, I found that the TV was put on sale at BJ's and managed to negotiate it down to $821 and made the purchase. Joe's AV had advised me that it would be a few weeks until the TV was to be delivered. So, I called Joe's AV to cancel the order. The person who I spoke to asked me why I would want to return it. I told him that I had found it for more than $100 less. He leapt on this before I had even completed my sentence and advised me that the version I had purchased from "Costco" was a discounted version that wasn't as good as the one that I had ordered from them. Over the course of the conversation, the depth of his rudeness and contempt at the fact that I would deign to back out of my purchase was shocking. He literally told me that I had to be stupid to think that my “Costco” version would be as good as the version I’d purchased from Joe’s AV.

(I cannot clearly state why I think this is germane to my story but I just need to say that the closest Costco to me is more than 60 miles away.)

Please note that I immediately calledthe TV manufacturer and asked what the difference was in the model I had purchased from Joe’s AV and the model that I purchased from BJ’s. I went through the specs line by line with their technical department representative and the only difference was that the model number of the TV I purchased at BJ’s had a “D” at the end and the stand was a different color. (After we received the TV from Joe’s AV we set them up side by side and went through the menus line by line, watched TV, Netflix, Hulu and a Blu-ray DVD side by side and found no discernable difference.)

After multiple calls and arguments, I finally reached a manager who advised me that I could not cancel the order despite the fact that the order had not yet shipped. There is NOTHING on their website that says that you cannot return an item.

Finally, after a few weeks, the TV was shipping. I called the shipping company to inquire as to tracking. For more than a week I checked their website daily with my tracking number and it simply said that the TV had left Joe's AV's warehouse. The shipping company advised me I had to call Joe's AV to garner tracking information. Upon calling Joe's AV, the person on the phone exploded on me and - I kid you not - advised me that, despite the fact that I had already paid off the charge for the TV on my credit card, that they were not going to sell to me and they were going to call the trucking company and tell them to bring the TV back to their warehouse. 

Up until this point, I had been pretty sure that this TV had fallen off the back of a truck and that I was dealing with la cosa nostra. I’d treaded carefully when conversing, but this really pissed me off and I was appalled. I had asked for, and was speaking to, a manager. This man literally told me I had to apologize to him nicely and he would not call the shipping company. I did it, largely because I cannot afford to lose $1,000… excuse me…. $954, but I was incensed.

Immediately after hanging up I called the trucking company and, after being assured that this was an independent trucking company that had customers other than Joe's AV, let the manager there know that the TV was paid in full and they were not to take any further instruction regarding delivery from anyone other than me.

After much stress and an unrelenting feeling that I was going to get shot in the back of the head when I went to get the mail, the TV showed up. Please note that Joe’s AV’s NON expedited shipping with white glove service still means that two questionable characters are required to bring the TV into the house, unpack it and plug it in to be sure that it powers on otherwise they will not leave your purchase, paid in full or not. While they were courteous enough, I do not cotton to strangers coming in to my house unexpectedly but I wanted to finish this thing in whatever way necessary and get Joe’s AV out of my life.

Since the purchase, I have received multiple, possibly automated, email requests from Joe’s AV asking for my review. I have ignored each and every one of them. As a matter of fact, this review is published under a false name because I was left with a VERY unsettled feeling in dealing with Joe’s AV.

My advice:  DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM JOE’S AV… EVER. The money you save just isn’t worth the stress, character assassination and insults. If you go on their website and see the positive reviews, I think you can safely assume they were either written by the people who work for or own Joe’s AV.

You may be asking what I did with the second TV. Color me crazy but I didn’t want to be within in ten feet of the television I had purchased from Joe’s AV. Just looking at it made me feel so dirty I had to shower every time I did so, so I sold it online and good riddance to it.