usually, my father only uses brand name products or personally known generics he has experience with but recently he was at walmart and a large pos display made him diverge from this path and try the rayovac brand for one of his flashlights he keeps on hand in the kitchen/workwoom near the garage. one of the reasons for a flashlight is in the event of a power outage is that you are prepared and one way to be prepared is to keep the batteries in the flashlight. thus, this is what the situation was. after being in use for about 2-3 months (with the expiration date another 2 years in the offing), the batteries began to corrode and leaked corrosive liquid onto the shelf where it resides; a hand built, custom made, built in, mahogany shelf. i mention these facts about the shelf, as pictured here-in, because the whole house is made of this wood trim and accents as well as all the other built in shelving, and of course at this time, mahogany is no longer available. at first, asking walmart about this product, the drone behind the counter knew almost nothing other than to say that if i brought them back in they would replace them. wonderful. so i proceeded to contact rayovac. interestingly enough, they sent a form letter suggesting i photo the problem and return the batteries to them. this of course made me laugh, package up leaking batteries to send thru the mail, buy a camera, film and develop pics to prove this, as they were unwilling to honor digital pics. of course i could have bought a photo quality printer and paper and they probably wouldn't know the difference, but...realy?!. anyway, when i voiced (wrote) my consternation as regards these requirements, i was issued an apology for thinking they were being funny and was told this was the way things were. again, i pointed out i couldn't really see spending $8 in shipping to receive $8 worth of batteries as well as the fact that i wasn't about to tear down the shelving and send it to them either. at this time, i received a fedex shipping label in my mailbox and decided if they wanted the liability of shipping nuclear waste thru the mail, that was up to them. so i packed the ruined flashlight, the leaking batteries, and pictures of the ruined shelf and off it went. i subsequently received mail as to the dispositon of the situation, first telling me the situation was in hand, then an apology for the defective crap wrecking my furniture (it's actually my father's house) and coupoons for more of their defective crap, alluding to further decisions to be made about the rest in another department. later i received another piece of mail, another apology for the defective product and a check for $10 to replace the flashlight. at this time seems like final disposition, to which i was irked rather seriously. what about the irreplacable shelving?! so i followed up in the previous emails w/ more response as to this lack of understanding, to which i received a response that again, they are sorry their defective product ruined this furniture and "how much would it cost to repair?" of course i explained that the building and finishing of this was untold months of work not only in the building but matching the stain to the rest of the house, done by my mother who is now dead and none other knows what she did to accomplish this. i suggested i wasn't sure if i could find a jouneyman carpenter to do the work, but have a friend who is an interior trim carpenter who may help out. he however, lives over 2 hours away and earns about $48/hr. their offer of $100 followed to which i was again astonished. i couldn't even get my friend to travel the 4 hours for that let alone work for it. followed was a 'final offer' of $150 and i was to keep my mouth shut about this to anyone else and release forever rayovac and any other company, holdings or parent in this matter. hilarious. give up my 1st ammendment rights for a measly $150 which wouldn't even begin to cover the time i've spent let alone get the repair started. it's comapnies like this which seem to be the root fo the problem with corporate america.
be aware, dont use rayovac batteries!