The End of the Road with Samsung

Well, folks, it's finally over.  I spoke to someone today at Samsung, and when I told her that I needed to be refunded the $30 of tax I paid on Nermal, she very much insisted that they never refund tax.  Charles what now?  How can you refuse to pay my tax, if my item is refunded, it's like I never purchased it.  I'm not just DONATING my $30 to you, Samsung.  You certainly don't deserve it.  We spent about 20 minutes on the phone, most of it, I was complaining.  Since she immediately told me they refused to refund my tax, I knew I had nothing to lose, and I WENT OFF on Samsung.  I went through my whole plan to write the Better Business Bureau, that I had the names and extensions of about 15 people in the Executive Customer Relations department alone, and they would ALL be named.  I told her how ridiculous it was that I was told something different each and every time I called.  I told her that I had someone last week go silent because they got sick of my questions, and that I've been hung up on more than once.  She was actually not a complete robot, and she was pretty shocked that I had been hung up on, and she gave me a legitimate apology, rather than the scripted "Yes, I understand your frustration, and I do apologize" which I have heard so many times, that I've begun quoting it along with the Samsung workers as they're saying it to me.  Really gets in their head, you know?  I told her that because I had been so completely disrespected and neglected as a customer that I would NEVER purchase anything by Samsung again, and I was making it known to everyone I encounter that they should also boycott them.  She was really nice, and she apologized for everything and said that she would give me a $25 gift card to either Best Buy or Lowe's to make up for it, and to hopefully encourage me to buy Samsung again.  Hah.  Well I appreciate the gesture, but I will probably use that giftcard to buy an iPad, so...you lose.  So I guess that's the end of the calls to Samsung.  I can't say I'll miss it.  I am, however, DREADING writing the letter to the Better Business Bureau because it's going to be like ten pages long.  But, hey, I got a gift card out of it!

My next phone call was to Amazon, which is where we got Nermal from.  Since I had no luck getting my taxes from Samsung, I figured Amazon was the way I had to do it.  A couple minutes into the conversation, the girl I was talking to informed me that they were not allowed to refund my tax, because I had dealt directly with the manufacturer   Cue my brain exploding.  I seriously went crazy on this girl.  I told her how things had progressed- we had issues with Nermal, called technical support, they couldn't help over the phone, they had us send it in to be serviced, it was defective, we got the refund.  Her response was that we should never have dealt directly with Samsung, but instead reported it defective to Amazon.  I again explained that we didn't know it was defective until Samsung  had it for over a week, and at that point we were already dealing with them and had no reason to involve Amazon.  She told me that Samsung should have insisted I contact Amazon, that they were wrong to let me deal with them, and that they aren't supposed to do business that way.  To which I replied that in all of my 50+ phone calls, never ONCE was it mentioned or suggested that I contact Amazon.  Never ever ever.  Now, I've known all along that Samsung is terrible, and they'd screw me, I just didn't realize how awful they were.  This girl put me on hold to talk to her supervisor, came back and again said that because I mailed the tablet back to Samsung and they issued me the check, Amazon could not give me the tax back.  This is where the fake crying came into play.  I pulled out all the stops, you guys.  I told her that I felt it was unfair that as a consumer, I was being punished because Samsung is inept and treats their customers horribly.  I complained that I had been going through this whole ordeal for over a month and that it was an awful experience and that Samsung would never agree to give me my tax back, that they had screwed me out of that money, in addition to treating me horribly.  She must have either been heartbroken or disgusted by my tears (I really don't care either way), so she put me on hold for awhile, only to come back and have me speak to her supervisor.  This guy was really nice, and basically just asked for all of my information with Samsung so they could handle it between the two companies, and told me that they would refund my money as a goodwill, since it had been such a difficult process.  Within a couple of hours, I got the email saying that they had processed the refund and credited our credit card.  You'll probably have to click on this gif, because for some reason it's not automatically playing, but I really and truly did this when I got the email:

Thanks, Amazon.  You're billion times easier to work with than Samsung, and I won't forget it.

When I went to Walmart today, I obviously had to hit up the discounted Halloween stuff.  I got several bags of candy 50% off.  In an attempt to practice self control, I hid two bags in a high cabinet above the refrigerator.  As predicted, I have already justified dragging a chair over to climb up and get the candy out of the cabinets.  After all, carrying that chair over, and then climbing up it will probably burn off those 7 Snickers bars. No? It won't?  Eh, oh well.  I really think I could build some sort of force field around the candy, and I'd still find myself reaching for it.  I'd probably tell myself something like "well by reaching for the candy and shocking myself, I'm really just building up and immunity to the shocks, which would come in handy if I ever get tasered."  Always thinkin.
Another thing I was VERY tempted to get from the Halloween clearance section was a sweatshirt that had a sassy black cat with a candy bowl that said "I'm the treat."  The 55 year old lady next to me seemed really into it, and for $3, it really was tough to turn down.  I think I might have to go back tomorrow to get it because I just can't stop thinking about how awesome it was.  If there's one thing I love, it's sassy cats with attitudes.  Guaranteed to get a laugh from me every time.  Like this, for example, that I sent to Dana yesterday.  I literally cannot stop thinking about it.

Something else I had to buy while I was at Walmart was a dog Darth Vader costume for $5.  I couldn't resist!  Unfortunately it was too big for Oscar, and when I tried to put it on Andy he just looked at me like "Are you kidding?  I just watched what you did to my brother.  If you think you're doing that to me, you're stupid."  Poor Oscie did not like the costume, ESPECIALLY the helmet that went with it, so I didn't make him wear it for the picture.  You really lose the details of the costume, like the little arms, because it's all black, but I loved it.

I'm really bummed that I have to return it, because I would love for my boys to be Star Wars characters next year.  I can't help it that Jacob and I are serious nerds, okay?  All I want is for Oscar to be Darth Vader and Andy to be Yoda, like this little guy:

Seriously, how awesome would that be?  Unfortunately Walmart didn't have the Yoda costume, but they did have Princess Leia, which might be equally hilarious for Andy.  It's something to consider when I go back tomorrow for that cat sweatshirt.