Customer Service? Wholesale Suppliers

[Lynn Sine <sine@LLWCNY.LL.PBS.ORG>]

Fellow netters - I would love your response to my recent experience with a
vendor: Wholesale Educational & Church Suppliers Co.  East Haven, CT
     A year ago we purchased 6 cassette recorders/players from this company.
They were a Centennial brand and were originally selling for around $70 but
were on sale at the time we purchased them for around $50.  We placed these
machines in our second grade classrooms.  Within the year, we have had to
make 5 returns for repair.  These machines were advertised as HEAVY DUTY,
and yet the children were able to push the headphone jack INTO the recorder
on 2 occasions.  The play button stopped working on two occasions, and one
of the recorders began eating tapes.  We expressed our frustration several
times in writing that we felt HEAVY DUTY was misleading and false
advertising.  Instead of offering to represent our complaints to the
manufacturer, we received responses to the effect that we should not expect
these machines to withstand "hard institutional use."  When we asked if we
could get these players replaced with a different manufacturer's brand, we
received a letter from the president stating that "We have always been
impressed by the idle destructiveness of students, to say nothing of the
determined vandalism."  This is NOT the case in our district, and I feel
somewhat insulted by this kind of response.  Has anyone else had similar
experiences... or would you care to comment on this type of "Customer
Service"???   Thanks for any input you might care to offer.
Lynn
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Ms. Lynn Sine, Librarian, Walberta Park School (K-2), Syracuse, NY 13219
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