Intex HORRIBLE Customer Service Experience!

It's moments like this that I am grateful I have a blog. If you are shopping for an inflatable mattress, or need anything that INTEX makes, I highly recommend you read this before you do.

12/10/15, I purchased a queen sized airbed from Aldi. It was a special they were running, perfect before the holidays, especially with guests coming in from out of town. It served it's purpose well, until today.. well, last night.

I've been sick with a middle ear infection, so I didn't want to sleep with my husband and get him sick, too. So, this week I've been sleeping on the airbed, and nobody else is sick. # score !

Last night, while I was sleeping, I heard a muffled thump..and all of a sudden, the one seam rose, and this humongous bump formed on the top of the bed! It was apparent that one of the plastic chambers had detached internally from the top "plush" layer of plastic. It scared the hell out of me while it was happening, and I made a mental note to call Intex in the morning. This morning, another one lifted! Nobody was even on the bed at the time, and again, it scared the crap out of us all!  So, I grabbed the box, because we did the responsible thing by keeping the bag in the box, in the bottom of the closet, because on the box it says a 1 year warranty.. it's not even been 90 days.

I call Intex, with a photocopy of my receipt, the box, the bag, and a picture of the knob (for model number purposes, on the box it looked like I might need that), and call INTEX.

After holding for a little while, I got hung up on, while being connected to the next available representative. Fun. So I call back. I am placed on the automatic hold, endure the normal waiting music, and get a representative on the phone.

I explain what happened, and told her that I have the Airbed, the receipt, the bag, and the box.. and she asks if I have the included warranty card. Warranty card? Nope. I don't know if anything was even in the box.. but it's been less than 90 days, it's obviously a manufacturer defect, I don't want a refund, I'm willing to do an even exchange, or send this one back, and they can send me a new one, just let me know.

The lady basically tells me that I'm up a creek without a paddle, and I can take it up with Aldi... which I will do, but I know Aldi, I love Aldi, I know that they'll gladly refund this piece of crap, because Aldi has amazing customer service. However, I won't be able to exchange the item, because, well, it's Aldi, and they only carry things for a few weeks before they sell out, or send whatever is left back to the distributor. If you're lucky, next year, you can buy it again. I tell this to the lady, to which she gets super snarky and says well, there's nothing I can do about it, if you dont have the warranty card, I can't help you. I ask if there's any way I can download the form, because I honestly don't recall there even being a form in the box- if so, I would have shoved it in the bag or the box and kept it together. She again, tells me no, and says that Aldi puts in the warranty card with the item.

So, then I bring it back to INTEX- it's not even been 90 days since I purchased this thing, don't you have a standard of quality that you uphold at Intex? I can't believe that with a dated receipt, there's truly nothing you can do! "I don't know what to tell you, ma'am." So I ask if she can at least tell me if another storecarries this particular item close by, because I will go through the hassle of returning it at Aldi, and then going to repurchase it at another retailer, because I do like the product, and it was priced well. Then she tells me, huffing and puffing, that she can google it if I'd like her to, but that I'd get the same results if I Google it.

Um, what?
Up until this point, I've been pretty poised and handled myself nicely, but now, now I'm ticked off. I give her some lecture on how customer service obviously means squat in their company, and that I'm sorry for disturbing her day with my complaint, but that I can handle googling myself, and that I won't be re-purchasing an INTEX because their customer service sucks! I added "have a great day" before I hung up, but pushing the button on a cell phone doesn't give the same satisfaction of slamming down a house phone in situations like this.

Anyway. Now I'm deflating the airbed, packing it back up, and getting ready to bring it back to Aldi, because I know their customer service will take it back with a smile on their face, because they actually give a crap about their consumers.

The bottom line? Unless you're analysis retentive, and check the box at the store and make sure you have a warranty card, are able to keep this card, the receipt, and sometimes the upcoming from the box, you have no warranty. No standard of quality. No customer support or even a freaking apology. You get a "go google" response, and a snarky representative.

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Aldi Makes Holiday Entertaining Affordable and Delicious!

This year, an Aldi supermarket joined our neighborhood. I'm really picky with my food, but I absolutely love some of their products. Their price on "essentials" (read: bread, milk, eggs) are AMAZING- much more affordable than any other grocery store or super store in the area.

I love reading their fliers to see what weekly specials they have on products. The only thing I'm not that excited about is the fact that they have some of their products ONLY for that week, and because my location is the only one within 30 miles, they usually sell out ridiculously quick. This holiday season, I've turned to Aldi for much of my entertaining purposes, and have found a ton of amazing products that I know to stock up on next year, (like their amaaaaaaazing stuffed clams!)

One thing I noticed was their very affordable section of wine. They have so many different flavors, from all over the world, and the prices were too good to be true. They literally had bottles starting at under $3! I never purchased wine from them until this month.

I received an opportunity from Mom Central and Aldi to share my holiday entertaining habits with you- including a review on wine, so I was super excited to finally give the Aldi wines a try. I just had one minor problem... this year, I'm pregnant. That being said, the doc said that I could have a glass of red wine for the holidays, so I wanted to make sure I chose wisely. 

I received a gift certificate as well as an extensive explanation of the types of wine and holiday assortments Aldi carries. I consider myself a wine lover, but I learned so much more about wine with the guide they sent me! I think it would be great for a pamphlet to be in store along with their selections, because finding the wines to perfectly compliment meals always seemed to be a case of trial-and-error, for me, anyway.

I learned that Sweet Red is perfect for desserts like chocolate and cheesecake. I learned that the Chaza Moscato from South Africa was really enjoyed in between the dinner and dessert, one night where we had chicken alfredo and a spiral ham. The husband told me that after we have this bean, that he's going to bring a bottle to the hospital for me. We had some family come over for a hearty roast and served the bottle of Chianti pictured above.

Every year for Christmas, I make stuffed mushrooms and the key ingredient is White Zinfandel. Their bottle was only $2.69!! The most expensive bottle of wine I purchased was only $5.99.  Now, I will admit a few of my friends were astonished that I would give $3-5 bottles of wine a chance.. and frankly, gasped in utter horror, laughing, and wishing me good luck. Several of those friends were given this wine while they were visiting, and they all had NO idea that it was the wine I bought from Aldi. They were pleasantly pleased, and even expressed intent to purchase it themselves. They could not believe that the wine they were tasting were award winning wines, were under $6 a bottle, and had such flavor. Once upon a time, we always had wine in our house, ready to entertain.

Since the economy crashed, and the hubster lost his job, we really haven't had a large selection of wine in our home. Now that our eyes have been opened, we realized we can afford to still entertain with Aldi, even with our lower budget.

Aldi doesn't only have great wines, but they also have a large selection of rich and flavorful German chocolate, nuts of every variety, and many different cheeses. I love brie and soft cheeses, but being pregnant this year, the soft cheeses were off limit. This year I purchased Savoritz Garlic and Chive Pita Crackers (SOOOO good!), and paired it with sliced block cheese, stuffed clams and lemon wedges, nuts, and overloaded on sweets. We had a candy dish of German chocolate balls, cookies, and cream puffs- all purchased from Aldi- well, everything except the cookies, but most of the ingredients were!

Their baking section is extremely affordable! If you love to bake during the holiday season and winter break- make a run there to stock back up. Their chocolate chips, white chips, and butterscotch chips were only $1.69 a bag. They were SO good, and they were larger than standard chips, they were more like chunks. The cookies I made with them were scrumptious!

All in all, we had an amazing holiday filled with great surprises from Aldi. The hubster had so much fun shopping with me for Christmas, that he invited a house full of company for New Year's Eve. My only complaint is that I won't be able to make the stuffed clams for the New Year. (Can you tell that's not a good thing for this preggo lady?!)

If you don't believe me about the prices at Aldi- click some of the links to the foods. It will bring you straight to the product at their site with the price! I don't know how they make money with some of their prices- but I'm grateful for them, and to Mom Central for allowing us to participate in this blog tour.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of ALDI and received a gift certificate to facilitate my review.” All opinions are mine.

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