Recomend a rt55i replacement

Meeks32

Last week I had my blown rt55i & cs400i speakers sent back(under warranty) to get fixed from circuit city. Today they call to inform me that the speakers were damaged during shipping and that I can go back to circuit city & get replacements. Now I have been down there & the one I bought them from only carry Monitor series now, & from what I have read they are below RTI line. And also the RTI line doesnt have a large bookshelf like the 55's. I also havent heard great things about the rti8 & that seems like it would be my next choice & im sure they wont give me any 12's, so what do you guys recomend. Im sure I will get the "listen for yourself", but the stores here in orlando have horrid listening rooms that are out in the open.

PolknPepsi

Just the past two days I have been thinking about what would be a good replacement for my 55i's and was wondering about the lsi9's?? Really do not need anything big and would maybe like to step up if at all.......curious. .........Pat

gidrah

I would recommend you suggest the manager's head as an even trade. Tell him you not only want an equivelent replacement, but you would like the damaged speakers returned also.

okiepolkie

I had the same thing happen with my set of RT1000's. I was just a little peeved, but they only cost me $250 anyway. I didn't really think about wanting them back to redo them. It is a shame that CC does not carry the better Polk models anymore. I would have bought my LSi's there if they had carried them or could order them.

If you would like to get the LSi's, them get something with your in-store credit and sell it to get what you want. I just bought a set of RTi6's for $130 and RTi4's for $100. They are selling for a little more on ebay, so you could even make money with the deal if you really wanted to.

Hope everything works out well for you.

Meeks32

Nevermind, I just went down there & talked with some people. Turns out since I got my 55i's for $200 that they would only give me a pair of monitor30's! So I ask to speak with a manager & tell him the deal, but I must have gotten the stupidest manager in the world to talk to because it felt like I was talking to a wall. He says to me the 30's have the exact same spec sheet as the 55's & thats all I can get, so I beging to argue with him saying that he's crazy if he's gonna sit there & tell me to my face that a bookshelf speaker twice the size with 2 6.5in woofers & a tri-lam tweeter will sound the same as a small bookshelf with a 5 1/4" midbass. Obviously you dont have to know crap about audio to run a audio store. So I tell him that I have other speakers that I specifically got because they were matched with the 55's(400i & 500's) & he tries to tell me every polk speaker it voice matched to sound the same. So at this point im just pissed that 1-this guy has no clue & 2-he's trying to insult my intelligence. I just checked the spec's for both on polks website & they arent even close. I should go back there with a print out & shove it in that guys face. Anyways in the end I just told him that polk has extra boxes & that I want my old ones shipped there & fixed. Im pissed!

bvette94

Have cc buy replacement cabinents from polk. Make them eat their mistake. also find out if they shipped them with insurance.maybe you can weasel a few dollars in to your pocket have new cabinents and your speakers fixed.Tell the manager that if you cant get results from him you want to speak to his boss regardless of who he/she is and what level of mgmt. Dont back down. For the future eliminate the middle man and email or call customer service yourself and handle the problem you could have taken the part out your self and shipped it back with a copy of your receipt and got your warranty honored in most cases. Polk customer service is one of the best i have ever dealt with.You wont be dissapointed. good luck

okiepolkie

Sorry the guy at your CC is a little off. Just because you get a good deal on speakers, it doesn't mean your willing to sacrifice quality. My manager here was pretty good to me(scored a good laptop for really cheap.)

Wish I had been posting on this forum when my RT1000's went bad. I would have had CC replace the cabinet too. My wife even mentioned the other day that she missed the tower speakers.

All in all I have had a lot better experiences with CC than BB with warranty work. I know Polk's cust serv is excellent and will deal with them next time instead of trying to mess with extended warranty work at the store.

Hope everything works out for you. Let us know how it works out.

okiepolkie

BTW How did your RT5's sound with the Rt55's. My first good Polk's were RT5's and I loved them for the size.

PolknPepsi

Olkie, if you like the RT5........you will absoloutly love the 55I.....

IMHO........:) .......Pat

I thought about getting rid of my RT5's.

okiepolkie

I have just sold my RT5's and have upgraded to LSi7's. I lkie them even more. Over the past year I have had RT5's as mains, upgraded to RT1000's(which got damaged during warranty service at CC), went back to RT5's, then sold everything(including a set of RT35's, RTi4's and an RTi6) to get one set of LSi7's.
My wife even noticed a big difference in sound quality with the 7's. Like I said, she liked the towers, but I really couldn't tell that much difference between the towers and the bookshelfs with a subwoofer. Maybe it was my listening room, which was not at all suited for good audio reproduction.

I am happy with my current setup, even if it is not all I WANT.

PolknPepsi

Okie,
Any chance you checked out the lsi9 when you bought the 7's?

I was just wondering...........interesting to hear you have the 7's with a sub............I have thought about the same set-up myself a time or two.
......Pat

okiepolkie

No, I didn't get audition any of the LSi speakers before I bought my 7's. There are not any stores in Memphis that carry them. I went solely on my previous experiences with Polk and reviews from others on different forums and magazines. I wish I could help you out a little more.

I do know I hear a lot more detail in the higher frequencies with this tweeter than I did with the soft domes(not sure about the trilaminate ones since I didn't have any at the time).

Meeks32

Alright, its not looking too good on my side. Ive been talking to every manager I could up to the district manager for central florida & they arent cooperating. They are saying it isnt cost effective for them to repair my speakers. Ive bitched to them saying thats not my problem since they dammaged the boxes during shipping. They have offered 3 things, I can get the monitor 30's(big downgrade), I can get some open box rti6's from another store & I havent seen their condition & the guy couldnt tell me, or I can get my $200 back that I paid for them. Now I definatly dont want my money back cause there isnt anything that I can get for that that could compair. The only thing I have left to do is call the manager at the customer service center in Atlanta that told the managers in my local store that he wouldnt repair them. I might just threaten them with legal action. Im not worried about the price of my speakers, I just dont like being taken advantage of & think that its BS what they are doing. What do you guys think? Would I stand a chance if it did come to that in a court room? I thought they were suposed to HELP the customer, not piss them off by being cheap. I hope their F(*#$($ company goes bankrupt.

PolknPepsi

I do know for a fact that a lawyer can be very expensive.......

A guy just has to decide is it worth spending say....2000 dollars for an attorney to recover 1000 dollars in goods......

Pat

bvette94

Demand the speakers to be returned .then demand that you get reimbursed the $200.00. buy a cabinent from polk and have polk warranty the defective speakers. you might come out a few dollars ahead. minus the headache. it might be worth a try. Good luck.

sowen010599

Simply put, the speakers should have been insured for replacement value in the event that they were damaged in shipping. With that, they would be responsible for replacing the speakers with a comparable or better model. Because that model is no longer in production, and there really isn't a current model comparable to it, it would seem that they would have to have them repaired cost effective or not. OR they would be should give you the replacement value of the speakers.

If it were me, my next action would be to contact the BBB and file a complaint. Failing that, shoe polish "Circuit City screwed me!" on the back of your car, and park it across the street from them. That has actually worked for me in the past. I had a paint peeling problem with a GMC truck I bought new years ago. They told me that it was a common problem with that model/color but there was nothing they would do for me. I went up and down the management chain to no avail. Finally, I did exactly that. I wrote "(insert dealership name here) screwed me! Look at this paint!" on the front and back windows of the truck. After 2 days f having that parked across the street from them, and the local news picking it up as a funny story, I got a free paint job!

Meeks32

Lol! I just got my cs400i back since it wasnt damaged & it apears they put the wrong tweeter in. They put what looks like a silk dome or something. Its a RD6515 if anyone knows what model those came in. Jeez circuit city sucks.

Meeks32

Nevermind, just contacted Polk & it apears that is the replacement for the tri-lams now. I can already see my resale value going down. Anyone know what the new materials are in the tweeters?

Jstas

Originally posted by PolknPepsi
I do know for a fact that a lawyer can be very expensive.......

A guy just has to decide is it worth spending say....2000 dollars for an attorney to recover 1000 dollars in goods......

Pat

If it comes down to something like this, you can usually get legal fees included in the judgement and if the plaintiff can show that he/she has gone out of thier way and expended more time and resources following through on this, they can go for reparations for thier time also. It's a stretch to go for reparations but, depending on how CC has handled teh problem, it could get to that point.

Bottom line though, if Meeks signed an extended warranty contract, he needs to take that to his lawyer, tell the lawyer the story and I'm pretty sure they would see it as a breech of contract. All the guy wants is the speakers that CC screwed up, fixed properly and returned to him.

I'm sure this weighs heavy on Polk Audio too. I don't think they like seeing thier customers treated this way.

amulford

I didn't know they were replacing the Tri - Lams with silks. I'd get a different take on that. As far as a replacement, I don't think you'll get a direct replacement for them.

I'd be emailing Paul right about now. I WOULD NOT BE HAPPY with CC. Probably would have made a huge scene, Like picket the store with a HUGE sign...Yelled "LAWSUIT" at the top of my lungs repeatedly....

What a mess!

VR3

Yes, Polk stopped making the old RT tri lams...no longer available

They cant let you use the older older tri lams either, the baffle on that line was not as thick as the line after it (to what I have been told)

Silks