Poor customer support from AudioVox
Written: Jan 05 '05 (Updated Oct 03 '07)
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Pros: Pretty light show when it works, front aux input is nice.
Cons: Very poor customer service, failed near warranty end, eventually repaired, failed again after two years.
The Bottom Line: Don't bother. Either poor durability OR poor customer service might be tolerable, but both together are killers. Moot point now, as I don't think these are available any longer.
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| kslauson's Full Review: Audiovox MP-3510 Car CD/ MP3 Player |
The player worked for about 10 months, though I had to reset it from time to time. Like many others have reported, it quit reading CDs of any type.
Talking to AudioVox customer support is like talking to a broken recording (pun intended). "Send it to ProTech" is the robot response. I did, at my own expense, in the original packaging plus protective overpacking.
Several weeks later, the same unit came back, except now the original packing was broken into pieces and stuffed around the outside of the box. And the unit was still broken; in fact, it was worse than before. I don't know what ProTech did to it, but it wasn't repaired.
Further correspondence with AudioVox and ProTech have thus far been useless ("Send it to Protech, awk!" is all I got from AudioVox, even after I explained I'd already tried that), though the customer service lady at ProTech, Joan, is at least polite.
In my opinion, these units are lemons. Based on almost every post on the net, it's gonna break, and when it does, AudioVox will not honor the warranty, if it happens within a year. It appears that they will point their finger to ProTech, and ProTech will fail to repair it, instead offering to "split" the cost of shipping it back and forth with you. After a few rounds of this, you will be out the cost of another unit.
AudioVox also now owns Jensen, Magnate, Mac Audio, Heco, Acoustic Research and Advent. I would steer clear of these brands too if you care about warranties. As it is, I think I "rented" the player for about $15/month.
When it was working, it had the annoying habit of skipping the first few seconds of every MP3 song. The lack of fast forward or reverse is awkward, and moving from folder to folder is also harder than it should be. My unit didn't last long enough for the front panel to break, but others have reported problems with that too. If you do have to own one, buy it cheaply and consider it a disposable unit.
Protech Electronics,
12215 Hampton Way Dr.
Wake Forest, NC 27587,
Phone 919.562.5445, Fax 919.562.4902
E-Mail Help@JensenMobileAudio.Com
http://www.jensenmobileaudio.com/
March 2005 Update
After much correspondence, some net-sleuthing of the AudioVox VIPs, and persistence, eventually AudioVox and Protech decided to honor their warranties. They shipped me another "repaired" unit, which lasted about 2 hours. After further discussion both with Protech and an AudioVox executive, I shipped both my original defective unit and the "replacement" back at their cost. Several weeks later my original unit came back. I've been using for about a week now, and it is working well. So I'm happy to have the product working, but it took five months to get to this point. The value of my time invested in this is more than the value of the unit. If it fails again, I'll get something else. Still, it's nice while it lasts.
June 2005 Update
It's still working! I tried to send a thank you note back to the email above, but it bounced. I don't know if they are still in business or not.
September 2007 Update
The unit lasted for about two years. It quit playing CDs again, just like before. I've tried resetting it several times with no effect. I plan to pull it out and replace it, probably with a Pioneer DEH-1900MP. I'm hoping that the connector cable is compatible, otherwise I'll do some rewiring. If I'm really lucky, the IR codes will match. In any case, I'm done with Audiovox/Jensen et al.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 129
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Epinions.com ID:
kslauson
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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