For anyone thinking about buying from this place....
I bought a new Zapco 1000.4 amp from these guys, it came with one channel not working. I've now been waiting almost 40 days for a replacement since I shipped it out to them. I ended up filing for a chargeback as they just keep giving me the run around. I really doubt they'll send me a new or repaired amp back. Even if they do, waiting this long is ridiculous. Though their prices are good, its not worth it for this kind of headache and no radio for over a month
Oh I forgot, they actually asked me if I wanted to pay $150 for a new amp... yeah that sounds good, get a new defective amp and pay more money to get another new amp, maybe defective too.
Here's a list of actual things they told me since I've been calling them:
-rep:warranty center did not call you back because Monday and Tuesday are their busiest days (today was Thursday and no one called me back yet so I ask why no one called me Wednesday) rep: no reply.
-rep:you never told us what was wrong with it (well that requires reading the paper taped to amp, this was after a rep took down this information over the phone a few days before)
-rep:we'll send you out a new unit but you have to wait a week or so and then call us back (yeah that makes sense, because they"ll probably "forget" to send it if I don't call)
-(I call woofersetc 213-239-8822), rep: I don't know the status, you have to talk to the warranty center to get the status on your amp, (ok what's their number I'll just ask them myself), oh its 213-239-8822 (so you are the warranty department?), rep:yes.
Oh I forgot, they actually asked me if I wanted to pay $150 for a new amp... yeah that sounds good, get a new defective amp and pay more money to get another new amp, maybe defective too.
Wow, that's insulting. But sadly, that's the way the gray market is.
I don't understand what they get out of giving people the run around, do they think they'll just forget about a $700 amp? Eventually doesn't everyone end up doing a chargeback? They'll loose more with the chargeback as the amp is worth less than $700 to them if they can make a profit on it.
I've actually been to the store on 11th St. in Los Angeles.
The entire block is stereo stores, kind of like an audio bazaar or audio mart.
Banners and sub enclosures line the street.
I don't think any of the "MERCHANTS" are authorized dealers.
It is a bit shady, to say the least.
Sorry to hear about this Dan, I was wondering when you were getting your amp back. At this rate, I'd tell them to keep it and find another amp some place else.
I have bought from them before and luckily had no issues with the order. Since they are often 50% or more off of retail I knew I was dealing grey market. You take a chance sometimes for the huge discounts. I"ll bet in the end they will make it right but I'm not surprised it is taking a long time. Good luck.
Sorry to hear about this Dan, I was wondering when you were getting your amp back. At this rate, I'd tell them to keep it and find another amp some place else.
Good Luck
Yeah unfortunately because I already wired the car with Symbilink wire instead of RCA's I'm pretty much stuck with getting a Zapco amp and I don't know of any other place that sells them at a discount except for eBay. I think that amp retail is around $1300... I sent them an email yesterday saying I'm not going to bother calling them anymore and they can respond to me if they're going to ship the amp or I'll just accept the chargeback, didn't get a reply today so I guess I know what to do. I can't believe I'm saying this but eBay actually sounds like a better option .
I have bought from them before and luckily had no issues with the order. Since they are often 50% or more off of retail I knew I was dealing grey market. You take a chance sometimes for the huge discounts. I"ll bet in the end they will make it right but I'm not surprised it is taking a long time. Good luck.
I had a bad feeling sending the amp in to them, I should have kept it and fixed it myself just didn't want to pay for replacing the number of mosfets a 1000 watt amp has which probably are blown.
I had a similar experience with HiFiSoundConnection on ebay. I figured they'd be safe since they had a web store also. Wrong! I ended up filing a claim with paypal and getting my money refunded, but then the bastages filed a non-paying-bidder claim against me after being forced to give me the refund
From now on for anything that costs over $50 I'm sticking to local shops, forum vendors, or large well known internet stores. Now that I can actually afford nice toys, the few dollars saved here or there aren't worth the risk of getting ripped off any more.
Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
I thought they were a reputable online store.
I'd have to stay away from 'em after hearing your experience.
Hope you get it straightened out.
I agree if this was just a few hundred dollars more expensive I definitely would buy it from an authorized dealer but $700 vs $1300 is a big difference. At least with eBay you get things resolved a little faster, the credit card company takes up to 90 days to decide on a chargeback and woofersetc has been jerking me around for about 40 days now. I've been looking on eBay and I can't find any 1000.4s, there were quite a few of them when I bought my amp, maybe these new feedback policies have scared sellers away.. its too bad I got a great deal on my JL amp and 12W7 on there (and those work which is a plus lol).
Sorry to hear about your ordeal.
I thought they were a reputable online store.
I'd have to stay away from 'em after hearing your experience.
Hope you get it straightened out.
Dan
I thought they were legit too, I know they can't offer a manufacturers warranty because they're not an authorized dealer. They advertise a 1 year warranty with the Zapco amp which I thought they would stand by but sadly it's not so, I'm actually very skeptical the amp they sent me was new. I highly doubt a Zapco amp would come out of the factory with one channel bad, that doesn't sound like Zapco, they're pretty good quality amps. I'm thinking this was a return that they tried to fix and didn't fix right... who knows but I still can't believe they didn't even respond to my email, looks like they took my money and are keeping my amp. At least I didn't do something stupid like send them a check, at least credit cards protect you some what from companied like these.
I'm still amazed they asked me for $150 to get a "new" amp, that's the day I did the chargeback. If that's not a signal these guys are scammers I don't know what is.
You roll the dice with gray market stuff. I bought my AVIC Z1 from a gray market place and got lucky and saved a grand to boot but they push their extended warranty hard because they are the ones covering it.
Some things it's just better to buy from the authorized dealers. I've bought a few Zapco items and got them from authorized guys and the support was great, it was worth the piece of mind.
I received a very assuring phone call from Woofersetc today basically saying that the employee I spoke to did not handle the situation well and they would be sending me out a new Zapco amp today. They also said that the $150 charge they were asking for was Zapcos fee to swap out the defective amp for a new one but was not necessary. At this point if what they are saying is correct it looks like some bad communication issues. Either way they are owning up to the warranty so a for Woofersetc.
I received a very assuring phone call from Woofersetc today basically saying that the employee I spoke to did not handle the situation well and they would be sending me out a new Zapco amp today. They also said that the $150 charge they were asking for was Zapcos fee to swap out the defective amp for a new one but was not necessary. At this point if what they are saying is correct it looks like some bad communication issues. Either way they are owning up to the warranty so a for Woofersetc.
Dan,
This what happens when you post problems like this on a forum. In this economy, no company wants attention like that.
The new amp should come in tomorrow, the only thing now is I got an email from Woofersetc saying they are sending the new amp in my old box. Obviously I don't care what box it comes in but that is just weird. First if my original amp is at Zapco being repaired why wouldn't they send it in it's original box? Also why not just send the new amp in its box? It just sounds weird but these are the kind of responses I've been getting from them all along. I just hope the amp I'm getting works, I really don't care if its new or a repaired amp, we'll see. Only thing I can think of is maybe this new amp's box got damaged but that still doesn't explain why they held on to my old box if it's being repaired now.. oh well, I'll just be happy to finally see what these Rainbow Germaniums sound like.
OMG, I can't believe this, the "new" amp that I got in my old box worked for about 30 minutes and then died completely! I'm so glad I didn't close the chargeback case like Woofersetc kept hounding me to do (duh, of course I have to wait for the new amp to come in first and verify its operation). I thought something was fishy with them sending the unit in the old box.
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