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ABC Warehouse Lakeside sucks

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Old 07-02-2006, 02:10 PM
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Default ABC Warehouse Lakeside sucks

ABC Warehouse Lakeside has the worst car audio customer service ever!

Here is the story. In April I purchased a sony head unit, a pare of infinity reference series 6010cs components, a pair of infinity reference series 6012i two ways, a 300watt amp, and a wire kit for the amp.

Last week I started to hear what sounded like a faint rattle. It progressively got worse until I could not stand it any more. I pulled the speaker out and contacted infinity. They told me I needed to contact the dealer… No big deal.

I called the store and asked for the guy who’s business card was stapled to the bill Joshua Sobeczak *remember the name it comes in down the road*. He told me to bring in the car and they will check it out… again no big deal.

I put the speaker back in the car and brought it down. There tech started to looked it over and then came back up front. Before the tech said any thing he said ‘so it was wired wrong wasn’t it’. The tech confirmed that I did, in fact, wire it correctly and that the amp wasn’t powerful enough to cause harm to the woofers.

He looked at my bill and said ‘well you didn’t buy the extended warrantee’. I said ‘Is it too much to ask that the new speakers I parched last more than 3 months?’. He than told me that the speakers warrantee is through the manufacture so he could do nothing for me. I told him that I contacted them and they had told me to take it to the place I purchased it and they are equipped to return it and get a replacement.

He then demanded that one of the sales people get him a set from the back so he could read the warrantee. After looking at the warrantee card (which was the same that I had brough from home and given them at the beginning of the exchange). He then asked me who I talked to at infinity about it. I told him that I called there automated system and it told me to talk to them, and I also emailed infinity and they told me the same. I asked if he couldn’t help me directly if he could call infinity on my behalf. He called the automated system number and said ‘you will have to talk to one of there service centers’. I told him that there was no point to that because they will charge me to look at the speaker and tell me its blown and tell me to bring it to you for the exchange.

Then he tried to play the nice guy angle and said ‘If my shop super visor was in he would be pissed and demand that you pay a tech fee for us to look at it’. He was the one that told me to put it back together so they could diagnose it. I could have just as easily brought them the speaker and had them check the resistance and they would have seen that it was reading 3.6 ohms rather than 4 like it should.

By this time I was pissed, but I was not rising my voice and I was not swearing or insulting them. I simply wanted to exchange a defective product.

I told him that obviously the supplied phone numbers and e-mail that came with there was getting me no where *which he would have known had he paid attention when I first explained the situation*. I then asked him if they could contact the distributor or something because as the purchaser I have gotten no where. So instead of taking my information and calling his contacts for me he simply got on the store computer and looked up his representatives number and name and gave me that.

What a lazy *****. All he did was sat there on the other side of the counter and looked for reason after reason why I screwed up the product, then when he couldn’t find one he simply passed the buck. This is the worst customer service experience I have ever seen. Because I didn’t buy there stupid service plan, and I installed it my self they treated me like crap.

They lost a customer for life, and infinity almost did over this ***** until I finally screwed with there automated system enough to get a real operator. After I explained the whole situation he apologized for there actions and said that a lot of there big retailers are sometimes unaware of there obligations. He told me to send him a fax with all of my info and a copy of the receipt, they will send out a shipping slip, I am to send in the bad woofer and if they have a replacement they will send it out, if not they will send me a whole new pair.

I cant believe we let big businesses act like this. If this were a private company they would have bent over backwards to keep me happy and I would have a new speaker in my car this minute. Monday morning I am going to call the store manager and there service rep and explain the situation to them. This whole thing is so ridicules and it all boils down to one lazy employee named Joshua Sobczak.

In fact I think I found a picture of him.
Old 07-02-2006, 09:25 PM
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Well I am sorry you had this problem. As a manager in retail chain, this type of misunderstanding and miscommunication does happen. The tech was simply trying to go through the hoops that corporate says that he has to go through to exchange an item. When customers do get angry, that makes the employee get rattled. When employees get rattled enough, then they tend to give you a phone number for the help desk or manager and in essence tell you "good bye". That sounds like what happened to you, and I am sorry it happened.

As a manager, I want to know when this happens. Call the store to find out what time the Store Manager will be in and go down and talk with him/her. Then tell them the story of what happened and what you would like done about it, like exchanging the speakers. If he is unsympathetic or unable to help you, then leave and call another store. Ask that store for their District Manager's phone number or ask for the Corporate number. When corprate offices get complaints they generally will break policy to keep a customer happy.

Just a few suggestions,
Chris
Old 07-02-2006, 10:36 PM
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FWIW, you will not read 4 ohms with an ohm meter on the resistance check. 3.6 ohms is quite acceptable. 4 ohms is a nominal reading.

If not mistaken, infinity speakers come with a 1 yr warranty right? If the place that sold them to you is an authorized infinity reseller, they should easily be able to do a warranty claim on the product.

You might still be able to do a charge back with your credit card company if you paid that way. Give them a call..
Old 07-03-2006, 12:10 AM
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i bought a audiobahn sub from a local audio shop once and due to alot of speed bumps the wire ports on the subs broke off. I went to return the sub with $15 and they gave me a new sub on the spot.. They took care of sending the sub back to the manufacture.. They are now under a new owner and manager but if i could find another store like that they would have my business




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