RALEIGH, N.C. — It is one of those things you think is going to be simple. When your television breaks, it gets picked up for repair, and then it gets returned. When it did not quite happen that way for a Wake County man, he contacted Five On Your Side for help.

When you have a big TV, you do not want to watch television on a small one, but that is what Robert Talley had to do for about four months. The problem started in August.

"The picture just squeezed down to about a 3-inch band midscreen here all the way across," Talley said.

Talley called Starmount TV and Appliance in Raleigh. A crew picked up the 36-inch television, repaired it and had it back in a few days.

"[I] plugged it in, and it worked fine. That's when I paid him," he said.

Talley paid $173 for the repair, but a few days later, he said the TV had the same problem. He called Starmount again and they picked up the TV. Talley said he called weekly to find out the status, but only got promises that owner Rick Pope would call him back.

"I'd ask her, 'Can't you tell me what's wrong with it?' I'll have him call you.' 'Well, he's not going to call me,'" he said. "'You've told me that twice before and he's not going to call me. 'Well, Mr. Talley, I'll have him call you this time.' He never did."

Talley even went to Starmount, but no one was there.

"It's the most frustrating thing I've ever had," he said.

Five On Your Side called Starmount. Pope blamed the problem on a "bad batch" of parts, which he had to "send back twice." Two weeks after Five On Your Side called, Talley got his TV.

Starmount has an unsatisfactory record with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) because of an unanswered complaint. It only takes one unanswered complaint to get an unsatisfactory report because all the business has to do is simply respond to the BBB about the complaint.