2-28-2024
Warners'Stellian Appliance Sucks Donkey Dick: Just a Personal Opinion
Believe it, or not, below is the very brief, condensed conclusion to my earlier post regarding my Warners'Stellian experience, dated 10-23-2023
The Good News: After I tried 5 times, by phone, to get the rebate company, the prepaid credit card issuing company, and Warners'Stellian Appliance to cease trying to rip me off, and to send my prepaid credit card for $1000.00; I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of California. ( Then I discovered that complaints are only seen by the company, so easily ignored). So, I filed a very negative Review with the Minnesota BBB, (which is seen by the public). Warners'Stellian simply ignored the BBB. Turns out that the BBB is a paper tiger, and a waste of consumer time.
So I contacted the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, jumped through a million hoops, as I had already done, twice, with the BBB, and a rep was assigned to my case. The rep contacted WS, and WS replied a first and last time, that they wanted more info. (Blah Blah Blah). So the Atty Gen Office tried for about three months to help, and finally notified me that WS was ignoring them. Turns out the Attny Gen has impressive headers on their mailings, but no power of enforcement, so is simply ignored. They do keep a record of your complaint, which is mighty nice of them. If hundreds of WS clients file complaints, they may possibly look into it. Another Paper Tiger with an impressive Letter Head.
So finally, I jumped through another million, or more hoops, ( The Courts, Conciliation Court included, have gone online for all documents, suits, exhibits, hearings…everything. This of course separates the common little old man, and anyone else, who is not a computer expert from almost any hope of even getting a hearing. If you do get to argue your case, you argue it through Zoom. You are detached from standing in a courtroom, before a judge,( no you don't get a Judge, you get someone else, who is a Referee, who somehow got appointed to pretend he/she is a judge. And you do have to say "Your Honor", and pretend the person is a judge. No confronting the defendant in person.) Convenience of the Court, and any attorney is paramount. Justice is not.
I did eventually file a suit in Conciliation Court. The summons to appear did get WS attention.
WS General Counsel ( WS attorney) called me, and we had a nice discussion. She must have contacted the rebate co., who contacted me.
The email the rebate co. sent, said "Congratulations your Virtual Prepaid Card is Just a click Away! Luckily I had already taken my blood pressure medication.
8 minutes later, I got another email saying Case Resolved! Then, I got a voice message. ( I would tell you that all of the people I spoke with, in all of my conversations with the other companies, were Latino, and spoke halting English as a second language, and were next to impossible to understand, but I would be designated Racist and Cancelled, so I am not going to mention that.)
Eventually they mailed the $1000.00 card to me. I spent it in 8 days, before they found some way to cut it off. My cupboards are full of coffee filters. So I got my promised rebate, and spent the money fast. Yay!!! That's the good news.
The bad news is that they still owed me the $77.00 court fee. The WS General Counsel refused to pay it. Her position was that I was suing the wrong company. Are you freaking kidding me? I was pissed(can you tell?), so I refused to ask the court to dismiss the case.
Instead, I spent a zillion hours ( Jeez, I remember that Superman Series, on TV…a hundred years ago….."Truth, Justice, and the American way". Yes. Yes. I know that those concepts are too, too, funny. I do try to entertain my readers.) I learned how to pretend that I was an attorney, learned how to submit 15 exhibits as evidence. I got a ton of help, on two different days, from two very knowledgeable, extremely helpful, librarians at the county law library, at the courthouse. I got my Zoom hearing. I used the law library computer, at the courthouse. Yes. The librarian set it up for me, and supplied headphones, when I could not hear. Having seen my image on Zoom, with headphones, I probably should have just struggled to hear the participants.
I presented part of my argument, via Zoom. The WS general counsel argued that WS was an innocent victim, that I should have sued the rebate co.
I attempted to explain to the judge that WS offered the rebates on their website, and that the salesman did the same, and that my contract was with WS not the rebate company. I read explicit evidence…blah, blah, blah.
The referee has many cases to get through, every day, before he can put his feet up and drink his coffee.
So he cut me off, and started telling me what a great job I had done. So, of course, I instantly knew that I would not be hearing that BS, unless I was screwed. He agreed with the General Council, that I should have sued the rebate co., and dismissed the case. Poof, coffee time.
How does one get to be a referee, I wonder? Does one actually have to attend a law school? Does one actually have to pass the Universal Bar Exam? Or does a referee get his credentials from a box of Cracker Jacks? Are all referee's dim bulbs, who volunteer for that job because they cannot find work as attorney's?
On my way home, it was a beautiful, sunny day, and 65 degrees. I realized two things.
First, I broke the KISS rule, the "keep it simple, stupid" rule. (I sometimes have been known to be rather long winded. Are you still reading?) If I had done that, maybe I could have dumbed it down enough, so the court could understand.
Second, in spite of reading a quote from the sheet of paper, the credit card was attached to, which said, and I do quote, "This reward is offered by your local business from whom you recently made a purchase"; I should have pointed out to this highly educated referee, the five basic necessities for a valid contract. Number three being, "An exchange of something of value between the parties." In this case, the money from me, and the 6 appliances, and three rebates from WS. I learned those five requirements when I took a Contract Law Class, from a very talented attorney, many years ago, in college. I got an A. I can prove it. I have my college transcript stashed somewhere. I gave nothing of value to the rebate co., so I had no contract with them. Maybe if I would have been able to think faster, and added that no contract, to my first Zoom experience, before it was time for the referee's coffee break, I would have won. No. I have always been a slow thinker.
I have considered filing an appeal, but I don't know if one can appeal a decision of a referee, who does not know the law, in Conciliation Court. (No you can not Appeal, I asked. So you got lucky and will not hear any more sour grapes about Conciliation Court)
In conclusion, I got $923.00 of the money they owed me. I spent the other $77.00, finally getting the attention of WS through a summons. If you are getting screwed, do not waste time going to the BBB, nor the Minnesota Attorney Generals Office. And understand that if you win, and get a judgement, in your favor, in court, that the court does not make them pay.
So, as we all know, this country is in a state of decline. Justice? You're kidding right? Speed, Convenience…Zoom!
One last repeated opinion, which is not fact, and certainly not advice on where to shop,(Is my butt covered?) but simply my opinion, based on my one, 6 month nightmare experience of being a customer of WS:
Warners'Stellian Appliance Sucks Donkey Dick!
So it goes……
