Complaint Review: Viatek - Tennessee

 So I found another number to phone, and spoke with someone calling herself Sonja. She claims they don’t yet have replacement parts for this bike because it’s so new and HSN is the only one selling that model. Yet she went on in that call to say she was not sure if I got the FitQuest bike from QVC, or HSN.... she said since I had been through sooo much that for my convenience they would send me out a different model that had the display box while they waited on the part.

I said but that means I would have to go through the hassle of returning that loaner. Sonja said no, I could keep both bikes, and asked for my name and address so they could get that bike out to me. I said really, and ask how could I know they would actually do that since they don’t answer their toll free number, didn’t return calls, even HSN had a hard time getting a hold of them, and they don’t respond to their direct email or to the form on their webpage.

Then I said I guess the recording of the call would be my proof. She stopped. She asked if I said I was recording her. I said "I am now.” I began to repeat what she offered me. She said it was all true but could she put me on hold for a minute while she gets her supervisor to handle this. I asked why she was just fine with it before I said she was being recorded. She insisted on getting her supervisor.

I said I would hold, and she left me on hold for a while. I guess she thought I would hang up. I didn’t. Eventually she gets back on the line and tells me that she is going to hang up so her supervisor can call me "right back”. I guess they don’t have the ability to transfer calls or that supervisor couldn’t just get on Sonja’s line. I said ok. I waited 2 hours for that supervisor to call me "right back”, and there was no call. I called in and this time I spoke with Pearson.

I tell him about the month long attempt to get in touch with them and to have my warranty honored. He explains that the reason the toll free number isn’t being answered is because there is only him and Sonja who work at the customer care center and they are behind on returning calls. I let him no I thought that was odd, and he explained everyone was fired. Then he said they couldn’t get the part because they only had one person working at the warehouse. Hmm. They all got fired to. I remarked that they had a supervisor for two people? He was silent.

I then asked about Kim Holland—the voice on the voicemail on the toll free number after 5 PM who "will return your call” as soon as possible. He said she didn’t work there anymore. Yet, her voice was on voicemail a month ago and is on voicemail today. I asked for his managers name, and he said Kendra and she didn’t return my call because she is in a meeting today. All day. He said she told him she would return my call by end of business today. Of course it never happened.

I did ask him why they couldn’t just send me that free bike of the other model Sonja promised. I asked if it was on its way, because she did take my address and said I was still getting it she just needed me to talk to her supervisor once she learned she was being recorded. Unless you want a bike without a warranty, don’t purchase from this company.

It’s is called the FitQuest bike at HSN. I think HSN should do more to resolve the situation. They pitched the bike as the mediator between their customers and Viatek on TV with that warranty, so that she mediate between the customer and the vendor when that warranty is being treated like it doesn’t exist. The warranty was part of the pitch.