I'll remove names & such, but I'll keep it accurate.
On Mar. 10th, I brought my AVR 325 into the local Future Shop because the volume kept adjusting after releasing the volume key on the remote. The same would happen if I used the cursor keys to adjust anything else.
The counter person gave me the remotes back, saying the depot won’t need them. A couple of days later, the depot called & said that they do need the remotes. I brought both the main & the zone 2 remotes in on Mar. 21st.
I inquired twice about the repair status & both times was told that the depot was waiting for the remotes. I told them that I had brought them in & was told that the depot was probably repairing it then.
Four weeks after bringing it in, I managed to reach someone at the repair center. She said that the remotes never came in so they didn't fix anything & shipped it back to the store on Apr. 6th. I called the store & was told that they'd look into it. No one called back so I called & spoke to a manager.
I was going to go there to speak to him in person, but he said that before I do that, he’ll look into it. He called back a few minutes later & said that when they get it on Monday the 11th, he'll check it & if it was working, he'd order 2 new remotes, presumably since they'd lost mine. If it wasn't working, he said he'd try to pull a few strings & get me a replacement.
Monday came & he never called. On Tuesday the 12th, Kevin from the store called & said he tested it, it was working fine & a remote was in the box. I went there that evening & spoke to a department manager. He called the first manager at home & told me he would come in on his day off on Wed. the 13th & call me at work so I could go over there to see him test it. Needless to say, again, he never called. Kevin did call & said that he tested it & they put the remote from the store display AVR 335 in the box, but the mangager would check it on the 14th & then I could take it back.
I called the store on the 14th to find out if the manager was there & was told that he’d be in at 1pm.
I called Harman Kardon Canada & spoke to a customer rep. After telling her my experience so far, she said to go to the store & if the situation wasn’t resolved, I should call her from the store & she’d speak to her supervisor & have a resolution.
I went to the store at 1pm when the manager was scheduled to arrive. After waiting five minutes, Kevin & who I think was the manager walked past me & got my receiver. If it was the manager, he didn’t even bother saying anything to me. Kevin took me to one of the displays to hook the receiver up so I could see it working. I asked where the manager was & was told that he was in a meeting.
When Kevin opened it, I noticed that the thin foam wrapping that I had used so it wouldn't get marked was missing. When he hooked it up, he asked if I had the power cord. I said that it had been sent in with the receiver & that it must have also been lost. I also told him that the manager said he was going to order 2 new remotes (both the main remote & the zone 2 remote were lost) & that I wasn’t going to accept the used remotes from their display unit. He said that they were going to loan me the display remote & that when the replacement remotes came in I could exchange it.
He got another power cord & the receiver did work, so he left it running for the afternoon to make sure the problem didn’t happen once the unit warmed up.
I called the Harman Kardon rep back & told her that the power cord had also been lost & what was being done. She started a file so there would be a record if I had anymore problems.
At 5pm, I went to pick it up. I asked Kevin when they were going to order the new remotes & he said that they were going to have to figure out how they were going to handle that. He also said that he was going to give me a Belkin replacement power cord. I told him that the Harman Kardon cord was a heavier gauge & that I wanted a Harman Kardon cord.
At the service desk, I asked Kevin when they were going to order the new remotes & was again told that they would have to see how they were going to handle that. To me, the only way to handle that is to order the remotes & power cord from the Harman Kardon distributor.
To add insult to injury, when I got home, there was a message on my answering machine from Future Shop stating that my receiver came in & was ready to be picked up.
I’m displeased with the lack of communication. When the service depot called to say they needed the remotes I told him that I’d bring the remotes in, a week later he should have called wondering where they were.
I’m also displeased with the lack of respect shown by the manager. The least he could have done was say that he had to go to a meeting & that Kevin would look after me & to contact him if I was still having problems.
I’m further displeased with the fact that I can’t get a definitive “Yes, they will order me new remotes & power cord.” Instead I get “We’ll have to see how we’re going to handle this.”
I've started a formal complaint with the Future Shop corporate office. All I want now is my missing parts ordered immediately.
On a better note, the IR receiving problem hasn't started yet. Perhaps it being unplugged for 5 weeks & the capacitors draining solved it. If it does come back, I'll be sure to call HK Canada first.
