Could-care-less Manufacturers and Authorized Dealers Bash


This thread is for everybody who wanna fan out their frustration on manufacturers who don’t care about supporting their products.

I get that they love you to pay full retail and brand new thru their dealer network. But then again, what do they care if I am willing to pay full repair cost for out-of-warranty and/or non-warranty repair?

(please, real personal experience only ... what happened to your friend doesn’t count)

=========================================

My top 3, in any order ....

1) MBL
Got an 110v MBL from Canuck Audiomart Canada. Somehow an AudioTekne power cord toasted it (if you happen to use LossLess active cables with MBL, watch out too). Sent it to my local tech guy. Got ZERO cooperation from MBL with no schematics. Sent it to an ex-Krell repairman’s shop in Connecticut who services MBL too. Got ZERO cooperation from MBL neither. OK, I shipped it to MBL service center (in Los Angeles) MBL America couldn’t get a schematic to fix that from Germany neither. Had to ship it (again!) to MBL Germany to have it fixed.


2) Jeff Rowland
Got an pair of Model 1 - one of them stopped making sound for absolutely no reason. Sent it to the local authorized Rowland service center. That shop in Verona NJ (email me if you want the name) let it sat for 2 weeks, then charged me $95 "inspection fee" then told me to take it away. They said Jeff Rowland refused to send them the schematics needed for the repair. Contacted Jeff Rowland via emails. Got the 5th amendment treatment. Lost my shirts to sell them as-is.


3) Rotel
Once upon a time, stepped into an authorized Rotel dealer showroom and drove away an brand new Rotel receiver, even thought the dealer refused to demo it ("oh it’s too much effort to connect one for you when we have stuff a zillion times more expensive for demo for our big spenders"). What an insult. Anyway, once the unit was unpacked and then plugged-in, sparks abound, smoke came out. Totally dead. Talked to the dealer (email me if you wanna know that place in Summit NJ) - blamed that I don’t know how to plug the unit in (really????). Want me to ship it to the service center instead (which I recall, at that time, only in Japan). I argued and threaten dispute with credit card company - they didn’t care, just waved the receipt with fine print saying ’cannot be held responsible for misuse’. I lucked out since I didn’t fill out the warranty form and an Japanese member happened to like to buy one (it was considerably cheaper in USA than in Japan) and he was going to Japan. I gave him $200 discount and he was happy (he told me Rotel gave him a new once he moved to Japan).




bsimpson
VTL is the worst company I have ever dealt with when it comes to product support. When you call there the owners wife is the only person that will speak to you. She is rude and doesn't speak very good English.
Mark
I could have told you that Magnepan is honest and helpful to a fault, as the cliche goes.

Some people in business are intelligent and customer-focused; some are not.

Avoid the ones who are not!
This is a very helpful thread. Although these could be just isolated, one-off experiences, it gives some insight into your future if you purchase from certain manufacturers mentioned. I would not have expected those experiences with well-respected companies like Jeff Rowland, MBL and VTL. Personally, I have had good experience with Krell, and not-as-good with McIntosh.
Sony

Several years ago I paid about $5000 for the new 65” 4K XBR model from BestBuy.  It came with an 18 month warranty.  After I had owned the set for approximately 20 months the main circuit board broke.  I was fully prepared to pay for a new circuit board, but they were no longer available!  When I contacted Sony to discuss the issue, they verified the circuit board was no longer available.  When I asked Sony if I could get partial compensation on the purchase of a new Sony TV, they refused!  Fortunately my credit card extended the warranty to 2 years and gave me a full refund.

Prior to this incident I was a major Sony fan since my purchase of their first transistor radio in the mid 1950’s.  The only TV brand that I ever owned was Sony. I had purchased tens of thousands of dollars of Sony Products.

In all fairness to Sony, this was the first time that any of my Sony products needed repair.

Based upon this experience I will never, ever purchase another Sony product.  I am really enjoying my first generation LG OLED TV.

Hemoncdoc
Had the same problem with a 55 inch Samsung HDTV. Got the extended warranty with the store and after many months of problems and many attempted repairs the extended warranty company stated they would no longer attempt to fix it and give me a partial refund. After 4 years that did not allow for enough compensation to get another. Contacted Samsung directly, since their warranty had not paid a dime and explained the problem. To my astonishment they would not do ANYTHING to help. I stated if I tell me story to many people and several shy away from Samsung TVs they have lost those sales, would it not be better to help one customer??? As a result I will never buy a Samsung product and my new HDTV was a LG Oled like you!
BTW The picture quality on the LG is vastly better than that of the Samsung. Given the fact the Samsung would not alway turn on, it was not hard to throw it to the curb.