Complaint Review: Samsung - Nationwide

 Re: A Customers Nightmare Journey 4141748309 Please indulge us for a story about our experience with our last Samsung purchase. We think you’ll find it enlightening. It should tell you what our purchase was like from our point of view. Maybe it will help you in dealing with customers in the future. Around January 1, 2017 we purchased a Samsung Range from JC Penney’s. We also purchased an extended warranty to protect ourselves for the next 5 years. We registered our Range with the corporation as suggested. Mid-February, my wife followed the directions carefully and used the self-cleaning option. That was our mistake! Then around March 1, the oven would not work. As my wife set the temperature to bake at 450 degrees, the LED flashed ‘lock’ and the temp only would register 125 degrees. We immediately called Samsung and scheduled a service call. I received an email that a warranty ticket was open and sent to Aksarban TV. That ticket #4141577783 was created and sent to the only warranty service department 2 ½ hours away, Topeka Kansas. After waiting some time and not hearing about a scheduled visit I called Aksarban and inquired. The CSR said that they didn’t have a ticket with that number. After some time we determined that they had indeed received the warranty ticket, but denied it because it was not cost effective for their service man to drive this far for only $5.00. She indicated that Samsung would reassign that ticket to someone else. Thereafter I called Samsung to inquire. Your CSR at first said that it would be reassigned. After a little research, he determined that it was not because there was no one else, and that it was setting there waiting. As I understand it, had I not called, the ticket would have set in open status until that time. So now we are without an oven for a couple weeks. I called Samsung again and was told that they would have to send this issue off to another department for review and it would take 3-5 business days and they would respond to my complaint. I asked to speak to a supervisor. Under these circumstances, we felt this was unreasonable and that it should be expedited. The supervisor was cordial, and said he would relay this request. Whether he did or not, I have no idea. Suffice it to say, it took longer than 3-5 days before we finally heard anything. Let me interject at this point and let you know what is going on with JC Penney’s. I called the Appliance Manager (Earl), and began relaying all this to him. He was as shocked as we are about how this was playing out, and began thinking of ways to help us. Since the Range quit working after 30 days of purchase, Penny’s would not take it back for refund or exchange. And our JC Penney’s warranty with them would not kick in until January 2018. We just kept him posted about our progress, or lack thereof with Samsung. On March 23 I received an email that I needed to send a copy of our sales receipt to the Document Processing Department. New ticket #5117083057. They would contact us within 24-48 hours. By this time Earl at Penny’s had told us that Samsung would either replace the Range or pay for it. From our conversations over the last two weeks with Samsung, nothing was ever said about this either way. After 48 hours, passed without hearing from Samsung, I called and talked to a CSR about why we have not been contacted within the 24-48 time frame. After a heated discussion, the CSR hung on me. At this point we were trapped. We could not go and purchase a new Range. We had no confidence that your company would satisfy us either way. We could have been stuck with two Range payments. And no Samsung CSR could give us direction or time frame that would satisfy our confidence level. I received a call on March 31, from Samsung explaining that they were indeed paying for the Range, however they were not paying the taxes. I guess after a little persuasion, they saw it our way and calculated the taxes into the refund we were to receive. We are now 3 weeks out without a working range. On April 11, I received an email, stating that I had to complete and return the attached form, Customer Refund Acceptance Document. That should include the Transaction number, signature, removal of serial number and picture of the cut power cord. I called and talked to a very nice Samsung CSR named Jason and told him that if I cut the cord, I will no longer have a stove OR oven. Jason waived that part, so we scanned and emailed the document as requested. That was April 16. On April 17, I called and was told that the document was in progress and it would be mailed out April 18. It was to be mailed because their direct deposit was not working. Imagine my shock!! Of course that was a lie! We still had not received the check by April 26, so I called and was told that the request had been submitted. I called on April 27 and the CSR said the request was in progress and the check would be sent out in 7-10 days. We received the check May 1, 2017. We cashed the check and paid Penny’s for our new Samsung Range!! After approximately 8 weeks without an oven, multiple phone calls, emails, promises, time spent on hold, rude CSR’s and lies, we have a Range that sits in our kitchen that’s paid for and is still broke! We still have no working oven to date! So now we have to pay someone to haul it off or pay a dump fee for appliances! We also have a $69.99 extended warranty with Penny’s that is really of no use! We cannot begin to tell you how disappointed we are with the way this was handled. No one should have to spend this much time and effort for any one product. We understand things break. But the way ‘customer service nightmare’ progressed really was and is unacceptable. Can you imagine a 75 year old woman doing all the things we had to do? How many of them have the capability to scan their documents? Take pictures and email them? Who would fight for them? The advantage they have is that they can set on hold for long periods of time waiting for a CSR to help them. I hold 2 jobs and this was a time waster! Most of your CRS’s were understanding. One even said they understood our frustration, as he was a consumer too! But to be patted on the back and say “I understand your frustration”, did not repair our range. We’re still here paid and broken! The real kicker after all this is that there are folks here in the St. Joseph area that service Samsung Ranges. It something that you as a company should have investigated more closely. Instead you have situations like this. We felt you should know what some of your customers have had to deal with in our area. And let me state for the record that we are not the only ones that have had this same problem with warranty issues. Sometimes a $553 check is not the solution to a bigger problem. How would you as a consumer felt if you had been treated this same way over a purchase? Thanks for taking the journey with us. Please consider how you can make a process like this, NEVER happen to anyone else!