Denon LOST my 3800! (1 Viewer)

[Michael_V]

Several months ago I purchased a Denon 3800. Within two weeks of its arrival, it started to show intermittent freezes, so at a personal cost of $30, I sent it to the Denon factory in California for service. That was September. It is now mid January.

About two weeks ago, I called Denon to inquire just where exactly my DVD player was. I was curtly told that they had never received it! The person I spoke to was rude and all but hung up on me.

My heart in my stomach, I started my insurance claim paperwork with the post office and called Denon back to ask for a signed letter saying they never received the unit. The next morning, however, someone from the service department left a message on my machine saying they *had* received the player and signed for it months ago but COULDN'T FIND IT!

FANTASTIC! And if I hadn't called and made postal investigation noises, no one would even have LOOKED for my player! INCREDIBLE!

Anyway, despite nearly daily phone calls to them (long distance from Okinawa, no less), I have yet to get any further than their answering machines. Not one call has been returned.

So now I am left wondering how exactly Denon intends to compensate me for the last FOUR months I have been without a DVD player secondary to their gross mishandling of my $1200 player. If they intend to simply return my serviced / potentially still unserviced 3800 to me (if they ever even find it) and call it even, though, they are in for a huge disappointment.

More as I get it.

 

[Nick B]

Michael:

The treatment you have received is completely over the top. As a potential Denon consumer on the verge of making a DVD player purchase, I have to pause. I have read other comments (epinions) that tell dreadful tales of Denon's customer service. My faith has been shaken.

Nick

 

[Kevin T]

while your treatment does sound horrendous, i really have to wonder why you would allow denon to keep your dvd player for 4 months before you started inquiring about it's progress. if it were my unit, i would be calling on a bi-weekly basis at the very least and not wait a third of a year before starting to wonder where my unit was.

kevin t

 

[JamesGL]

Okay, I was deciding if I should get a NAD T513 or a Denon 910 and this one shifted me towards NAD.

THat sucks that Denon treated you like that.
The only warrantly claim I had to make was from JVC and I give them 110% for politeness, promptness and another for the service.

 

[Joseph Shaw]

Wow, that Denon 2200 doesn't look all that attractive anymore. You can tell a lot about a company by how they run their service department, and this is not encouraging. Please let us know if/when they rectify the situation.

 

[Michael_V]

Thanks for the moral support guys! I will keep you posted.

Kevin, why it took me so long to inquire is complex, but suffice it to say I live overseas and am used to a longish wait for things to come back in the mail, particularly if they are sent parcel post (which can take six weeks). Add to that the difference in time zones and the difficulty in calling and you have an idea. We also went on vacation for the etnire month of December. When I came back and the player still wasn't here, I called Denon.

The trick seems to be getting them to call me back. . . .

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Michael there's a guy on AVS that goes by the name of DenonJeff I think. He works for Denon and might be able to help out...or at least point you to someone that can.

 

[Michael_V]

Andrew,

I have a PM in with DenonJeff, but so far no response.

M

 

[Joseph Shaw]

Michael, I work in the US but follow Asia Pacific time, so I understand how hard it is to talk to anyone during the daytime. Good luck with getting your player back.

 

[Scott L]

Thanks Mike, I will definitely focus on other brands when looking for recievers and players. Horrible customer service is something I'm used to and I'd rather just avoid it altogether.

Another for JVC. I had a problem about a small missing piece for my Northridge speakers (I probably lost it). They responded quickly via email and I was mailed a full set of new pieces within 4 days. Now that's service!

 

[Stephen M]

Actually, you are in great shape since Denon admits to receiving the player. Give them a short deadline to produce your player, replace it with a new one or give you back your money.

 

[Jed M]

Let me guess, hmmm... oh yeah, nothing. I hate large companies that play this game. If you want to go from the worst customer service in the world to the pinnacle of all customer service, AV123.com and P-Tech will be selling a $1000 multi-format DVD player (with DVI) in the future.

 

[Kevin T]

jed:

do you have any link to the proposed av123 / p-tech dvd player? you said multi-format....i presume you meant sacd / dvd-a universal. i'd sure like to get some more information regarding this vaporware player. thanks.

kevin t

 

[Robert Franklin]

Michael, I agree with the guys who posted earlier. I too am looking toward getting the AVR-5803A sometime during the summer. But, if this is how they treat their customers, I can easily afford the Yamaha Z9, or Pioneer Elite 49TXi, 59TXi. It sounds like to me that they should compensate you with a DVD-5900 and ship it to you free. I hope things work out for the best. I too have had a very bad experience with Onkyo, and I had to send a letter to Japan and New Jersey before I got a responce, and it still took 3 months to resolve the issue, even though Onkyo admitted to having 15 units of the TX-DS 939 top-of-the-line receiver in NJ. They wouldn't send me a new one, they wanted the service center to fix, but the service center didn't want to fix it until I called the Service Manager in New Jersey. He told me to take it back to the shop, and they would fix it. The shop fixed it, but it took almost a month to get it back.

Won't buy any more Onkyo products.

Keep us posted. I will look at the thread from time to time to see how they resolve your issue.

Rob
Baltimore, MD

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

This is all so-o-o famiar! I had the same experiences with Denon several years ago with some of their top-of-the-line car stereo products. Turned out to be high priced junk that broke down every year or so. IMO Denon's customer service department has the nation's largest assemblage of rude, incomptent idiots under one roof.

 

[Michael_V]

Wayne,

I have to strongly agree, with one exception so far. I finally got to talk to Randy, who heads the service department. He seemed like a nice guy and did seem willing to help me. No word yet on what will be done, though. He is supposed to call me back on Tuesday after talking with their sales department about a replacement upgrade. Here is hoping Denon will do the right thing and recover from this potentially very bad situation in a way that restores customer confidence. I will keep you posted.

 

[Jed M]

Kevin, no problem, but I can't figure out how to make the link jump to the direct post, but here is the thread. Just go to page 7 about 1/3 down the page and its a post by Mark Schifter. Here is basically a summary for those who don't feel like looking:

 

[Joseph Shaw]

Michael, did you get an update on the status of your player?

 

[jim lupi]

I sent a Mission speaker back to dennon for repair(they distribute mission in US) they sent me back the wrong model speaker that was literally cracked and glued together and argued with me that it was mine and was damaged when they recieved it.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I honestly don't know what keeps such an indolent company in business. I guess because most customers never have to deal with them; their dealers do the dirty work for them.