Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

The story you are about to hear may sound too ridiculous to be true. Trust me, I wish it were not.

This morning I sought an end to the horrible chapter in my life that is Sunshine Electronics (ebay id sunshineelec). My plan was simple call in and speak to Danny Woods (this time I am posting his full name. I'll explain why later). He was the "manager" who promised to get my package to me. I wanted to know why he was dishonest with me but more than that I wanted my money back. I wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Oh, if only Sunshine (ironic name huh?) had made it that simple.

I called in promptly at 10:00 and got a rep who asked for my order number. I barely got the number and the name Danny (the manager) out of my mouth before I was abruptly put on hold...for 15 minutes. Once again, no exaggerations. I literally kept a log of the amount of time I was being placed on hold.

He eventually got back on the line and said"you only paid for this a few days ago".

So I proceeded to go through the whole story "Danny promised me it would be in my hands yesterday morning and..."

"OK hold on"- He abruptly put me on hold again. Another 15 mins goes by when I remember an email with Danny's extension. So I hang up and call Danny's extension directly.

A few rings later I hear a man, whom I can only assume is Danny or his clone, answer the line. But instead of Hello, how may I help you I was greeted by, "Who's this? What's your name?"


I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn't lost my mind. Was he screening his calls?? No...not even these guys would stoop that low. Ducking and dodging an irate and unsatisfied customer? Noooo, not in America!

Boy was I wrong.

"This is Curt...." Before I could say anything further...

Click...."Thank you for holding. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call..."

You've gotta be kidding me. Did he really just screen his call? Did he really hear my name and put me on hold in typical Sunshine (ironic) fashion?

I called Danny's extension back and wouldn't you know it; it went to voicemail. Caller ID huh? OK- I dialed *67 to block my caller ID and called back and guess what?

"Who's this? What's your name?"

"This is Curt again I...."

Click...."Thank you for holding. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call..."

Okay, now you've done it. You know that moment when David Banner starts to transform into the incredible Hulk? Well lets just say all I could see was green at that moment.

I continued to call back and get his voicemail. I decided to try customer service but got the put on hold routine from everyone I spoke to. This is getting personal.

I decided that since it seemed as though everyone in this company went to the Simon Cowell school of customer service, speaking to 20 diffrent people was going to get me nowhere. I decided that when I got the Voice menu I would just dial zero and get a receptionist.

I dialed zero and got what I assume was one of two receptionsits. I told her I was tired of being put on hold and that I wanted Danny right away. Naturally she put me on hold.

I immediately called back and dialed her again.

"Still waiting for Danny" and naturally she put me on hold again. This continued for about 20 minutes. I could feel her wearing down.

Eventually she gave in. "I'm putting you right through to Danny's Manager"

I got a live person right away. "Sir we are sorry for blah, blah blah...and we'll go ahead and refund your money. You'll see it in your paypal account in a few minutes."

Not falling for that one again! I insisted that he remain on the phone with me until I actually saw that refund show up in my account. He reluctantly agreed. For 10 mins we waited and checked untill he finally said "I'm gonna put you through to our refund department" and transferred me abruptly.

I got through to a woman (Esther) who said that she was with the refund department. She sounded annoyed as she said "Look, we'll send the refund through when we get you package back from the warehouse. But I'm not going to do it a moment before then."

There was no way I was going for that. I insisted that they send the refund through immediatly and that I would not...could not get off the phone untill they did.


Now brace yourself for this part...

She snapped at me and said "Well look, if you wanna be a baby about it go ahead but I'm hanging up this phone. And if you call back I'll just tell that person to put you on hold. You are acting like a baby right now and I'm not going to deal with this!"

Click....She hung up!

Seriously people....these are the words straight from Esther's mouth. I couldn't have made this up if I wanted to.


Long story short, I kept calling back until that same receptionist put me through to Danny's manager, who upon further discussion and investigation just happened to be Danny himself, and they finally decided to give me my refund right away.


And so ends my nightmare.

This was the worst customer service ordeal I have ever experienced. The folks at Sunshine (again that name is soooooo ironic) were blatantly rude, deceitful, and incompetent. I can just imagine them having meetings and training sessions on how best to undermine the customer.

And of course in the end they didn't have the capacity to make the situation right. I don't think they could get an order right from start to finish even if they wanted to. They just got tired of dealing with me and finally gave in.

"Enough of him. On to the next sucker."

My hope is that somehow this blog will keep others from making the mistakes I made. You can call it scarred straight for ebay.

Just know that there are plenty of choices on ebay. Choose wisely and please, whatever you do, DON'T SHOP SUNSHINE!