Buyer Beware (1 Viewer)

[Sammy Sams]

Just purchased a Denon 5803 from 6th Ave .com and received a defective cradle for my remote. 6th Ave was giving me the run around and so I went to Custom Electronics in town because it claims to be a Denon authorized service center. So happens that Custom refused to do warranty work on the unit even though the Denon online site states explicitely that 6th Ave is a Denon authorized etailer. Denon provides a Warning to Valued Customers online:

The warranty on Denon electronics products is not valid if the products have been purchased from an unauthorized dealer/on-line etailer or....Deneon electronics sells products through authorized retail and online channels to insure that consumers obtain quality pre-sale and after-sale suppport and service. PROTECT YOUR WARRANTY. Buy from an authorized Denon electronics dealer/etailer.

Any recommendations on how to get authorized warranty service on my Denon? Can this authorized dealer refuse me warranty service? thanks

 

[JackS]

Sammy- Send the holder directly to Denon along with your receipt and a short note explaining your circumstances with both of these shops. Any company worth dealing with would appreciate knowing how some of their customers are being treated by a few of their aurhorized dealers. If these guys wanna stay authorized, they had better clean up their act. I would hope something like this would be Denons response. Best of luck, Jack

 

[Sammy Sams]

Thanks, Jack. Will call Denon tommorrow and find out what the scam is all about. Will never deal with 6th ave again or with Denon for that matter if I cant resolve this mess. I cannot beleive I can spend this kind of money and get scammed by a major corporation. We will see. thanks Sammy

 

[Yogi]

Didn't a whole bunch of 3802's from 6th ave. turn out to be lemons?

In your case I would return the product if I could and take my business elsewhere. In case you are being slammed with the restocking fee etc, I would write a written complaint to Denon and send copies to the Attorney Generals offices in both, your area and where 6'th ave is and also to better business bureaus. I used this trick on an Insurance company and had them pay my claims promptly. The moment they saw my letted CC'd to the Attorney Generals office (consumer complaints department) they sent an apology with prompt payment of my claims.

 

[kevitra]

I had a bad 3802 from 6ave and they replaced it with absolutely no problems. They sent me the new unit while I was sending back the old one so I wouldn't have to wait.

As far as the service center - give Denon a call and tell them about it. They HAVE to honor the warranty, as 6ave is an authorized dealer. I had this problem with a Rotel amp I purchased. The local Rotel dealer (who I did not buy it from) would not service it. A call to Rotel changed that very quickly. Some local shops don't like doing work on items not purchased from them (which makes no sense to me, as they could gain a customer and they will get paid from the mfg).

 

[Arthur S]

kevitra

With regard to a local shop getting paid for repairs made under warranty: the problem is how much the manufacturer is willing to pay the shop to do the work. If the repair requires a new part, the manufacturer will provide the part to the local shop, however, the labor costs are another story.

Most manufacturers pay the local shop a lot less than the shops going rate for repairs. The local shop is in a bind: since they are the authorized repair center for that region, they can't really refuse to do the repair, but they often end up spending a considerable amount of time on the repair and the reimbursement from the manufacturer is low.

From this perspective, repairs made under warranty are not welcome.

 

[Patrick TX]

LOL! When did 6th ave start making electronics? The "lemons" are from DENON. My relative that works at Tweeter in Houston told me about the problems with that 3802. Tweeter has more 3802's in service than for sale. I saw it on the computer last week. That says 2 things.

#1
They can't keep them in stock, or don't want/can't get anymore.

#2
They have some reliability issues.

 

[Iver]

Okay, I hope we are talking about the same Sixth Avenue Electronics here. If there is a new business with that same name but a different ownership/management, then my comments, obviously, will apply only to the original store in Manhattan.

About ten years ago, I tried to make a small purchase from Sixth Ave. and, even though it was on a very inexpensive item, they gave me an elaborate runaround.

This is when the store was actually on Sixth Avenue, just downtown from Herald Square (34th Street). It is my understanding that, like Crazy Eddie, they have since packed up and headed for the greener pastures of the Garden State (well, greener from the viewpoint of an electronics merchant that has issues with consumer protection laws).

Since my run-in with the store, I have seen some apparently sane people make positive comments about the retailer online (leading to my confusion as to whether or not the business now in NJ is directly linked to the one I visited on Sixth Avenue).

Anyway, I needed a new answering machine and wanted a certain Panasonic which they had advertised (at one point they were single-handedly subsidizing the publishing costs of the Village Voice) in the newspaper at a good price.

Oh, what a surprise. That model was not in stock.

They then got out the newspaper and showed me another answering machine which they had advertised at a lower price than that of another store advertising the same item in the same paper. The only problem was, it was about 50% more expensive than the Panasonic.

So I simply demanded a rain-check. It was not until I left the store that I noticed the salesman had very diligently filled in the exact model number, but left the price blank.

Neato!

I had the right to purchase that model, at whatever price it ended up, should it ever prove to be "in stock" at any time I were to ever visit the store in the future.

By the time I noticed the bogus rain-check I was more than half way to a reputable electronics merchant. They do exist in New York City, but it's a good idea to ask a native which ones they are before you give out your credit card number.

 

[Yogi]

LOL! When did 6th ave start making electronics? The "lemons" are from DENON.

You know what I mean Pat Of course the lemons are from Denon. But the way 6'th ave dealt with them was the topic of discussion in so many threads. I was wondering if they got their hands on some grey market stuff that they didnt know about or didn't want to know about. I dont know about online retailers. Never bought any electronics from any online retailers so my experiences are zit in that regard. All I can speak for is other people's experiences. So pardon me if I was wrong. Don't want to speak ill about any online retailer since I haven't dealt with any.

 

[ChrisJJ]

Sixth Ave Electronics on rte. 22 in NJ are terrible. The staff are pushy and not very knowledgeable. The equipment is poorly set up and listening is a joke. (Ported speakers less than an inch from the rear wall and the salesman thought I was nuts when I asked him to move them.) Bait and switch tactics (as Iver experienced). And they are very reticent to honor their return policies.

I would discourage anyone from patronizing the store.

That said, if you really do want to deal with 6Ave. Electronics, here is how to do it.

1) Buy what you want, at whatever price they list it at. You can argue with them about the price, but there isn't much point, yet.
2) Go home. Wait a day or so, and don't open the box.
3) Go back and say you don't want it and you want to return it.

At that point you can negotiate price with them. They actually are quite flexible at this point, unlike the pre-sale spewing.

In my opinion, this is a completely guiltless manner of dealing with them because they have NO GUILT cheating and lying to their customers.

Personally, I won't set foot in the place anymore because no price could justify dealing with that store.

rant off
Chris

 

[TomH]

Denon is notorious for using any excuse possible to avoid warranty service. I am sure they will continue these sleazy practices until they are hit with some law suits.
I simply will not consider their products for this reason.
Tom

 

[Matt Jesty]

A few noteworthy items about denon and related serviceability....
first ,as I have sold many many of their products over the years, I have become reluctant to do so recently due to reliability problems......
second , never take a product bought on-line to a retailer who is reluctant to help you with the service issue...he may kick your unit down the stairs for fun.....
third , it has come to my attention that 2 large buying groups are looking at dropping denon for these and other reasons (can't make reasonable profit).....

If even one of these groups drops denon as a vendor , it will be hell for denon because of the # of storefronts they'll be pulled from...DENON will likely have to increase their prescence in sears,etc....GO LOW-FI!!!!!........

 

[Kevin_Kr]

Sammy sams have you had this resolved yet, if not please pm me

 

[Ronald Aguilar]

Wow-

What interesting comments on Denon. I am going to go against the grain here and mention something positive about Denon. I have a Denon 4800 that had a problem. When ever I switched inputs or channels on my Tivo, DVD player or turned the volume all the way off, I would get a poping sound out of my sub. It turned out to be a subwoofer mute circuit. Well I researched the problem and couldn't find anything out about it. I called Denon and asked. They told me what the problem was and that it would be fixed under warranty and gave me a place to go have it serviced. I called the 2 places to have it serviced and neither of them believed me what the problem was. Well the place I went to, I waited for them to call Denon for Denon to explain the problem. It was fixed in a little over a week. If it wasn't for Denon, I don't know how long it would have taken to get it fixed. Oh, and my warranty was up in less than a week (2 year warranty)when I took it in to be repaired!

Ron A.

 

[Iver]

Denon is notorious for using any excuse possible to avoid warranty service.

I just bought a Denon AVR-1602 because it was the best sounding receiver in my price range.

It was between the 1602 and an Onkyo TX-SR500. Just based on my perceptions of customer service, I would have gone with the Onkyo.

As an example, Onkyo sells the replacement remote for the SR500 for less than ten bucks, direct from their Web site. Denon gives you an 800 number of a third-party electronics company.

As an experiment, I called the company to find out what it would be like ordering from them. The operator did not think they sold the replacement remote for the 1602. Then she checked again and found out it was available as a "special order" for sixty bucks.

Plus, one of Onkyo's repair shops (third party) is about ten blocks from me.

Denon has this weird thing now. They have "Service Centers" and then "Super Service Centers." I never did find out the difference between these two critters, but it was not encouraging to know that the nearest "Super" service center is located in Buffalo, NY, about 400 miles from me.

I'm just hoping that the need to use the generous two-year Denon warranty never arises (insh'Allah). One year, eleven months, two-and-a-half weeks and counting.

 

[Iver]

Speaking of Denon, for the past couple of nights every attempt to access the list of authorized dealers from their Denon USA Web site resulted in an error message.

Anybody else able to get the authorized dealers list?

 

[TomH]

Thats even better. Now the already ambiguous "authorized" dealer list is gone. Maybe they are going to a "secret handshake" system for warranty support.

 

[Earl Simpson]

Yea, I noticed the Denon list link is gone too.
I just don't know if its worth sending it back for a cradle?? But that may be your route at this point in time or get Denon to send you a new cradle.
I'm jealous!!! Tell us about the 5803. I want one!! or a 5800 on clearance
As far as 6th ave is concerned, I have bought several pieces of equipment from them this year with perfect results. As long as you keep the packing materials and send back the defective unit in the period specified, you are fine.
ps/ Dealers don't do warranty service/just R&R during the swap out period! They ship the units back to Denon for a swap out. Unless they are an authorized repair center. Maybe, sometimes on every odd thursday.

 

[Sammy Sams]

I think they pulled this after I spoke with my local Denon dealer who refused to do authorized repair work. I was very, very heatead and told him it was unethical to imply online that some etailers will receive warranty work when in fact they will not. He said he would do something about this to pull the link. I am astounded that he did it so quickly. This does not change the fact that 6th Ave and others are authorized etailers. It just makes no sense. These local guys are a bunch of a## h#### for denying me service because I had just spent $700 on rear speakers and have purchased all my other speakers and cables from them. Thanks for all the good feedback.

 

[Iver]

The dealer lists are back up at the Denon site. The product catalog is back as well, but reflecting that the 2002 models are now categorized as discontinued.
It appears they just had these sections down for a couple of days around the time they were making these changes.
You have to dig a layer deeper to get it, but the manual for the 1602 is still there (in the discontinued section) and that's a good thing .