The joys of doing business with Harvey Norman's Electrical Department in Auburn, Sydney, NSW Australia complaints refund awful customer service

I like good customer service and when I don't get it, I am very dissapointed! So when I pay over the odds for an item, what I do expect is a product that works, good customer service and an answer to any complaint I may have. Unfortunatey Harvey Norman of Auburn, Sydney are wanting in most areas of common decency. The following are excerpts from a letter of complaint I sent to the management of Harvey Norman (26 February 2006) and have since had no reply. It's a fairly boring, but matter-of-fact account of my grieavance with the company*. But I suggest you read up if you're ever considering buying electricals from them.

* Harvey Norman stores are franchised. Harvey Norman Auburn is franchised to Aublect Pty Ltd:

Address:. 233-239 Parramatta Rd, Auburn, NSW, 2144.

Phone No.:. 029202 4888 Fax No: 029202 4640

With the arrival of our first child I decided to purchase a digital video camera to capture her first moments. Therefore on 26 November 2005 we bought a JVC (GRDX77AAM @ $725) from your Harvey Norman Electrical store in Auburn. We were extremely happy with the functionality of the camera until it stopped recording video. Every time we switched on the camera to start recording it would display a "Lens Cap" message in the viewer (despite the absence of the lens cap). Our research showed that this was a common problem with a range of JVC cameras and that JVC America had even admitted there were known problems with many of its cameras displaying this error.

As we did not wish to wait endless weeks for a repair of the camera, we returned to your Auburn store on 18 February and informed your salesman of our predicament. Bradley stated he had not come across this problem before with JVC, but after discussion with his manager said that that we very lucky that we were being offered an exchange. Unfortunately we were not able to choose the same model again as it had been discontinued. We specified that we wanted a camera that would operate very well under low-light conditions. Bradley recommended the Panasonic NVGS35 as this camera also included a light. Having purchased this camera ($999) we were therefore disappointed to discover in our research that evening that the biggest problem for this model was its inability to operate to a satisfactory level under low-light conditions.

We therefore returned the camera in its unopened box but were told that we were unable to receive a refund (as 'Harvey Norman do not issue refunds'). It is unfortunate that we were not offered a refund on our original defective JVC camera, which we had only returned the day before. We were now even more disappointed that we were now not even able to get a refund on this Panasonic camera which we had purchased on the advice of your staff. Again, we were informed that your store "does not do refunds".

Instead, we were told that we could pre-order a camera from the new Panasonic range (due out in early March). However, we had to make a decision there and then as to which model we wanted without being able to access any information on the models or to at least see one first. We were not even able to have a store voucher for us to return and spend at a later date Why? I see no reason why we were declined a store voucher as Harvey Norman would be guaranteed at least $1000 of our money if not more! We asked whether we could return the unopened Panasonic nvgs35 in a couple of weeks so that we could exchange it for one of the newer models. This was also declined.

Having given the whole situation a lot of thought, we simply felt pre-ordering a Panasonic was not an option as we could not bear to be without a camera for several weeks at such a crucial stage in my daughter's development. As a result, we felt that we had no choice but to purchase a basic model JVC camera as a stop-gap until the new Panasonic range appears in store.

We feel that Harvey Norman has unfairly treated us especially in light of the fact that by law we were entitled to a full refund for the faulty JVC model. Your staff were unhelpful and not in the slight bit consumer orientated. We are now out of pocket having had to purchase something that day and not being offered a store voucher to buy the Panasonic at a later date. It strikes me as common logic that had we been offered a full refund initially we would almost certainly have returned to Harvey Norman to purchase one of the new Panasonic range thereby spending more money.

Well, there's been no feedback from Harvey Norman or any satisfactory solution to the whole situation. Ideally we would have liked to return the JVC model (unused) and pay the extra cost for the new Panasonic model once it is in store. We will now most likely go elshewhere to purchase the latest model. Their loss ($1500).

In summary, our experience with this particular Harvey Norman store has been nothing but a dissapointment:

1) Their staff are unprofessional. Bradley later admitted that it depends on the customer as to whether he offers an exchange on defecive cameras. He also later admitted that he was aware that JVC cameras had this 'lens cap 'error.
2) Their staff do not appear to know their subject matter. Why were we advised to purchase the Panasonic camera when it is a well known fact that this particular model was not suited to operating in low-level light conditions?
3) It is a dissapointemnt that we were not offered a refund on either camera. The JVC was defective and the Panasonic was purchased on misadvice yet returned in its original unopened box. As we advised Bradley that we were specifically seeking a camare that would work well under lowlight conditions only to discover that the recommended camera was not not fit for the purpose for which it was supplied.

Should anyone from Harvey Norman wish to respond to this account, please feel free to do so here!

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