I went down to the HH Gregg that's about 6 blocks from my house and met with Kevin, who was to be my sales-ninja and for him I was inclined to be just about the easiest customer on the planet because I knew about what I wanted and I wanted to get it there.
I purchased an Amana AC unit on a Friday, paid over $100 to have it delivered and installed (mostly I wanted them to take the old one away because it was heavier than a moose and as my primary vehicle has 2 wheels it's kind of hard to balance an AC on it), and I went about my merry way and awaited its installation on Monday.
Monday came, the HH Gregg installers came out, took a little longer than it should have but the guy was very polite - think he just missed getting his morning cup of coffee and was running a bit slow. The unit was installed. I turned it on, blessed 50 degree air shot forth and my room went from about 78 down to 65 in minutes. I was in love.
The love didn't last long. Tuesday night it started straining, I originally thought the strain was due to it being over 100 outside and, being resourceful I have a spare conditioner (little unit) and plugged that in to help it out. Tuesday I slept badly, but it was not 100 in my room.
Wednesday I came home and the new unit any my little one were running full blast, it was over 100 at this point and I thought it was just really struggling... so I didn't think much of it. Wednesday night I noticed the little AC unit I had slapped in one window was blowing nice cold air and the brand spanking new unit was blowing hot air.
Thursday I call HH Gregg and ask the guy there if they can help me out as this is 3 days old. I am told flat out that they cannot help me (and something about him being a native american, not a ninja) and to call A&E Factory repair. I'm a bit annoyed, but I do. A&E tells me they will have a technician out the following Monday to look at it.
I go through the weekend, my little ac unit pumping out cold air and the big unit turned off because it was blowing hotter air than it was taking in.
Monday comes, the A&E guy gets out, looks, sees the coil on the rear side has been smashed (dropped, or botched install) and all the freon (or whatever) has come out. He tells me he cannot fix this and has to order a part but is putting an emergency rush on it and to expect the part the next day or the next day.
I call on Tuesday and find out the part hasn't shipped yet, I tell them I'm headed on vacation for a week and ask if we can schedule them to come out when I get back in, they say there's something up and they can't schedule till Wednesday - I say aight and call up HH Gregg again as now we're looking at a really long delay.
I ask to speak to a store manager since my salesguy is not in (forgot to mention this, he's never in when I call...) - I get put on hold. I put the phone on speakerphone and make a few other calls on my cell phone while on hold, finally, somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes of holding later a guy comes on and asks me what is up.
I explain the situation to him and he says that yes, they will take care of this, but that all the store managers are in a meeting at that point and he'll take my name and number and they will call me back within 2 hours.
Day comes and goes, I couldn't call back due to an emergency, the next day I had to hop a plane, and while on vacation I thought that at least while I was gone my parts would come in for the AC and I could have it fixed on Wednesday (today) when I got back.
Friday I get a call from A&E - the parts are not available, they've been trying for a week and they're on backorder and there's no timeframe on when they will become available. I realize at this point I'm SOL. I'm also internetless and my phone is near the ocean so phone calls suck so I decide to call the first thing when I get back.
Wednesday (today) I call A&E - same thing, no time frame, no expectation of any repair anytime soon. I call up HH Gregg again and speak with a woman this time who is answering the phones - I explain the situation and how I have not gotten any return calls and she say "oh, well, we don't have any air conditioners here so that's probably why they're blowing you off" - and I ask "if I bought it there how come you don't have it?" and got nowhere. She takes my information down and says someone will contact me as soon as the store opens at 10.
10 comes and goes... I call, ask to speak to the store manager, get through to Ted who listens to the story, says "yes, we have a product management department, they should have directed you there, hold on, I'll email them" - he does this, calls me back and says I'll hear from them in two hours, 35 minutes later I'm on the phone with the product management people and I explain the situation.
The product manager says that A&E has me scheduled for Monday to fix it, I mention to her that I just spoke with A&E and they had no idea when a part would be available, she says that's what the info she was given says and I ask where she got that and she sad the store. I explain that unless things had changed in an hour that was completely different than what they had been telling me.
She listened to my story and agreed that they had to get me another AC out, I started telling her how long I had held and how many people I had talked to at the store and she said "sir, that's the store, I'm in this department, we're over the store" and I said "you're over the store, that's why I'm telling you this, so maybe you can get them to not give someone the runaround for 2 weeks and not return phone calls ever.
So, supposedly, at 2 weeks (and nearly 3 hours on my cell phone) since I started calling, someone has actually picked up the ball after constantly telling me there was no ball to pick up, nor was there a person capable or picking up a ball even if it did exist.
And now it's an entire department devoted to fixing just this type of issue...
Crazy.
I purchased an Amana AC unit on a Friday, paid over $100 to have it delivered and installed (mostly I wanted them to take the old one away because it was heavier than a moose and as my primary vehicle has 2 wheels it's kind of hard to balance an AC on it), and I went about my merry way and awaited its installation on Monday.
Monday came, the HH Gregg installers came out, took a little longer than it should have but the guy was very polite - think he just missed getting his morning cup of coffee and was running a bit slow. The unit was installed. I turned it on, blessed 50 degree air shot forth and my room went from about 78 down to 65 in minutes. I was in love.
The love didn't last long. Tuesday night it started straining, I originally thought the strain was due to it being over 100 outside and, being resourceful I have a spare conditioner (little unit) and plugged that in to help it out. Tuesday I slept badly, but it was not 100 in my room.
Wednesday I came home and the new unit any my little one were running full blast, it was over 100 at this point and I thought it was just really struggling... so I didn't think much of it. Wednesday night I noticed the little AC unit I had slapped in one window was blowing nice cold air and the brand spanking new unit was blowing hot air.
Thursday I call HH Gregg and ask the guy there if they can help me out as this is 3 days old. I am told flat out that they cannot help me (and something about him being a native american, not a ninja) and to call A&E Factory repair. I'm a bit annoyed, but I do. A&E tells me they will have a technician out the following Monday to look at it.
I go through the weekend, my little ac unit pumping out cold air and the big unit turned off because it was blowing hotter air than it was taking in.
Monday comes, the A&E guy gets out, looks, sees the coil on the rear side has been smashed (dropped, or botched install) and all the freon (or whatever) has come out. He tells me he cannot fix this and has to order a part but is putting an emergency rush on it and to expect the part the next day or the next day.
I call on Tuesday and find out the part hasn't shipped yet, I tell them I'm headed on vacation for a week and ask if we can schedule them to come out when I get back in, they say there's something up and they can't schedule till Wednesday - I say aight and call up HH Gregg again as now we're looking at a really long delay.
I ask to speak to a store manager since my salesguy is not in (forgot to mention this, he's never in when I call...) - I get put on hold. I put the phone on speakerphone and make a few other calls on my cell phone while on hold, finally, somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes of holding later a guy comes on and asks me what is up.
I explain the situation to him and he says that yes, they will take care of this, but that all the store managers are in a meeting at that point and he'll take my name and number and they will call me back within 2 hours.
Day comes and goes, I couldn't call back due to an emergency, the next day I had to hop a plane, and while on vacation I thought that at least while I was gone my parts would come in for the AC and I could have it fixed on Wednesday (today) when I got back.
Friday I get a call from A&E - the parts are not available, they've been trying for a week and they're on backorder and there's no timeframe on when they will become available. I realize at this point I'm SOL. I'm also internetless and my phone is near the ocean so phone calls suck so I decide to call the first thing when I get back.
Wednesday (today) I call A&E - same thing, no time frame, no expectation of any repair anytime soon. I call up HH Gregg again and speak with a woman this time who is answering the phones - I explain the situation and how I have not gotten any return calls and she say "oh, well, we don't have any air conditioners here so that's probably why they're blowing you off" - and I ask "if I bought it there how come you don't have it?" and got nowhere. She takes my information down and says someone will contact me as soon as the store opens at 10.
10 comes and goes... I call, ask to speak to the store manager, get through to Ted who listens to the story, says "yes, we have a product management department, they should have directed you there, hold on, I'll email them" - he does this, calls me back and says I'll hear from them in two hours, 35 minutes later I'm on the phone with the product management people and I explain the situation.
The product manager says that A&E has me scheduled for Monday to fix it, I mention to her that I just spoke with A&E and they had no idea when a part would be available, she says that's what the info she was given says and I ask where she got that and she sad the store. I explain that unless things had changed in an hour that was completely different than what they had been telling me.
She listened to my story and agreed that they had to get me another AC out, I started telling her how long I had held and how many people I had talked to at the store and she said "sir, that's the store, I'm in this department, we're over the store" and I said "you're over the store, that's why I'm telling you this, so maybe you can get them to not give someone the runaround for 2 weeks and not return phone calls ever.
So, supposedly, at 2 weeks (and nearly 3 hours on my cell phone) since I started calling, someone has actually picked up the ball after constantly telling me there was no ball to pick up, nor was there a person capable or picking up a ball even if it did exist.
And now it's an entire department devoted to fixing just this type of issue...
Crazy.
A little customer service as opposed to customer misdirection would have been nice.
(edit) so I got a call about 30 minutes after I posted this from the person who picked up the case saying "whoops, my bad, we can't work with this region, they'll call you" - they never did. I'm screwed.