DENVER — After months of reaching out to Samsung for a fix or refund for her elderly parents' broken TV, Rachel Vasquez reached out to Denver7 Investigates.
"I wrote it all down: 14 phone calls, 292 minutes," said Vasquez of her time spent. "I felt like I had failed because I couldn't resolve this simple issue."
Vasquez's father bought the television at Target on June 15. A few weeks later, he was hospitalized. Vasquez, who was caring for her mother with dementia, learned the new television's volume had been cutting in and out from the start.
The problem: Vasquez found out three days after Target's 30-day return window, so she had to go directly to Samsung. She said two technician visits, 14 calls and three months later, she was getting silence from Samsung and still had a broken TV. So, she put her parents' old TV in front of the new one and almost gave up.
Since the process started, both of her parents have passed away.
"[My mother] would say, 'How come I can't watch the big TV?' And it just makes me angry that all these months that she couldn't even watch her TV that my dad bought her," said Vasquez. "No one ever said, 'I'm going to try to help you to resolve this.' Everybody's like robots nowadays."
When Denver7 Investigates heard Vasquez's story, we reached out to Samsung.
A spokesperson's statement said in part, "We regret the frustration Ms. Vasquez and her family experienced and will continue to work alongside them until their concerns are addressed."
"All of a sudden, I had a phone call, and a refund is pending in my bank account," said Vasquez, who has a message for Samsung. "Do better. It's just not fair that companies can just throw you in a loop of 1-800 numbers and nothing gets resolved. I was gonna fight for my parents till the end. And you know, this company had to do the right thing."
A Samsung spokesman also promised the company would "carefully review this matter in an effort to constantly improve the customer experience."
