Panasonic forum: Customer Service told me to call the cops

After 6 weeks and 10s of hours with several parties on the phone, finally got a functional TV. In my last call with Panasonic customer service (877-95-VIERA), service rep told me to call the cops.

Orderd a 65-inch-plasma-tv P65ST30 from Adorama, it was delivered in 2 weeks; packaging and TV looked okay, so I accepted the delivery - stupid of me not turning it on till later that night - no picture and found found cracks inside the plasma panel.

Called Adorama and I was told me to contact Panasonic directly, as their terms and conditions say I should take internal damage with the manufacturer.

The next day I contacted Panasonic and opened a case, to complete my case I had to speak to several service reps 4 different times over the worst VOIP line I came across over the past few years. By the time the case was filled out with all required info, I was told someone will call me within a week.

4 days later got a call from some local delivery agency to pick up the broken TV, they came and picked it up but they were confused as to who initiated the pickup, when they left they said the TV was going to local warehouse first before going back to Panasonic.

Panasonic then called me in a couple of days, wanted to talk about the case, so I told them that I thought it was already arranged and picked up by Panasonic. Ended up spending 3 hours on the phone with them that day, my call was escalated from customer service => concierge desk => field service rep, at least that's what I was told over the phone, and each escalation comes with at least 20-minute-on-hold.

Then the last person I spoke to, said "sir, we have never heard of [name of local delivery agency], I suggest that, at this point, you CALL THE COPS". I took a few seconds to calm myself down and quickly went over the whole story again and demanded for a more reasonable service/answer. The guy immediately apologized and said someone will call me back the next day. I asked for a supervisor and he said supervisor already left (Friday 7:30PM at the time). I was mentally/physically exhausted from the call so I called it a day.

I found out the next morning that Adorama - who bounced me to the manufacturer at the beginning, actually made the pick-up arrangement - going against their harsh terms & conditions published on their site. And after a few calls over the next week, they agreed to send me a new one.

Finally got the TV yesterday and turned it on while it was delivered. TV has really good picture...sigh...

I called DiscoverCard as part of this ordeal, and they said I had 180 days to file the claim, luckily I did not have to go thru that as my last resort. I'm never buying TV / large appliances online again I guess, it's not worth the hassle; I still could not believe service rep from Panasonic would ask the customer to call the cops. They are supposed to call me back, but it's been 3 weeks now, they have never called me back.