;
  • Report:  #78930

Complaint Review: Viscom - V2Premier - ShopNBC - Internet

Reported By:
- New York, New York,
Submitted:
Updated:

Viscom - V2Premier - ShopNBC
www.shopnbc.com/www.V2premier.com Internet, U.S.A.
Phone:
212-569-0204
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
As a total computer novice, I was captivated by the ShopNBC pitchmen in November of 2002 and bought their package deal.

Initially I was very pleased with what Viscom sent me via Shop NBC. But, then, the problems began. I don't remember the sequence of problems, but I junked the computer after one year, when I simply could no longer get on the Internet, and bought a Dell.

Even though there are occasional problems with my Dell, their support system is superb, and the problems are resolved.(By the way, I don't work for Dell!)

Except for the accessories which came with the V2Premier, most of which continue to work fine, and an expensive introduction to the marvelous world of computers, I found the V2Premier a turkey and ShopNBC business ethics appalling.

If anyone is willing to organize a class-action suit against the manufacturer and ShopNBC, I'll gladly sign on.

Wayne

New York, New York
U.S.A.


16 Updates & Rebuttals

Jose

St. Peter,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
I happen to work for shopnbc in thier eden praire facilty. We do a lot of business with Viscom.

#2UPDATE Employee

Sun, April 24, 2005

Viscom ? Now I am a very honest person so I will not comment on viscom's in house dealings. I will say that everytime and I do mean everytime that that viscom has a big cleareance at shopnbc. Viscom products that are being returned are cluttering the docks. In fact, every week the dock guy has to drive to Chaska to return viscom products. In my opinion you should never buy electronics sight unseen or from a no name brand like v2premier or for that matter viscom. My father has a dell laptop and desktop for his business and my parents house with no issues and he paid a lot less than what those v2 things are going for. Research before you buy people, come on now!!


Jose

St. Peter,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
I happen to work for shopnbc in thier eden praire facilty. We do a lot of business with Viscom.

#3UPDATE Employee

Sun, April 24, 2005

Viscom ? Now I am a very honest person so I will not comment on viscom's in house dealings. I will say that everytime and I do mean everytime that that viscom has a big cleareance at shopnbc. Viscom products that are being returned are cluttering the docks. In fact, every week the dock guy has to drive to Chaska to return viscom products. In my opinion you should never buy electronics sight unseen or from a no name brand like v2premier or for that matter viscom. My father has a dell laptop and desktop for his business and my parents house with no issues and he paid a lot less than what those v2 things are going for. Research before you buy people, come on now!!


Jose

St. Peter,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
I happen to work for shopnbc in thier eden praire facilty. We do a lot of business with Viscom.

#4UPDATE Employee

Sun, April 24, 2005

Viscom ? Now I am a very honest person so I will not comment on viscom's in house dealings. I will say that everytime and I do mean everytime that that viscom has a big cleareance at shopnbc. Viscom products that are being returned are cluttering the docks. In fact, every week the dock guy has to drive to Chaska to return viscom products. In my opinion you should never buy electronics sight unseen or from a no name brand like v2premier or for that matter viscom. My father has a dell laptop and desktop for his business and my parents house with no issues and he paid a lot less than what those v2 things are going for. Research before you buy people, come on now!!


Jose

St. Peter,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
I happen to work for shopnbc in thier eden praire facilty. We do a lot of business with Viscom.

#5UPDATE Employee

Sun, April 24, 2005

Viscom ? Now I am a very honest person so I will not comment on viscom's in house dealings. I will say that everytime and I do mean everytime that that viscom has a big cleareance at shopnbc. Viscom products that are being returned are cluttering the docks. In fact, every week the dock guy has to drive to Chaska to return viscom products. In my opinion you should never buy electronics sight unseen or from a no name brand like v2premier or for that matter viscom. My father has a dell laptop and desktop for his business and my parents house with no issues and he paid a lot less than what those v2 things are going for. Research before you buy people, come on now!!


R

Warwick,
Rhode Island,
U.S.A.
Not a Rip Off

#6Consumer Comment

Thu, February 03, 2005

As someone previosuly pointed out, there will always be some computers made that are just bad apples, but the whole bunch of apples is not worm infested. I have had a V2 computer for over 2 years and have had no problems. I work on it daily, I am a telemarketer from home so I have plenty of programs and applications on it and running at the same time. I have not had 1 problem, other than a typical virus that pops in that I immediately delete. Everyone is saying how there are so many negative reports on the V2 Premier, however have you bothered to do a search on Dell and Gateway? Dell and Gateway each have 3 times the amount of pages of complaints than the V@ and Viscom has. Please do your research before submitting so many half-truths.


John

Nanticoke,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
Minnesota Better Business Bureau Customer Experience

#7Consumer Comment

Fri, January 14, 2005

Viscom Technology also doing business as Promise Technology, has been the subject of complaints received at the Better Business Bureau. Complaints allege consumers have purchased computers and experienced a variety of problems. Reported problems include: poor service, warranty issues, and defective equipment. The company has responded to all complaints presented to them by the Better Business Bureau by either replacing equipment, offering technical support or explaining their policies. While most customers are satisfied with the company's response, some remain unhappy with the company's strict observance of their warranty policies.


Joe

Eagan,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
An actual Ex Viscom employee of two and a half years

#8UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, January 13, 2005

My real name is Joseph. Some background on myself; I started working at Viscom right after School (Brown College) in Mendota Heights, I was employed at Viscom for over two and a half years before finding a new job. Now, this may seem inconsequential, but anyone can claim at one given point they worked for Viscom and I prefer putting some factual substance behind myself and my arguments. Getting to my point, more then likely this is just a prank, however this slander is blatantly offensive to anyone employed or previously employed by Viscom. I normally would not waste my time with such absurdities, but just as the Viscom customer does not want to be taken advantage of neither do the employees or the customers happy with their V2premier purchase. John says, "I am an ex-employee of Viscom Technology Group. The reason that customers cannot get answers to their questions and receive very poor customer service, is because there is a time limit of 15 minutes when technical support is called. Viscom tells their technicians to "get off the phone as fast as you can with the current customer, and get to the next call"." Here is the opening statement that solely sold me to refute these false accusations which is no doubt from some one with too much time on their hands. How does a company that has been in the computer industry for over 6 years manage to continually achieve the rank of retail leader in lowest return rates, especially with the an abnormally long trial period of 30 days? Hint: Customer Service John says, "They also tell the technicians to "say anything to the customer that sounds like it will fix the problem in order to get them off the phone faster." Obviously common sense is something no one should take for granted. Return customers and red carpet service is not acquired by means of the run around. Viscom Technology group just so happens to be one of the last call centers to actually take that seriously. Viscom also happens to be one of the few last major computer companies that have not outsourced their tech centers to India. John says, "Some problems take a lot more time than 15 minutes to solve. The problem is even worse now because Viscom just laid off almost 50% of their call center staff in January 2004, one of them being myself. This also results in a 30 minute or longer hold time in the evenings when the call center is at it's busiest. If you don't want to wait on hold, call during the daytime hours between 7am and 3pm CST." You originally created this post in February of last year, correct? Now, what company in the right mind would find it wise to eliminate half their work force right after the busiest time of the year? This goes hand in hand with you not posting you're real name as you obviously never worked for Viscom. This statement is, simply put, a blatant lie. John says, "Viscom's hardware support is located in Georgia. a company called Warranty Corporation of America or WACA as Viscom refers to them. There is no communication between software support (where I worked) and hardware support. WACA's technicians not only fix computers, but they fix things like refrigerators too. Most of the time WACA's hardware technicians are NOT certified to even work on a personal computer. DO NOT SEND YOUR V2PREMIER IN FOR AN IN-HOUSE REPAR OR GET IT SWAPPED, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PERSON ON THE PHONE TELLS YOU TO DO THIS DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP." In-house repairs or Replacements have nothing to do with the Hardware division during the 2+ years I worked at Viscom. Hardware solely supports computers outside the 30 day trail period. Viscom's software depart does in fact have access to WaCA's notes via their customer database software. During my time with Viscom we were in constant contact with the hardware division and have staff members employed with the sole basis of keeping such contacts active. Your advice to customers and potential customers in regards to not sending their computer tower back if defective really does not equivocate to logical thinking. It is a blatant and widely accepted fact that if an electronic device is going to fail it will most likely fail within the first 30 days of use. As thorough as any computer company can be problems can and will arise on occasion. That is inevitable. The action taken to rectify these unfortunate incidents is to replace the customer's defective product with a working one. As a consumer myself, this seems like the most logical route to take. No shipping fees are charged to the customer and the replacement towers are delivered back to the customer in a prompt manner. If I purchase an electronic product that fails immediately, I wouldn't want it fixed. I would want a new one. This is exactly what Viscom Technology does. This policy is based on consumer feedback. John says, "I know for a fact that customer's are told they will get a new computer, but end up getting the same system back that they sent in for a swap or repair in the first place, and the problem is not fixed. There are only 3 technicians working on systems that are sent to Viscom for repair. When Viscom gets about 25 of these requests per day, there is only a very short amount of time the technician can work on the systems coming in for repair. These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers. It is a lot less hassle to take your V2Premier system to a computer repair place (Best Buy, Computer Rennissance) to get it fixed and fixed right by an A+ certified technician." Replacement towers are indeed replacement towers, customers could even check the serial numbers if they wished. Repaired computers are indeed repaired computers. So you believe Viscom sends out faulty components then fixes them with faulty components in order to eliminate overhead? There is no such business that could survive in this competitive market if that was common practice. In addition to the legal battles that would be fought over this deceptive business practice, our repeat customer base would be all but non-existent. This simply is not the scenario. NBC has put their name on the line for our product. Do you think they would honestly support a business that participates in the practices you described? John says, "Personally, I hope that somebody will start a class-action lawsuit against Viscom, and put them out of business for good. By the way another interesting thing about Viscom is that the computers they market are put together by a company called EDS in California." Your intentions for creating your post are made quite obvious at this point. You apparently have a personal vendetta against that company and are willing to resort to any means possible in an attempt to slander the positive reputation that Viscom Technology has striven to achieve and in all honesty earned. The majority of your accusations are hear-say and wild speculation if not simply bold faced lies. You provide no proof of a single denunciation and let personal feelings seep through your arguments. I enjoyed my time at Viscom and was ever impressed by their firm ethical business practices coupled with the solid product that they release to the general masses. John says, "Viscom just tells EDS which software to install and ship with the system and slaps the V2Premier name on it. Viscoms systems are low quality and sub-standard technical support and service." If you really worked at Viscom you would have known the company's name is actually ECS, not EDS, and they merely assemble V2premier computer systems. They also assemble Dell's, Gateway's, and a host of other computer brands. John, Next time you so chose to harass a company do so knowing that you also may insult anyone at one given point associated with Viscom. You are also not helping customers that do have on going problems or even the customers that are perfectly happy with their computer purchase Whether or not you even worked at Viscom is inconsequential as your post could be considered slander, which I believe last time I checked was illegal. If you were at all interested in helping the customers that are unhappy with their V2premier purchase you should have posted some useful information to help them get the satisfaction they are looking for. Instead you have used these complaints as tools to further your own personal agenda, whatever that may be this is obscenely inappropriate if not insulting. To customers experiencing actual problems, I would suggest you go to www.v2premier.com and submit a customer service email with notation of said problems. I would even suggest linking to the rip-off report you created in that submission. Also, here is a link to Viscom's BBB report, some limited but useful contact information is available: http://www.mnd.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=44003937 I do remember Customers that did contact the BBB were taken very seriously.


Joe

Eagan,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
An actual Ex Viscom employee of two and a half years

#9UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, January 13, 2005

My real name is Joseph. Some background on myself; I started working at Viscom right after School (Brown College) in Mendota Heights, I was employed at Viscom for over two and a half years before finding a new job. Now, this may seem inconsequential, but anyone can claim at one given point they worked for Viscom and I prefer putting some factual substance behind myself and my arguments. Getting to my point, more then likely this is just a prank, however this slander is blatantly offensive to anyone employed or previously employed by Viscom. I normally would not waste my time with such absurdities, but just as the Viscom customer does not want to be taken advantage of neither do the employees or the customers happy with their V2premier purchase. John says, "I am an ex-employee of Viscom Technology Group. The reason that customers cannot get answers to their questions and receive very poor customer service, is because there is a time limit of 15 minutes when technical support is called. Viscom tells their technicians to "get off the phone as fast as you can with the current customer, and get to the next call"." Here is the opening statement that solely sold me to refute these false accusations which is no doubt from some one with too much time on their hands. How does a company that has been in the computer industry for over 6 years manage to continually achieve the rank of retail leader in lowest return rates, especially with the an abnormally long trial period of 30 days? Hint: Customer Service John says, "They also tell the technicians to "say anything to the customer that sounds like it will fix the problem in order to get them off the phone faster." Obviously common sense is something no one should take for granted. Return customers and red carpet service is not acquired by means of the run around. Viscom Technology group just so happens to be one of the last call centers to actually take that seriously. Viscom also happens to be one of the few last major computer companies that have not outsourced their tech centers to India. John says, "Some problems take a lot more time than 15 minutes to solve. The problem is even worse now because Viscom just laid off almost 50% of their call center staff in January 2004, one of them being myself. This also results in a 30 minute or longer hold time in the evenings when the call center is at it's busiest. If you don't want to wait on hold, call during the daytime hours between 7am and 3pm CST." You originally created this post in February of last year, correct? Now, what company in the right mind would find it wise to eliminate half their work force right after the busiest time of the year? This goes hand in hand with you not posting you're real name as you obviously never worked for Viscom. This statement is, simply put, a blatant lie. John says, "Viscom's hardware support is located in Georgia. a company called Warranty Corporation of America or WACA as Viscom refers to them. There is no communication between software support (where I worked) and hardware support. WACA's technicians not only fix computers, but they fix things like refrigerators too. Most of the time WACA's hardware technicians are NOT certified to even work on a personal computer. DO NOT SEND YOUR V2PREMIER IN FOR AN IN-HOUSE REPAR OR GET IT SWAPPED, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PERSON ON THE PHONE TELLS YOU TO DO THIS DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP." In-house repairs or Replacements have nothing to do with the Hardware division during the 2+ years I worked at Viscom. Hardware solely supports computers outside the 30 day trail period. Viscom's software depart does in fact have access to WaCA's notes via their customer database software. During my time with Viscom we were in constant contact with the hardware division and have staff members employed with the sole basis of keeping such contacts active. Your advice to customers and potential customers in regards to not sending their computer tower back if defective really does not equivocate to logical thinking. It is a blatant and widely accepted fact that if an electronic device is going to fail it will most likely fail within the first 30 days of use. As thorough as any computer company can be problems can and will arise on occasion. That is inevitable. The action taken to rectify these unfortunate incidents is to replace the customer's defective product with a working one. As a consumer myself, this seems like the most logical route to take. No shipping fees are charged to the customer and the replacement towers are delivered back to the customer in a prompt manner. If I purchase an electronic product that fails immediately, I wouldn't want it fixed. I would want a new one. This is exactly what Viscom Technology does. This policy is based on consumer feedback. John says, "I know for a fact that customer's are told they will get a new computer, but end up getting the same system back that they sent in for a swap or repair in the first place, and the problem is not fixed. There are only 3 technicians working on systems that are sent to Viscom for repair. When Viscom gets about 25 of these requests per day, there is only a very short amount of time the technician can work on the systems coming in for repair. These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers. It is a lot less hassle to take your V2Premier system to a computer repair place (Best Buy, Computer Rennissance) to get it fixed and fixed right by an A+ certified technician." Replacement towers are indeed replacement towers, customers could even check the serial numbers if they wished. Repaired computers are indeed repaired computers. So you believe Viscom sends out faulty components then fixes them with faulty components in order to eliminate overhead? There is no such business that could survive in this competitive market if that was common practice. In addition to the legal battles that would be fought over this deceptive business practice, our repeat customer base would be all but non-existent. This simply is not the scenario. NBC has put their name on the line for our product. Do you think they would honestly support a business that participates in the practices you described? John says, "Personally, I hope that somebody will start a class-action lawsuit against Viscom, and put them out of business for good. By the way another interesting thing about Viscom is that the computers they market are put together by a company called EDS in California." Your intentions for creating your post are made quite obvious at this point. You apparently have a personal vendetta against that company and are willing to resort to any means possible in an attempt to slander the positive reputation that Viscom Technology has striven to achieve and in all honesty earned. The majority of your accusations are hear-say and wild speculation if not simply bold faced lies. You provide no proof of a single denunciation and let personal feelings seep through your arguments. I enjoyed my time at Viscom and was ever impressed by their firm ethical business practices coupled with the solid product that they release to the general masses. John says, "Viscom just tells EDS which software to install and ship with the system and slaps the V2Premier name on it. Viscoms systems are low quality and sub-standard technical support and service." If you really worked at Viscom you would have known the company's name is actually ECS, not EDS, and they merely assemble V2premier computer systems. They also assemble Dell's, Gateway's, and a host of other computer brands. John, Next time you so chose to harass a company do so knowing that you also may insult anyone at one given point associated with Viscom. You are also not helping customers that do have on going problems or even the customers that are perfectly happy with their computer purchase Whether or not you even worked at Viscom is inconsequential as your post could be considered slander, which I believe last time I checked was illegal. If you were at all interested in helping the customers that are unhappy with their V2premier purchase you should have posted some useful information to help them get the satisfaction they are looking for. Instead you have used these complaints as tools to further your own personal agenda, whatever that may be this is obscenely inappropriate if not insulting. To customers experiencing actual problems, I would suggest you go to www.v2premier.com and submit a customer service email with notation of said problems. I would even suggest linking to the rip-off report you created in that submission. Also, here is a link to Viscom's BBB report, some limited but useful contact information is available: http://www.mnd.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=44003937 I do remember Customers that did contact the BBB were taken very seriously.


Joe

Eagan,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
An actual Ex Viscom employee of two and a half years

#10UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, January 13, 2005

My real name is Joseph. Some background on myself; I started working at Viscom right after School (Brown College) in Mendota Heights, I was employed at Viscom for over two and a half years before finding a new job. Now, this may seem inconsequential, but anyone can claim at one given point they worked for Viscom and I prefer putting some factual substance behind myself and my arguments. Getting to my point, more then likely this is just a prank, however this slander is blatantly offensive to anyone employed or previously employed by Viscom. I normally would not waste my time with such absurdities, but just as the Viscom customer does not want to be taken advantage of neither do the employees or the customers happy with their V2premier purchase. John says, "I am an ex-employee of Viscom Technology Group. The reason that customers cannot get answers to their questions and receive very poor customer service, is because there is a time limit of 15 minutes when technical support is called. Viscom tells their technicians to "get off the phone as fast as you can with the current customer, and get to the next call"." Here is the opening statement that solely sold me to refute these false accusations which is no doubt from some one with too much time on their hands. How does a company that has been in the computer industry for over 6 years manage to continually achieve the rank of retail leader in lowest return rates, especially with the an abnormally long trial period of 30 days? Hint: Customer Service John says, "They also tell the technicians to "say anything to the customer that sounds like it will fix the problem in order to get them off the phone faster." Obviously common sense is something no one should take for granted. Return customers and red carpet service is not acquired by means of the run around. Viscom Technology group just so happens to be one of the last call centers to actually take that seriously. Viscom also happens to be one of the few last major computer companies that have not outsourced their tech centers to India. John says, "Some problems take a lot more time than 15 minutes to solve. The problem is even worse now because Viscom just laid off almost 50% of their call center staff in January 2004, one of them being myself. This also results in a 30 minute or longer hold time in the evenings when the call center is at it's busiest. If you don't want to wait on hold, call during the daytime hours between 7am and 3pm CST." You originally created this post in February of last year, correct? Now, what company in the right mind would find it wise to eliminate half their work force right after the busiest time of the year? This goes hand in hand with you not posting you're real name as you obviously never worked for Viscom. This statement is, simply put, a blatant lie. John says, "Viscom's hardware support is located in Georgia. a company called Warranty Corporation of America or WACA as Viscom refers to them. There is no communication between software support (where I worked) and hardware support. WACA's technicians not only fix computers, but they fix things like refrigerators too. Most of the time WACA's hardware technicians are NOT certified to even work on a personal computer. DO NOT SEND YOUR V2PREMIER IN FOR AN IN-HOUSE REPAR OR GET IT SWAPPED, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PERSON ON THE PHONE TELLS YOU TO DO THIS DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP." In-house repairs or Replacements have nothing to do with the Hardware division during the 2+ years I worked at Viscom. Hardware solely supports computers outside the 30 day trail period. Viscom's software depart does in fact have access to WaCA's notes via their customer database software. During my time with Viscom we were in constant contact with the hardware division and have staff members employed with the sole basis of keeping such contacts active. Your advice to customers and potential customers in regards to not sending their computer tower back if defective really does not equivocate to logical thinking. It is a blatant and widely accepted fact that if an electronic device is going to fail it will most likely fail within the first 30 days of use. As thorough as any computer company can be problems can and will arise on occasion. That is inevitable. The action taken to rectify these unfortunate incidents is to replace the customer's defective product with a working one. As a consumer myself, this seems like the most logical route to take. No shipping fees are charged to the customer and the replacement towers are delivered back to the customer in a prompt manner. If I purchase an electronic product that fails immediately, I wouldn't want it fixed. I would want a new one. This is exactly what Viscom Technology does. This policy is based on consumer feedback. John says, "I know for a fact that customer's are told they will get a new computer, but end up getting the same system back that they sent in for a swap or repair in the first place, and the problem is not fixed. There are only 3 technicians working on systems that are sent to Viscom for repair. When Viscom gets about 25 of these requests per day, there is only a very short amount of time the technician can work on the systems coming in for repair. These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers. It is a lot less hassle to take your V2Premier system to a computer repair place (Best Buy, Computer Rennissance) to get it fixed and fixed right by an A+ certified technician." Replacement towers are indeed replacement towers, customers could even check the serial numbers if they wished. Repaired computers are indeed repaired computers. So you believe Viscom sends out faulty components then fixes them with faulty components in order to eliminate overhead? There is no such business that could survive in this competitive market if that was common practice. In addition to the legal battles that would be fought over this deceptive business practice, our repeat customer base would be all but non-existent. This simply is not the scenario. NBC has put their name on the line for our product. Do you think they would honestly support a business that participates in the practices you described? John says, "Personally, I hope that somebody will start a class-action lawsuit against Viscom, and put them out of business for good. By the way another interesting thing about Viscom is that the computers they market are put together by a company called EDS in California." Your intentions for creating your post are made quite obvious at this point. You apparently have a personal vendetta against that company and are willing to resort to any means possible in an attempt to slander the positive reputation that Viscom Technology has striven to achieve and in all honesty earned. The majority of your accusations are hear-say and wild speculation if not simply bold faced lies. You provide no proof of a single denunciation and let personal feelings seep through your arguments. I enjoyed my time at Viscom and was ever impressed by their firm ethical business practices coupled with the solid product that they release to the general masses. John says, "Viscom just tells EDS which software to install and ship with the system and slaps the V2Premier name on it. Viscoms systems are low quality and sub-standard technical support and service." If you really worked at Viscom you would have known the company's name is actually ECS, not EDS, and they merely assemble V2premier computer systems. They also assemble Dell's, Gateway's, and a host of other computer brands. John, Next time you so chose to harass a company do so knowing that you also may insult anyone at one given point associated with Viscom. You are also not helping customers that do have on going problems or even the customers that are perfectly happy with their computer purchase Whether or not you even worked at Viscom is inconsequential as your post could be considered slander, which I believe last time I checked was illegal. If you were at all interested in helping the customers that are unhappy with their V2premier purchase you should have posted some useful information to help them get the satisfaction they are looking for. Instead you have used these complaints as tools to further your own personal agenda, whatever that may be this is obscenely inappropriate if not insulting. To customers experiencing actual problems, I would suggest you go to www.v2premier.com and submit a customer service email with notation of said problems. I would even suggest linking to the rip-off report you created in that submission. Also, here is a link to Viscom's BBB report, some limited but useful contact information is available: http://www.mnd.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=44003937 I do remember Customers that did contact the BBB were taken very seriously.


Joe

Eagan,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
An actual Ex Viscom employee of two and a half years

#11UPDATE EX-employee responds

Thu, January 13, 2005

My real name is Joseph. Some background on myself; I started working at Viscom right after School (Brown College) in Mendota Heights, I was employed at Viscom for over two and a half years before finding a new job. Now, this may seem inconsequential, but anyone can claim at one given point they worked for Viscom and I prefer putting some factual substance behind myself and my arguments. Getting to my point, more then likely this is just a prank, however this slander is blatantly offensive to anyone employed or previously employed by Viscom. I normally would not waste my time with such absurdities, but just as the Viscom customer does not want to be taken advantage of neither do the employees or the customers happy with their V2premier purchase. John says, "I am an ex-employee of Viscom Technology Group. The reason that customers cannot get answers to their questions and receive very poor customer service, is because there is a time limit of 15 minutes when technical support is called. Viscom tells their technicians to "get off the phone as fast as you can with the current customer, and get to the next call"." Here is the opening statement that solely sold me to refute these false accusations which is no doubt from some one with too much time on their hands. How does a company that has been in the computer industry for over 6 years manage to continually achieve the rank of retail leader in lowest return rates, especially with the an abnormally long trial period of 30 days? Hint: Customer Service John says, "They also tell the technicians to "say anything to the customer that sounds like it will fix the problem in order to get them off the phone faster." Obviously common sense is something no one should take for granted. Return customers and red carpet service is not acquired by means of the run around. Viscom Technology group just so happens to be one of the last call centers to actually take that seriously. Viscom also happens to be one of the few last major computer companies that have not outsourced their tech centers to India. John says, "Some problems take a lot more time than 15 minutes to solve. The problem is even worse now because Viscom just laid off almost 50% of their call center staff in January 2004, one of them being myself. This also results in a 30 minute or longer hold time in the evenings when the call center is at it's busiest. If you don't want to wait on hold, call during the daytime hours between 7am and 3pm CST." You originally created this post in February of last year, correct? Now, what company in the right mind would find it wise to eliminate half their work force right after the busiest time of the year? This goes hand in hand with you not posting you're real name as you obviously never worked for Viscom. This statement is, simply put, a blatant lie. John says, "Viscom's hardware support is located in Georgia. a company called Warranty Corporation of America or WACA as Viscom refers to them. There is no communication between software support (where I worked) and hardware support. WACA's technicians not only fix computers, but they fix things like refrigerators too. Most of the time WACA's hardware technicians are NOT certified to even work on a personal computer. DO NOT SEND YOUR V2PREMIER IN FOR AN IN-HOUSE REPAR OR GET IT SWAPPED, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PERSON ON THE PHONE TELLS YOU TO DO THIS DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP." In-house repairs or Replacements have nothing to do with the Hardware division during the 2+ years I worked at Viscom. Hardware solely supports computers outside the 30 day trail period. Viscom's software depart does in fact have access to WaCA's notes via their customer database software. During my time with Viscom we were in constant contact with the hardware division and have staff members employed with the sole basis of keeping such contacts active. Your advice to customers and potential customers in regards to not sending their computer tower back if defective really does not equivocate to logical thinking. It is a blatant and widely accepted fact that if an electronic device is going to fail it will most likely fail within the first 30 days of use. As thorough as any computer company can be problems can and will arise on occasion. That is inevitable. The action taken to rectify these unfortunate incidents is to replace the customer's defective product with a working one. As a consumer myself, this seems like the most logical route to take. No shipping fees are charged to the customer and the replacement towers are delivered back to the customer in a prompt manner. If I purchase an electronic product that fails immediately, I wouldn't want it fixed. I would want a new one. This is exactly what Viscom Technology does. This policy is based on consumer feedback. John says, "I know for a fact that customer's are told they will get a new computer, but end up getting the same system back that they sent in for a swap or repair in the first place, and the problem is not fixed. There are only 3 technicians working on systems that are sent to Viscom for repair. When Viscom gets about 25 of these requests per day, there is only a very short amount of time the technician can work on the systems coming in for repair. These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers. It is a lot less hassle to take your V2Premier system to a computer repair place (Best Buy, Computer Rennissance) to get it fixed and fixed right by an A+ certified technician." Replacement towers are indeed replacement towers, customers could even check the serial numbers if they wished. Repaired computers are indeed repaired computers. So you believe Viscom sends out faulty components then fixes them with faulty components in order to eliminate overhead? There is no such business that could survive in this competitive market if that was common practice. In addition to the legal battles that would be fought over this deceptive business practice, our repeat customer base would be all but non-existent. This simply is not the scenario. NBC has put their name on the line for our product. Do you think they would honestly support a business that participates in the practices you described? John says, "Personally, I hope that somebody will start a class-action lawsuit against Viscom, and put them out of business for good. By the way another interesting thing about Viscom is that the computers they market are put together by a company called EDS in California." Your intentions for creating your post are made quite obvious at this point. You apparently have a personal vendetta against that company and are willing to resort to any means possible in an attempt to slander the positive reputation that Viscom Technology has striven to achieve and in all honesty earned. The majority of your accusations are hear-say and wild speculation if not simply bold faced lies. You provide no proof of a single denunciation and let personal feelings seep through your arguments. I enjoyed my time at Viscom and was ever impressed by their firm ethical business practices coupled with the solid product that they release to the general masses. John says, "Viscom just tells EDS which software to install and ship with the system and slaps the V2Premier name on it. Viscoms systems are low quality and sub-standard technical support and service." If you really worked at Viscom you would have known the company's name is actually ECS, not EDS, and they merely assemble V2premier computer systems. They also assemble Dell's, Gateway's, and a host of other computer brands. John, Next time you so chose to harass a company do so knowing that you also may insult anyone at one given point associated with Viscom. You are also not helping customers that do have on going problems or even the customers that are perfectly happy with their computer purchase Whether or not you even worked at Viscom is inconsequential as your post could be considered slander, which I believe last time I checked was illegal. If you were at all interested in helping the customers that are unhappy with their V2premier purchase you should have posted some useful information to help them get the satisfaction they are looking for. Instead you have used these complaints as tools to further your own personal agenda, whatever that may be this is obscenely inappropriate if not insulting. To customers experiencing actual problems, I would suggest you go to www.v2premier.com and submit a customer service email with notation of said problems. I would even suggest linking to the rip-off report you created in that submission. Also, here is a link to Viscom's BBB report, some limited but useful contact information is available: http://www.mnd.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=44003937 I do remember Customers that did contact the BBB were taken very seriously.


John

Nanticoke,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
Where to complain regarding this issue/ Information

#12Consumer Suggestion

Sat, January 08, 2005

Please File complaints against ShopNBC, Elite Group (ECS ) and Viscom Technologies with the following agencies. ShopNBC / Viscom Technologies Group (Minnesota) =================================== State Attorney In Minnesota: Phone Number: 1-800-657-3787 Phone Number: (651) 296-3353 [email protected] http://www.ag.state.mn.us Better Business Bureau in Minnesota/North Dakota: [email protected] http://www.mnd.bbb.org Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/04/valuevision.htm http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/07/valuevision.htm http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/08/fyi0145.htm http://www.ftc.gov Internet Fraud Complaint Center / Consumer complaint websites http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp http://www.consumeraffairs.com http://www.complaints.com Viscom Technology Group (A.K.A. Promise Technology) 4064 Peavey Road Chaska Minnesota 55318-2396 U.S. 11027 Bell Oakes Estate Road Eden Prarie, Minnesota 55347 U.S. http://www.viscom-usa.com http://www.v2premier.com [email protected] Mr. & Mrs. Jim & Sandra Peterson, Owners Phone Number: (952) 368-2429 (952)612-275-8436 Phone Number: 1-877-822-4562 1-800-877-7933. Fax Number: (952) 368-2443 (952)368-2450 [email protected] ShopNBC/Value Vision 6740 Shady Oak Rd Eden Prarie, Minnesota 55347 U.S. http://www.shopnbc.com http://www.vvtv.com Mr. Mitch Cook, Director, Customer Operations [email protected] Ms. Kathy Smith - Director, Customer Service [email protected] Mr. Howard Fox - Senior VP Operations/Cust Serv [email protected] Mike Davidson -Sales Host [email protected] [email protected] Kerry McNally- Sales Host [email protected] Shawn Wilsie- Sales Host [email protected] Brian Kessler - Sales Host [email protected] Customer Service [email protected] Phone Number: (952) 943-6253 Phone Number: 1-800-884-2212 1-800-474-6762 Fax Number: (952) 943-6244 Elite Group /E.C.S. [ V2 Premier O.E.M. Manufacture] (California) ===================================== Note: The V2Premier is not manufactured by Viscom Technology Group. http://www.ecsusa.com/aboutUs/resellers.html ("grey market" merchandise?) Elitegroup Computer Systems, Inc. U.S. Headquarter 45401 Research Avenue Fremont, CA 94539 U.S. Phone Number: (510) 226-7333 Fax Number: (510) 226-7350 [email protected] http://www.ecsusa.com State Attorney in California: Phone Number: 1-800-952-5225 Phone Number : (916)322-3360 http://caag.state.ca.us http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/mailform.htm Better Business Bureau in greater SanFrancisco area: http://www.goldengatebbb.org [email protected]. (California Residents) California Department of Consumer Affairs: http://www.dca.ca.gov Federal Trade Commission: Phone Number:1-877-382-4357 http://www.ftc.gov Internet Fraud Complaint Center /Consumer complaint websites http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp ----------- "Don't look at what your getting elsewhere, look at what your not getting" Big Jim Davidson


Angelo

Bloomingburg,
New York,
U.S.A.
software yes

#13Consumer Comment

Mon, December 06, 2004

I have had issues with my V2 but they have always been resolved. I have spoken with support dozens of times and all but twice i was happy with the results. btw my neighbor has a dell and all he does is complain about the support why is it their are so many negative people out there? get a life and quit whining.


Angelo

Bloomingburg,
New York,
U.S.A.
software yes

#14Consumer Comment

Mon, December 06, 2004

I have had issues with my V2 but they have always been resolved. I have spoken with support dozens of times and all but twice i was happy with the results. btw my neighbor has a dell and all he does is complain about the support why is it their are so many negative people out there? get a life and quit whining.


Erik

Duluth,
Georgia,
U.S.A.
Viscom yes WaCA no

#15UPDATE EX-employee responds

Fri, December 03, 2004

I would like to comment on Viscoms Hardware technical. I used to work for these guy not too long ago and what has been said in the above paragraph is not true. Just like any company like sony, toshiba, etc. there are different departments with techs and regular customer service people who specialize in what that department deals with. Yes WaCA troubleshoots appliances but the people hired to do major troubleshooting are all certified and or have more than 5 years of experience. The tech department, the department which i worked in only hired people with a minimum of an A+ certification to do troubleshooting. we did have people who didnt have certifications but they only registered accounts. I would also like to say that we spent countless days trying to pickup the slack because SW support didnt want to help a customer with a clear cut SW issue. So do your research before you say that a company doesnt have the qualifications or hire the qualified people to a specific job. you might be ruining a companies reputation with out know what the company really does.


Adam

Fresno,
California,
U.S.A.
Help for anyone with v2premier computers and acc,

#16Consumer Comment

Fri, March 05, 2004

My main target it to help people who have been duped and screwed by computer companys in hopes that it will not be so bad of an experince , well insted of rambling on if you have a v2 system please email me at [email protected] and i will try and help you get out of this position what i offer is i am a multi build tec of lindows linux and windows (i donot work for any of thes co.) and try to find a way to bring back the computers to the custmer insted of just junking them and loseing bthat money i try to rebuild them and send them back out working better and with a 90 to 120 day warinty ps if any one has any other companys that have done the same fell free to still email me i may be able help .


John

Minneapolis,
Minnesota,
U.S.A.
Inside Information on Viscom ..These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers, low quality and sub-standard technical support and service

#17UPDATE EX-employee responds

Sun, February 08, 2004

I am an ex-employee of Viscom Technology Group. The reason that customers cannot get answers to their questions and receive very poor customer service, is because there is a time limit of 15 minutes when technical support is called. Viscom tells their technicians to "get off the phone as fast as you can with the current customer, and get to the next call". They also tell the technicians to "say anything to the customer that sounds like it will fix the problem in order to get them off the phone faster." Some problems take a lot more time than 15 minutes to solve. The problem is even worse now because Viscom just laid off almost 50% of their call center staff in January 2004, one of them being myself. This also results in a 30 minute or longer hold time in the evenings when the call center is at it's busiest. If you don't want to wait on hold, call during the daytime hours between 7am and 3pm CST. Viscom's hardware support is located in Georgia. a company called Warranty Corporation of America or WACA as Viscom refers to them. There is no communication between software support (where I worked) and hardware support. WACA's technicians not only fix computers, but they fix things like refrigerators too. Most of the time WACA's hardware technicians are NOT certified to even work on a personal computer. DO NOT SEND YOUR V2PREMIER IN FOR AN IN-HOUSE REPAR OR GET IT SWAPPED, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THE PERSON ON THE PHONE TELLS YOU TO DO THIS DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP. I know for a fact that customer's are told they will get a new computer, but end up getting the same system back that they sent in for a swap or repair in the first place, and the problem is not fixed. There are only 3 technicians working on systems that are sent to Viscom for repair. When Viscom gets about 25 of these requests per day, there is only a very short amount of time the technician can work on the systems coming in for repair. These technicians are NOT certified to work on personal computers. It is a lot less hassle to take your V2Premier system to a computer repair place (Best Buy, Computer Rennissance) to get it fixed and fixed right by an A+ certified technician. Viscom is trying to squeeze every bit of productivity it can out of a very small workforce, thus a lot of mistakes and a lot of very angry people that Viscom management has to make excuses for. This is not a good way at all to do business with anyone, especially someone who spends $2,500 for a system that is supposed to work "right out of the box". Personally, I hope that somebody will start a class-action lawsuit against Viscom, and put them out of business for good. By the way another interesting thing about Viscom is that the computers they market are put together by a company called EDS in California. Viscom just tells EDS which software to install and ship with the system and slaps the V2Premier name on it. Viscoms systems are low quality and sub-standard technical support and service.

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