- Report: #200113
Complaint Review: Thomson RCA - Nationwide
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Author Confirmed
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Thomson RCA
Cannot Determine A Physical Address Nationwide, U.S.A.
Phone:
866-449-7108
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Thomson RCA Impossible to get any help from Thomson for defective DRC8312N DVD recorder VHS combo Can't Determine. Won't Respond To Phone Calls Nationwide. Can't get them to provide address California
In December of 2005 my girlfriend bought me an RCA DRC8312N DVD recorder VHS combo as a Christmas present. She is not a technology-fluent person and figured that the combination of buying it from Target and the RCA brand name meant she could buy with confidence because these are large, well-known firms in the US.
Within the first week of use it was apparent that the unit had problems. If it hadn't been played in a few days, trying to get it to respond to either the remote or the buttons on the front panel were useless.
My girfriend tried to conceal this problem becuase she was sure that it was something she was, or wasn't doing correctly. She had a number of tricks for concealing the fact that she was unplugging the unit, then replugging the AC cord, which was the only way to get the buttons and remote to work. She would do this before came in to watch a DVD, so it took me a while to find this out.
What she couldn't conceal was the way the DVD player would "skip" entire chapters. This had the effect of shortening a movie, ut if you didn't know the story, it was so subtle that you might not even know that 2 or 3 scenes were missing. In addiion, sometimes the DVD unit would simply not recognize a DVD. It would show the volume (movie name) on the screen, but not allow you to select the menu or just play the DVD. These were DVDs from Netflix. I inspected the DVDs for dirt or scratches, and went as far as to run them in an upstairs DVD player to verify that there was nothing wrong with the discs.
By March it was clear that there was something wrong, and my girlfriend showed me how she had been unplugging and replugging the AC cord to make the unit respond to the buttons or the remote. In addition, the unit had begun simply freezing up while playing a DVD. It is a piece of junk, and I would point out that we never even got a chance to experience the horrible problems with recording a DVD that this unit is notorious for.
Since May 26th I have called the toll free customer support number twice a day at 10AM and 1PM PDST trying to reach someone. At 10AM the recording says "the estimated wait is 30 to 60 minutes. I can only stay on for usually 2 to 25 minutes because I am calling from work on a cell phone. At 1PM the rcording says "the estimated wait exceeds 60 minutes." You can not call after the close of business on the East coast, and they are not available on the weekends.
According to my cell bill, I wasted over 900 minutes in June. That does not include the over 200 minutes from May. I have reached some twice. Both times the representative was in a Philippines call center and could do nothing but record my compalint and "pass it on" to another group. Both times they promised to call "within 48 hours>' No one calls. I have used their online customer support page over 40 times now. Not only do they not respond, you don't even get an acknowledgement that they received your submission.
It gets worse. I went to another Thomson factory authorized service facilty. They said they only handle Plasma screens and Big TVs, but the owner gave me an email address for a Thomson Filed Service Manager named Steve McNiel who he thought could help.
After receiving my account via email, Mr. McNiel said he was passing my problem over to the customer relations "VIP Group" who would contact me, but "he couldn't say when." He then wished me "good luck."
Over a week I contacted him again and pointed out that no one had contacted me. He responded by telling me he had personally walked the issue over to the escalation group and that someone should be contacting me. I did get a message on my home answering machine a week later leaving a message that they would send me an email, but that never happened.
Mr. McNiel no longer responds to any email. No one has called. Calling the 800 number no longer makes sense because the call center staff already have my issue, my complaints about bad service. I cannot get a California address to write to. I cannot get any address anywhere in the US, or any other phone number or email address to continue following up with.
By the way, the factory authorized service cnter that Thomsin directed me to is called "Walt's TV Service Center, 1031 MacArthur Blvd. San Leandro, CA. Their phone number is 510 638 5300 and their California Bureau of Repair license # is listed on the service ticket as 20788. This license was issued to the previous owner of Walt's. It expired several years ago. The current owners have no license. The new owner thought that a few problems with the unit didn't justify the trouble I was making by pursuing the matter with Thomson. She called me a "white trouble maker" and said she would "not give me the receipt back" for the unit because I insisted that she initial a sheet that showed the three problems I described had been tested for since after 10 days she left a phone message saying "Pickup up your DVD player, nothing wrong with it." If she had even plugged it in she would have seen that the panel buttons and remote didn't work. All the serice order said (despite a half hour spend describing the problems in detail) was "DVD no play.
THIS is factory authorized service ala Thomson. By the way, if you call their number for a nearby location of factory authorized service you STILL get referred to "Walt's TV" even though I have informed Thomson that Walt's has no license to perform repairs in CA.
This is not what "warranty" means to mst sane consumers. Thomson's philosophy seems to be "we have a great warranty, we just don't apply it to anyone."
Shame on this company. Seriously, if you buy an RCA Thomson product becuase you think they are a well know, reputable brand, you are kidding yourself. This is NOT your father's RCA, this is like some dishonest wbe-based business with no physical address, not phone number, and not way to reach them that actually works.
Rob
San Leandro, California
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Thomson Consumer Electronics
Within the first week of use it was apparent that the unit had problems. If it hadn't been played in a few days, trying to get it to respond to either the remote or the buttons on the front panel were useless.
My girfriend tried to conceal this problem becuase she was sure that it was something she was, or wasn't doing correctly. She had a number of tricks for concealing the fact that she was unplugging the unit, then replugging the AC cord, which was the only way to get the buttons and remote to work. She would do this before came in to watch a DVD, so it took me a while to find this out.
What she couldn't conceal was the way the DVD player would "skip" entire chapters. This had the effect of shortening a movie, ut if you didn't know the story, it was so subtle that you might not even know that 2 or 3 scenes were missing. In addiion, sometimes the DVD unit would simply not recognize a DVD. It would show the volume (movie name) on the screen, but not allow you to select the menu or just play the DVD. These were DVDs from Netflix. I inspected the DVDs for dirt or scratches, and went as far as to run them in an upstairs DVD player to verify that there was nothing wrong with the discs.
By March it was clear that there was something wrong, and my girlfriend showed me how she had been unplugging and replugging the AC cord to make the unit respond to the buttons or the remote. In addition, the unit had begun simply freezing up while playing a DVD. It is a piece of junk, and I would point out that we never even got a chance to experience the horrible problems with recording a DVD that this unit is notorious for.
Since May 26th I have called the toll free customer support number twice a day at 10AM and 1PM PDST trying to reach someone. At 10AM the recording says "the estimated wait is 30 to 60 minutes. I can only stay on for usually 2 to 25 minutes because I am calling from work on a cell phone. At 1PM the rcording says "the estimated wait exceeds 60 minutes." You can not call after the close of business on the East coast, and they are not available on the weekends.
According to my cell bill, I wasted over 900 minutes in June. That does not include the over 200 minutes from May. I have reached some twice. Both times the representative was in a Philippines call center and could do nothing but record my compalint and "pass it on" to another group. Both times they promised to call "within 48 hours>' No one calls. I have used their online customer support page over 40 times now. Not only do they not respond, you don't even get an acknowledgement that they received your submission.
It gets worse. I went to another Thomson factory authorized service facilty. They said they only handle Plasma screens and Big TVs, but the owner gave me an email address for a Thomson Filed Service Manager named Steve McNiel who he thought could help.
After receiving my account via email, Mr. McNiel said he was passing my problem over to the customer relations "VIP Group" who would contact me, but "he couldn't say when." He then wished me "good luck."
Over a week I contacted him again and pointed out that no one had contacted me. He responded by telling me he had personally walked the issue over to the escalation group and that someone should be contacting me. I did get a message on my home answering machine a week later leaving a message that they would send me an email, but that never happened.
Mr. McNiel no longer responds to any email. No one has called. Calling the 800 number no longer makes sense because the call center staff already have my issue, my complaints about bad service. I cannot get a California address to write to. I cannot get any address anywhere in the US, or any other phone number or email address to continue following up with.
By the way, the factory authorized service cnter that Thomsin directed me to is called "Walt's TV Service Center, 1031 MacArthur Blvd. San Leandro, CA. Their phone number is 510 638 5300 and their California Bureau of Repair license # is listed on the service ticket as 20788. This license was issued to the previous owner of Walt's. It expired several years ago. The current owners have no license. The new owner thought that a few problems with the unit didn't justify the trouble I was making by pursuing the matter with Thomson. She called me a "white trouble maker" and said she would "not give me the receipt back" for the unit because I insisted that she initial a sheet that showed the three problems I described had been tested for since after 10 days she left a phone message saying "Pickup up your DVD player, nothing wrong with it." If she had even plugged it in she would have seen that the panel buttons and remote didn't work. All the serice order said (despite a half hour spend describing the problems in detail) was "DVD no play.
THIS is factory authorized service ala Thomson. By the way, if you call their number for a nearby location of factory authorized service you STILL get referred to "Walt's TV" even though I have informed Thomson that Walt's has no license to perform repairs in CA.
This is not what "warranty" means to mst sane consumers. Thomson's philosophy seems to be "we have a great warranty, we just don't apply it to anyone."
Shame on this company. Seriously, if you buy an RCA Thomson product becuase you think they are a well know, reputable brand, you are kidding yourself. This is NOT your father's RCA, this is like some dishonest wbe-based business with no physical address, not phone number, and not way to reach them that actually works.
Rob
San Leandro, California
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Thomson Consumer Electronics
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Brent
Wood,Texas,
U.S.A.
Thomson/RCA DVD Recorder?VCR Combo
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, September 06, 2006
Same thing just happened to me!! 9/5/06 Also,If you have n email address to Thomson/RCA I would like to have it. Try and find one on the internet or in the owners manual. The (866) 465-7157 number I have gets thru in minutes. Thomson/RCA Unbelievable customer support! I got a RCA DVD Recorder/VCR combo for Christmas 2005. By April 2006 it was not playing or recording half as good as it should. Around May I decided that I would try and get it fixed. Guess what. Thompson/RCA now requires the customer to deliver the unit to a qualified service center. I called RCA and they gave me 2 service centers. Both were 50 miles from my home, the closest. I decided since gas was so high I would mail it to the center. I cost around $10 to ship it. I waited around a week and called the "service" center. They asked why I sent it to them. I told them Thomson had directed me to send it to them. They agreed to work on it because I said Thomson told me to send it. I waited another week and had no response from the "service" center. I called again and was told that the service center got an email that day from their head office to not work on any more RCA equipment, and that I needed to come get it. I immediately called the Thomson toll free number and was given about 5 more "service centers". This time I called the centers first and all of them told me they no longer worked on RCA. I re-called Thomson again and was given 2 more centers to contact. I told the customer support rep that I was a little tired of chasing service centers and it seemed to me that RCA should chase the centers down and see which ones of them still worked on RCA and then contact me with the ones that did. They said that's not the way it works. Luckily one of the two centers above said they did work on RCA and just bring it in. I called the first center and asked since I had been misled by Thomson and spent money shipping it to them, would they just ship to the new "service" center. They agreed. I waited a week or so with no response so I decided to call the new service center. I called and talked to the owner and explained what was wrong with the unit and he said he would get right on it. I waited about a week and called again. He again said he hasn't had time to look at it but give him a few days and he would check it out. I waited and called the following Saturday. He answered and told me he didn't understand why it was still at his shop, that he had checked it out and placed a sticker on it to be replaced by RCA. He said the girl that handled the replacement was off on Saturday and he would put a note on it for here to handle it Monday. I called back Monday and a woman answered the phone with Hello. I asked if this was Bill's Tv. She said of course this is Bill's Tv! I replied with I wasn't sure, you just said hello, not hello this is Bill's TV, may I help you? She then replied, What do you need?. I told her I had a DVD recorder there and that I had talked to the owner Saturday and he said she would get on it Monday. I also told her I had a Case number to look it up but she put me on hold before she heard it. She returned and asked me what my name was. I told her and was put on hold again. She finally returned and told me there was no units there under my name. I told her I had talked to the owner 2 days ago about it and he said it was to be replaced by RCA. She finally asked me for a Case number. I replied that I had tried to give it to her the first time we talked. She then replied that she didn't have to listen to me talk to her that way. I said let me talk to the owner. She said he was not there. I said can you page him or something because I'm tired of the run-a-round I have been getting in regards to this units repair. She hung up on me! I called back and asked her name. She replied Serena. I asked for the owner's name. She said Conrad. She then said she didn't want to talk to me anymore. I said I didn't want to talk to her anymore either, but that I wanted my DVD replaced & returned, NOW! She hung up again. I immediately called RCA again and reported this confrontational service center. The RCA rep called her, with me on the line, and she said I hung up on her while she was trying to help me. She said she did find the unit and it was to be replaced and that she had faxed the information needed to RCA that day. He asked her to fax the information again to him, and verified the fax number, to RCA to get the unit replacement started. She said she would fax it again. That was 2 weeks ago. He hung up and said to call him in a few days with the update. I called in about a week and the RCA customer center rep told me that they were still waiting on the fax from Bill's Tv to replace it. I went over with him all the trouble I was having and he assured me he would get to the bottom of it and as soon as he found out something he would call. I have heard nothing as of today so I called RCA again. The rep told me they still have not received the Fax. I've had it!! I asked for a Supervisor. She said none were there. I said I couldn't believe that a company as big as Thomson did not have any supervisors available. She said a supervisor wouldn't tell me anything different that she did. I told her that she didn't know what a supervisor might tell me and that if she didn't put me thru to a supervisor that I would call every five minutes today until one answered. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes and a supervisor answered the phone. I explained to him the problems I was having and guess what? He told me he would look into it and someone would be calling me soon. An RCA service center has had my DVD since 6/28/06. I have made dozen's of calls to service centers. I have mad more dozens of calls to the toll free RCA service center. I have not spoken to two customer service agents that say the same thing. I have NOT been contacted once by RCA. I have to deliver my unit to the center and pick it up from the center, about a 150 mile journey. I have 5 Case numbers on this issue!! What is up with customer service these days? It's more like sell it and forget it!
