Are you looking to buy a TV? Here’s a piece of advice: Don’t buy it from the Goldstar Company, and do not, I repeat, do NOT buy it from the Corporate Hypermarket.
Let me tell you the story about my long journey with these two companies…
So about a month ago I went to the Corporate Hypermarket to look for a new TV, I wanted to upgrade to a Smart TV where I’ll be able to connect it to a wifi signal and rewatch Breaking Bad on OSN and look for spooky documentaries on Youtube.
As I was browsing for a TV, 3 salespeople were shoving TVs at my face until I finally settled on the Goldstar Company. Why you might ask? Because when the salesman showed me what it could do, I was impressed, it looked smart, can go on facebook, twitter, youtube, OSN, and many other apps he showed me whilst in the showroom. Before buying the TV, the salesman insisted that I pay additional fees for an extended warranty so that, quote, “if anything is wrong with the TV you can come back and they give you a full refund when you show them this extended warranty, money back guaranteed!†And I thought, why not? You never know what might happen, right?
After purchasing it, I went out of town for a week, and when I came back I finally unwrapped the TV, threw the box out, and placed it on my wall. Everything was fine until most of the cool apps that the salesman showed me were not really working. As surprised and confused that made me, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and I called their customer service.
After 2 long hours on the phone with their customer care, they did not want to send their technicians until I screamed “I WILL REPORT YOU TO THE-†- they didn’t even let me finish, they came the next day immediately. When they came, they tried to fix the problem for about an hour, then when they were done, they told me “sorry, no can fix.†- they wrote me a report saying that some apps don’t work, that the TV is slow, and it freezes. Of course, what I did with this is take it along with the TV straight to Corporate Hypermarket.
The Corporate Hypermarket people were so careless, carried an awful attitude, and quite frankly, they were boldly disrespectful -which was quite shocking, given that I’m a usual customer there. They told me to go back to the Goldstar Company and have them solve the problem, as they wont give me a refund OR make an exchange. Then I went back to Goldstar, they took the TV for a week, and returned it as it was, unfixed. I realize at this point that they don’t really know how to fix it, they were just going around the subject waiting for the customer (ME) to get tired of this hide and seek game and forget about it. They gave me another report saying “online applications not working†AGAIN.
Then again I went back to the evil Hypermarket, for the millionth time, completely frustrated, I told them to see the problem for themselves, and when they saw the problem with the TV, they said that there was nothing they could do about it, because I simply did not have the box for it. Oh really? I didn’t know that I purchased the TV so I could watch movies on the BOX of the TV. Not the TV, the BOX. That’s what I bought this for. Silly me.
I showed them the extended warranty I payed extra for, they saw it and said “this doesn’t do anythingâ€. All they did was drain out all my energy, leaving me with nothing but sore legs from the long hours of standing. But oh did I not give up. I didn’t want to surrender to their unacceptable service, unprofessional attitude, and I absolutely did not want to settle for a TV that is half working.
At this point I had lost it. I called consumer rights.
I told them about my problem with both the Goldstar company and the Corporate Hypermarket. they were so helpful, and I have to give credit to one guy over there called Hamad Al Medhani, he listened to the problem, called the Hypermarket and I dont know what exactly was said between them but the next day I received a call from the Hypermarket saying that I can come exchange the TV, and they asked me to drop the case against them in court. So now they got scared? Now? What happened to not being able to do anything about the issue since I had no box? They just wanted to stall the process with a bunch of lies until I forget about it.
Now I’m happily married to a Samsung TV. The moral of the story is, if you buy a product, and that product did not live up to its expectation, you have full rights to return it, even if it was worth 10 dirhams, it’s your right and you should claim it. No matter what the consequence is, and no matter how long of a process it might take. Claim your right. Don’t let it slide because when you do that, you give them impression that it’s okay to sell us junk that don’t work.
What about you? Have you had a bad experience with the corporate world? Tell me your stories at @Sindiya23. For your information, Fujairah’s consumer rights number is 09-22-33-330 and the national toll free number is 600-545555. If you’re not happy with a product, call them!
Here’s a picture of our beautiful city to balance this article to a more positive side. The weather is getting better, it’s almost time for discovery trips!
Until Next time, Fajrawis,
Keep it real.
Sindiya, The Sign.
