VTI Customer Service SUCKS!!!

hearingimpared

I'm about to go to the mattresses with VTI but, I don't want to jump the gun yet and tell everyone NOT to by a VTI rack quite yet. But here are some disturbing facts:

I purchased the BL503 SB back in September and kept it in the original box until today. I opened the box up and gingerly unwrapped each component of the whole. I must say it was wrapped very well and was quite a pain in the **** to get all the scotch tape off of the small bubble - bubble wrap which is a good thing.

But then the horror started.

First off the build quality is so so. If you do not fill this rack with sand or small lead shot this baby will sing its own tune with resonances (plural) whe you start to play music in the vicinity of it. By the way good luck getting the end caps off to do that.

Secondly the 9" frame spikes do not match up with the bottom 3" frame spike holes.

Thirdly, one of the shelfs was warped.

Fourthly one of the shelfs had several chips at the corners

Fifthly the shelf did not firmly fit onto the frame pipes as a matter of fact they are just plain loose.

I called VTI customer service. . . I would have had better comunication using morse code to a 2 year old.

This woman, who spoke really poor english and was very short, snippy, and rude, told me, before I even told her what the problem was, that they could do nothing about any problem I had because I purchased the rack in September. I asked what that had to do with anything and her reply was, "all the time you have is gone." I told her that I had no idea of what she was talking about. I explained the problems and she said that it is my fault for waiting so long to open the box. She said I should have opened the box within 10 days and called the shipper to report damage. I told her there was no shipping damage at all that everything was firmly and very well packed and there was no crushed or dented corners on the box, etc, etc, etc. Next she tells me, at least this is what I understood her to say, to take a rubber mallet and continuously bang on the 9" frame pipes until the points match up with the hole (folks there are five legs pipes on this frame) because the shippers dropped the box and cause the five pipes to go out of wack. She said this, no ****!!!

I asked her what if that doesn't work and what about the warped shelf. She told me that they could do nothing for me. Now as you can imagine by this time I am starting to get aggravated. So I proceed in a very cool deliberate tone to start with the usual unhappy customer lines and what kind of operation are they running blah, blah blah, blah. . . when I asked her for her name, she yelled at me, I couldn't believe it she yelled at me, then told me to call the dealer I bought it from and hung up on me.

I purchased this thing from a ebay store which I have written to and am waiting a reply. As soon as I get done writing this I am going on the VTI website and ripping them a new **** there.

I am gearing up for the fact that I am going to have to eat this and come up with my own solution which I already have thought through. I'm going to place the warped shelf on the bottom where my two heavy mono blocks will flatten it out. I'll bang the five pipes of the 9" shelf with a rubber mallet until they match up. Then I'll take a black magic marker and dab the nicks. I am going to have to figure a way to pry the end caps off without doing damage so I can fill them with sand or shot.

You know what come to think of it, DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT IT IS A PIECE OF ****!!!

PolkWannabie

Ruh Roh ... Sorry to hear this ... I had always thought of this outfit as being better then that ...

Dennis Gardner

Cheap is, as cheap does....................

pearsall001

Man, that really sucks!!! It's bad enough when you get a damaged product, but when the manuf doesn't stand behind it that's just not right. If you don't get satisfaction I would rip them a new a-hole & let others know that their customer service is non existent & their products are not worth buying.

dkg999

Wow, I have two VTI racks bought off of eBay, and both do not exhibit those types of problems! I did take them out and assemble them right after I rec'd them, then carefully repackaged them for storage. Everything lined up, and my end caps I think twisted loose pretty easily. Sorry you're having such bad luck. I would keep working it up until you get to a manager who has a reason to care!

hearingimpared

Dennis Gardner wrote:

Cheap is, as cheap does....................

Ya see Dennis this is the lesson I learned here. . . don't buy anything off the internet until touching a demo first.

I did a lot of research on that VTI and saw a lot of good things written about it but actually never touched one.

I-SIG

Wow. I've been very pleased with mine. Some of the spikes that screw into the bottom of each shelf were different lengths, but nothing a little matching didn't take care of. It's even been pretty easy to reach around back and swap components without having to rearrange. I will admit it seemed a little chincy for the price, but I thought the design, overall, was a smart one that could handle some good weight without being a behemuth.

Wes

Early B.

I have a VTI stereo rack and have had no problems like that.

Hope you get it resolved.


P.S. -- I've learned the hard way -- when it comes to items over, say $50, ebay usually isn't the place to purchase it. Go elsewhere, spend a little more money from a reputable e-tailer.

shawn474

Did you ever ask to speak to her supervisor? As a consumer, it is in your right to do so and usually gets their attention. I've called product companies and had shisty CS people handling until I talked with the supervisor who got the problem resolved in no time. Also, all warranties / mishaps may have been negated by the fact that you bought it on ebay and it wasn't affiliated with the company. In that case. it is buy at your own risk.

hearingimpared

shawn474 wrote:

Did you ever ask to speak to her supervisor? As a consumer, it is in your right to do so and usually gets their attention. I've called product companies and had shisty CS people handling until I talked with the supervisor who got the problem resolved in no time. Also, all warranties / mishaps may have been negated by the fact that you bought it on ebay and it wasn't affiliated with the company. In that case. it is buy at your own risk.

Shawn, trying to communicate with this woman was a chore in itself. . .she kept talking over me and contradicting herself. I can tell you, I am not the type of person who let's people walk all over them. . .I just couldn't break the language barrier and this woman was so stressed out, I could hear it in her voice as well as her interrupting our conversation answering other calls.

I wrote to the distributer and to VTI directly. Now I just have to wait. I just think it sucks that a manufacturer would have a customer service department that would treat a customer that way.

Joey_V

Uh oh.. and I'm about to buy a VTI rack myself... keep us posted!

Joey

W WALDECKER

I bought a VTI rack and at two seperate times bought extra shelves for it and the fit and finish were always very good and the spikes lined up in the indentations on the end caps perfectly its a shame that the customer service was handled so badly by VTI ....WCW III

Dennis Gardner

I looked at VTI and initially thought they were great values, but eventually bought Sanus from Audio Advisor. I knew Sanus from previous experience.

An audio rack failure isn't a pretty sight.

F1nut

Quess what product I'll never buy!?!

schwarcw

Don't mess around, call the President of the company, the Vice President, whomever you can get. Also, get their names and email addresses. You'd be surprised, these guys usually like to hear about **** like this. Most of the time they understand the big picture. Be calm but deliberate and relentless in your pursuit of getting this fixed.

SCompRacer

hearingimpared wrote:

By the way good luck getting the end caps off to do that.

I used a small funnel with the outlet the same size as the threaded hole the spikes screw into. With a controlled slow pour, the shot won't jam on the way in. I used an old measuring cup as trying to pour shot from a 25 pound bag while holding a funnel would add some difficulty.

Sorry to hear of your woes. I had no such problems and would buy another one.

Polkersince85

Go to their website, click on about us, copy and paste the bullsh$te letter the big guy wrote in your email to him.

hearingimpared

Joey_V wrote:

Uh oh.. and I'm about to buy a VTI rack myself... keep us posted!

Joey

Yo Joey, I was thinking of you today when I was having these woes because I gave you all the info on VTI. . . I was hoping you would see this.

It seems however that this is not the norm. It looks like others have had good luck with the ones they currently own. We'll see.

Joe

hearingimpared

schwarcw wrote:

Don't mess around, call the President of the company, the Vice President, whomever you can get. Also, get their names and email addresses. You'd be surprised, these guys usually like to hear about **** like this. Most of the time they understand the big picture. Be calm but deliberate and relentless in your pursuit of getting this fixed.

I'm already right there with you Brother. I'm kind of salivating like a wolf to see what numbskull I'm going to have to deal with next.

hearingimpared

SCompRacer wrote:

I used a small funnel with the outlet the same size as the threaded hole the spikes screw into. With a controlled slow pour, the shot won't jam on the way in. I used an old measuring cup as trying to pour shot from a 25 pound bag while holding a funnel would add some difficulty.

Sorry to hear of your woes. I had no such problems and would buy another one.

Hey Rich when you first received the rack didn't the resonances it made kinda freak you out. I did a couple of drum taps with my fingers on it and man it started singing its own tune. LOL I started fearing the affect the SRS 1.2 TLs were going to have on it. If I have to keep this rack, I'm going to do the shot thing but I am also going to encase it in as much sorbothane as I have. . . which right now is loads.

dkg999

Use lead shot about a third to half of the pillar, then fill the rest with reptile sand from the pet store. Worked great on my stands for monitors, and the uprights on my Mye stands for the Maggies.

FYI - I bought a set of Sanus steel stands from AudioAdvisor and one of the uprights had a manufacturing defect. It took a half dozen calls from me to Sanus, and another half dozen from AudioAdvisor and they still didn't ship me a replacement part. AA finally shipped me another set of stands, said take the parts I needed and included shipping for me to ship the rest back to them.

hearingimpared

dkg999 wrote:

Use lead shot about a third to half of the pillar, then fill the rest with reptile sand from the pet store. Worked great on my stands for monitors, and the uprights on my Mye stands for the Maggies.

FYI - I bought a set of Sanus steel stands from AudioAdvisor and one of the uprights had a manufacturing defect. It took a half dozen calls from me to Sanus, and another half dozen from AudioAdvisor and they still didn't ship me a replacement part. AA finally shipped me another set of stands, said take the parts I needed and included shipping for me to ship the rest back to them.

A little back and forth but in the end GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

dkg999

Great customer service from AudioAdvisor! Sanus never would or did ship a replacement part.

SCompRacer

hearingimpared wrote:

Hey Rich when you first received the rack didn't the resonances it made kinda freak you out.

Yeah, I had expected it going in. By knocking out the end caps, you can remove the rubber plugs in the tubes that seal the holes where the cross bars attach to the tubes. Use some epoxy to seal the small holes in the bottom of the cross bars where they attach at the tubes and then you can fill the cross bars with shot too.

hearingimpared

SCompRacer wrote:

Yeah, I had expected it going in. By knocking out the end caps, you can remove the rubber plugs in the tubes that seal the holes where the cross bars attach to the tubes. Use some epoxy to seal the small holes in the bottom of the cross bars where they attach at the tubes and then you can fill the cross bars with shot too.

I've got a couple dozen sorbothane pods and some sheets. I wonder if I can deaden it with those?

SCompRacer

hearingimpared wrote:

I've got a couple dozen sorbothane pods and some sheets. I wonder if I can deaden it with those?

If your like me, you have more time than money....although free time has been scarce as hens teeth of late.

DarqueKnight

hearingimpared wrote:

This woman, who spoke really poor english and was very short, snippy, and rude,...

hearingimpared wrote:

Next she tells me, at least this is what I understood her to say, to take a rubber mallet and continuously bang on the 9" frame pipes until the points match up with the hole.....

hearingimpared wrote:

...when I asked her for her name, she yelled at me, I couldn't believe it she yelled at me, then told me to call the dealer I bought it from and hung up on me.

Maybe you caught her at the wrong time of the month.

Since others here have had good experiences with VTI, I echo their advice and would escalate my concerns to a higher level. Good luck with getting this resolved to your satisfaction.

Joey_V

hearingimpared wrote:

Yo Joey, I was thinking of you today when I was having these woes because I gave you all the info on VTI. . . I was hoping you would see this.

It seems however that this is not the norm. It looks like others have had good luck with the ones they currently own. We'll see.

Joe

Thanks bro!! Now I know I got another guy watching my back!

Joey

hearingimpared

DarqueKnight wrote:

Maybe you caught her at the wrong time of the month.

Since others here have had good experiences with VTI, I echo their advice and would escalate my concerns to a higher level. Good luck with getting this resolved to your satisfaction.

She treated me like I had her by the **** hair!:eek:

I am definitely climbing the ladder on this one.

I'm glad you weighed in Raife I was thinking of you today when I was setting up the 1.2 TLs on their wall. I remembered you telling me that you had them set 6'8" apart. Unfortunately the wall I have to put them on has a doorway so I can only get them 6' 1" apart. They are 5' from the side walls. I think my sweet spot is going to be a little closer to the back wall than I would like. I'm sure that some room treatments will help that out.

I don't even know why I am going on about all this, I can't even get the friggin rack to work right! LOL

dkg999

You don't need no stink'in rack! Just get a couple of concrete blocks and a 1x12 and you're good to go

Libertyc

Hey Joe,

How did you pay for the item? Maybe you can do a charge-back thru your credit card? It may be too late but I would try to dispute it.

I almost ordered a VTI rack from the same seller.