Proconsumidor - trying to get a full credit for a faulty product

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
Late September last year I bought an expensive griddler. I'm stingy they say but my wife convinced me we should have again the same brand of the one my mother in law gave us when we moved back to DR and which wasn't working anymore, so that's the one I bought: rd$8500 pesos.

The second week our new cooking lady already broke a button and made scratches on the plates, and early November the thing stopped working. Brought it back to the store. They took it in, and we didn't hear a thing for several weeks. First week of December it's ready. My wife goes to pick it up, they try it in the store: still doesn't work (they fixed the knob but it's not warming). They take it in again, my wife irritated because with our family size a griddler comes in handy.

Nothing again for more than a month. Half of January my wife calls: no, not ready yet. A few days later they call, come and pick it up, it's ready. We go, when we arrive they tell us: well, we tried it now again and it's still not working (I suspect they actually didn't send it for repair the second time). My wife says she won't leave without a working griddler. The answer is that she'll have to stay the night over then. Long story 'short' she left without a griddler but with the promise that after the weekend the manager would be back and he would handle it and give us a credit note if he deemed correct. After the weekend the we went to the store and according to them they had it fixed, however we didn't want it anymore. We paid 8500 pesos for a machine sitting 2.5 months at a mechanic or in the store managers office and we demanded a new one. They said, no way. We don't have to do that. We told them we understand they don't want to do that but we'd file a claim at Proconsumidor and see what happens. Whatever they decide we would accept.

This week we had the audience. My wife wanted me to go, 'because they will listen better to a foreigner' I said it's the opposite, those kind of institutions don't want to deal with foreigners and instead of favoring us they will favor their fellow countrymen. We went both. Presented our case and the store theirs. Proconsumidor recently got a new boss and I had already heard the new wind that's blowing is much more on the side of the retailer and much less on the side of the consumer than before. The lady that listened to our cases didn't want me to talk, whatever I said wasn't true. She said for example that for the store to have to give a new one they would have had to send it for repair three times. I said, well that's what happened. She said , no, it was twice. I counted it out for her. Then she said: well, it needs to be registered. What the heck? That's not my responsibility, but the store's.

In the end we noticed we weren't getting anywhere so we were ready to take the machine. They had it with them, connected it, it warmed up well, but the lights that were supposed to lit up didn't. I said: well, it warms but the lights aren't turning on, how will we know if it's really on. The lady of Proconsumidor said: well, but what's your claim, that it doesn't warm or that the lights don't come on. I replied that our claim is that it doesn't work. Again obviously the lady was on the side of the store.

The only one realizing it was getting ridiculous was the lady responsible for these matters from the store. She said: well in view of all this and the fact that it has been so long already I'm going to proceed with asking a credit note for the full amount.

So, after all, we got our credit note but not thanks to Proconsumidor.

Having sandwiches for breakfast tomorrow...
 

notreallyconfused

New member
Feb 18, 2013
187
0
0
Late September last year I bought an expensive griddler. I'm stingy they say but my wife convinced me we should have again the same brand of the one my mother in law gave us when we moved back to DR and which wasn't working anymore, so that's the one I bought: rd$8500 pesos.

The second week our new cooking lady already broke a button and made scratches on the plates, and early November the thing stopped working. Brought it back to the store. They took it in, and we didn't hear a thing for several weeks. First week of December it's ready. My wife goes to pick it up, they try it in the store: still doesn't work (they fixed the knob but it's not warming). They take it in again, my wife irritated because with our family size a griddler comes in handy.

Nothing again for more than a month. Half of January my wife calls: no, not ready yet. A few days later they call, come and pick it up, it's ready. We go, when we arrive they tell us: well, we tried it now again and it's still not working (I suspect they actually didn't send it for repair the second time). My wife says she won't leave without a working griddler. The answer is that she'll have to stay the night over then. Long story 'short' she left without a griddler but with the promise that after the weekend the manager would be back and he would handle it and give us a credit note if he deemed correct. After the weekend the we went to the store and according to them they had it fixed, however we didn't want it anymore. We paid 8500 pesos for a machine sitting 2.5 months at a mechanic or in the store managers office and we demanded a new one. They said, no way. We don't have to do that. We told them we understand they don't want to do that but we'd file a claim at Proconsumidor and see what happens. Whatever they decide we would accept.

This week we had the audience. My wife wanted me to go, 'because they will listen better to a foreigner' I said it's the opposite, those kind of institutions don't want to deal with foreigners and instead of favoring us they will favor their fellow countrymen. We went both. Presented our case and the store theirs. Proconsumidor recently got a new boss and I had already heard the new wind that's blowing is much more on the side of the retailer and much less on the side of the consumer than before. The lady that listened to our cases didn't want me to talk, whatever I said wasn't true. She said for example that for the store to have to give a new one they would have had to send it for repair three times. I said, well that's what happened. She said , no, it was twice. I counted it out for her. Then she said: well, it needs to be registered. What the heck? That's not my responsibility, but the store's.

In the end we noticed we weren't getting anywhere so we were ready to take the machine. They had it with them, connected it, it warmed up well, but the lights that were supposed to lit up didn't. I said: well, it warms but the lights aren't turning on, how will we know if it's really on. The lady of Proconsumidor said: well, but what's your claim, that it doesn't warm or that the lights don't come on. I replied that our claim is that it doesn't work. Again obviously the lady was on the side of the store.

The only one realizing it was getting ridiculous was the lady responsible for these matters from the store. She said: well in view of all this and the fact that it has been so long already I'm going to proceed with asking a credit note for the full amount.

So, after all, we got our credit note but not thanks to Proconsumidor.

Having sandwiches for breakfast tomorrow...


Interesting... My mom works for Macy's, and she told me that people return things to Macy's sometimes after almost 2 years of owning their purchase. Recently a lady returned a one year old juicer that had been used a couple of times. She also told me about a lady who returned expensive China that was given to her as a wedding gift. Now that she's getting a divorce 2 years later she returned it... No receipt and Macy's took it back... That's the difference between 1st world and... Well..
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
I actually didn't think the store handled it that bad. Except for some lies to create a story ("we called several times but the client was on a trip". "On a trip?" , "well, we assumed you were because you weren't picking up your phone", nevertheless when we would call to ask for information it was never ready), but in fact they haven't been handling it that bad. We just didn't want to take the one that apparently wasn't easily fixable after 1 month use.

The way Proconsumidor 'handled' it surprised me though.
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
191
0
38
yahoomail.com
It "surprised" you???????????????

I SHOULDN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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