Joe has followed our posts about Westinghouse Digital TVs with interest. When his 46″ set broke after only eight months, he used consumer ninja methods to get a refund, and went nuclear on the company. He wanted to warn other consumers not to do business with the company.

“[I] perhaps have some responsibility for their Facebook page going away,” he writes. Yes, that is the problem with a social media platform that lets customers post directly on a company’s page, which Joe did. A lot.

He writes:

I am one of those that had a horrible experience with a Westinghouse TV and finally got a refund.

We bought a 46″ at Sam’s Club, and after 8 months it would not turn on. After shipping it back and finding it to be unrepairable we requested a refund rather than their offer of two smaller replacements.

Thanks mostly to my constant contact with the Better Business Bureau, and the Westinghouse parent company that licenses W.D., the BBB added disclaimers about W.D being a licensee and then gave them a rating of “f” which remains today.

I did use the “Ninja” method to get my refund, and perhaps have some responsibility for their Facebook page going away. That happened a few days after I got my refund check. I was posting on it 3 times a day, plus sending them Facebook messages 3 times a day. I also sent e-mails to the organizers of the [Consumer Electronics Show] in Las Vegas where they were exhibiting, and to several of their competitors at [CES], and wrote to Target, Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart and Best Buy suggesting that they stop selling the Westinghouse TVs. None of that seemed to help, as they are still all stocking them.

I am a moderator on the facebook page “We Hate Westinghouse” which has lost activity since their facebook page went away, as we were referring a lot of people from it. I posted your site there so maybe others will contact you. One recent post their claims that Westinghouse is no longer issuing refunds for defective TVs, only refurbished exchanges with a 90 day warranty.

By the way, when my refund came my first name was spelled wrong, luckily my bank cashed it anyway.

We do recommend using social media to get what you want, but do not recommend harassing a company into submission so that they yank down their Facebook page and prevent everyone else from contacting them that way, too.

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