The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They broke my broken TV!

I bought a TV and used it for 3 months and it stopped showing pictures. I then took it back to the shop as it was still under warranty. They later told me that it is water damage and it is not covered by warranty and gave a quotation of P8,000 to fix it. Since it was just too much, I decided to buy a new TV instead. I accepted that it was my fault, but when I went back to collect my TV, I found that the screen was broken/damaged. The shop assistant notified the branch manager who said he would have to investigate and come back to me the following week. He never did, and when I followed it up with him through telephone, he told me that he is still doing the investigation. I went to the shop to meet with him and learnt that he was on leave that day and met with his assistant. The assistant manager promised that he would communicate with the shop headquarters and would advise me on their intent. He never phoned and I kept on following up with them and it has been weeks now. Yesterday the branch manager phoned me, but still he was not telling me on their intention. He promised that he will discuss the issue with his assistant today and they would let me know.

I need your advise on this, my expectation is that since they have done the damage they should replace the TV with a new one and allow me to exchange it for something else as I already bought another TV. Would I be asking for too much?

This is complicated. If it’s true that you caused water damage to the TV then obviously you should be responsible for paying to fix that. However the store are obviously responsible for repairing any damage they caused to the TV even if that TV was already damaged. Then again this was a TV you presumably had decided to discard if you had already bought another TV to replace it. So I’m confused. Should the store repair the TV back to it’s previously broken state? In theory they should put the TV back to it’s water damaged but unbroken state. How could they possibly do that?

I’ll contact the store and see what they suggest should be done.

Who should I speak to?

[I’ve changed the names of everyone mentioned here.]

I bought a funeral policy in 2013 deducting P181.90 per month. The agent was Mr A who is stationed at Maun. Around February I told Mr A that I want to terminate my policy with effect from March 2015 he then advised me to right a letter which I wrote on the 24 February and faxed it to him and he confirmed to have received it. I was surprised to find that they have deducted money for the month of March 2015 after telling them that I am terminating. I called Mr A and informed him that they have deducted money he then advised me to go to the nearest office for refund. I then went to Francistown branch and I was assisted by Ms B who told me that my policy was not cancelled. She then asked me to write another letter that shows that I have written a letter before and also to request for refund. She told me that she will send my letter to Maun and told me that I will be assisted by Mr C. I called Mr C after they have deducted money for the month of April and he did not assist me until I called their headquarters where I was assisted by Mr D. Mr D advised me to call Mr E who is the manager for Maun branch. I called Mr E and he told me that I am talking to the wrong person I should go back and talk to Mr C since he is the right person who can assist me. Until today I have not been assisted and I am afraid that they will continue deducting money even after cancelling my policy.

Sorry, are they joking with you? Do they want you to speak to everyone up to Mr Z? This is ridiculous and it would be funny if it wasn’t so frustrating for you.

There are only two letters you need to know in this situation. M and D.

We’ll contact the MD of this company and see if he or she can’t get some decent service organized. It should be as simple as ABC.