What would you do?

[dracoskeeper]

:mad: I sent my Denon DVD-9000 w/ Signature Upgrade from The Upgrade Co. in for a SDI modification over three months ago! I will not name the company but here is the story: paid for modification and shipped on 2-13-09,email on 4-2-09 stating it should ship tomorrow,email on 4-9-09 states started work a few days ago,email on 4-22-09 praising the unbelievable build of this player and that it should be completed in a few days,email on 5-1-09 stating just about there!!!,email on 5-13-09 asking if I was getting any video output before it shipped!!!!,email on 5-27-09 now states that player will not play dvds period!!!!.
Now I've had this player for over 8 years and have almost never had a problem except with home burned dvds that would sometimes lock up but never with a regular dvd. After the upgrade it became my main player for 2-channel also and I can't say enough about how good it sounded with my Moscode amp and the 2.3tls.
If it was damaged in shipping it would have been an easy claim but not now, 3 months later! This unnamed company suggests I buy a parts unit and they will fix it with that. I don't see how I should be responsible for fixing a perfectly operational player when they sat on it for 3 months claiming everything was going fine except now my universal player is only a cd player.
This is my biggest fear about shipping out equipment you become attached to, something like this will happen. Anyone had a similar situation and if so how did you get it how did you get it corrected?

[Pedler]

Have you talked to them on the phone?
You have to explain to them that You shipped a perfectly working product to them and you wanted the mod done. You also have to explain the same thing you said to us that the if this was a damaged unit because of shipping, you should have indicated this 3 months ago when it was shipped so you could claim the insurance that you put on it.

It is possible it was damaged in shipping but how are you to claim it when you didn't look at it or mod it in a timely fashion.

Also be calm when you are talking to the person.

maybe they will help you. Or have you done this already and they are not willing to help you.

[apphd]

I agree with Pedler. Not sure what cost is involved, but I feel most businesses worth squat would work with you on this. They should look at it as a learning experience for them, to inspect all incoming for defects as soon as it arrives. Even if they can't start work on it right away.

On the other hand things are tough for many businesses now and customer satisfaction is taking a back seat to profit, for some even survival.

I hope it works out for you and think it is pretty upstanding for you to not mention their name. So many would make this a trash company X post right off the bat.

[dracoskeeper]

I have done all this via email (so I have proof). The last message from them was that they can get a donor unit for 250.00 and they will fix it for free and ship both units to me when done. My response was that I would pay half of the cost of the donor and the other half when my player arrives and tests good. I'm just having trouble with the fact that they are claiming it arrived not working properly but in the message this morning they stated that when a player arrives they only stick a cd in to test it. If you are a company doing a upgrade/modification on the video side of a player why would you only test the audio portion before working on it. The main reason I chose to upgrade this is because I had a shootout with my 3930ci (now sold!) and two oppo players and this Dvd-9000 and, even with the lower resolution, it won hands down. When you include the sound of this modded unit there was no comparision. I'm trying to be patient and reasonable but it seems like every email just has another flawed decision that lacks common sense. If it was me I would have gotten the donor unit, fixed the customers player and only told him once he got it back and was completely satisfied. Then I would have offered it to him for a fair price if he wanted a parts unit.
The advice I got from two local shops ,that I trust, is to demand full refund and have the unit shipped back immediately with insurance to cover replacement and upgrades it already has. I'm not sure if I want to go that route because then I'm left at square one with a non working player that needs repair before it can be SDI modded.

[Pedler]

You have to talk to them on the phone. Email is impersonal any one can email...but at the level you are at you have to call them and talk to them. ( manager) and and see what they can do.

I don't have any other advise you may have to eat the cost or seek small claims court.:( Question if they only test it with an audio cd how did they know the video side wasn't working?? all questions you can ask also.

[tom t]

i would get the unit back and get it fixed somewhere else if you like it that much. and by the way, how did your brother make out with the rotel amp??

[dracoskeeper]

I'm working with him, also trying to get a phone number. Its funny this new generation thinks actually talking via phone or "god forbid" in person is an obsolete form of communication. I'd much rather you show some balls and lie to me face to face don't give me a bunch of excuses and unanswered questions via email.
TomT, The Rotel amp rocks! I'm working on him to let me do the crossovers. I'm also going to bring by another modded player to let him try out. Thx Again!

[tom t]

good to hear. i hope everything works out for you with the dvd player

[Keiko]

Judging from your first post something just sounds fishy to me about this.

"email on 4-2-09 stating it should ship tomorrow, email on 4-9-09 states started work a few days ago, email on 4-22-09 praising the unbelievable build of this player and that it should be completed in a few days, email on 5-1-09 stating just about there!!! email on 5-13-09 asking if I was getting any video output before it shipped!!!! email on 5-27-09 now states that player will not play dvds period!!!!"

If I'm reading and understanding this correctly, it sounds contradictory. If it were me, I'd be on the phone with someone real quick and point this out to them. Giving the benefit of the doubt, the unit should have been checked thoroughly upon receiving. That's my take on it anyway. No way now you can file a claim for damage in shipping if that were the case, and you shipped them a working unit. IMO it's just common sense to check things out like this thoroughly upon receiving to avoid something like this. Don't know the whole story here, so I'm just going off of your hearsay. Good luck with it though.