Panasonic Industrial Company ripoff, fail to honor warranty, terrible customer service, hard to reach Secaucus New Jersey

I purchased a 2-pack of 9V batteries from a drug or discount store, (don't remember where), and when I got around to opening the package, one of the batteries was just fine but the other one was damaged - the one top post was crushed. My battery tested indicated that the battery was no good. I looked on the back of the package and found the guarantee, which said:

"GUARANTEE: This battery is guaranteed to be free from defects in materials and workmanship."

I called the 800# listed on the package, 800-211-PANA, and got a message saying the estimated hold time was 17 minutes. I put my phone on speakerphone and did some other work while waiting for a live person. I went to the Panasonic website while I was on hold, thinking maybe I could send an e-mail to them and solve it that way. Wrong! To send an e-mail to customer service, you have to fill out a form, which keeps giving you sub-menus of product categories you have to pick from to describe the problem you are having. I did not find a category for 9V batteries; I did find a section for batteries, but then they listed cell phone & camcorder batteries, but not regular batteries. I tried leaving that selection blank and typed in an e-mail explaining the problem, but when I hit "submit," the form came back with my comments gone and an error message saying I needed to select a category. I tried using my browser button to go back and get the page with my text typed in, with no luck. In frustration, I decided to just stay on hold and see what their live customer service person would do.

I did get a live person after being on hold for about 13 minutes, but after explaining the whole situation, the person told me I needed to call a different 800 number - 800-332-5368. I called that number, and got a gentleman with a foreign accent that wanted the invoice number for the batteries and wanted to know if I had ordered them directly from them. I kept telling him these were just a 2-pack of batteries that I had bought at the store and I just wanted to send the bad battery back and get a new one, and he kept saying he needed the invoice number.

I could tell we were "failing to communicate," so I hung up and called back and spoke with a woman who told me that I would need to take the batteries back to the original point of purchase. Now, if I remembered where I had bought them from and had the receipt, I would have done that in the first place, but since I didn't, and since the package listed a guarantee and a phone number, I figured that I should be able to call them and explain the situation and have it resolved, like most companies with a decent customer service department would do. I guess I was gone.

My conclusion - don't buy any more consumer products from Panasonic, since they make it so hard to correct the situation when there is a problem.

Gabrielle
Mansfield, Ohio
U.S.A.