My first question to you my friends, is how long is too long to wait for a customer service representative to answer the phone?
How long would you sit and listen to that corny music that is most likely way too loud and sounds horribly distorted?
Before I had children, I think after 10 minutes, maybe I would hang up and shoot out an e-mail to the manufacturer but when there are kids involved, you try to get faster service, so you call them. I mean you try telling your kids that you can't get someone from the company on the phone to tell them why their toy/game system isn't working.
Well I surprised myself on December 28th. The kids received 2 new games for Christmas for their V.Smile Motion™ Active Learning System and were really looking forward to play it. They loved it so much that I purchased an additional V.Smile Motion™ Wireless Controller, so they would be able to play together.
I have actually read a whole lot of negative reviews for this product but up until Dec 28th I had zero complaints. It is completely age appropriate and my kids were actually learning while they were "playing". They never had any of the controller woes that I had read about until Dec 28th.
I decided to surprise my son with his new V.Smile Motion: Cars game. My plan was to get it all ready while he was downstairs but once the cartridge was in and the game came on I couldn't select anything. The buttons worked but the joystick part of the controller did not respond on BOTH controllers. He was so disappointed. It was as though the controller was stuck on "motion" control, one of the fun features of the controller. I then visited the V-tech website to troubleshoot. I did everything that was suggested and still nothing and that is when the phone nightmare started.
I called and was put on hold...the music geesh. I waited and waited. I put my phone on speaker and actually got a few things done before it was finally transferred to a customer service representative. Once Amy said hello I checked the counter on my phone. It was over 30 minutes. I felt bad that I probably raised my voice at Amy. It wasn't her fault the thing wasn't working. She troubleshooted and nothing changed. After putting me on hold for several times during our conversation she came back with an apology and sort of a solution. Since the initial game system came with only 1 controller they would replace only one controller at no cost but I had to pay for shipping. I'm sorry but this was not satisfactory. Chris thought it was okay. I was about to give her my address when.....yes you guessed it, we got disconnected. Chris thought she hung up on me but whatever it was the phone was silent. My phone counter at the time was at 52 minutes 46 seconds
I may have uttered a few bad words as I kept looking at the phone. I couldn't believe it, so like an idiot I kept saying hello hello. Ugh I knew what I had to do but I was dreading it. Did I really want to sit 30+ minutes on hold AGAIN? Well for my kids I had to. So I called again but this time it only took about 20 minutes. Yeah big improvement. I stopped the lady before she got into her troubleshooting mode and explained to her very quickly what had just happened. She did see that I had called earlier. Well this time she took my address and told me it would arrive in 5 - 10 days via UPS.
I don't know if she took pity on me because I was disconnected after such a long hold time but they didn't charge me the $5 shipping. Total call time on the 2nd call 23 minutes 52 seconds. I know this is better than nothing but what am I to do with the other bum controller. It's from the same company although purchased separately. Why can't they replace that too!
Was this all worth my time? Over 1 hour on the phone and I still have to go out and purchase a second controller.
I tried explaining this to the representative but I guess she needed to stick to the script. It is very odd that both controllers have the exact same problem and I am beginning to wonder if those negative reviews about poor workmanship, a poorly designed system and quality control issues with the manufacturer are true.
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