Here is a venting session. It's one of those things that is obviously infuriating but it's also just funny. Like "how is this possible?" funny.
For starters. I ordered a 75" TV directly from Samsung a couple weeks ago. It was set to be delivered by Associated Global Systems (AGS), a company Samsung apparently uses for all of its direct orders, on Friday 8/31. My delivery time was 9am-1pm, and it's one of those things you have to sign for so I had to take off work.
Friday (8/31) Well...at about 12:30 on Friday 8/31 I have yet to hear about the status of my new TV so I call the 800 number to see if there are any delays. After a brief hold where they contacted the local office, the person came back and said the truck broke down and it was just recently back up and running (not sure why they didn't deem it necessary to contact people to let them know their delivery windows would be delayed, but I digress). I was told they would try to deliver either by EOD, but if not by EOD then they would have it to me either Saturday or Monday. Either way I should get a call back with an update soon.
Several hours later after not getting a call back, I call the 800 number again. This time when the agent gets back to me after speaking with the local office I'm told that the local office have almost all gone home for the day. However the manager there will give me a call with an update before he leaves. I did not get a call.
Saturday (9/1) - Saturday morning I call the 800 number again. This time when I ask for a status update the person tells me he can't update me because the local office is closed for the weekend and they actually don't even do weekend deliveries except with special authorizations (so much for that potential weekend delivery from the first call), and that the earliest anyone would be back in the office that could give me an update would be Tuesday with Monday being a holiday...
Tuesday (9/4) - So Tuesday morning I call the local office (got their number on the Saturday call). Now I'm told that they are still looking for the TV. As soon as I hang up I call Samsung to see if they can help me (since you know it's Samsung's vendor, and Samsung is the one who has already charged me). The agent at Samsung I speak with puts me on hold and presumably calls AGS to find out what's going on. The Samsung agent then confirms that AGS can't find the TV. I'm also told at this point that Samsung can't do anything until AGS issues some kind of write-off claim, but once they do Samsung can start working the case on their end. I'm also told that a manager at AGS will contact me shortly.
A few hours later (after not hearing back from them), I call AGS. I spoke with a supervisor there who again confirmed that the TV was missing and it had been escalated to their management team. They asked for 24 hours to allow them time to review video footage of their warehouse (and whatever else they do), and they would call me back the next day.
Wednesday (9/5) - Wednesday around 3:30 I have yet to hear from anyone at AGS so I call again. I speak with a supervisor there again who says they are asking for another 24 hours before they issue the write-off. The supervisor assures me she will contact me the next day with an update.
Thursday (9/6) - Which brings me to today where things really got fun. Sticking with the Samsung/AGS story for now, at about 3:30 today I had still not heard back from AGS. So I call again. I'm asked to wait another 24 hours, and at this point I told them that isn't acceptable. Every day they drag their feet on this is a day that I'm without either a replacement from Samsung or a refund. So, the the agreed to FINALLY issue that write-off.
A few minutes after I get off the phone with AGS I call Samsung back (as I was instructed to do on Tuesday) to get the ball rolling. Speaking with a different person than I did Tuesday, I explain the situation. The Samsung rep puts me on hold to look into it. After about 15 minutes of being on hold I am disconnected. That's fine. I wait about 20 minutes and call back. Speaking with yet another agent I again explain the situation. The lady puts me on hold to look up the notes and gets a bit of an attitude with me when she gets back to me (The notes she read made it seem like the person I spoke with a few minutes earlier gave me a bunch of information like telling me the case had been escalated to management for review and a reference number...things which did not happen as we were disconnected before he took me off hold to tell me these things....but I digress once again..). So now this lady is saying it's been escalated to Samsung management and they need a few days to get with AGS to see what happened with the TV.
I very politely asked why does it need to go to a management team before they can give me a refund for an item their vendor lost. That's between them and the vendor. She just keeps reiterating the same message. I ask if there is an escalation team I can speak with...She says the only other person is her supervisor but that person will tell me the same thing. I asked to speak with the supervisor anyway, "oh the supervisor is really busy I can take your number and have them call you back". I again politely told her that's ok. Just transfer me and I will wait on hold. After about 30 minutes of being on hold the agent gets back to me and says "the supervisor is very busy and isn't taking calls right not but they said they will call you back by EOD.".
It's now 6:50pm eastern, and I'm still waiting on that one (to be fair I think their call center is West coast so all hope is not lost).
**to be clear. My issue with Samsung not processing the refund immediately is A - the very first Samsung rep I spoke with basically said Samsung couldn't help me with the whole AGS missing package until AGS made it official that the TV was completely lost. B - After a week of dealing with Samsung's own shipping vendor without any assistance I finally get a resolution on their end and Samsung now wants me to wait for another internal review before I can have a refund processed. How does that make sense? AGS is their vendor, they have a relationship with them, why can't they just call up today like I did (or at least within 24 hours) and confirm that the TV is gone.**
...You're probably thinking right now, man that's unlucky, but at least it's just this one thing right? Hold my beer
Also today........so I'm trying to have a fence built in my back yard. My HOA requires me to submit property lines from a surveyor (and fence designs). So a week ago I called this one surveying company I found. I explained what I was looking for and the lady said they could send someone out on the 11th. Great, sign me up, didn't even ask for a price. Then the lady says the person who does the quotes had already left for the day but he would call me back tomorrow (which would be Friday 8/31) with that quote. I didn't get a call back on Friday so I called them on Tuesday. Then I was told that my file had just been put on this other person's desk and I would get a call after they reviewed it....I finally got that call today (2 day slate). The quote was for $595 (seems high based on google searches, but whatever). I asked if 9/11 was still available, and she tells me "no, the earliest we can do is 9/17". When I asked what happened to the 11th she told me that the don'y actually block out the calendar until they have received payment...great so because they dragged their feet for a week I now have to reschedule with the fence company that I had scheduled to come out on 9/13. (I also have to find a new surveyor for obvious reasons)
PS. For anyone concerned that I've flipped my **** on any of these customer service agents. I haven't. I've expressed more patience than I thought I was capable of throughout this entire ordeal.
PSS...
I just remembered. We moved into a new house about 3 weeks ago. Our only ISP/Cable options are Charter and ATT. ATT is ridiculously expensive here so I went with Charter. I've had to call them about 3 times each week so far to fix something (defective receiver, cable box not being actived, guide menus giving weird errors, etc). Most recently our On Demand has either not been coming through in HD or simply not working (an error code). A tech came out here on Sunday and spent 3 hours and actually made it worse. I called back on Tuesday at the techs suggestion (it was a holiday weekend so the supervisors weren't in when he came out). I'm told that it's a known issue with the on demand. Their engineers are working on it but they don't have a time table for a fix.
So yeah. That's been my week. Any story toppers?
For starters. I ordered a 75" TV directly from Samsung a couple weeks ago. It was set to be delivered by Associated Global Systems (AGS), a company Samsung apparently uses for all of its direct orders, on Friday 8/31. My delivery time was 9am-1pm, and it's one of those things you have to sign for so I had to take off work.
Friday (8/31) Well...at about 12:30 on Friday 8/31 I have yet to hear about the status of my new TV so I call the 800 number to see if there are any delays. After a brief hold where they contacted the local office, the person came back and said the truck broke down and it was just recently back up and running (not sure why they didn't deem it necessary to contact people to let them know their delivery windows would be delayed, but I digress). I was told they would try to deliver either by EOD, but if not by EOD then they would have it to me either Saturday or Monday. Either way I should get a call back with an update soon.
Several hours later after not getting a call back, I call the 800 number again. This time when the agent gets back to me after speaking with the local office I'm told that the local office have almost all gone home for the day. However the manager there will give me a call with an update before he leaves. I did not get a call.
Saturday (9/1) - Saturday morning I call the 800 number again. This time when I ask for a status update the person tells me he can't update me because the local office is closed for the weekend and they actually don't even do weekend deliveries except with special authorizations (so much for that potential weekend delivery from the first call), and that the earliest anyone would be back in the office that could give me an update would be Tuesday with Monday being a holiday...
Tuesday (9/4) - So Tuesday morning I call the local office (got their number on the Saturday call). Now I'm told that they are still looking for the TV. As soon as I hang up I call Samsung to see if they can help me (since you know it's Samsung's vendor, and Samsung is the one who has already charged me). The agent at Samsung I speak with puts me on hold and presumably calls AGS to find out what's going on. The Samsung agent then confirms that AGS can't find the TV. I'm also told at this point that Samsung can't do anything until AGS issues some kind of write-off claim, but once they do Samsung can start working the case on their end. I'm also told that a manager at AGS will contact me shortly.
A few hours later (after not hearing back from them), I call AGS. I spoke with a supervisor there who again confirmed that the TV was missing and it had been escalated to their management team. They asked for 24 hours to allow them time to review video footage of their warehouse (and whatever else they do), and they would call me back the next day.
Wednesday (9/5) - Wednesday around 3:30 I have yet to hear from anyone at AGS so I call again. I speak with a supervisor there again who says they are asking for another 24 hours before they issue the write-off. The supervisor assures me she will contact me the next day with an update.
Thursday (9/6) - Which brings me to today where things really got fun. Sticking with the Samsung/AGS story for now, at about 3:30 today I had still not heard back from AGS. So I call again. I'm asked to wait another 24 hours, and at this point I told them that isn't acceptable. Every day they drag their feet on this is a day that I'm without either a replacement from Samsung or a refund. So, the the agreed to FINALLY issue that write-off.
A few minutes after I get off the phone with AGS I call Samsung back (as I was instructed to do on Tuesday) to get the ball rolling. Speaking with a different person than I did Tuesday, I explain the situation. The Samsung rep puts me on hold to look into it. After about 15 minutes of being on hold I am disconnected. That's fine. I wait about 20 minutes and call back. Speaking with yet another agent I again explain the situation. The lady puts me on hold to look up the notes and gets a bit of an attitude with me when she gets back to me (The notes she read made it seem like the person I spoke with a few minutes earlier gave me a bunch of information like telling me the case had been escalated to management for review and a reference number...things which did not happen as we were disconnected before he took me off hold to tell me these things....but I digress once again..). So now this lady is saying it's been escalated to Samsung management and they need a few days to get with AGS to see what happened with the TV.
I very politely asked why does it need to go to a management team before they can give me a refund for an item their vendor lost. That's between them and the vendor. She just keeps reiterating the same message. I ask if there is an escalation team I can speak with...She says the only other person is her supervisor but that person will tell me the same thing. I asked to speak with the supervisor anyway, "oh the supervisor is really busy I can take your number and have them call you back". I again politely told her that's ok. Just transfer me and I will wait on hold. After about 30 minutes of being on hold the agent gets back to me and says "the supervisor is very busy and isn't taking calls right not but they said they will call you back by EOD.".
It's now 6:50pm eastern, and I'm still waiting on that one (to be fair I think their call center is West coast so all hope is not lost).
**to be clear. My issue with Samsung not processing the refund immediately is A - the very first Samsung rep I spoke with basically said Samsung couldn't help me with the whole AGS missing package until AGS made it official that the TV was completely lost. B - After a week of dealing with Samsung's own shipping vendor without any assistance I finally get a resolution on their end and Samsung now wants me to wait for another internal review before I can have a refund processed. How does that make sense? AGS is their vendor, they have a relationship with them, why can't they just call up today like I did (or at least within 24 hours) and confirm that the TV is gone.**
...You're probably thinking right now, man that's unlucky, but at least it's just this one thing right? Hold my beer
Also today........so I'm trying to have a fence built in my back yard. My HOA requires me to submit property lines from a surveyor (and fence designs). So a week ago I called this one surveying company I found. I explained what I was looking for and the lady said they could send someone out on the 11th. Great, sign me up, didn't even ask for a price. Then the lady says the person who does the quotes had already left for the day but he would call me back tomorrow (which would be Friday 8/31) with that quote. I didn't get a call back on Friday so I called them on Tuesday. Then I was told that my file had just been put on this other person's desk and I would get a call after they reviewed it....I finally got that call today (2 day slate). The quote was for $595 (seems high based on google searches, but whatever). I asked if 9/11 was still available, and she tells me "no, the earliest we can do is 9/17". When I asked what happened to the 11th she told me that the don'y actually block out the calendar until they have received payment...great so because they dragged their feet for a week I now have to reschedule with the fence company that I had scheduled to come out on 9/13. (I also have to find a new surveyor for obvious reasons)
PS. For anyone concerned that I've flipped my **** on any of these customer service agents. I haven't. I've expressed more patience than I thought I was capable of throughout this entire ordeal.
PSS...
I just remembered. We moved into a new house about 3 weeks ago. Our only ISP/Cable options are Charter and ATT. ATT is ridiculously expensive here so I went with Charter. I've had to call them about 3 times each week so far to fix something (defective receiver, cable box not being actived, guide menus giving weird errors, etc). Most recently our On Demand has either not been coming through in HD or simply not working (an error code). A tech came out here on Sunday and spent 3 hours and actually made it worse. I called back on Tuesday at the techs suggestion (it was a holiday weekend so the supervisors weren't in when he came out). I'm told that it's a known issue with the on demand. Their engineers are working on it but they don't have a time table for a fix.
So yeah. That's been my week. Any story toppers?
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