let me show you three examples from my life, one ended, one in couse and one future
Nintendo Odissey
one of my Wiimotes breaks down and i send it for repairs under warranty; they misteriously lost a SIGNED package and refuse to give it back to me! I spent on the phone almost as twice as the value of a brand new Wiimote because I called Nintendo assistance almost 3 times a week for a WHOLE YEAR!!! They claimed that their lab never received anything and most likely i wasn't worth a repair... i ended up mailing the consumer defence association and the repair company directly begging for my poor wiimote...
in the end they sent it back without saying anything or being sorry
The missing bite
i sent my first gen aluminium iMac for a check up and for a silly problem they switched me to a more noisy second generation iMac... this is almost my fault but the funny part begins with the refund for the AppleCare on that iMac: since a couple of years in Europe you just need a (very long) single code to send money between banks and this has simplified things a lot! However, assistance wanted a further code (the SWIFT or BIC) that i didn't have, but actually i didn't want to give because there's no real need for it! What really set me angry is that they asked me for it only after three months after request for refund! Couldn't they tell me they needed it right away???
in the end i found the code, email them, but the person charge for handling my refund moved department, so i have to return to level 1 support (which mean more time waste to get what i want)
Click and run
i subscribed for a deagostini course and every month had to pay a given sum; after some time i didn't like the course any more and thought that by not paying they'd stop sending me useless stuff. That was very dumb of me, because i ended up in having to pay other three issues... I was even dumber in believing that paying all three in a single solution (instead of three single payments) would save me time, but it appears that they haven't found my money order in their records! So now i have to send the receipt by fax and hope for the best
Conclusion
well they're all very silly problems and nothing i should really worry about, but these events tend to rise your need of daily blood in general, as temptation to kill is maximum when you end the call. You can see how near to the solution but are forced to stay away from it for very stupid problems; and when you win your case, you always feel a bitter taste for all the time you've wasted!
PS
i'm posting here all the details i was able to gather about my nintendo case! I hope they might be useful if they someone gets in similar problems
servicetrade -- via palù, 36040 grumolo delle abbadesse (VI)PPS
fax: 0444 263520 / 0444 263540
tel: 0444 263511 / 0444 263544
mail: info@stitaly.it
person in charge: margaret / EMTS
links: http://www.stitaly.it/ http://www.emtscenter.it/azienda/contatti.asp?lingua=it
nintendo info: 199191199
nintendi service: 199309067
Have a nice summer :)
Vittorio
