Monday, March 29, 2004
Haier America
Haier America is the WORST company in the country. NEVER NEVER NEVER buy their products. There, I said it. Haier's actually a Hong Kong company, and I don't know whether they're the worst company in Hong Kong or not. But let's not split hairs. I'm venting.
I was hesitant to say anything for some time, because I thought perhaps they'd do a web search on their company, or my name, or my name plus their company, read this review and my criticism, and be even slower to help me, though I think the only way they could be being less helpful would be by coming by the house and slashing my tires or something. Also, I'm pretty sure that the people I'm dealing with don't know how to use their own phones, so probably using Google's a bit of a stretch for them.
Anyway, I bought a certain Haier appliance, a compact washer-dryer combo unit, which was very cool in theory as it did both washing and drying in one drum. It was slow, and low-capacity, but very easy to use and did a good job cleaning the clothes. And you didn't have to take stuff out of the washer and put it in the drier. It was all one unit. Cool. It's the XQG50-11 unit, which I include so people might find this article in a Google search if they're considering buying this product, and hopefully reconsider.
Except it wasn't cool, actually, because after four months or so it stopped drying. What has followed has been a year of call-center hell. After I don't know how many hours on the phone, three months after it stopped working, they finally just broke down and replaced the unit. After another few months, it did exactly the same thing. Their tech support center also did exactly the same thing, not returning calls, not telling me anything useful when I got them on the phone, and worst of all, not fixing the machine.
I am currently trying to convince them to just give me a refund. Actually, I should say that I am demanding it. That has appeared to increase my bargaining power. They said, as all corporations do, that they never ever give refunds. A tip for dealing with large corporations- they very frequently claim to never give refunds. This is always a lie. All companies give refunds, when faced with the possibility of losing a lawsuit.
The key to success with corporate call centers in general is to get the direct line to someone who cares about doing their job right (rare) or who has power in the organization, and bugging them until they fix your problem just to get you to go away. Relying on the random person who picks up the phone from the queue is spitting into the wind. Just dial into the general line and immediately ask for the name and direct extension of their supervisor. With enough insistence, they'll eventually give it to you.
NEVER NEVER NEVER buy Haier products. They look cool, and are creatively designed, but they don't work, and Haier won't do anything about it.
Update:
Haier has agreed to give me an 80% refund. Their logic is, I did get some use out of the machine, and am therefore not eligible to get all my money back.
It worked for three months before it died. So that's 20% of the expected use of the machine in their book? Therefore, they expect their machine to last 15 months before being worthless.
Don't deal with this company. They're crooks.
I was hesitant to say anything for some time, because I thought perhaps they'd do a web search on their company, or my name, or my name plus their company, read this review and my criticism, and be even slower to help me, though I think the only way they could be being less helpful would be by coming by the house and slashing my tires or something. Also, I'm pretty sure that the people I'm dealing with don't know how to use their own phones, so probably using Google's a bit of a stretch for them.
Anyway, I bought a certain Haier appliance, a compact washer-dryer combo unit, which was very cool in theory as it did both washing and drying in one drum. It was slow, and low-capacity, but very easy to use and did a good job cleaning the clothes. And you didn't have to take stuff out of the washer and put it in the drier. It was all one unit. Cool. It's the XQG50-11 unit, which I include so people might find this article in a Google search if they're considering buying this product, and hopefully reconsider.
Except it wasn't cool, actually, because after four months or so it stopped drying. What has followed has been a year of call-center hell. After I don't know how many hours on the phone, three months after it stopped working, they finally just broke down and replaced the unit. After another few months, it did exactly the same thing. Their tech support center also did exactly the same thing, not returning calls, not telling me anything useful when I got them on the phone, and worst of all, not fixing the machine.
I am currently trying to convince them to just give me a refund. Actually, I should say that I am demanding it. That has appeared to increase my bargaining power. They said, as all corporations do, that they never ever give refunds. A tip for dealing with large corporations- they very frequently claim to never give refunds. This is always a lie. All companies give refunds, when faced with the possibility of losing a lawsuit.
The key to success with corporate call centers in general is to get the direct line to someone who cares about doing their job right (rare) or who has power in the organization, and bugging them until they fix your problem just to get you to go away. Relying on the random person who picks up the phone from the queue is spitting into the wind. Just dial into the general line and immediately ask for the name and direct extension of their supervisor. With enough insistence, they'll eventually give it to you.
NEVER NEVER NEVER buy Haier products. They look cool, and are creatively designed, but they don't work, and Haier won't do anything about it.
Update:
Haier has agreed to give me an 80% refund. Their logic is, I did get some use out of the machine, and am therefore not eligible to get all my money back.
It worked for three months before it died. So that's 20% of the expected use of the machine in their book? Therefore, they expect their machine to last 15 months before being worthless.
Don't deal with this company. They're crooks.
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