A Determined Consumer Finds Satisfaction By Going Local

As frequent visitors to ConsumerAffairs.com know all to well, not every consumer purchase turns out well. Sometimes the product is of poor quality, or the service is lacking. Sometimes, it's a case of both.

When that happens, determination and composure on the part of the consumer is an important part of getting satisfaction. A recent report from Sarah, of Elkton, Md., provides a good example.

“My parents purchased a brand new front loading Samsung VRT washing machine and matching dryer from Lowes, in February  2011,” Sarah told ConsumerAffairs.com. “The store promptly sent people out to deliver and install them.”

Wrong assumption

So far, so good. But Sarah says during the test, the installer noticed an odd sound. Instead of thoroughly checking it out, he assumed it was because the unit was cold, and he left. Once he left, Sarah's mom tried to wash a load of laundry.

“The washer tossed the clothes around a few times and then froze for some 15 minutes before displaying an error code,” Sarah said. “This repeated multiple times upon use, unless you rearranged the clothing and rotated the drum by hand before shutting the door.”

Within two days the new washer displayed a ND (no drain) and NF error codes, despite draining the unit. Sarah's mon managed to live with the issue, despite the frustration. The dryer on the other hand, worked perfectly until April 2011. It would turn on, however would not rotate or begin a cycle.

Three weeks of phone tag

“We then called Samsung,” Sarah said. “Three weeks of phone tag went by before Samsung told us no service company was willing to come to our house and could not say why. The woman understood the frustration and offered to arrange via Lowes for a new dryer to be sent out. At this point we did not mention the washer having problems now that we were aware no service person was available to come out despite having a warranty stating it would be fixed!”

Earlier this month, a new dryer was sent to the house and installed by Lowes once again. It seemed to be working properly, so the installer left.

“Happy that we would now finally be able to wash/dry three weeks worth of dirty/wet clothes, we loaded the dryer and ran it's cycle,” Sarah said. “To our horror no hot air came out of the dryer and the clothing remained soaking wet. It was pretty obvious to me we had just been given a dryer with a dead heating element.”

Sarah said she called Samsung and demanded a refund. She learned that to get their money back, her elderly parents would have to jump through a series of hoops that they were in no mood to deal with, having spent over $1,500 for two non-functioning appliances and a replacement that was DOA.

Going local

So Sarah stopped dealing with Samsung and took the problem to the store where her parents had purchased the appliances. It was there, she said, that she found satisfaction.

“The real hero in this case was Lowes, who not only removed the defective Samsung products from our home, but gave us brand new top of the line working Frigidaires, that were more expensive than the Samsung models, and a boatload of apologies for our troubles,” Sarah said.

That's not to say that all consumers will get that result in all cases. Sarah had the advantage that the appliances were still under warranty and it was a recent purchase. But she was also dealing with someone in her community, who wanted to keep her as a customer.

Oftentimes, dealing with someone at the local level, in a position of authority, will yield better results than trying to get satisfaction from a corporate headquarters that could be hundreds of miles away.