Ron Nolan
Nolan Real Estate Services
800 West 47th Street, Suite 300
Kansas City, Mo 64112

March 20, 2007

Dear Mr. Nolan,

In early January I began my search for an apartment in Austin, Texas.  In mid January my friend and I stopped in to Chez Moi and gathered some brochures on the apartment layouts. We liked the attached garages so on January 18th we returned and fell in love with a 1-bedroom unit with wood flooring shown to us by a woman named, Pam. We went back to the main office and Pam looked up the availability of the apartment, gave me a copy of the floor layout and wrote down the apartment number as 416.  She informed us that the apartment would be available on March 17th. We thought that was a long time for an apartment to be vacant but when we questioned Pam she told us that the apartment needed work and that they would be replacing the linoleum. As the time frame fit in well with my schedule, I accepted this and thought nothing further of it.

As this is my first apartment I wanted to be absolutely sure of my decision before I signed any paperwork. I was also concerned about losing the apartment so I called Pam the next day and asked if she could hold it for me over the weekend.  She said she was unable to hold it but I called on Monday and Pam said it was still available so I let her know that I definitely wanted the apartment. I reminded her that I wanted the apartment with the hardwood floors that she had shown me.  I came in shortly after that and gave Pam my deposit. She requested a few more things, such as a copy of my pay statement, which I gathered over the next week or so. On January 23rd I gave Pam my deposit.

I was excited about moving into my new apartment and happy with my choice.

Fast forward to March 17th, my move-in date. My father had come to town and he, along with my brother and my friend were assisting me with my move. I stopped into the office that morning, paid the remaining rent and picked up my keys and garage door opener.  I then returned to my previous home to get the truck.

When we returned to the complex with the truck, it was immediately apparent that we had the wrong apartment. The wrong garage door opened, there were no hardwood floors and the front door was in the wrong location! I went around the corner and discovered that the correct number for the apartment I’d chosen was 414, not 416, as Pam had mistakenly written down. Not being familiar with the apartments, I had not realized her mistake.

I went to the office and spoke to Pam about the situation. She said, “Do you want your money back and we’ll tear up the lease”?  I looked at her dumbfounded.

I had a truck sitting out front, with all my worldly possessions. I had utilities scheduled to be turned on and a new washer and dryer scheduled for delivery, and the best she could do was to offer my money back? Obviously that was not going to be an option.  She then denied that Chez Moi has any apartments with wood floors. We reminded her how surprised she’d been about the hardwood floors at the time she showed it to us. She then asked us if we were sure it we’d viewed an apartment at Chez Moi. We insisted that she’d shown us 414 and she came back with, “I couldn’t possibly have shown you apartment 414 because the current residents moved in on January 25th” and she claimed that we hadn’t visited Chez Moi until February 8th. I knew that could not be correct so I asked Pam if she had a copy of my visitor card. She showed it to me and I indicated that I had not filled out that card and she said, “No, we fill them out here” which made me wonder how it came to be dated February 8th.  Still puzzling over the date, I went out to my car and found my copy of the layout that Pam had provided on our initial visit. The date on that paper confirmed that we had viewed the apartment on January 18th, not February 8th. My application and my check, both dated January 23rd corroborates my story.

Pam reiterated that Chez Moi has no apartments with hardwood floors and that if we saw something like that it must have been vinyl.  I know the difference. Another coworker wandered through the office and Pam asked her if she knew of any apartments in the complex with hardwood floors and the woman promptly said, “414”.  Pam even went through the process of calling the tenants in 414 to ask them if they had hardwood floors but they were not home at the time.

Pam went on to inform us that if 414 had been empty she would not have given me a move-in date of 3/17 because they are “not allowed” to let an apartment remain uninhabited for more than 12 days. I reminded her that we’d questioned the date and what she’d told us. In fact, Pam could not possibly have shown us 416 on Jan 18th when we were there, nor could she have shown it to us on Feb 8th as her visitor card claims, because according to the "12 day rule" that particular apartment would not yet have been vacant.  Either that, or 416 was vacant when we were there, rented for less than two months, then suddenly vacant again, all with knowledge beforehand.

At that time I informed her that I felt that this situation was a colossal mistake and that if I was going to take the apartment mistakenly assigned to me then I should receive some compensation for the mistake and for my having to settle for an apartment I did not choose. I presented two options; one, they could pull up the carpet and install the hardwood floors I should have received, or two; I would receive a full month rent-free.

Pam informed me that she did not have the authority to approve either option. I asked who did have that authority and she said her boss, “Frank Miller”,  but that he was out of town. I  asked if he carried a cell phone but she stated that he was in Houston and “didn’t want to disturb him”.   I told her I felt that she should disturb him. She left the room and called Mr. Miller who she stated told her that he didn’t have the authority to make that decision and that he’d have to speak to corporate.  

At that time I asked for the number to the corporate office and Pam informed me that she was not “allowed” to give out that information. I asked for the CEO’s name and again she refused stating she was not “allowed” to give out that information and that it was “against company policy”.

At that time I planned to contact the corporate office for resolution but after calming down and discussing it over the weekend, I decided that in order to be fair, I would give Pam an opportunity to make things right.

As I was working on Monday, I had my friend call Pam and let her know that we wanted to give her an opportunity to set things right. Pam stated that she would have Frank Miller call me when he returned from lunch at 1:30-2:00pm.  I waited until after 4pm and then called the office. I got no answer. We eventually got Pam who once again said she'd have Frank call.  Frank never did call me on Monday. Josh called me instead. I explained the situation to Josh who mentioned that he and Pam had discussed the hardwood flooring in 414 just a couple of weeks ago. Interesting, since she had denied knowing that Chez Moi had any hardwood floors.

Josh informed me that Chez Moi would be unable to do anything about the situation. I let him know that was unacceptable and he said he’d go get Frank. He was unable to find Frank and said he’d have Frank call me right back. As I previously stated, Frank never returned my call on Monday.

Around 1pm yesterday (3/20/07) Pam was called and informed that Frank had still not called me.  She stated that he was busy with corporate officials in town to view the apartments. Frank eventually called me at 2pm. Once again I explained the situation and Frank stated that he would need to speak to his superior who would be in town tomorrow (3/21/07).

It is now late afternoon on Wednesday (3/21/07) and I am tired of trying to work with people who refuse to be proactive about this situation.

 I have given the staff at Chez Moi every opportunity to resolve this situation. At this point I am very frustrated at the lack of customer service, the lack of integrity and honesty, the lack of apology and the lack of willingness to work with me to resolve this situation.

The office staff at Chez Moi has severely damaged my opinion of your company. I am both frustrated and angry about my treatment.

I now leave the matter in your hands. The options, as I stated earlier are to either replace the carpet in my apartment with hardwood floors or to compensate me with one months free rent. I believe that is the least that Chez Moi can do for putting me through this stressful situation, for embarrassing me in front of my family and for putting me into a position where I was forced to accept an apartment which was not what I had been promised. This feels very much like a bait and switch operation.

I was told that things might be different if I had something in writing. While that would be nice, we’ve already proven that Pam was “mistaken” about Chez Moi having hardwood floors and she was “mistaken” about the date we viewed Apt. 414. She was “mistaken” in saying that 414 was occupied on the date we visited. I am willing to accept that this was probably an honest mistake due to working in a construction zone, but I would like to see Chez Moi step up and take some responsibility and compensate me for this putting me in this situation.

You have an opportunity to correct the awful impression that Chez Moi staff has given me. I hope very much that you’ll take that opportunity.  


Thank you for your consideration,



Adam B...

Cc:    Frank Miller
    Better Business Bureau, Austin
    Better Business Bureau, Missouri
    Austin Tenant's Council
    Texas Apartment Association

Two days ago I received a phonecall from Veronica Pratt, Presidential Liaison for Philips Consumer Electronics.

I discussed the issues with Ms Pratt and she told me that she would call SOS Electronics and provided they confirmed that I had taken the TV in prior to the expiration of my warranty for the same issues, she'd authorize them to fix it against our warranty.

She called me back today to confirm that she'd spoken with SOS Electronics and that they (Philips) would indeed pay for my repairs. She will follow up with a letter of authorization to SOS.

*does a happy dance* I win!

From: paul.zeven@philips.com
Sent: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: Customer Complaint


Dear Ms Myers,

I think there may have been a communication mistake from my side between me and our team; I have re-directed the mails and you should be contacted shortly.

Sincerely,

Paul Zeven
CEO
Philips North America Region
1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Tel: (212)536-0526

Dear Mr Zeven,

It has now been 5 business days since I received your email and I have yet to hear from your Consumer Service Manager or anyone from his staff in the Presidential Escalation group.

It has been exactly 1 month since I first submitted an email enquiry to your website. I have yet to receive a response to that email, either.

I would appreciate it if you could help set my expectations by giving me a timeline in which I should expect a response.

Thank you again for your assistance and I apologize for continuing to bring you into this matter but unfortunately you're the only one responding.

Sincerely,

I recently sent the following email to Philips Electronics:

To: Rudy.Provoost@philips.com; paul.zeven@philps.com; Gerard.Kleisterlee@philips.com
Sent: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 10:09 AM
Subject: Customer Complaint

To whom it may concern,

In May of 2005, I purchased a Philps Magnavox 42" Plasma television, (information deleted).

About a month before the warranty expired the television stopped responding to the remote when we attempted to turn it off. The buttons on the console did not respond nor did the menu. Eventually we had to unplug the unit in order to shut it off. After doing this, the unit would not turn on, even when plugging it back in while pressing the power button on the unit. If we let it sit for a couple of days it would eventually begin working again, but only for a while.

At that point we opened a service ticket. They tried having us reset the system by making sure the set had been unplugged for a minute or so, then plugging it back in while simultaneously holding in the power button on the unit. This is supposed to "reset" the unit. This also did not work. Your helpdesk recommended that we take it in to a local authorized repair place.

5/1/06
SOS Electronics
(details deleted)

When we took the unit in to be serviced, the unit seemed to be working fine and the repair company could not get the unit to replicate the problem.

After getting the unit back home, it worked for a while, then a couple weeks or so passed and it again began experiencing problems again. Sometimes we have been able to get the unit to work again by either letting it sit unplugged for a time or by plugging the unit in while holding the power button in, as suggested previously.

The problems began getting worse and occurring with more frequency. Eventually it just shut off and wouldn't come back on again.

Summary:

We took the television back to SOS Electronics and this time they were able to replicate the problem and have now determined that the imageboard is faulty and needs to be replaced at a cost of $727.00. The repair shop logged our complaints when we first took the television in and can attest to the fact that we brought it in for the same complaints we now have and that need attention.

I called your customer service number on Sept. 11th, but was told there was nothing you could do to help me and that we are basically on our own now.

Later that day I submitted an email to your customer service through your website. The site indicates that I should have received a reply within 4 business days. It is now Oct 2nd and I have yet to receive a reply to that message or the follow-up letter I sent 5 or six business days later.

In light of the obvious communications problems with your company, I am writing to you directly in the hope of resolving these issues. If you are not the appropriate person to deal with these issues, I'd appreciate it if you could point me in the correct direction.

I feel that this work should be covered under our previous warranty as we did take it in and report the problems prior to the expiration of our warranty as SOS Electronics will confirm. We paid a lot of money for this television and we should certainly get more than one years use out of it. We are highly frustrated with the television and it is now in your hands to make our experience a good one by assisting us with this problem or to lose us as customers for life, along with our friends and family and the 300+ people who read my blog daily.

Thank you,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few day later I received this response:

-----Original Message-----
From: paul.zeven@philips.com
Cc: gerard.j.kleisterlee@philips.com; rudy.provoost@philips.com
Sent: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: Customer Complaint


Dear ............,

I acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated 2 October.

I regret that the 42 inch Plasma TV that you bought did not function properly and that the service centre did not give a solution that was satisfactory.

I am copying our Consumer Service Manager and he or one of his staff from the Presidential Escalations group will be in touch with you in the coming one or two days to inform you how we will proceed.

Sincerely,

Paul Zeven
CEO
Philips North America Region
1251 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Tel: (212)536-0526