Radio Shack

I used to love Radio Shack - back many years ago when I was a kid. All the cool electronic stuff. But then they changed. It seemed that nothing you bought at Radio Shack worked very long. Then I also found that the people working at Radio Shack really didn't know much about electronics. I recently got some educational materials in the mail from NASA. One of the items was a small amplifier and speaker from Radio Shack. When I hooked it up - guess what - it didn't work. I managed to fix it, but geez, do we have to fix everything we buy now? Most people can't do that.

LG

LG is the great new force in electronics and appliance it seems. Bought an LG microwave 2 days ago. The plastic piece that turns the turntable does not stay connected to the motor shaft. It's too short. Went to the LG web site and did a chat with a "service tech" and of course he had no solution. I called Best Buy where I purchased the machine. The rep. who answered the phone said that he would see if they had anymore and "call you right back". Time went by and no call. So, I called back, and got the same guy. He apparently forgot to check. Now he says that he is not sure if they have any and to bring it in and we'll see. OK, now I have to drive 40 miles to see if they might have a replacement. Now that's service! NOT! Another example of something that should not have gone wrong in the first place, should be easy to fix and turns out to just be a big hassle for me. And why do these places go out of business?

Black and Decker

I've had a B&D cordless drill for years. It worked well until the battery charger died. I got a new B&D charger and it worked for about 1 month. I guess Black & Decker, another Chinese company, has given in to crap quality. Why can't we make ANYTHING in this country?

The demise of Datanet

I've used USA Datanet for years. I was very happy with the service and got others to sign up. Recently they did their customers a "favor" by selling out to SpotTalk. SpotTalk sucks. They took my access number out of service with no warning. I can no longer make long distance calls. I've always paid my bill and given them extra business. SpotTalk can not be reached by phone and the website is useless to solve this problem. I've emailed them with no results. They are able, however, to manage to send me a bill. Another one bites the dust.

No such thing as service

Why do companies put up with employees who don't do their job? Example, at Lowe's recently I went to the check out and the girl there was busy texting on her cell phone and couldn't stop while she checked me out. My opinion - YOU'RE FIRED!

Troybilt

Troybilt was a respectable company, I thought. I bought a snow thrower of this brand and during the first use it quit. Broken spark plug wire. It shouldn't have happened, but easy enough to fix, or at least it should have been. I tried to call customer service for Troybilt which is now MTD. Never got to talk to a person but the machine said to call one of the service centers that they listed. I called and they where no help. They said to call the place wher I bought it - Lowe's. The people at Lowe's were nice enough, but I was in the midst of a snow storm and they said I couldn't just get a part , but had to bring the thing back to them. No small deal that. I had to borrow a van and drive the 30 miles back. They did replace the machine, but what a hassel for something that should not have happened to start with.