Random Thoughts Of warranties & global warming

 

We recently bought two things for the kitchen:

1. A Samsung side-by-side refrigerator from BrandsMart

2. A made-in-China no name coffee urn from Wayfair, a Walmart vendor

The refrigerator cost substantially more than the coffee urn - total price of the latter, including shipping, was just a tad more than $20.

The fridge has an icemaker that is supposed to dispense ice via the freezer-side door.

It failed to dispense ice.

I contacted BrandsMart via its web site and laid out the problem and solicited a call from tech support to set up a visit.

No response.

I contacted BrandsMart Customer Service via telephone. The Customer Service Representative (CSR) told me she could not enter my complaint into the computer since it was "being updated" - in the middle of the business day.

I asked her to take down my information and to enter it into the computer when the "updating" was completed. She assured me she would do this.

Since then, no response.

I tried again via the BrandsMart web page.

No response.

For the record, we have a three-year warranty on the box. Of course if BrandsMart won't honor a warranty within 30 days of purchase . . .

ON THE OTHER HAND when the coffee urn broke on first use, I called the number listed on the "DON'T RETURN TO STORE" card that came with the coffee urn, the one that clearly states on the reverse
For repair or replacement contact Customer Service
I was told to contact the retailer.

Is the retailer Walmart? It advertised the product on its web page and in smaller print said it was sold by Wayfair, or was the retailer Wayfair?

I had an email address for Wayfair so I started there.

I wrote an email setting forth my complaint and what I wanted from Wayfair.

Within short order I received an email from Julia J. (for) Wayfair on Walmart Marketplace telling me that she would take care of the matter and issue a refund for the purchase price and shipping. Walmart advised us this morning that our account had been credited for the full amount.

Will I buy from Wayfair in the future? If it has something I want at a decent price and the product is not made in China, the answer is "very likely." Based largely on Julia J. of Wayfair on Walmart Marketplace handling of my complaint.

Will I buy again from BrandsMart?

Maybe. Reluctantly. But only products that are warranted by the manufacturer.. As far as I am concerned, a BrandsMart guarantee is of no value.

Incidentally, I read the manufacturer's troubleshooting guide and fixed the problem myself. That does NOT forgive BrandsMart customer treatment.

GLOBAL WARMING

There are those who contend that the earth warms up and cools down in cycles. I'm inclined to agree with that contention. Likewise El Nino and La Nina come in cycles.

As I look at the temperatures for November 12, 2014, I see that many places are unseasonably cold.

Butte and Livingston, Montana, have, as this is keyed, a temperature of 15 BELOW zero. Gillette, Wyoming, where I once lived, has a balmy minus 4, while Casper, in the center of the state, is a chilly minus 17, colder by 2 degrees than Butte and Livingston across Wyoming's northern border. Ely, Nevada, another place I once hung my hat, has an almost summerlike temperature of 16 ABOVE.

The Jaycees of Ely, when I lived there, used to string holiday lights in early November, well before Thanksgiving, because it simply was too cold to install decorations after Turkey Day. For the Jaycees' sake, I hope they got the decorations in place before Halloween.

If this is "global warming," I'd hate to think about "global cooling."

Incidentally, and I DO enjoy "rubbing it in," the low temperature outside my door today was 65 while the anticipated high for November 12, 2014 is 83; not a bad day at the beach in Hollywood - Florida, that is.

Al Gore may be right, but it's hard to agree with him when I know my friends and acquaintances in the north (that means any state north of Florida's borders with Alabama and Georgia) are shivering or huddling close to the Franklin stove.

Opuscula Of products & warranties

 

We recently acquired some new "things," including a dish washer, a refrigerator, and a coffee urn.

The dishwasher is pretty simple and carries a lot of brand labels. It was installed by a guy who new his business and made sure everything worked before he asked me to sign off on the installation.

The fridge, a huge Samsung side-by-side that looks impressive - icemaker and water through-the-door distribution, yah-dah, yah-dah. It's bigger than the old unit, but, frankly, I don't think it's any easier to access "stuff" inside. I want to assume the box was made in Japan or in the US for a Japanese company, but I suspect most of the box came from China.

The coffee urn, made in China - only West Bend is made in the USA - replaced a West Bend that served us well for about 4 years. The new, cheaper than West Bend, urn was used for one - ONE - cup of coffee before it broke.

Of the three things, only one - the dishwasher - has served us well, although to be fair it's only used once-a-week or when we have company.

The coffee urn will go back Monday.

But the fridge . . . that's another story.

My wife and son bought the box from BrandsMart. It turns out that it is BrandsMart not, as I mistakenly thought, BrandSmart. The wife also bought a 3-year extended warranty.

When the box was first installed everything seemed to work OK.

Then the icemaker stopped making ice. This was discovered when the Spouse burned her hand I wanted to put ice on the burn.

SO, I dug out the warranty information and, since I am a Web-junky, I used the Web to contact BrandsMart to complain and ask to have a tech call me to set up an appointment.

No response.

Although I loathe the telephone, I called the BrandsMart warranty number. A woman answered and when I told her I needed tech support she informed me the computer was being updated.

Updated in the middle of a normal workday? Incredible. Unbelievable.

I insisted that the woman take down my information with pencil - maybe crayon - and paper and then, when the software was updated, transfer the information into the database. I several times asked if the Customer Service Representative "got" the information and the response always was "Yes."

And the response was: Silence. No calls from tech support to set a time to fix the problem.

I went back and read the box's troubleshooting guide and thought I found - and fixed - the problem.

Tried the ice maker. No change - no ice.

Waited an hour and tried again. No change - no ice.

Once again to BrandsMart's Web site and once again I defined my problem and what I did to resolve it, along with the notation that the ice maker STILL was not producing ice - neither chips nor cubes. Hit "Send" and continued waiting.

Three days later I STILL am waiting to hear from BrandsMart.

Mind, the box is less than a month out of the box. We are NOT talking about the end of the three-year extended contract so there is no question that BrandsMart is trying to stretch out the problem until the warranty expires.

AS IT HAPPENS, what I did to the ice maker eventually fixed the problem and I was - and still am - waiting for a call from BrandsMart to tell them to cancel my three requests for technical support.

I am, however, curious to know why BrandsMart sells a product with a guarantee it apparently has no intention of honoring. The warranty is very clear that it is with BrandsMart and NOT with Samsung. Perhaps BrandsMart is the "China" of warranties - looks good but has no value.

Extended warranty or not, if we have any more problems with the Samsung box I will contact BrandsMart and cc Samsung so at least the company that brands the box will know that it's vendor's warranties are not worth the paper on which they are printed.

What's happened to American pride? Does anyone take pride in their work any more? Does anyone even CARE any more? Based on the inaction of BrandsMart and the Made-in_China coffee urn, I guess the answer is a resounding "No, no one cares."

What did I expect from the importer of the Chinese urn? QUALITY CONTROL, sampling of incoming product. Is my defective urn one out of 10? One out of 100? One out of 1,000? My guess is that the importer has no clue and probably doesn't care - it's probably cheaper to refund a customer's purchase price that it is to do any QC on Chinese products.

Which is why we will order a new West Bend urn tomorrow.