Just one of those days...

[Zero]

*****RANT BELOW, READER BEWARE*****

I have been holding in some major tension all day and I simply need to release it. Please, excuse me :)

Roughly 3 weeks ago I obtained a job working with pre-wiring and wiring houses for various equipment. Essentailly, an installer (or assistant in my case). Due to medical reasons and what not I had to unfortunately let the owner of this business know that this is a no go, we had mutual understanding and no hard feelings. However, as of this morning I am no longer employed. Sucks. Just at a time when I need cash the most. Murpheys law.

A few days ago I returned (for the second time) my speaker that had a blown woofer. It also had cosmetic damage (from cc service center). Upon returning home from my now former employer I recieve a call from the service center in Richmond. They authorized the replacement of my speaker. Ok, sounds good, only one problem - Its no longer in production. Now here is where the fun begins:

At first they were only going to refund my money for the one speaker and have me choose another one for the price I payed. I then explained that there is absoultely no way I will do this, as I refuse to own a pair of two different speakers. They understood. Later on this evening I took the other speaker back and was informed that I could not do so yet. They have to get the ball rolling for the authorization of the second speaker, which is still pending... Thanks for *****n tellin me when I informed you I would be back later in the evening. Lugging around these 90 + lb beasts get rather bothersome.

I was informed that if both items were returned I would be credited for the speaker pair. I then inquired about having my money returned. That was a defenite no. With these speakers being 2 years old, I have far exceeded the allotted 30 day trial period.

Ok, so now I come home. I immediatly call up the center in Atlanta. I give them the scoop- I am informed that a call will be made to Richmonds service center to see exactly why my speakers are authorized for replacement. I was told that I would recieve a call later today. Afterwords I called Polk Customer service for inquires. Turns out they have four 2000p enclosures left. CC would have to purchase them from Polk and put together the speaker, that is WAY over CC's heads. Ok, looks like Im screwed there as well.

Oh yes- the CC service center never returned the call.

So now I spend my day in deep concentrated thought trying to find a reasonable solution to this situation, make a good thing work out for me. After some time I believe I found it.

My parents bought some RT100i's new in a box for almost the same price as I payed for my 2000s. Ok, great, assuming my other speaker is authorized I can just put the credit towards paying these off completely. Uh oh, looks like I was wrong there. CC does not allow credit to go towards payments.

What the friggen hell.... what good is this warrenty? Cant use credit for crap, cant get my money back, and the service doesnt repair sh*T and fails to inform the customer. Money *well* spent...

I then opt to return the RT100is, clean the slate, purchase them all over again and apply the credit. The manager had a difficult time understanding this. He simply agreed to my idea for the sake of arguement I believe. Later on I discovered a problem: I wont know till AT LEAST saturday if my other speaker has been authorized.. the RT100is only have 2 days left on their 30-day trial period. Foiled again.

Which brings me to where I am now. Getting **** on in every direction possible, my faith with CC has been absolutely crushed. Roughly over a month ago I turned in an application... I am informed that all those positions are now full. F****in great...

Out of this whole damn mess there is only one good solution, if you can call it that. Demand to know why the hell my speakers are "in for replacement". If its simply cosmetic and not electronic, I will just say F it all, send em back to me. If this is the case the RT100is will be arriving back to CC in their box tomorrow. My parents will recieve my 2000's, and they will go half with me on a pair of fresh and new LSi-9's.

Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel, but its been one hell of a day.. I havent had much sleep in the past 2-3 days, its time to catch up on that.

This is my rant for now.


:supermad: :supermad:

[jeberhart]

I guess this is mostly just to let you know I really understand how you feel about this. Warranties are not what they used to be. I do have one idea: Put this all in writing for the point-of-purchase people and the manufacturer. Sometimes it works! When they can see it in B&W on the page, they'll do better for you in some instances.

Case in point: Years ago I bought a pair of Polk Monitor 10Bs, which I still have, love and use. But there was a problem: The darned things kept tripping their protection circuit and shutting down, and I just KNEW I wasn't overdriving them. A new amp did help, and I carried on with them awhile, but finally decided to call Polk and ask for an explanation. The woman I talked to said that, indeed, since my speakers were manufactured, the crossovers had been modified. I asked why. She said she wasn't sure. I said look, it's probably this very thing, so why don't you just send me two new crossover units and I'll pop those babies into my speakers myself? She wasn't sure she could do that, so I wrote a letter to Polk asking them to comply. Lo and behold: Two new crossovers -- and YES, they solved the problem. Found out later the protection circuit had indeed been modified.

Unfortunately, I haven't always been as lucky. I bought my wife an MP3 player last Christmas from Circuit City, whose policies I've never exactly loved. The thing failed a couple months ago. They honored the extended warranty, telling me to return the unit and they'd send me a check. When the check arrived, I found it wasn't truly negotiable, but was in "Circuit City dollars" or some such crap, and I had to spend it at one of their stores! By that time I'd decided to get her an iPod, which CC here didn't carry! It was already ordered and on the way. So I was forced to spend the "check" on CDs. Mind you, I wasn't exactly crushed by having to buy some new music, but in that situation, I could've used the money.

Anyway, I still suggest you put something in writing. I've dealt with Polk and CC both in the past, and with both entities, I've found it's best to let them see, on the page, what you're up against.

[Zero]

Jeber,

I am sorry to hear of your experiences as well. Up until now I felt as if CC return policies were fairly solid, thats changed significantly over the past 24 hours.

Documenting and having things in writting will be an alternative if I cannot recieve my speakers or any other deal worked out. At the moment I have only tomorrow to make the decision to return the RTi100s. Needless to say, time is of the essence.

I thank you for the words. :)

[tgsqrd]

Man, you guys!

I learned years ago that CC was a bad place to buy anything. I was surprised that they are almost Polk Audio's exclusive distributer in this area (Hampton Roads).

About 4 years ago I was trying to find a replacement hard drive for an old 486 computer. I found one at CC which was still small enough for this machine as long as I partitioned it. I was happy until, after three weeks, it suffered infant mortality (Yeah, right). I removed it and took it back to CC for an exchange.

Nope!

That model has been discontinued and we no longer service the model. They refused to touch it. Not even to send it back to the manufacturer. I was in disbelief. Fortunately, after talking with the manufacturer myself, we found a replacement which they (the manufacturer, not CC) had dropped shipped to me. I had to pay to return the broken drive to the dealer but I chalk that up to a lesson learned.

I still go into the CC store to see the goods but I always buy from some place else.

TG^2

[Zero]

tgqsrd,

Hampton Roads you say? Im right next to you, newport news :)

[mantis]

it is darkest before dawn..............................................

[mantis]

then the sun comes out man

[jeberhart]

Hey, tgqsrd,

The CC problems may be old news but I never had any real snags with them until the last 18 months or so. I even recall a situation when I bought my Polk 450 and a couple of Polk surrounds, and because of my own confusion involving which credit card I wanted to use, I ended up putting them through a pretty complicated procedure to transfer the whole purchase off the one card and onto another, which they really didn't have to do. My guess is they've been losing money for awhile now and have clamped down on any kind of customer service. Plus, the people they have now are total dolts, most of them. Can't explain features on simple items, don't seem to be able to find manuals so you can take a look yourself, etc.

[Zero]

The other speaker will be delivered sometime early next week, or at least this is what I was told. Someone actually took the time (all of 5 minutes) to speak with the electrician to find out why exactly the speaker was authorized for exchange. Indeed, it was the marks and cosmetics.

Not exactly a happy ending, but one I will accept. I was going to buy a Velodyne CHS-15 from CC but I most likely wont do this anytime soon, if at all. Dont need this BS again...