Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN) has made a refund to a customer who complained that he was sold a smart TV that was not covered under warranty, even though the company had told him that it was. Rob, the customer, believed Groupon when it said the TV came with a warranty, but when it needed repairs, things got really strange.
No clear answers
Rob called up Samsung to get his grievance resolved. The company did some troubleshooting for him and set an appointment with a technician. While he waited eagerly for the technician to resolve his problem, the person did not turn up. When Rob enquired, he was told that the Samsung TV model he had is “secretly Mexican,” and it was not possible for Samsung USA to repair it, as they didn’t have all the required parts. They even said that the model may have belonged to Canada or maybe to Panama. He was told that he shouldn’t have this model.
The complaint filed by him with Samsung was forwarded by the company to its subsidiaries in all the said nations, but none of them could support the TV bought by him. They could not even give him a satisfactory answer as to why was Groupon selling the “secretly Mexican” electronics in the first place.
Groupon made the refund, but a bit late
Later, someone at Samsung told him that no matter where he buys Samsung items, if they are bought online, they will never come with a warranty. Hence, he was left with no option but turning to The Consumerist, which tried to talk to Samsung officials but got no reply to their queries and didn’t even answer the calls made by Rob himself. Therefore, The Consumerist published a article on its website a few weeks ago, and now the results are here to be seen.
Rob got the refund on Oct. 9, which is within three weeks of the article getting published on The Consumerist.
“A day after the article was published, Groupon got in contact with us again,” Rob wrote to The Consumerist.
The delay took place because Groupon too had some issues getting the refund for him. While Groupon did justice with Rob, the major point of the whole story is that this should have been done in a faster manner without making the consumer go through the trouble of making numerous follow-ups and then requiring a post from The Consumerist.
