tavie.com

I wrote and sent the following email on Gina's behalf. I have yet to receive a reply, so I'm going to launch a campaign against Sylvania Consumer Electronics and its parent company, Funai Corporation. My roommate and I are tired of paying for cable we can't access because of an expensive (for us) broken tv. Neither of us can afford a new tv and $403 is a lot of money to lose.

Please spread the word about this company so that people know not to buy products that will waste their money by breaking so soon after purchase.

I did a bunch of Googling to find the name of the company's Sr. Exec Director of Service, and then to figure out the email format that the corporation uses. I'm not 100% sure I hit target, but the email wasn't bounced back, so that's encouraging.

This person had a similar problem and had luck when they wrote into a consumer-advice column in the St Petersburg Times, who contact Mr Kawasaki for them.

------

Tetsuya Kawasaki, Funai Corporation

Senior Executive Director of Service

Dear Mr Kawasaki,

Re: Sylvania LC3321SS9

On March 3rd, I purchased a Sylvania 32-inch HDTV flatscreen television
from BJ's price club in Jersey City, NJ. It cost $403. It's been
treated very carefully and was working perfectly until two weeks ago,
on July 22nd, when it suddenly just stopped. Wouldn't turn on, nothing.
Dead as a doornail.

On Thursday, July 23rd, I called Sylvania Customer Service and they
gave me a number and said I had to speak to the people in the warranty
division. They told me that I would probably have to leave a message.
I called the number all day on Thursday and kept getting a message that
said "If you know your party's extension, press 1, or press 0 for more
options." Every time I hit 0, it would repeat the message. I called
customer service again after I got home and they told me that there had
been problems with Warranty's phones and to try again Friday. On
Friday, nothing. On Monday, nothing. I called Customer Service again
and they told me that they really could do nothing and I20had to keep
trying that number that it was fixed. I tried the number again
yesterday and kept getting the message that the box was full. Called CS
again today and once again told nothing they could do till I called
that number and they were so sorry and could understand my anger and
that I could talk to a supervisor but it would do me no good.

Sir, is there someone to whom we can escalate this problem? In today's
economy it's very difficult to spend that much money on a product and
not be able to use it. I am paying for cable that I can't see because
the television set I purchased from your company does not work. I have
taken time away from my working day in many attempts to contact someone
at your company that can help me resolve this issue, to no avail.

To resolve the problem, I would appreciate a refund of my $403 or an
exchange of my broken set for a new product that will not break after 5
months of use.

I look forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem, and will
wait until Monday, August 8th before seeking help from a consumer
protection agency or the Better Business Bureau. Please contact me at
any of the email addresses or phone numbers listed below.

Sincerely,

Gina Tosatto and Octavia Phillips

[contact information deleted because my mama didn't raise no fools]

Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:45 PM | shower me with attention