Blaupunkt woes solved . . . for now

[Mike Arman]

A small victory.

As you may remember, I've been having progressivly worsening problems with
a Blaupunkt ACD 2900 which I bought new, and began experiencing problems
with turn-off well within the warranty period. I mean, I applaud this
unit's enthusiasm and determination in trying to provide music for me, but
it would be nice if I could shut it off when I'm not in the car, to avoid
draining the battery (ask me how I know).

Blaupunkt was less than less than helpful, first blaming the installer
(that was me - and I have successfully installed avionics suites multiple
orders of magnitude more complex and expensive than ANYTHING Blaupunkt or
Bobby Bosch ever contemplated), then blaming the car's "flaky" electrical
system, then telling me that I should have bought a more expensive unit
from them, and what did I want from an "entry level piece of junk like
that, anyway"? (Just my money's worth - and for them to honor their warranty.)

Letters to Blaupunkt USA, Blaupunkt Germany and Bosch Germany were totally
ignored - and these were *letters*, postage and all, not just an e-mail
fired off in the heat of the moment.

Finally, the unit wouldn't turn off at all, not even with the reset button
(which loses all the presets, BTW).

Choice - buy something else or get this fixed, because it was obvious there
was no help forthcoming from Blaupunkt.

Went to the internet and looked up "Blaupunkt repair", and shortly
thereafter found myself talking with a tech (who evidently didn't have much
else to do, because it was a LONG and interesting conversation).

It seems that Blaupunkt's lower end units are made for them - in Taiwan and
China - and are EXACTLY the kind of cheap garbage I was trying to avoid
when I bought a Blaupunkt ("Fine German Engineering!") in the first place.
The tech said that Blaupunkt (and Becker) had really gotten a black eye
from the lack of quality of these units, and now heartily wished they had
never gone down that particular path in the first place. If it costs a
minimum of $250 to build a CD player that works, then finding someone who
claims to be able to build one for significantly less is an invitation to
problems, and that is exactly what happened.

I thought about this for a while, and decided that in light of Blaupunkt's
"blow him off" attitude toward me, their customer, it was time to raise the
ante a little.

And I did. A strong letter to the Florida Department of Consumer Affairs
followed, with a copy to Blaupunkt USA. The letter talked about my being
misled into thinking I had bought a quality German product (based on the
name "Blaupunkt", which is about as German a company as you can get), and
finding that I had been swindled into buying some cheap, inferior piece of
far eastern junk instead, masquerading deceitfully under the revered
Blaupunkt name. I also mentioned that none other than General Motors had
ben slammed by the Feds for something very similar - a few years ago they
sold a slew of Cadillacs equipped with Oldsmobile engines (re-badged), and
quickly lost a class-action suit from hundreds of disgruntled buyers whose
position was "I paid for a Cadillac, I expect a Cadillac. If I had wanted
an Oldsmobile, I would have bought one, and paid a bunch less."

No more than ten minutes after I sent Blaupunkt a copy of the e-mail to the
Florida Department of Consumer Affairs, I got a VERY VERY polite phone call
from a Mr. Dallas Winston at Blaupunkt USA.

About ten minutes later, after I had made my position and intentions
abundantly clear (politely, but firmly), he offered to have my ACD 2900
repaired or replaced (repair station's option) if I would just please ship
it to them with an explanation of the problem.

Dallas Winston was as good as his word - the unit came back, repaired, and
with a 90 day warranty - which would have taken it to the year I originally
thought I was getting. I re-installed the unit in my type $$, and
sonofagun, it works, and it even turns off!

Non illegitimi carborundum! (Don't let the bastards wear you down!)

Best Regards,

Mike Arman




Best Regards,

Mike Arman