The Big Screen TV Shell Scam

This is the mystery of the missing RCA Big Screen TV that a Los Angeles customer bought and then had to take in for repairs only five weeks later.� At first the repair facility told Marian Carter that they were waiting on a part to fix her new 48-inch big screen TV. That was in January of 2004, She bought the TV in November of 2003.� She called them in February, March, April, and May of 2004 and she got the same excuse.� Then Marian called me for help.

� I started a consumer search to see why six months after Ms. Carter� bought the TV,� she still did not have the big screen TV.� She had paid cash it at Deardens' Dept. in November of 2003.� The manager at Deardens sent me to the RCA Regional Representative, Reggie Bland.� To my total surprise he said RCA's official independent service and repair facility said they had never picked up her big screen TV.� They said it must still be at her home.� I contacted Marian and she faxed me the official paperwork with signatures showing they had indeed picked up the big screen TV for repair.� So where is the TV?� Mr. Bland said he didn't know!� A big screen TV is hard to lose.
I demanded that they come up with her big screen TV or immediately return all her money.�� Mr. Bland said they would give her a new and better big screen TV to replace the missing one. He said it would be a 52-inch TV bigger than her 48-inch TV.

RCA delivered her a big screen TV in June of 2004, almost seven months after she sent it in for repair.�� Marian called me and said the big screen TV looked just like the one she sent back for repair, but it has a different serial number sticker on the back.

She said it worked, so we dropped the matter.� But within about two months the TV broke down just like the other set she had. This, so-called, new and better set had the same problem that her first TV had when they picked it up for repair.� Marian thinks they simply gave her back the first TV she sent in for repair and kept the new TV that RCA was sending out to her. She tried to call Mr. Bland and left messages for him but she said he never called her back.�� It had now been 13 months after she paid cash for this big screen TV and she still did not have a working TV.

I contacted Mr. Bland again and demanded that she get a NEW working big screen TV that she paid cash for 13-months ago.� I asked him where her original TV was?� He said he did not know and it was not his job to find out.� I told him that Marian thinks the TV they delivered to her after my demands was not a new model like he had promised but was her old set with a new serial number stuck on the back.� If that was true then who got the new 52-inch TV that Marian was supposed to get to replace the new TV that became missing at the repair facility.�� He says he never saw the new one or the old one, his workers say they delivered a new 52-inch TV to her. But this is the same facility that said they didn't pickup her first new TV but the workers signed for it.�� If that is true then where is the old TV.� I want to see it and the official paperwork on both the new one and the old set.� I want to see what TV belongs to the serial number stuck on the back of the so-call new set delivered to Marian.��

Marian thinks whoever took her first big screen TV from the repair facility just returned it to her and took the new TV that RCA was sending her.�

The fact is there is a missing big screen TV.� I contacted the Public Relations Dept. of RCA and demanded some answers.�� I told them the consumer has been waiting 13 months after she paid cash for the TV and she deserves a new big screen TV.�

Someone has that new big screen TV and it appears some folks are covering up what really happen inside the repair facility.� The Public Relations Dept. of RCA in Indiana told me they are going to investigate what is going on and why she can't get a working TV.

This is like a Shell Game with RCA Big Screen TVs.� Marian Carter is a hard working nurse and I am going to get her some straight answers.

After my conversation with the RCA Public Relations Official, Ms. Carter received a new and bigger large screen TV.�� This time RCA used a different facility to deliver the TV.�

The question that is left unanswered is what happened to that first NEW big screen TV she sent in for repair.� The repair pickup people signed for it and then later said they never picked it up.

Apparently RCA does not want to open this can of worms.�

Filed January 2005.