Worst speaker buying experience ever - SPEARIT SOUND

Joey_V

Sorry to hear about your ordeal D. When I bought my speakers, I expected to be treated well.... or I walk out, I dont care what kind of discount you're giving. But in your case, you already have the speakers, dont return it - too much hassle. Make sure they know you're upset (cfrizz did that) and let them make it up to you.

crazy

I have no problem is posting their side of the story so here it is.

cfrizz, thank you for your help in getting their side of the story.

Hi Crazy.

Their main concern is the fact that they never got a check from you, so they had no choice but to charge your credit card. Needless to say they are confused.

They have been in business a long time & I have paid them with a personal check just last year & the transaction went just fine. Losing peoples checks is not good for business.

As for the snobbery, yeah it can happen, & one of them did get kind of uppity with me, but I kind of expect it in the smaller shops. But all in all they are a very helpful professional bunch of people.

Like I said I hope everything works out for you & I will leave it up to you if you want to post this response to the thread.

So all I want to add to this is that checks and paperwork will and do get lost - they don't have a computer to track their transaction, so it's all paper. Which is fine. All they had to do was say, "sorry we can't find your check so can we charge your CC?" - or atleast be a little polite instead of getting all defensive and keep repeating "there's no check" on the phone. Right?

Well, I did later speak with Ray who was as polite as ever and confirmed that once they get the replacement check (which I mailed in) they will take that charge out of my credit card.

Now isn't it common business practice and proper business etiquette to let the customer know before they put a large amount on their credit card? That's all I'll say in my defence.

Like I've said several times, it wasn't all a bad experience - there was the good, bad and ugly... but in the end, I do have amazing music at my home

Oh and I do want to thank Joey_V for helping me get an amazing deal on the Krell 400Xi.

JOEY_V you rock!!! :cool:

crazy

cfrizz - you need to clear your PM mail box

cfrizz has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

SKsolutions

@#$%

SKsolutions

Living 1.5 miles from their Boston Store, I've had occasion to stop in. I expect some condescending attitude, but rarely go I get it. In my last visit, I was in "Contractors attire", driving my 10 year old Saturn (34mpg !), looking for the cheapest DVD player they sell. I doubt they would have recognized me as the same man that has also shown up in suit and tie, looking at the Statement pieces. If there was any difference, it would be that they felt they had to explain the basics to me when I was wearing a suit and tie. I won't say that snobbery doesn't exist there, because it does. Sometimes it's the expectation of getting it, and the defensiveness of the consumer. I know I've done it. I'm not saying this was the case with you Crazy.

WilliamM2

Why bother sending a check if they already charged it? I would have just sent the check to your credit card, eliminates the risk of them losing this one too.

cfrizz

Cleaned out now.

crazy wrote:

cfrizz - you need to clear your PM mail box

cfrizz has exceeded their stored private messages quota and can not accept further messages until they clear some space.

brettw22

WilliamM2 wrote:

Why bother sending a check if they already charged it? I would have just sent the check to your credit card, eliminates the risk of them losing this one too.

That's what I was thinking too......

Joey_V

crazy wrote:

Oh and I do want to thank Joey_V for helping me get an amazing deal on the Krell 400Xi.

JOEY_V you rock!!! :cool:

D-

You make me smile and blush and feel all good "karma" inside. I'm glad you went the way of my dealer... he's a stand up guy! He even knows that my ML Summits were bought used and he still honors the ML warranty, knowing that ML doesnt honor second owner ML speakers! Super guy... you should meet him, I'm sure he is far and away, better than the guys you met at Spearit Sound.

Glad you like, er.... love?, the Krell.... that wouldve been my piece you punk!

JK!

Back to topic, I really hope that this bad experience does not leave a bad taste in your mouth with regards to your wickedly good 804S..... keep rocking, D!

crazy

Joey_V wrote:

You make me smile and blush and feel all good "karma" inside. I'm glad you went the way of my dealer... he's a stand up guy! He even knows that my ML Summits were bought used and he still honors the ML warranty, knowing that ML doesnt honor second owner ML speakers! Super guy... you should meet him, I'm sure he is far and away, better than the guys you met at Spearit Sound.

Yup - he's awesome! I actually didn't deal directly with him since he was on vacation but with a lady who had an amazingly sexy voice

Joey_V wrote:

Glad you like, er.... love?, the Krell.... that wouldve been my piece you punk!

I thought you're in love with the Rotel 1090!!! Maybe I can swing you over to the dark (metalic finished black) side to the Krell 400Xi. I guess with the (beast of a) speaker set you have, you need something a little more powerful.

Joey_V wrote:

Back to topic, I really hope that this bad experience does not leave a bad taste in your mouth with regards to your wickedly good 804S..... keep rocking, D!

Oh, I've (almost) forgotten that with those black beauties playing gorgeous music almost 24/7 (atleast when I'm home). My wife also really loves the system -- and you know how important that is

crazy

I just got off the phone with Ray - this guy is amazing!

He's the man and I don't have enough great words to say about him. I just feel like kicking myself for going to pick up the speakers when he wasn't there - would have saved me a lot of headache.

This is how he took care of me and made this shopping experience a pleasant one again ...

1) Credited my card for the amount that was charged without my permission

2) Created a new receipt with all the pertinent details

3) Mailed me a complete new set of wires with the cable covers and banana plugs (!!!)

Chris had already mailed me the jumper cables.

So what turned out to be a not so fun Monday afternoon in Boston has now turned out to be a great shopping experience thanks to the amazing Ray.

I really wish that these folks were on commission (they are not), since I would always take my business to Ray and tell everyone I meet and post on every forum to go see this guy - he's the man (along with Joey_V of course) :cool:

Next time you go to Spearit Sound, always make sure you speak to Ray Krise.

btw ... I think Ralph is the owner of the store :eek:

cfrizz

I have always gotten outstanding help from Leland. The others have treated me good as well.

But what's important here is that when brought to their attention they made it right!

brettw22

I'm not typically so forgiving with companies personally.....

Great, so they fixed the wrongs after they had your money and pissed ya off.......these companies aren't supposed to be playing 'catch up' with customer service...

I'd still be taking my future business elsewhere...........but congrats nonetheless.

cfrizz

Brett, everyone makes mistakes at least they did their best to get things straightened out.

Now IMO if it was me, since I would have had to drive 200 miles in to pick up the speakers anyway, I would have hand delivered the check right to them at the sametime. Especially when we are talking that much money. I certainly wouldn't trust the mail!

That way something like this wouldn't happen.

F1nut

Mn.....

crazy

cfrizz wrote:

Now IMO if it was me, since I would have had to drive 200 miles in to pick up the speakers anyway, I would have hand delivered the check right to them at the sametime. Especially when we are talking that much money. I certainly wouldn't trust the mail!

That's precisely what I did the first time - hand delivered the check - it got lost!!!

Second time around I send the check by mail - registered. Problem sorted.

Moral of the story - trust the mail - atleast you can track the package :-)

F1nut

I had only put the deposit on the card and had written a check for the balance. I called them and the only response they could give was "there's no check". Boy, were they rude. They were unbelievably rude.

Anyway, long story short - I'm mailing them another check and putting a hold on the previous check. This is probably the last time I'm dealing with them.

Oops, so right you are.

madmax

We need someone ready to spend $50K to go in, let one of the dicks do all the selling and then walk out with nothing after he learns the name of the salesperson and verbally relates what he read about them on some website to the manager.
madmax

crazy

Ok, so here's the last chapter (hopefully) to this chapter ...

Returned the speakers - why? because 1 of the speakers were bad. It was distorting and even though it was covered under warantee, I decided to return them.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40323

I did get a pair of new B&W 804s and learnt my lesson the hard way - i.e. don't go in for used or demo speakers. They may save you some $$$ but sometime it might not be worth it.

I'm an optimistic so I'll end the saga by saying, all's well that ends well

cfrizz - should have let you know that I was heading there. Who knows we could have bumped into each other

cfrizz

I'm happy everything worked out for you Crazy! Enjoy your new speakers.

miner

What kind of deal did they give you for the demo speakers? I bought my B&W N804 new in 2005 for $2800 with tax. The B&W jumpers have spades on both ends, BTW. I reecently upgraded my amp to the Rotel RB-0192 and now the Bee & Dubbs really sing.

simphiwes

i can so identify with this gentleman who's had a bad buying experience. this happens a lot in South Africa. i have often gone into a shop to buy audio equipment, be it speakers or cable or dvd or cd player and 9 times out of 10 times i'd get bad attitude as if i am not supposed to be buying the stuff or i am stupid for buying polk over B&W, at one time the guy called them 'cheap ****' polkaudio that is. we wont all like the same audio equipment but that does not mean you need to trash my tastes and make me feel like i am a ****. i actually decided to just import everything i want and only deal with the people that are willing to sell to me and be decent about it as well, if not the can kiss my @#$.

crazy

miner wrote:

What kind of deal did they give you for the demo speakers? I bought my B&W N804 new in 2005 for $2800 with tax. The B&W jumpers have spades on both ends, BTW. I reecently upgraded my amp to the Rotel RB-0192 and now the Bee & Dubbs really sing.

The demos were going for $3000. $2800 seems a really amazing price. I haven't seen anyone get lower than $3000 on new speakers.

The best I got was 15% on new speakers but that seemed ok since every other dealer in this region was willing to do 10% max on new speakers. I got a great deal on the Krell though (thanks to one of the valued members of this forum)

So, yes - I did pay a premium on these speakers from what I've heard others get it for ($3000-3200) but I've not heard of anyone get it for this low a price. That's certainly an amazing price on those speakers!