Adam bought a set of really nice Philips headphones, but they wouldn’t play nice with his Nintendo DS. He ended up sending them back to Philips for a refund. While it was good that they offered him a refund in the first place, what they had trouble doing was actually getting that refund to him in a timely fashion. Or ever.

This past summer, I bought a pair of Philips around-the-ear headphones (model no. SHL5905BK). Although they cost more than $100, I had heard many good things about the brand, so I bought them. Unfortunately, this pair had serious audio issues with my Nintendo DS (unique to the headphones, since pairs from other brands worked fine with the system), so I wanted to return them. But since the retail warranty had expired, I had to deal with Philips directly.

After a replacement pair had identical issues, as per Philips customer service’s instructions, returned my original pair in in late August and waited for my refund, which Philips said would arrive in roughly six business weeks. This was an annoyingly long time to wait for a refund, but I figured I could live with this wait.

October comes. And then October goes.

Still no refund.

In mid-November, I call Philips to figure out what has happened. According to the representative, they had sent out the check, but it was returned for some reason, and they claim that they called me to notify me of this (they did not; my telephone had no record of any such call). Rather than simply remail the check, though, they decide to cancel that one and mail me a different check. Estimated time to arrival: six weeks.

As you can imagine, this is getting very frustrating. So, I hope that Philips can get it right this time and wait for my check to arrive in early January. Sure enough, in early January, I get a call from a Philips representative. Unfortunately, Philips somehow left my apartment number off its envelope, so the representative tells me she will have a check sent out “right away.” Thinking that this time, things would be resolved quickly, I wait for my check. After two weeks, I call in to see if Philips has finally mailed the check. All the customer representative tells me is that my issue has been escalated to corporate, and that I should expect a check in (what a twist) six weeks.

The conversation was capped off with this gem (paraphrased):

Me: (after a brief recap of Philips’s miscues) Does this seem like acceptable customer service to you?
Rep: Yes, because I have given you the status of your case.

Philips Electronics, ladies and gentlemen! They consider it a success when they tell you what they are doing wrong while continuing to do the same things wrong.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.