An unhappy shopping experience

My wife bought a small LG mini compo from Tesco Mutiara Damansara last Friday as her current mini compo ceased operation recently.

So I fixed it up last night, hoping that she will have peace of mind when working in her office.

About 30min later. She SMSed me that the compo seems having problem with the audio CD she was playing, besides music, hissing noise like you turn on radio but not locking to any station.

She was annoyed, thought that it may be the CD that is giving problem.

So I advised her to play another CD, after a short while, the hissing noise came back.

Well, it looks like the unit is overheating at the first glance. But when I touched the unit, it was cold, no heat. Further, she turned on air cond at 24C just to make sure.

"Try again tomorrow." I said. Was tired.

She mumbled at me, wanted to send the unit back to Tesco the next day. Yes, she got the same noise on different track on a different CD again.

Then we tested, turned off the unit, on again, played the problematic track, nothing happen.

Then it was hissing again on other track.

"It must be a faulty unit, better to report to Tesco before it is too late." she said.

She called Tesco customer service, and was stunned that Tesco said they are not responsible for exchange or service of Brand A and B type of products, of which LG happened to be Brand A.

She got irritated, as we were not informed when we decided to purchase the unit. Only after payment is made she was told to read a little paper clipped together with the receipt. The little piece printed is fine print that brand A and B products do not entitle for exchange or service after purchase. There is, however, not specified which is brand A or B.

She called again demanded to speak to a manager. A gentleman, Mr Mani attended the call. Although spoken softly, but he insisted that we send the unit back to LG's service centre instead.

I took over the call as she is rushing for her stories. I told him that we were not informed that Tesco discharged it's responsibilty BEFORE payment was made. I said that the piece of paper clipped behind the receipt, and we were told to read, and should we have any problem, refer to Tesco. That's all. He said that all sales specialists in Tesco must brief the customers on this, and he will query the particular sales specialist.

I then told him, if I were the sales specialist, I would insisted that I have mentioned to all customers, including my wife.

The point is: should Tesco wish to discharge its responsibilty, they would have display the notice at prominant places instead of just asking customer to read the fine print AFTER payment is made.

The only reason we bought from stores like Tesco or Jusco or Courts for all our electrical goods except computers, is because our timing is odd and these stores may attend to our problem should there be any, at wee hours.

I them told Mr Mani the following: "We demand for refund or exchange with Tesco since Tesco is the payee of the transaction. And we are sure that we were not informed, neither it was a binding terms in the sales contract, of which when we offer to buy such product, such terms did not exist. The term existed only AFTER payment is made, and was in a form of a small piece of paper, with not specific reference to the brand of product that we have purchase. This is misrepresentation, and probably void the sales contract that we entered."

I continued by demanding that he call us back today to inform us if there's a solution, ie Tesco exchanged the unit, or help us to escalate to LG.

My concious is clear. Tesco is the payee, not LG. the sales contract binds both Tesco and my wife, LG is a third party. Unless both parties agreed that all service matter refers to LG, with prior consent from LG that they will undertake the service, else the contract is simply void and we have all rights to demand for refund.

Mr Mani did not call back. And we decided to make a trip to Tesco, some 30+km away from our home.

We were looking for Mr Mani when we reached. He keeps saying that there's nothing he can do, since it is Tesco's policy. After a while he agreed that the electrical department specialist to test the unit.

We told many times that the problem does not have a clear-cut symptom, it comes at random.

When the sales specialist tested the unit, it seems alright. However, my wife recorded the hissing noise and tic-tac noise from the unit on her Samsung MP3, and we were trying to expalin that this is the audible noise when the problem hit. Mr. Mani jumped into conclusion that the unit is functioning as it is able to play our USB MP3 player. He was at first not allowing us to play the audible problem we recorded, claiming that tests must be conducted with their USB or CD. he failed to understand what traspires, and failed to address the issue at shortest possible time. Then he walked away.

After a few round explaining to the sales specialist, they agreed that they heard the noise from our playback, and then calling Mr. Mani for follow-up action.

My wife went to car parkto pick up her name card, and I was waiting at the electrical department that Mr. Mani should come anytime.

We waited for some 45minutes, hungry and thirsty. There's no sign that Mr.Mani is coming.

Then my wife told me from the entrance that Mr. Mani is at the entrance, refused to come to see us at the electrical department.

I rushed to the entrance, was not able to get Mr. Mani. My wife told me the she had s short exhcnage with Mr. Mani and he called my wife "angin".

A lady, assumed herslef to be the person in charge for customer service, Cik Ros, was attentinh to us. We met her when we were talking to Mr. Mani before sending the unit to test earlier.

She was helpful and decided to help us to deal with LG on our matter, and said will be calling us tomorrow evening.

I have stated clearly that we do not wish to have the unit repaired, since the unit is having problem in the first 2 days.

And idid mention that I will file a complaint to Tesco's management on the whole issue.

Now, we will have to wait for the outcome and deal with it tomorrow.



-- Post From My iPhone