Customer Service

I just need to brag a little. I seem to focus on the negative...but today...I'm focusing on the positive.

My Ti-Vo DVR quit. So I thought it was an add-on USB thingy that I had to put on it because my TV is nearly 20 years old. So I took the thingy to Best Buy. They told me it was 6 months old...but let them try to see if Best Buy would 'honor' the purchase and let me return it. I didn't even ask them, they offered. So I said sure, knowing the results. And true...they couldn't honor a purchase made last November. So I asked for a copy of the original purchase receipt, which they supplied to me with no problems, and thought I would send it and the receipt back to the manufacturer.

In the meantime, I bought another one ($69.99 Oh MY Goodness!). gulp. I got home, and it didn't work either. So I deducted that it must be my Ti-Vo.

I called Ti-Vo and he had me do this, unplug this, stand on my head and yell words, ect...you get the picture. Each time, all I got was a blank screen. So he told me it was my box. BUT...for only $129.99 I could get a BRAND NEW ONE.

Well, I don't have $129.99 and so I told him, no thank you, just give me back the 6 months prepaid service costs I had paid and we'll just cancel the contract.

Sorry, he said, can't do that. Let me transfer you to someone who may be able to help you. So he transferred me to someone else who gave me the special offer of the week...orginally $249.99, I could purchase same Ti-Vo (in previous paragraph) for only $199.99...then he put me on hold...and I waited...and I waited...and finally after 17 minutes I hung up.

The next morning, I charged out of the starting gate with my dukes up ready to tell them what I thought about them not refunding what I cannot use and giving me two different prices for the same machine...not that I was going to purchase either.

I called and got this lady named Elisha who had a very bad cold. I explained my predicament along with being put on hold. She never once put me on hold...she talked, sniffled, sneezed and coughed, but she told me she would not put me on hold.

Then she said, "Ms. Ray, we would like to offer you a free replacement for your DVR that is not working. Just follow all the directions I'm sending to your email, and when we receive your old unit, we'll mail this unit to you." "Not only that", she continued, "this new DVR can record two different shows at the same time."

I said, what? Free? She said she was so sorry for the inconvenience and that they would ship it out asap when they received mine.

I took the USB thingy back to Best Buy and they thanked me profusely and gave me a credit on my card.

I walked in my house stunned. Stunned that customer service still exists.
I'm still in shock.