Blaupunkt woes solved . . . for now

[Kneale Brownson]

Way to go, Mike.  Can we refer to your name when calling upon Blaupunkt to 
shape up?  Hope the call to the technician didn't leave a phone-records 
trail that will put his job in jeopardy.


At 12:09 PM 08/14/2001 +0000, Mike Arman wrote:


>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