ScrapMaker

Damnit! I should have sent it in before, like everyone already suggested! I had been told by several Best Buy employees (at the service counter,) that I can renew the service plan on my stereo. Unfortunately, to actually renew the plan, I have to call up Best Buy headquarters. The woman there told me I cannot renew a car stereo. Only home audio and select few devices can renew the four year plan.

I am literally running to Best Buy now to send in my DEH-p8600mp. The plan expires on the 26th of September.

The problem list is as follows:
1. RCA (fusable link/ground) blown -- causing noise unless I ground the RCAs manually
2. Intermittent problem with the faceplate not opening--makes the sound, but does not respond...
3. Had a problem for a few weeks where the unit would just shut off completely, and come back on and off randomly... I checked the wiring, but no luck... it hasn't done that for about a month.
4. Has horrible MP3 accuracy during playback. Many types of media, burning methods, and actual mp3s will skip, or 'pop' during playback... this is really the ONLY reason I'm sending it in... but the the faceplate mechanism is pretty important I guess.

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

After getting screwed around a bit on their so called extended warranty, I decided to never buy from them again. And i've stuck to it. Heck its prob been 4 yrs now, they can kiss my...

ScrapMaker

How did you get screwed by their warranty? I've used it four whole times now.

Gone from Jensen, Sony, Kenwood, to Pioneer. Now I'm using it to get the Pioneer repaired.

The planed completetion date for my repair is October 6th, which is after my warranty is up... I hope they still honor the exchange or whatever, if the unit is un-repairable.

Even though I love the 8600, I secretly hoping that the computer was going to let him give me store credit right then, because then I'd just get the p80, and a brand-new 4 year plan.

Now if I ever have a problem with my pioneer, I'm out of luck.

The optical pickup/circuitry was the real reason I sent it in, so I hope they can fix that for me.

Dan8289gta

Been screwed twice with it because the sales guys will lie to sell it because they make commision on it. **** best buys extended warranty.

SweetRide45

iTrader: (2)

They don't even HAVE anything good in that dept. or even home stereo's either! I'd never get their $hit...usually just get CD's or somethin' from 'em

ScrapMaker

well when I got my 8600 they had a whole bunch of good stuff! the high end sony hard drive player, the sony with the dvd widescreen display, the 86/9600 pioneers, some excelon kenwood stuff, panasonic $450 decks, and a few others...

they just totally went down hill..

I may just take the store credit (if they can't fix it,) and buy something else I need, or trade someone else for cash, then buy what I really want from some other store... who knows what will happen though.

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

if they are making commision on anything in any department of best buy then it's illegal. or at least it use to be many years ago when i worked there. circuit city is commision, best buy isn't.

ScrapMaker

Yup, that's why they don't really push the extended warranty any more than they have to.

For $40, my warranty has been MORE than worth it. Every year I have been able to upgrade to the latest and greatest headunit... which may just happen again... although, it seems that I already have the greatest... hrm

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

They were good at first way back when they opened up around here, I was always told that they would swap the item if it wasnt working properly, after a vega sub i bought for a friend mysteriously died, they replaced it with a fosgate HE (after fosgate went downhill) model and it blew, think at that point they were giving me fuss, before that issue i had a problem with my 500a2 (before the sudden jump downhill) and they didnt want to swap it and sent it here and then there, a full month without an amplifier.

They can take their low end junk and keep it for all I care. The funny part is I used to buy new stereo stuff so often it wasnt even funny just to play with new stuff so they lost a good bit of business from me. Not to mention any friends / family I can redirect

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

i've seen people pull some real bad things before. i have no idea how their policy is but the general public isn't normal. i wouldn't offer anything goes warranties either.

reguardless best buy use to do that, circuit city pretty much still does.

ScrapMaker

Circuit City has an anything-goes warranty policy still?

I hadn't really considered going over there, since the stuff is usually slightly more expensive... but if they have a badass warranty, I might take a look.

SweetRide45

iTrader: (2)

Crutchfield is pretty damn good on warranty too. Circuit City is nice, b/c it's convenient to just go in there and grab your $hit. Crutch is fast on shipping and it's free, plus they have pretty much all the recent/high end $hit for sale.

ScrapMaker

Yeah, too bad crutchfield is sometimes hundreds of dollars more expensive than BB or CC.

DSLDUDE2001

Best Buy has not worked on commision for years now.

Dan8289gta

Well this was back around 2001 or so, havent bought anything there in a while.

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

Yeah but my stuff wasnt pulling bad things, the vega blew while only being hooked to an older soundstream 200 watt amp. Problems with my 500a2 and it was hooked to a single 10. Fosgate had already gone downhill, and best buys service started to suck, so my business has permantely been relocated.

ScrapMaker

I'm curious as to where you can find a better warranty than Best Buy, other than Circuit City that Kandied mentioned.

Every audio shop I've been to basically gives you 1yr labor, but they send your deck in for repair if it's been longer than 30 days... That's a bunch of crap, as they should just give you a new one and send in the old one. My friend had to wait two months with no headunit, only for JVC to send it back saying there was, "No Problem Found." That didn't change the fact that he can hear the internals of the deck playing through the speakers...

If you have found some place better than the two mainstream stores... we should create a new sticky.

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

sometimes you can deal with them if you find a ligit lower price and not a ebay price which is nice.

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

without professional installation in most instances a warranty truly doesn't have to hold up to anything. i've seen people blow amps not installing fuses and trying to pull too much load. reguardless i understand where your coming from but your claims aren't truly justified. now if they installed it and it blew and they wouldn't fix it, that's a different story.

in another point though installation of amps is pretty straight forward, if the item was relatively new it should not have mattered if you had a warranty or not, if it was towards the end of the warranty or past the warranties point then again it's a different story as when referring to above anything can happen.

if you truly had a problem though and had the warranty to back your issue you should have fought it. every best buy store is different and they all honor the warranty.

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

best buy and circuit city both have their own "stores" that fix the product, most companies are like this which can be good or bad. having worked for both companies i prefer circuit city and their warranty above all but best buy can have it's advantages. factory warranties really aren't worth a damn these days. you just have to weigh the options, if your warranty costs more then half the price of the headunit and doesn't last at least 3 years don't bother.

ScrapMaker

luckily, best buy warranties are $39.99 for four years... and as long as you don't buy Pioneer, they swap it out at the store, instantly.

I didn't know this before-hand, but I still love my 8600mp, I think I'd do it again in a flash...

Although, it would be nice to NOT have to do this



The sound lakes definition... almost hurts my ears...

I was pondering building a Carputer, but I'm saving up for a Trans Am, as well as a good set of kickpanel enclosures/components.

Plus, you can't see any sub-$1000 LCD screen during the daytime... making it almost useless...

I had to make two, custom 4-way RCA splitters. Left channel input, and outputs for front/rear/sub... Ditto for the right channel. Worked out well, and cost me about $8.

UCF1Slider

1. Best Buy has never offered comission to its employees.

2. It may take 3 weeks to get your headunit sent out to be fixed (if it doesn't get switched out right away which most do) but think how long it would take you to save up for that new replacement headunit if you hadn't spent the $40 that covers all parts and labor, regardless if you had them install it. If you DID have Best Buy install it they warranty their installations for life too.

3. Speakers and subs get swapped out for comparable replacements - period. You can't fix a blown speaker or subwoofer. Headunits and amps are usually the only things that get serviced and when those break you better believe it costs Best Buy more than the $40 you spent originally to get them fixed so if you have to use their warranty even once, you got your money's worth.

4. Best Buy carries Alpine... one of the top audio electronics companies in the world. I don't see where the quality of products that are carried by Best Buy have gone down at all. In fact I believe they've gone up - Sony, JVC, Pioneer, Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, Kenwood... if they started selling Kicker and JL Audio there'd be no better place to go to shop for car audio stuff.

5. Best Buy sends products to the manufacturer for repair while the unit is still under manufacturer warranty (usually the first year) to try to reduce the amount of time you have to go without your unit while it's being repaired. After the first year they have no choice but to send it to their own service centers and the turn around time goes up because they have to wait for the manufacturers to send them parts that they need to do the repairs. The blame for long turn-around times should be placed on the manufacturer... not Best Buy.


Yes, in case you were wondering, I do work for Best Buy so I know the policies and procedures. It's tough having customers yell at you all day long because the product they bought broke (which is inevitable) and they don't understand that Best Buy sells the equipment - Best Buy doesn't make it. It's not Best Buy's fault it broke but they do offer service plans at very low cost so that they can fix it if/when it happens so you don't have to spend your hard earned money all over again for the same thing you bought just over a year ago that's outside of manufacturer's warranty. If you buy a service plan and have to use it to repair your unit, even if it's only one time, then you save yourself a lot of money... trust me. I've seen the cost of repairs on a lot of different products and believe me you won't want to spend the money for the repairs if you don't get the service plan to cover it.

Real life example:
$900 computer, $120 service plan.

Motherboard, CPU, and power supply get fried from a power surge in a lightning storm. Covered by manufacturer? Nope, not a manufacturer defect. Covered by Best Buy service plan? Yup, power surge covered under plan. Cost of repairs if no service plan: $350 for parts + $100 for labor = $450 total.

Original service plan was $120 that covered your computer AND monitor... so that plan saved you about 4 times the cost of the original service plan. If their repair is un-economical for Best Buy to get all the parts and spend the labor to fix it - they swap out your product for something comparable to what you had no matter how long you've had it within the policy. A lot of the time the policy even carries over for the remainder to that BRAND NEW unit that replaced your messed up unit. Also, if your unit has had 3 repairs and requires a 4th repair, they swap out your unit for a comparable new unit under their no-lemon policy. AND if you've had a repair done there's a 90-day warranty on the parts and labor they performed even if your service contract expires before the end of those 90 days. Plus your contract (in most cases) is renewable for a couple extra years if you want to continue the policy.

I don't know of any place I'd rather buy electronics then Best Buy because the sales-people are knowledgeable, the warranties are un-rivaled, and the products are better and cheaper than most places you can find.

Just my two cents. (Or two dollars I guess from the length of my reply) :P

NEEDAZ

You may work for them, but that's not true. The only car audio products this would apply to Sony. Every thing other then Sony they fix, or send to me...

Dan8289gta

Well i guess i may be wrong about the comission but here,in the past the sales guys there have gone way out of their way to lie about the coverage and benifits of the warranty.

NEEDAZ

ScrapMaker

I like Best Buy and all, but every damn place lies about their warranties... and will try crap like "moisture damage"...

while I was waiting in line to send in my headunit, a guy was there with a camera that was like 3 months old, and it started behaving erratically. Taking pictures inverted, flipping them, grainy, spotty, etc... Best Buy repair center told him it was moisture damage, and he must have dropped it in water. -- I call B.S. on that... The same thing happened to me on a previous cell phone I owned. The warranty was through Radio Shack, but nearly the same thing. Radio Shack' own repair center told me it was moisture damage, when clearly I have never dropped it or gotten it wet... it had been in a protective casing it's entire life...

"Moisture Damage"
"Water Damage"
"Corrosion on the Board"

all mean that basically they aren't gonna honor their end of the bargain...

luckily, they really can't accuse me of dropping my headunit in water, since BB usually installs it for me, for free...

All-in-all, I like Best Buy... but UCF1Slider... you must admit that in the last year or so, their "higher end" stereo models have been lacking... I mean, hell, when I went out to Best Buy to get my 8600, they had the following on the shelf I could pick from:
Pioneer DEH-P8600MP
Sony CDX-M9905X
JVC KD-SHX700

I also believe there was some badass Panasonic and Kenwood as well...

now... all they have is the DEH-P80MP, and that buggy $450 alpine...

I have been told it's because no one was really reaching for the +$399 decks... and that those people would prefer to order from "specialty shops"... I'd rather get a badass warranty from Best Buy,
and get an awesome product... but we'll see... in February, I think... when they get new products in...



*sniff*

NEEDAZ

Hows the 8600 coming?

ScrapMaker

It's been exactly two weeks... I guess I should call them right now...

let's find out, shall we?

we = me

ScrapMaker

Interesting... they just got it in today, and the repair slip notes that they "replaced cd mechanism"... and replaced "cable"

that's it...

are these people notorious for not documenting things very well, or what?

I sent it in for the following, (exact quote from service slip.):

"unit skips while playing mp3s, the faceplate will intermittently not open, the unit will randomly power off/on, and the rca fusable link is possibly broken giving grounding problems - GNG"

whatever the hell GNG means...

At least I get a 90-day "repair warranty"... regardless of my service plan expiring in four days.

I need to find out quick if it's fixed or not... then if it's not, take it right back.. so if they really can't fix it properly, I can get at least store credit for it before it's too late...

I was hoping to hear the girl say, "It says they replaced the mainboard, whatever that means, teeheehe!"

but nope... so now I'm kinda worried

it also didn't say anything about repacking the grease or anything about the faceplate(which somehow also had dust inside it, on the screen! annoying)... so we'll see...

except that faceplate thing was VERY random... like 3 days a month (sometimes lasted a whole day---just kept the same CD in if it happened.) so I may not find out before the 26th, or even the "90-day" repair-guarantee expires...

I'll be able to pick it up sometime later today... then I'll know for sure. At least the 'repair' was 'completed' about twice as fast as I expected.

NEEDAZ

PM me the tag number. I can't check it in our system, but I can make a call or two...

NEEDAZ

I'd ohm out the RCA ground as soon as you get it back. There are no notes about lubricating the mechanism or repairing the ground at the RCAs. They did put a new CD mechanism and they replaced the ribbon cable to the faceplate. Ether they didn't make good notes anywhere in the tag (but did fix the ground and lube the unit), or they short-cut your unit.
If the ground is still open send it back in and I'll get you the TSB# for lubricating the drive mechanism.

ScrapMaker

I hooked up the unit and the RCA ground was not repaired.

I have a feeling all they did was repair the cd mechanism, as well as the ribbon cable, as you put it.

The guy at the counter was an old friend from highschool... he told me that if the unit was not repaired and I came back and complained... that they may just give me store credit... I don't know what to do... hell I spelled it out WORD FOR WORD on that repair ticket... now I have until the 26th to send it in... if they won't repair it, then I may be screwed, because by the time they get to it, it will be past the 26th deadline...

NEEDAZ

How are you testing the RCAs? If it ant' right, take it back. The TSB# for the faceplate problem is SQC05001. I would refference that when they make you a new tag. Is it still skipping?

ScrapMaker

I guess I should hook it back up to test the skipping, I was just so pissed that they didn't fix the RCA fuse, that I already uinstalled the headunit... I should probably test it a whole lot more... and maybe I should also have them clean the inside of the screen? Will they do that? There are a few dust particles inside the faceplate between the outter glass, and the LCD screen which just **** me off to no end.

I tested the RCA fusable link by hooking up the headunit... it made the same sound as before I sent it in... if it goes away by grounding the RCAs to the headunit chassis, doesn't it pretty much have to be the fusable link?

so maybe I should send it back with the specific TSBs...?
- RCA fusable link - ?
- Faceplate grease - SQC05001
- Clean out LCD - ?

what do you think.. should I demand my money back and get some new headunit (from anywhere,) or should I stick with the 8600? I theoretically wouldn't mind dropping another $200 or so... bringing the total to $700... is there ANY headunit that's significantly better?

any Alpines/Clarions/Eclipse decks that just blow you away that maybe I should seriously consider? If not, then I'm gonna run back down to BB and make them fix this... also is there anything else I should put on the service tag that you can think of? maybe a few things that are prone to go out that I could have repaired? dunno...

Thanks for all you're help though.

-Steve

ScrapMaker

I just played it for about an hour, and it doesn't appear to be skipping at all...

so I'm just going to send it in for:

-Faceplate lubrication
-RCA ground fusable link
-Dust in LCD

NEEDAZ

You've had just about every problem I've seen with that model. That stinks for. Just don't seen them with all these problems. BTW, it's just a fuse, not a fusable link. I'd send it back, they didn't fix it. And they should cleaned off the LCD. I hit the faceplate with compressed air anytime I take one apart. The static just pulls any dust right to the inside of that panel.

ScrapMaker

That's what I figured. Every LCD *Anything* I own has that problem, where a couple of dust particles get on the inside of the screen.

I sent it in for the "RCA Ground Fusable Link" because I thought that's what it was. That really shouldn't present a problem, seeing how it's so very obvious what the problem is, assuming they tested the unit before shipping it back!

I also sent it in for the faceplate grease TSB, and a "cleaning." I noticed that they didn't seem to clean anything, even though that's normally part of standard procedure, (according to my friend--and the 4-Year service plan agreement---but oh well.)

The worst part is it's going to take another forever-and-a-half to get it back... They just stick it right back in queue to be repaired. No expedition because of their mistake, no nothing. I have a radar detector from Beltronics that was demonstrating erractic behavior that I sent in for repair, and when I got it back, the speaker was fuzzy some of the time, (software issue,) but what was nice is that they sent out a pre-paid UPS label and said that my unit would be repaired by one of the supervising technicians---the day it came in...

I don't expect miracles from the repair center that Best Buy uses, but I'd at least hope the things I specifically send my headunit in for, get fixed... sheesh.

NEEDAZ

The problem with places like BB are that they run the shops on production numbers alone, no concept of quality. So a middle of the road tech needs to take short cuts to come any where near the production requirements that get handed to them. And like I said, no one looks at the quality of the work the techs are doing. So no one know that they hit there production numbers by half-a**ing the work. Tends to give ALL techs a bad name.

UCF1Slider

Most of the stuff I have to send out to the service centers within the 1 year manufacturer's warranty goes to manufacturer service centers... we don't get many headunits in for service I was mostly referring to laptops and such.

Also GNG would be the initials of the tech who created your paperwork to send the unit out to the service center

I agree with NEEDAZ about the production numbers thing... we get some units back that have 90% of the problems fixed but the tech might forget/not notice a problem on the paperwork so it doesn't get repaired.

Scrapmaker, how many repairs have you had done on the unit? If you've already sent it out for repair 3 times (and they replaced a part each time) then you should be able to get a new unit under the junkout policy of the service plan once they find a qualifying repair for the unit this time (if they determine they do need to replace a part.)

ScrapMaker

I guess I have sent in this unit twice now... but this deck was a replacement for a kenwood that went south on me...

when I walked in, the guy said, "Oh, it looks like it's been sent in three times?" I knew instantly that he was gonna say something about that junkout policy, so I immediately told him that it was an exchange. I don't want any other deck they offer at Best Buy, unless I absolutely had to. I love the 8600, and either manufacturers will come out with something that's finally better, or my next headunit will be an in-car computer... I just can't seem to find a daylight-viewable LCD screen that sells for a reasonable price.... I need an OLED screen, just like the headunits have now.

aaron7

iTrader: (7)

jeez... I guess I'm lucky! I've had my 8600 for over a year now with not one issue. Was there different revisions or something?

NEEDAZ

No. Scrappy just has bad luck.

ScrapMaker

considering now my car all screwed up, and there's no telling if I'll get the following:

a) enough to fix it properly, or,
b) enough money to buy a replacement car in the exact condition -- what I want. ($3500+)

I really want a GTA or TTA.

just in case you haven't been here yet.

NEEDAZ

More bad luck. Keeping fingers crossed for your new car.

ScrapMaker

yeah, actually I'm trying to combat bad luck, by saving up another $1000 to repair whatever goes bad.

I figure the engine, tranny, and suspension will break on me in the first week or so. The paint will flake off in under three months, and it will get broken into/stolen in the first year.

I need "Bad Luck" Insurance, but I don't think I could find anyone that would cover me... given my history. sigh.

ScrapMaker

You know I only drove this car for 6 months before the engine spun a bearing and failed on me? it also needed all new tires/springs/shocks/interior/paint and a new tranny---but I didn't know.

I paid 2750+ttl... cuz I had no idea I was getting screwed...

aaron7

iTrader: (7)

Oh well, look on the bright side... now you can get a V8!

ScrapMaker

It really depends on what I get for repair cost, or whatever.

People are telling me that I won't get mroe than like $1500 for repairs... because that will total the car. According to laws though I should be reimbursed for "Fair Market Value," which means they have to take the new motor, and lots of repairs into consideration.

MKnight

First of all, didn't you look at the fine print on the warranty broshure? It states it is not renewable, infact their warranty policy has been the same since the beginning in regards to this. The fact that they lied, well this is most unfortunate.

ScrapMaker

Ah, well apparently a lot of things ARE renewable, just not car audio and some computer parts. According to 1-800-BestBuy, that is.