Jump to content

Weird damage to RC-64


bonedoctor

Recommended Posts

Maybe the title of this post will get somebody's attention, since nothing else seems to!

Here's the latest sorry update on the trashed RC-64:

I e-mailed the very same Tech Support person on Friday, the day I got the trashed speaker. This is the same guy who claimed never to have heard of such a thing. I attached the e-mail to the previous e-mails about the eBay damaged speaker.

Guess what I heard back? Nothing.

Another member of this forum sent me the e-mail of a Klipsch employee who happens to have the same last name as the company that made the speaker (hint, hint), and who apparently is head of Customer Service.

I sent him an e-mail with the string of e-mails sent to Tech Support. I even offered to have them take a look at my speaker (I live in Hot Springs, AR, not far from Hope) since Tech Support claimed never to have heard of such damage before.

Guess what I heard back? Nothing.

I wrote again to this person yesterday because I was really trying to avoid just sending the speaker back to Vann's so it could be tossed into the Missoula, MT landfill. I even offered to have the damaged speaker driver replaced, since the rest of the speaker looked okay.

Guess what I heard back. Nothing.

So, I can't avoid FedEx anymore and had to put the speaker out today for them to pick up (3rd and final attempt). I really thought I would hear SOMETHING from Klipsch, especially the guy whose last name happens to be Klipsch and who apparently is the head of Customer Service.

Guess I was wrong.

So I got the pleasure of loading that heavy speaker back into the box, tape it up, then man-handle that box into a larger box, tape it up (including a repair job from FedEx's previous rough handling), then lug this giant box outside to leave it unattended on my front step (as Vann's says, at 'my risk'). Couldn't put it out this morning because wje've been having a lot of thunderstorms lately, so I got the pleasure of coming home from work after my case in the operating room (I'm a surgeon), hoping to beat the FedEx guy (I think I did) so they can pick up this speaker on their 3rd and final attempt.

As I said in my last e-mail to Mr. S. Klipsch, Customer Service, maybe FedEx could finish the job they started and completely destroy the speaker on its trip to a landfill somewhere in Montana.

All I can say is that hunk of crap better not be on my doorstep when I get home today.

Final thought: I can't stand companies that don't stand behind their products, don't give a crap about customer service, and leave the customer holding the bag. If I acted like Klipsch, I don't get a simple complaint, I get sued.

Now I've got $999 tied up from this RC-64, nearly $800 still tied up from February from the first RC-64, I've had the pleasure of lugging TWO RC-64s into my house, unpack them, discover them damaged in the very same odd fashion (and Klipsch claims never to have heard of this.....BS), then repack two RC-64s, lug them back outside and wait until FedWrecks carts them off to be discarded. Oh, almost forgot, I had to get a new CC account number from the eBay fiasco, and the jackasses gave me 'PayPal's' phone number to check on my 'refund'.......and the phone number was a sex phone line. Yeah, that looked real good on my business line at work. I had to finally reverse the charges and then still give them 30 days before PayPal moved forward to refund my money (still don't have it).

Thanks, Klipsch.

I can buy any speaker in the world, but chose Klipsch speakers. No more, however, after this episode. I'm GONE as a customer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Moderators

bonedoctor,

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. It is extremely unlike our support staff to not respond to emails, which leads me to think that perhaps your latest messages were not being received, for one reason or another. I just can't imagine it was intentionally ignored.

I will look into the situation when I'm back in the office first thing tomorrow morning to see what can be done.

Again, I apologize for the trouble. I'm sure we can work this out.

Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

SerialLook what I received from Crutchfield.com today, a brand new RC-64...

Damaged RC-64

Damaged RC-64

Plastic Sticking Through Surround

Serial

The original Klipsch box was packaged inside another box approximately 6-inches larger on all sides and filled with foam peanuts.

There was no evidence of damage to the outer or inner boxes, so, I accepted the package.

Crutchfield has already sent out the replacement... They were really easy to work with. Hopefully the replacement arrives in better condition the 2nd time.

CEVA Logistics was the shipper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's exactly what my two(!) damaged RC-64s looked like. The second was from Vann's, double boxed with packing. It had only one cone damaged. The first one had both the cones on the same side damaged. It had been lazily shipped in its Klipsch box.The pushed out cones look just like mine.

I just recently bought a new RC-64 from a place that had some listed on eBay for $649. That's a very good price and I bought one. It arrived nicely packed in an outer box wrapped tightly and stapled to the Klipsch box. I think either UPS or FedEx delivered it. Yep, Barbara Miller inspected it, too. She also did my RC-7s from a few years ago.

When I got it, I rocked the box around for the tell-tale sound of stuff rattling around inside (I'm sure you got the pleasure of hearing some disconcerting sounds coming from the speaker) and unboxed it. It arrived in perfect shape. It's set up and sounding great. I got the black one, too. I did notice that the two styrofoam pieces in the ends of the box had a 'fracture', so it did get a little rough handling somewhere along the way.

That's the best price I've seen for a new RC-64 in full factory box. It was even a recently made speaker, July 2009, unlike the speaker from Vann's that was something like two years old. Like Vann's, Crutchfield has been around a long time and has good customer service. They aren't the cheapest, but problems are easily handled, unlike the first set of idiots from eBay I dealt with (Hi-end-wholesale). That was a nightmare. They accused me of damaging the speaker and gave me a phone number supposedly for PayPal to check on my refund. It turned out to be a sex phone line. Took about three months, reversed charges, and a new credit card number (for security) to resolve that mess. NEVER buy anything from Hi-end-wholesale on eBay.

I was really hesitant about buying another one of these that had to be shipped, but the third time was the charm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I can certainly understand your frustration, but I think you're putting the blame on just about anybody that you had to deal with throughout this transaction. There are quite a bit of shady sellers on eBay, and I'm sure you were already aware of that, prior to this purchase. I'm pretty sure that Klipsch didn't ship out their speakers in the damaged condition that you received them in. FedEx and UPS are not anywhere near perfect, I usually find that I have to put a "fragile" sticker on just about anything that I ship with them, regardless of what it is. I find that USPS are typically much better with handling their packages, their rates are much cheaper for comparable shipping methods, and offer more shipping options for different sized packages.

Regardless of how expensive of speakers you're comparing Klipsch with, you take any speaker that weighs as much as the RC64 and drop them, I'd strongly doubt that you'd find any of them in acceptable condition after the drop. If you honestly can buy any speaker you wanted, why did you buy Klipsch? And why are you comparing Klipsch's quality to any speaker out there, with any price tag? I think you're so frustrated throughout this hoopla that you're loosing your common sense.

Lesson learned, there are things that you should buy on the net, and there are things that you shouldn't. Glad that you're finally able to get one home and enjoy them, nevertheless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The eBay clowns are still selling crap and piling up the negatives. From their feedback, it sounds like they sent one unlucky buyer two RC-64s that were damaged in identical fashion. Others have left feedback about the sellers sending damaged stuff and suspicions that they were buying damaged stuff, then sending it, then making an insurance claim. Not blaming anybody else. The simple fact is that these speakers have a problem surviving routine shipping. That's clearly been demonstrated.

As far as large speakers not surviving shipping (which these Klipsch speakers seem to have a problem), I recently bought a very large SV Sound (SVS) subwoofer. The thing weighs about one hundred pounds. The packaging was superb. The speaker is obviously well made and the packaging couldn't have been better. Total weight of the box and speaker was at least 115 pounds. The speakers are purchased directly from the manufacturer via the internet. The shipping was $90, but couldn't have been better.

Clearly Klipsch doesn't send these things out damaged, but I got two of 'em and Klipsch acted like they had never heard of this problem. The one received by the guy a few days ago from Crutchfield (and one of mine was from another good merchant, Vann's) goes to show that these speakers have a problem being shipped. If there was a box to be dropped and manhandled because of its size, it was that SVS sub box. Who knows, maybe the sheer size and weight of the box was its savior, since it was so big and heavy it was actually very difficult to pick the thing up more than a few inches. I can see the RC-64 box getting tossed around and, combined with its weight (and inertia), shearing off the speaker baskets. For a $999 center channel speaker, you just expect a little more robustness from these speakers, not something that has a good chance of arriving damaged. SVS can do it, so can Klipsch.

I bought Klipsch speakers because I've always had them from way back in the day. I also live in Hot Springs, AR not far from Hope, so I bought a local product. The SVS sub is also an American made product (Ohio, I think).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, eBay are full of scams. If you can think of one way to scam people with some sort of consumer goods, chances are good that someone is using that to scam people on eBay as we speak. I usually don't buy anything that costs over $100 on eBay, and when I do, I always pay by PayPal with the funds coming out of a credit card. So if there are any disputes, my credit card company can simply issue a charge-back, where I don't loose anything from it. If you want to continue buying stuff on eBay, I'd suggest you do the same. PayPal knows that having the funds coming out of the credit card is the most secure way for us the consumer, but the least secure way for PayPal. PayPal always makes sure that's last option that you'd want to use, so you'd have to look carefully when making a purchase, the option is there, but sort of hidden. That's a whole separate issue here, has nothing to do with Klipsch, the quality of their products, and their logistics.

Yes, I'm very familiar with SVS and they used to ship through BAX Global when I bought a sub from them about 5 years ago. I now have 2 PB12/+2 from them and always recommend them whenever I get a chance. Their shipping carrier is a freight company and only deal with oversized or over weight items, but they're extremely efficient at it. The size of speakers that Klipsch sell in the Reference line, there's simply no need to use a freight company. And because SVS is relatively a mom's and pop's shop compared to Klipsch, their attention to detail and individual customer is much better than a that of a corporation.

I totally agree with you that for a $1000 speaker, the manufacture should ship the item with good packaging and it should arrive at my door step without any damage. The problem is not Klipsch or yourself, it's the middle man that handles the product throughout the entire shipping route. I've seen how UPS and FedEx guys deal with their packages on a daily basis, and trust me they don't give a rats *** about the packages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I purchased a PB12+2 from SVS. Huge sub that came on a pallet totally unscathed and in perfect condition. Great packing. I also purchased their best cylinder sub, a PCU, which was also packed very well. The problem came when I opened it and the bottom birch plate had been ripped from the weight of the driver, obviously from a drop. SVS and thier stellar customer service, immediately shipped me a new sub, before the old one was even picked up. When I spoke with their customer service dept. on the phone, they knew exactly what had happened to the sub, just from my description. Unfortunately, according to them, it wasn't all that uncommon. And it WAS well packed. It happens to EVERYBODY.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...