Westinghouse: Do they suck?
Does Westinghouse suck? Time will tell. As I recently pined, my beloved 24" monitor died. Since then I've been going through the deeply unsettling process of getting it RMAed.
I've had to call Westinghouse three times already, just to get a number to write on the box before I mailed it to them (at my own expense). The first time I called them, the guy on the phone said I needed to troubleshoot it with him before he could do anything for me, even though I told him I'd already done all the troubleshooting myself. How much troubleshooting does it take to determine that the power light won't come on, and the monitor won't light up? I took it to three rooms in my house, tried different power cords, etc. I'm not an idiot, and I wouldn't send my monitor away in the mail if there was any chance I could get it working myself. But I was at work, and he was insistent that troubleshooting was necessary, so I had to call back later.
The second time I called, this time from home, the new guy on the phone didn't actually bother having me do any troubleshooting, he just took my word that it was broken after I explained the problem, and put me on hold while he tried to set up an RMA for me. (I saw that one coming from a mile away.)
Apparently the RMA department wasn't available at that time, and the gentleman said someone would email me the RMA number in a day or two once it was set up. Note: This gentleman was the most depressed-sounding person I've ever spoken to. Having worked at a call center myself for a few months, I understand totally.
Two days passed with no emails, so I called for a third time, and had them give me the RMA number and some instructions for sending it back. Then I did some web searches just in case the instructions were wrong. I did read that Westinghouse only accepts UPS, not US mail, which the lady on the phone failed to mention. Correct or not, I went with UPS just to be safe.
(One good thing I can say about Westinghouse phone support is that they all spoke fluent English, and they were all friendly and helpful. I know firsthand that poor tech support is often the fault of management, who set ridiculous standards (e.g. mandatory troubleshooting) and demand that their CSRs read scripts rather than use their brains, and actually punish workers who value customer service more than getting through X calls per minute. Whether Westinghouse does this or not I don't know, but it's been common in my experience and my three calls lead me to believe it's likely the case here. But becoming angry with the people on the phones is counter-productive and is only hurting people who are already working one of the worst jobs imaginable.)
So in any case today I sent my monitor off to California (at my own expense). I wrote down the serial number from the bar code on the monitor so I'll know if I get the same one back or not. Then I wrote the RMA number on every side of the box, then wrapped the box in brown mailing paper, then wrote the RMA number on every side of the outside again. I put multiple copies of all my contact info and my receipt in the box, and taped a copy of each directly to the monitor just in case.
Yet I can't shake this feeling that I'm never going to get a working monitor back again. I hope Westinghouse proves me wrong. Google around for "Westinghouse RMA" and you'll see nothing but horror stories. This may not indicate a problem; people who rant about customer service self-select themselves, so all you hear are the bad stories, never the good. Nevertheless I'm worried. I'm tracking the package by UPS. It should be there Thursday; then the clock starts.
One good thing about having a website is that if anyone happens to search for Westinghouse L2410NM LCD monitor purchased from newegg.com, they may eventually read this post (and the many, many other posts I'm going to make on this topic until I get a working monitor back.) Whether this story has a happy ending or not is up to Westinghouse.
(Read the whole crappy story of Westinghouse's dishonesty and horrible customer service: The beginning, Update 1, Update 2, Update 3, Update 4, Update 5, Update 6, Update 7, Update 8, Update 9.)
One thing about the internet age that is positive is that it empowers consumers. The old way was to get something put in the newspaper, now it is usually sent to a consumer reporter. But the way going forwards is the internet. Because Companies don't like bad press. And the internet can broadcast your good or bad experience to future customers. So now web posting are hunted by companies and they try to defuse the situation or resolve the problem. So a web post may lead to the company contacting you by email to resolve your problem or they could face the bad press that a web post can bring. All hail the intertubes FTW!
What Mark says is true. I once wanted to buy a physical fitness piece of equipment (strider or something) and wanted to look up reviews before I bought it. Turns out this once consumer reporting website has tons of complaints from customers. No one gave the company a good rating. But I saw representatives from the company fighting back with comments in the 'supplier' section of the website. They addressed each complaint and gave reasons for treating the customer as such. It was sort of funny.
I like that you wrote down the serial number. We would have liked pictures of the box so we could comment on your wrapping skills as well. You need to bring your website to life with pictures! I miss seeing your cat :-(
The internet: FOR GREAT JUSTICE
(Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that someone actually looked at those pictures of my cat.)
I have a cat too. I didn't teach him well so he sinks his claws into my shoulders and hangs along my back and likes me to run around the house with him.
Please tell me you brought your cat along when you moved.
In response to your question; yes, Westinghouse sucks. I bought a 22″ monitor from them at the end of January from eCost but because of storms in the south I didnt get it until the 9th of February. Fair enough, I can accept that. After I recieved it and set it all up everything was working fine, for about an hour… When I went to check the on screen display the monitor blinked and I lost all the red tones from the monitor. I had never heard of anything like that before, and after checking around the internet and doing every troubleshooting thing I could think of I realized that it was simply broken. Fine, that's something that happens every once in a while. I called them the next day and told them what happened and they replied that I would be placed on a list to recieve my RMA number and it may take up to two weeks. That seemed pretty ridiculous but I assumed they were sending it through the mail so I patiently waited. Two weeks went by and it still hadnt showed up, so I called them back. Apparently it was supposed to go through my e-mail and just never showed up. So they said that they'd send it again, and to call back in three days. Nothing again. They blamed it all on the fact that I was using a yahoo account, regardless of the fact that I had them send it to my school e-mail as well. This went on for two more weeks until I finally yelled at a manager. Surprisingly enough, my shipping labels showed up twenty minutes later. Within two hours of having the labels labels I mailed it out. That was on March 3. They said that they recieved it on the 11, and when I called to find out about it, they said to expect it the week of the 24. Almost two months, but whatever I tried to stay in good spirits. Two days ago I called because the monitor didnt show up and they told me that they had put my monitor in the wrong room and didnt find it until the 2nd, now they say I should get it back in a few weeks. After it's said and done it will have been 3 months since I ordered it and when I actually get it. The thing that I find most insulting is that I havent once been apologized to. I've called the company more times than I would like to admit, and nothing, no “sorry I know this is inconvenient” or anything. It has been the worst customer service experience of my life and I will never buy another Westinghouse again, and I will gladly tell everybody I know to do the same. Hope your monitor situation works out better than mine did.
That's not encouraging. :(
just wondering how this ended up working out?
my short story: i ordered a refurbished westinghouse tv (DOA) a few months ago.. waited 4 weeks to get off backorder, got a dead unit (wouldnt turn on) sent it back, got anohter DOA tv as a replacement. great. now ive been waitng 2 weeks for a shipping label from them.. i doubt it will show up, however.
called westinghouse about 40 times so far.. scary, i know. same story too, helpful english speaking people, but lots of red-tape. I was promised multiple emails but never got a single one. Just today i called the corporate customer service manager to leave a message, but again, i have the feeling i wont be hearing from them at all.
NEVER AGAIN WILL I PURCHASE WESTINGHOUSE ANYTHING
Nothing has worked out yet. I'm still battling them.
After four months I finally recieved my monitor in working order. They told me time and time again (I called at least 3 or 4 dozen times over those 4 months) that this was very irregular and that it normally only takes 5 days. This I know is a lie, not just from all the information thats on your page, but also from my many, many conversations with the employees. For instance, the person I originally talked to said that they would send a new monitor right out because they dont attempt to fix the defective products first, they would rather keep happy customers and ship them new ones right away. This turned out to be a lie, and the next person I talked to said they had never heard that (although it made sense). After losing my monitor in a backroom and delaying me another 3 weeks (I still dont know how you lose a monitor) they said that they were trying to fix the broken one I shipped them. Luckily they eventually gave up and sent me a brand new one. This one works great and I have no complaints, but I will never buy anything from Westinghouse ever again. It's worth spending a little more for the piece of mind.
I purchased a 26 inch LCD/DVD combo television from eCost.com. I will admit that my first mistake was buying a factory refurb (not that I knew it was a refurb at the time of purchase but that is another story). On the other hand, it was a TV and I know several people that have had good luck with similar purchases.
When I received the LCD TV, it locked up on every channel that had a weak signal. None of the buttons or the remote would work. The unit had to be unplugged from the wall just to reboot the TV.
To that end I returned it to the Westinghouse customer service department as per the 90 day manufacturer warranty included in the box. I did everything right, I wrote the RMA number all over the box and followed the directions given to me by the customer rep perfectly. At this point I was told several different things by the rep. The most significant were the following: 1. That my television would be exchanged for a new working box. 2. That it would take 5 to 7 days for the process.
Westinghouse Digital received my television on May 5th 2008. I still don't have my television back and today is August 14th 2008 (101 days and counting).
Between then and now I have made at least 10 to 12 calls to their customer support. Each call yeilding the same unsatisfying result: The television is in their possession, they cannot give out a “corporate support number” and that there was no further action they could take. The default explanation for the delay was that there was no tracking number on the “returned package” so it was difficult to confirm the packages location. This is partially my fault for not having a delivery confirmation place on the package. I did get insurance for the package and that number was tracked by the US Post Office. I paid 4 dollars extra to have that information printed and faxed to Westinghouse Digital. At the very least the default excuse for being unable to locate the TV is no longer viable.
I currently have an active complaint with the Better Business Bureau and have just exhausted the 20 business day time limit waiting for a response from Westinghouse.
I don't know that I will ever get my MONEY or TV back.
YES, WESTINGHOUSE SUCKS!!!!!!!!! AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE.
I just posted again about this: http://briancarper.net/2008/08/14/westinghouse-bbb-rating-cc-and-falling/
I feel for everyone who's going through the same crap as I am.
4.5 months after ordering the original TV, I finally ended up getting a return shipping label by rummaging thru Westinghouse's corporate phone directory. After weeks of waiting for a shipping label that was NEVER going to arrive, I got in touch with Angela Ramirez (562-236-9800 ext. 231) who was able to send a UPS shipping label to my email address within 15 minutes. I shipped the tv back that same day, waited about 15 days and signed for the new one. It works fine.
Prior to calling Angela Ramirez, i actually used my credit card company's “dispute a charge” feature to get them to act as a liason on my part. They issued me a temporary credit and sent buy.com a letter stating my situation. Sure enough, exactly 1 billing cycle later another shipping label (this time fedex, wtf?) came to my email via the infamous Brenda Burruel (the customer service manager who never returned any of my 4+ calls to her office phone).
My advice to you guys — call Angela Ramirez (562-236-9800 ext. 231).. she was able to help me, thank god
My advice to anyone who has stubled upon this thread via google, etc — RECONSIDER purchasing Westinghouse anything. They're business practices are deceptive and borderline fraudulent. Stay away. Stay away. Stay away. Stay away.
westinghouse makes the worst tvs ever, i accidently bumped my 360 controller into it, it hardly even touched the tv and the screen just coompletley cracked and is now broken. also whenever you have an hdmi cable plugged into it the screen will go completely blank for one second and come back for 1 second it does this for about thirty minutes then after 15 minutes it starts doing it again so westing house tvs dont really support hdmi. westinghouse is crap and dont ever buy any of there tvs ever because you will get completely screwed over.
Oh yes,
My HDTV which wasn't used more than 10 hours per week, just got worse and worse.
After a warm up time, which got shorter and shorter the picture went to crap.
Like it lost it's vertical / horizontal hold.
I thought it was heat related at first so I put a fan in the back.
Seemed to help for awhile.
Now I have turn on the tv hours before I want to watch anything, and it's getting worse.
Jeff