ULOGS: My Nasty Experience With An Electronics Merchant

There is a popular saying that customers are always right. Well, maybe not always. Tell that to an illiterate who fortunately has some power, and perhaps is a well known business person. S(he) may give you little or no regard, because s(he) knows that there are several other customers to patronize him/her if you decide not to. So, here is my nasty experience with a woman, who is a major electronics merchant in my city.

In January this year, I decided to get an LED TV for my living room. I located this merchant, who has a poorly organized warehouse, but customers throng the place always, claiming that she sells original products. I bought the TV, and after setting it up, my living room took a new amazing look, and I was proud of myself. Everything looked perfect - the display, the sound, integration with other devices... It is a 40-inch smart TV.

I'm sorry, my phone camera can't do justice to this

Exactly one month after buying this beautiful device, the visual display just went off while watching a programme one evening. My heart skipped maybe two beats. The audio was working, but no visuals. Two days later, I returned it for fixing under the warranty agreement. That's where the trouble started. This was on February 20.

I was told that the company would pick up the device, fix it and I would be called whenever it was fixed. It was a much longer wait than I was told, but about three weeks later, I got a call from the service center informing me that the TV had been fixed, and was ready for pick up. I told them that they would have to deliver it to the merchant, and I would get it back from there. This call kept coming almost every two days, as the merchant did not pick it up. The calls I made through to her also did not change anything.

The Corona virus outbreak later spread to Nigeria, and major cities were locked down, including my city, grounding businesses. Oh! How I missed my beautiful TV. The lock down was recently eased and I got the call again from the service center, but since I knew how this would go again, I decided to give the service center agent the contact of my merchant so that they both could agree on how the product would be picked up. Gladly, this was worked out!

On Wednesday 13th May, I was ready to pick up my TV, and as usual, I got to the store and met over a dozen people, each trying to buy something. I presented my case to some of the assistants, but my words fell on deaf ears. One of them later directed me to the store owner, who was almost chocked with people trying to negotiate prices of products, so as to make a good bargain, which they might not get from the assistants. It was not a good time to ask that busy woman, but I was not there to sleep. This pick up is not supposed to take more that 2 minutes.

I walked up to her when I saw that the people around her had significantly reduced, and told her what I was there for. After hesitating a couple of times, she told me to come back two days later. I could not take it, so I pressed even further. She then responded that "she could not leave customers who were there to pay her money, and respond to me." I was stunned and embarrassed.

I thought to myself I bought this stuff here, so why would I be treated so despicably? She also responded with some abusive words (like "learned people act like fools"). When I saw that she was creating an unnecessary scene, I decided to step aside, but wait until she was ready to attend to me. Whatever the case was, I was determined to leave that place with my TV, never to patronize them again!

After waiting for several minutes, and she saw that I would not exchange words with her, she directed an assistant to attend to me. It did not take more than 3 minutes to fetch my TV and get it tested. I left the place shaking my head.