CommentMy TV broke a few weeks ago and so I called around to repair shops in Bend. I settled on The Electronics Shop because it was the only place that could repair LG plasma TV’s in town. I felt that I would get better service from a local business as opposed to sending it out to get repaired (Best Buy and Sears would do this) and I could not have been more wrong. What I received instead was the worst customer service experience I have ever had anywhere.
Three weeks after I had submitted my TV for repair I got a call saying that the TV was fixed and ready to be picked up. I went down to the shop to pick it up and pay for the repair which I knew was approx. $600, $250 of it was for labor. A couple of the guys from the shop began to carry the TV out to the car and one of them asked me if I wanted the old part and he showed it to me. Three weeks ago right after the TV broke I called my friend who is a broadcast engineer. He and I took the TV apart, tested all the boards and put it back together in less than an hour. The part that the guy showed me was one of the main boards which was easily accessible and removable. When I asked the guy about it he said the shop rate was $85.00/hr. which means that they supposedly spent almost three hours putting this part in. I could not understand why a repair shop full of “professionals” could not replace this part as quickly as I could. When I asked him why it took so long he said “Have you ever taken apart a plasma TV before? They are very complicated.” To which I replied “Yes, I took this one apart. It took me less than an hour to take it apart, test it, and put it back together.” He didn’t have an answer for me as he clearly was used to people backing down from him when he talked down to them.
The two guys come out to try to load the TV into the back of my Mercedes SUV. They were clearly struggling so I jumped to the other side of the car to help them load it in. The TV was almost in the car when one of the guys on the other end repeatedly jammed the corner of the TV into the roof liner of the vehicle which created four small holes. The TV was still in a precarious situation poking a hole in the roof and the two men walked away and back into the shop, leaving me there bracing the TV so it wouldn’t do any more damage to the roof liner. My wife had to jump out and stabilize the TV so that we could position it to not damage the interior of the car.
After we had situated the TV we went back inside and told them that they had damaged the roof, after about 15 minutes one of the guys came out to look at the damage. His immediate reaction was “Well that was the side he (meaning me) was on, so it’s not our fault”. I explained to him that I couldn’t see him jamming the TV into my roof liner because I was on the other side of the car, but it was in plain sight for him. He said that they do the best they can and blamed it on me not having the car ready, even though the TV was currently situated just fine. We told him we were upset and he sarcastically said “Well I am sorry we tried to help you load your TV”. This was after we paid $600 for a TV repair that should have cost $450.
We could tell that this guy was not going to help us and he was being disrespectful, chuckling to himself about our concerns, so we asked to talk to the owner. After another 10 minutes of waiting he finally came out. Initially we thought he was going to be helpful or at least professional but we were quickly proven wrong. We showed him the damage to the interior of our car and explained the story. The owner took no responsibility and blamed it on me again because it was “my side”; I guess that is what I get for trying to help out. He told me he didn’t care what happened to the TV once it left his shop and that all that mattered to him was “getting the TV out of his front door”. He also was chuckling to himself the whole time and shaking his head, apparently amused that his employees had damaged our vehicle. My wife said “why is this so funny to you? I am really upset here and you don’t seem to care.” The owner just flipped out, his face got red, he raised his voice and started pointing. He yelled at her saying “If that was your kid I you could be upset, but that is just a car, your priorities are screwed up, you are screwed up”. I jumped between them and said “You do not talk to my wife like that”. He walked back into his shop shouting at us. He was apparently upset about being called out for ripping us off on the price and did not like that we were trying to get him to step outside of his comfort zone and give us some customer service.
Bottom line, my wife and I both know that it is just a couple holes in the roof liner of the car; it is not the end of the world. What was so frustrating about the experience was that we were not able to elicit even an apology from them, let alone some sort of acknowledgement of responsibility or compensation of some sort. The manager and owner don’t appear to value professionalism and customer service as we watched them abuse another customer as we sat there and waited in their shop. From the very beginning to the end of the event The Electronics Shop handled everything wrong. When we got our TV back the screen was covered in finger prints and, also it was covered in a fine dust that got into the remote and had to be blown out. Unbelievably rude, damaged my personal property and refused to take responsibility for it, the owner did not display any semblance of professionalism but was hot-headed and inappropriate. If you value customer service do not take any business here, do yourself a favor and take it to another service center.
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