Another Customer Service Horror Story

From reading TWIT, you already know that I usually try not to name-drop too much, unless it's something cool I've bought or a product mentioned in our New Product Review feature.  But an unfortunate incident has occurred, and I feel that I must warn you, my faithful readers, lest you fall into the same trap that I did.  I urge you to think twice before you purchase a Memorex product that could possibly require you to call their customer service department. Don't do it. 

Last week, I purchased a very cool portable karaoke player by Memorex.  I had read a bit about this model online, and the price was right so I bought it.  Imagine my frustration when I attempted to play karaoke CDs in it this weekend, and none would play.  No problem, I thought; I would simply call Memorex on Monday morning and talk with their customer service people, and they should be able to help me.  I called at 9:00, and after being disconnected 8 times, I finally got through only to have a recording tell me that the customer service department didn't open up until 9:00 PST.  So at 12:00 noon EST,  I called back, only to once again be disconnected 7 more times.  On the 8th attempt I got through, only to be put in loop of the same recording over and over again, no matter what number I would punch. I tried again a few more times, this time changing my plan of attack by pressing 0 as soon as I heard the recordings start.  I was in luck - I actually got a live person.  It was only the receptionist, but after explaining to her that I'd called almost 20 times and kept getting disconnected, she offered to take my name and number and assured me she would have someone in the customer service department call me within an hour.  Well, if I'd stayed on the phone I'm sure she would have also told me the story about the tooth fairy, too; nobody had called me by the time I left work at 4:30, nor did they call me back today.   By the time I left work yesterday, I had decided that I would box the player back up and take it back to Target and get my money back; if it was this hard to get help with their product, then I wanted no part of it. I fooled with the player some more last night, and after experimenting with the 4th different CD/DVD burning software, I was able to make a CD that would play in the karaoke player.  So I guess I'll keep it after all.  But I will think twice before I purchase any Memorex electronic products in the future. Let the buyer beware.