I have made purchases from this establishment in the past and I have had no issues. Just recently, I experienced the biggest inconvenience I have ever had to handle. Possibly the worst part was that I had to handle the situation with almost complete independence.
I made a purchase of some sharper image lightshow water speakers at what I thought was a good discounted price, and it was the last of this item in stock. I am a big fan of any type of sound system, and I was very amused when I had heard of this lightshow speaker product, so as you can imagine, I went straight home to test these things out! As soon as I set up this simple plug-in-the-wall speaker system and began playing music, I right away noticed that only one of the water speakers was actually fountaining water. so I stopped the music and tried to plug in the speakers a different way, but nothing would work. I come to find out this speaker had almost no water in it, and as I investigated the other speaker, I noticed that the other speaker is leaking! Very frustrated at this point, I returned 2 days later on a Saturday, which is usually a busier day, hoping they have restocked replacements, with my second preference being money back.
In order for me to not make this a 5 paragraph essay, I will simply highlight the disappointments I had to experience. Upon arrival to make my return, I was informed there were no replacements at the time, and the only item they had on their inventory was a damaged item, BUT THE EMPLOYEE COULDN'T FIND THE DAMAGED ITEM ON INVENTORY. It is clear that the store had the damaged item on the selves, and sold it to me. Now I have worked in customer service for about 4 years before my current occupation, so I already have the mindset that I would not like to ruin this employee's day by exploding my rage on her about something she didn't do. So I simply requested my money back. I was then informed I could not have cash, only store credit because I opened the box. Are you kidding me? You sold me damaged merchandise. How else can I find out its damaged if I don't open it? At this point I'm becoming furious, but for some reason I didn't request further service, I allowed the employee to try to work with my by looking for something else I might like. I wanted nothing else, so I asked if I could order them online and have them shipped to my house because I live about 40 minutes away. She informed me that she can request a shipment, but only for inventory for the store, so I would have to come back a third time to repurchase them with my store credit. No, I'm not coming back. Well then she told me they can be shipped to a closer store at another mall about 20 minutes away. So I chose that option because I really would like to own these speakers. The catch to what seemed to be my final solution was that I had to CALL THE STORE MYSELF. After all this I have to request this action myself? Confining all my fury, I just took the number and left, called the closer store, and they happened to have it in stock. Wasting no time, I asked for the item to be put on hold, and went to the store to make my purchase. Before completing the transaction at the other F.Y.E. store, I asked the employee if, to the best of her and the store's knowledge, the speakers are not intact with no flaws, she replied, to the best of her knowledge, yes, they are not on the inventory as damaged. She then went on to say that if they are, I can just return them and she would GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK. I was shocked! I repeated her statement as a question just to make sure I heard her right! However, it was too good to be true. She told me this exactly: "Well, I actually don't know, that's something my manager does so I'm not sure." I just said "OK", made my purchase, and left before the leash I gave myself broke.
In conclusion, I am obviously not satisfied with the policies executed or the customer service I received. I will not be returning to any one of the F.Y.E. stores. read more