Broken gadget - What should I do?

[rhinosaur]

Recently, while on vacation, I purchased a brand new Adidas miCoach Pacer. This is a device for running that tracks your heart rate, stride rate, measures how far you've run, etc., kind of like the Nike+ system. It retails for about $150.

A week after I got the device home, one of the buttons broke on it. The button won't retract, and you can hear something rattling around inside. You use this button every time you use the device, so my device is now nearly useless.

I called the miCoach customer support division, who told me to find a store in the area that carries the device, and exchange it. They sent me a link to their online store finder, which contained remarkably bad information. I got numerous "this number is no longer in service" messages, specialty stores telling me they hadn't carried any adidas products in years, big-box stores that didn't even have shoe departments, etc. You can imagine how frustrating this was. None of them carried the product I needed to exchange, and customer support apparently didn't have any more information than me.

I called back, and they told me to contact the original store where I bought it, on the other side of the USA. They open in a few hours, and I will call then.

What do you think should I do?
- Try to mail the device back to the store on the other side of the country, and ask them to mail me a new one.
- Try to fix the device myself, and void the warranty.
- Crush the damn thing under my car.
- Tell the specialty running stores in the area about my experience, convincing them to not carry this product, thus hurting adidas.
- Try to convince the specialty running stores to carry this product, so I can exchange it (but thus benefiting adidas).

 

[Jae Rae]

Contact the original store and let them deal with Adidas. In the meantime, get your money back. If you put it on a credit card you can even dispute the charge, as the damn thing broke after only a week.

 

[rhinosaur]

If you put it on a credit card you can even dispute the charge, as the damn thing broke after only a week.

Do I do that through the credit card company?


The bad customer service is really what ticked me off. They told me I need to find a store in the area that carries this brand new device (released to the public just earlier this month), and then give me basically an outdated list of all the stores in the area that USED to carry any kind of adidas product. Their advice was literally to go through the list and call all the stores. You'd think they would have more information about what products are going where.

I also asked, "What about the people who buy the device online, through the Adidas marketplace?" The CSR said that they, too, would have to find a local store that carries it... except there aren't any!

 

[Jae Rae]

Yes. If you continue to get a run-around from Adidas or the original store, you can contact your CC company and dispute the charge.

 

[rhinosaur]

I spoke to a manager at the original store where I purchased it. She is going to mail me a label so that I can ship it, free of charge, back to that store, and then they'll mail me a new one.

That's all I really wanted. Perhaps I should have called her sooner!

 

[Jae Rae]

Fantastic! Glad it worked out.