I'd like to share my recent experience with Onkyo service, particularly for those of you considering one of their products. One week ago, I brought my Onkyo 797 to an authorized local repair center to fix the well known ticking problem. Now I am told by the repair center that it will take 7 weeks to get the replacement part. Calls to OnkyoUSA have be totally unhelpful, and they are unable/unwilling to expedite the process. This is a known defect with this receiver. Onkyo should have recalled these units pre-emptively to repair this known defect. To now state there is a 7 week delay in obtaining the necessary part is insulting. I would strongly recommend against buying an Onkyo product. They clearly have some quality control manufacturing problems, they ignore a known defect with one of their units until the problem occurs, and they are now providing what I would characterize as inadequate, poor customer support. Onkyo should know exactly how many receivers will eventually exhibit this problem. A 7 week (AT LEAST) delay to obtain a replacement part for a KNOWN problem is ridiculous, and it shows a low regard for their existing customers.
From my personal experience I have to side with Matthew. I have had horrible experiences with Sony and have refused to buy 1 single Sony product for the past 11 years. I do nto and WILL NOT buy Sony.....ever!! That said I am very pleased with my Onkyo receiver and have yet to experience 1 problem with either DTS our Dolby Waiting 7 weeks on the other hand would be very difficult but I can't imagine it's any better for Sony(in fact I know it's not any better). Regards Chet
Matthew: 1. The ticking problem in my unit did not develop until 4 months after I started using the receiver. This "time bomb" seems to develop after an unpredictable amount of usage. What happens if this problem develops AFTER the warranty expires?? I'd be sweating if my warranty expired, and my unit had NOT developed the problem yet. 2. Onkyo told me that the problem has affected a few hundred units, out of thousands. SO FAR!!! According to an informal poll on home theater spot, around 50% of the respondents are reporting the problem. 3. Certainly the 797 was not manufactured with a known bug. However, the bug is now KNOWN. My gripe is that Onkyo should be dealing with this proactively, rather than sitting on their butts. Units likely to develop this problem (should be easy to identify based on manufacturing date) should be recalled, just as a car with a known defect is recalled. 4. Onkyo should by now have ample number of replacement parts, given the problem was identified months ago. 7 weeks wait is plain ridiculous. 5. I do not have a replacement. This is my first AV receiver. I don't care to look at the void where my receiver used to sit for 2 months. This is again absurd, given that I've only had the receiver 4 months. 6. I'm glad you're 20 minutes away from "Upper Saddle River". Of course, you'll be up that river without a paddle when you go there, as a replacement part will still take 2 months to get to you. Sorry for the diatribe Matthew. I was only mildly irritated by the DD EX dropout problem, but I'm really pissed about this. I maintain this is poor customer support. That being said, my wife was also quite pissed off, and called OnkyoUSA and left a nasty message with a manager. The manager called me back - seems they found a replacement part, and are shipping it to my service center ASAP. Thanks Onkyo, but still should not have to come to this. BTW, I do love the receiver. It's a great unit, despite these flaws. It's the customer support that is lacking.
Matthew: Hate to burst your bubble, but there are reports of the 898 also exhibiting this problem. Hopefully yours was manufactured after the problem was fixed (if it was).
After years of being a fan of Onkyo, I too wonder if their product/service is going down. I've heard of the clicking problems with the 797 and 898. Still, I've heard of a great deal of problems with many other brands of receiver, although different problems. I wonder if quality is pretty much going down the drain industry wide. I know my new $3500 Mitsubishi TV would turn on and off by itself before they sent me a firmware upgrade, but what would have happened if the thing wasn't programable? Would I have to wait weeks or months before it was fixed. I know a lot of Harman Kardon DVD player owners claimed to have waited for almost a year to get a fix on their malfunctioning DVD players and Rotel (I think) reportedly wasn't going to fix a problem with one of their amps. Except for my Mitsubishi, I haven't personally experienced any of the problems. I felt Mitsubishi came through like a champ though.
Matthew, You may well be right about the clicking problem being restricted to the 797. I thought I had seen some posting to the effect that the 898 was experiencing the problem as well, but couldn't remember where. I thought it might be The Home Theater Spot, so I went there to look. I only found one poster of the 898 complaining of the problem, but he may be confusing the clicking an Onkyo does when it switches modes with the clicking that others are upset about Anyway, here's the link and I'll post anything else I run across. Link: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/ubb/u...;f=71;t=000294
Thanks to my wife, I now have my unit back in working order. I love the receiver, but I shouldn't have had to go through this aggravation to get it repaired in a timely fashion. AT&T cellular once gave me similar customer service, and now I am a Verizon customer. Onkyo - I hope you are listening! DanaA, you are probably correct. I've only seen the same report of the 898 exhibiting ticking - probably a different problem.
