Blaupunkt garbage and lack of warranty support

Mike Arman armanmik at n-jcenter.com
Mon May 20 15:12:35 EDT 2002


>Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 11:48:02 -0400
>To: Barry McInnes <bjm at cdc.noaa.gov>, quattro at audifans.com
>From: Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
>Subject: Re: Blau Toronto LED problem ?
>
snip
>>Hi,
>>Just wondering if this is a common problem. I put the Totonto
>>in an 89 299TQ in 1999. Worked and looked great until the LED
>>display started to not display properly. It would miss lines
>>on the display then work OK, then miss different lines.
>>Is there a cheap fix anyone has worked out
>>instead of replacing the LED display
>>which looks like $120 part ?
>>I have taken it out and the connectors and parts look OK
>>on the front section....
>
>I bought a Blaupunkt Tokyo unit 7-8 months ago...Several electrolytic
>capacitors inside have let go, and to top it all off, the mechanism
>just went south, kept eating my CDs.  Crutchfield had heavily
>discounted it, and now I know why.  Part of me wants to sue the pants
>off them, because it's obvious they knew they were selling defective
>goods.




I have a Blaupunkt ACD2900 (or something like that), bought it new for
exactly the reasons below - simple design, no juke-box graphics, Made in
Germany, therefore quality, etc.


When it broke down under warranty, Blaupunkt wanted nothing to do with it
or me.

I kept on raising the ante', applying more and more pressure to Blaupunkt
over several MONTHS.

I think what did it was when I discovered that the Blaupunkt I had bought,
specifically relying on the reputation of fine German engineering, was
actually sourced in China. I advised Blaupunkt that I would be talking to
the Florida Bureau of Consumer Affairs about bait and switch tactics on
their part ("I bought it because Blaupunkt is German, and based on that, I
expected to get something that would work, not some cheap piece of Chinese
junk.") They probably decided that the easiest way out of this was to fix
the goddamn thing or replace it, because it was pretty obvious that I
wasn't just going to go away.

After much pissing and moaning, and with *very* ill grace, Blaupunkt USA
agreed to fix the unit so it would at least survive until the rest of the
warranty ran out. It has since broken down again, same problem, and
eventually I will remove it from my car and take it out to the rifle range
and use it for target practice.

Blaupunkt DOES NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS - you buy them at your own
risk. This isn't "something I heard about", this happened to ME.




Contrast to Audiovox, one of which I put into wife's car. It broke down
AFTER the warranty expired, and Audiovox said they would add an extra 30
days to their warranty under their "customer care" program, send it back,
we'll fix it or replace it - and they did, for FREE, and no pissing or
moaning!!!! Furthermore, the replacement unit is warrantied for 30 days
(and she just called me to say the replacement unit died, so I'll be
sending THAT one back, too.)


Conclusions - all these things stink, but at least with Audiovox, you have
a chance. With Blaupunkt, you're strictly on your own, and their warranty
doesn't even make good toilet paper.


Best Regards,

Mike Arman


>
>Crutchfield basically told me to go take a long walk off a short pier
>because the unit was 7-8 months old, that I'd have to get it repaired
>via Blaupunkt.
>
>Thankfully under warrantee, but it'll cost $$ to ship out for repair,
>and the repair place has said that turnaround time is 2-3 weeks.  And
>who knows if it'll break again in a few months?
>
>I never particularly liked the unit anyway...the front end sticks out
>-really- far from the dash(every other player on the market is flush,
>pretty much.)
>
>Still, it was better than most of the racer-boy-crap out there.  I
>don't want flashing lights, I don't want meaningless zoomy
>bar-graphs, I don't want a bright silver paintjob.
>
>   Black plastic.  Red backlighting.  Simple, ergonomic button layout.
>Good CD s/n ratio and a nice FM tuner.
>
>That's it, that's all I want...
>
>Brett
>--




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