No TV for a week? AAARRRRGHHHH!

[Nanohedron]

Thank you for your sympathies.

Warranty service was entirely separate from the retail/wholesale side. Once you were in the hands of Warranty service you were in the hands of savages. . .Today, it seems, customers are a bad side-effect to both big box retail, and major brand warranty.

For 30 years my family had a medium-sized auto dealership. Of course service was a separate entity from sales, but it was still under our roof, and we handled it. In sales and service we had rightly earned a reputation for integrity and for not treating customer needs as an imposition. Warranty parameters and constraints from the brands we sold were pretty clear, but customer service was not a pair of empty words to us, and things got done properly, justly, and as swiftly as possible. It's that last that really gets me torqued about all this reluctant hemming and hawing from the Sharp company. "Properly, justly, and as swiftly as possible" is not factoring in here, not in any truly trained professional sense that I'm familiar with.

[fearfaoin]

Good grief, Sharp still makes televisions?
Maybe this will offer some salve for wound:

http://consumerist.com/2013/09/24/sharp ... ectronics/

They probably won't do a better job warrantying their strawberries.

[Nanohedron]

So I called today - as instructed - and after a lengthy time on hold was told to call tomorrow. The excuse this time was that since the new request was submitted on Friday, and it takes 24-48 hours to undergo review, Monday was not the day to call. Reasonable, I suppose, given the weekend (do corporate service departments get weekends off?), but nevertheless an indicator that, if it's the truth, which I'm not entirely convinced of by now, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Either way it's just more of a bad show.

[Nanohedron]

Good grief, Sharp still makes televisions?

There were quite a few on display. The particular model I got was on sale and came highly recommended. I was a lamb to the slaughter.

Maybe this will offer some salve for wound:

http://consumerist.com/2013/09/24/sharp ... ectronics/

They probably won't do a better job warrantying their strawberries.

"What’s a struggling electronics giant to do when it can’t pull in enough cash from peddling said electronics?"

Oh, great. My hopes for a good conclusion are now facing a vanishingly small point on an ever-receding horizon.

[Nanohedron]

Finally, victory - if by now a bit on the Pyrrhic side. Got a rather late call from some flat-voiced guy who took no pleasure in telling me that Sharp "would like to replace" the unit. Given his wording and tone, for a moment there I was waiting for the "However..." and was ready to blow my stack. Fortunately that was unneeded. Opting not to get a rebuilt unit from Sharp itself, which I'm sure would be fine, but with no further warranty beyond what I had left, I exercised the other option granted me and, paper trail in hand, hightailed it to the place I bought the original from. I thought that the choice amounted to the very definition of a no-brainer even if warranty had to be left as-is, which was the implied case. The folks at the store were glad to help, there was no jerking me around, I'm getting a new unit, AND a full year's warranty commencing as of this date, because no matter what Sharp had to say, as far as Best Buy were concerned this was the equivalent of a new purchase, and that's how it works. I have newfound respect for those guys because at least in my experience, they seem to honestly try.

EDIT: How spooky. After I hit submit my computer just now said vocally, "Congratulations!". That, and that was it. Seriously. I checked everything because I thought I must have inadvertently brought up something telling me I'm the 1 millionth whatever, but I don't have any pages or pop-ups of that type. The computer itself has been following this. Yeah, that's it.

[benhall.1]

EDIT: How spooky. After I hit submit my computer just now said vocally, "Congratulations!". That, and that was it. Seriously. I checked everything because I thought I must have inadvertently brought up something telling me I'm the 1 millionth whatever, but I don't have any pages or pop-ups of that type. The computer itself has been following this. Yeah, that's it.

Of course it's been following. And, by the way, it was being sarcastic. I'm not sure why. Yet.

[Nanohedron]

And, by the way, it was being sarcastic. I'm not sure why.

Probably because I've been waging war to hang onto my sad little tiny claim on a toehold of what passes for real estate in the Vast Wasteland. That, and the fact that I'm nevertheless still on the internet. At a certain level, sarcasm is entirely in order.

[robehickman]

Play music more?

[Nanohedron]

Play music more?

Great advice indeed for making good use of one's time, but to no advantage in squaring off with corporate Goliaths - which is what this thread has been about. I doubt I could have fluted them into submission. Still, thanks all the same.

Or, if you're asking do I play more now, the answer is no; pretty much as often as ever.

[Brus]

I doubt I could have fluted them into submission.

You don't play the bombarde, do you? That might work.

[Nanohedron]

I doubt I could have fluted them into submission.

You don't play the bombarde, do you? That might work.

No, curse the luck. But it's all academic now. Still, it's a tactic to consider for the future; I can see a Craigslist ad - "Wanted: Bombarde player to assist in sowing terror over the phone. Experience in either helpful but probably unnecessary."

[fearfaoin]

Which corporate giant TV manufacturing concern will you be railing against next?

[ytliek]

Get the names of everyone involved with this warranty issue. Include the Chiffers in case it becomes a class action, whereby you may omit the name ytliek. Post your issue everywhere. Mass media, social media viral snubs of corporate giants have been done before.

My crystal ball envisions you with a new, complimentary, state-of-the-art TV just to shut off the hailstorm of jibes this situation has rallied. This is stuff movies are made from.

Here's another take on the whole situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLnhuzh9uY

[Nanohedron]

Which corporate giant TV manufacturing concern will you be railing against next?

Oh, I think this one has been quite enough, don't you? And I don't want to make my attentions devalued currency; I am bound and determined to make this relationship work. Earlier on when someone involved (Geek Squad, I think it was) asked which brand I was planning to replace this one with, I said, "Sharp, unfortunately." I almost think I heard a scream all the way from New Jersey.

[Nanohedron]

This is stuff movies are made from.

Or a Seinfeld episode, anyway. It's been that stupid.