Rotel Quality Control going down hill??

[emf]

Man take a look at the thread topics......it really does give the impression that Quality control is not job 1 at Rotel....

To be fair, forums devoted to products--even good ones--tend to accentuate the negative. The two biggest reasons why people join discussion groups are to celebrate their purchases or possible purchases with like-minded others and to ask questions about why something isn't working properly, whether it's the component's fault or their own. IMO, that's why the dark side tends to get represented disproportionately at a great site like this one. I'm not trying to take anything away from the troubles that we report, but as in life generally, complaints are often much more of an incentive to talk than perfect satisfaction is. I administer an Yamaha electronic drum site on Yahoo. The equipment is highly reliable, and Yamaha's customer service is terrific. But you wouldn't know just how good things are from the tenor of the daily posts.

Ed

[Elvis]

Jerry said"screws replaced by power tools"thats a classic and I believe every word.I can just see the semi-stripped screw heads shining.Of course not only Rotel does this,its just they are in the group that does,not the group that don't.

[Mitchell]

If Rotel quality control is really a serious problem, dealers will be dropping them like hotcakes. No dealer is going to want to continuoulsy alienate customers by delivering problem equipment repeatedly.
I wonder how many people are members of this forum. What percentage of them are complaining at any given time.
I had my initial 1080 blown fuse problem 1 month after buying four Rotel pieces. The other 3 work perfectly (so far). My experience with their service was excellent as they took exactly 2 weeks to do the upgrade and return from Boston to NY. My tel call to Rotel was returned quickly and good info was forthcoming. I was angry that the dealer did not have good info on 1080 problems and fixes. I believe it should be handled the same way a car recall/probblem is handeled with dealers being told by the manufacturer what problems to be on the alert for and what standard fixes are available. I wound up educating my large NYC dealer. That was really Rotels job.
I make a point of posting this because I know how important this forum was to my decision to buy a complete Rotel system. If I has seen threads like these last summer when I was in the market I probably would have gone for another (more expensive) brand just because the thought of constantly returning equipment would have really turned me off.
To be fair to Rotel, and to avoid alienating future purchasers (unjustly) can we get an accurate, honest estimate on initial quality/defects? Also how they are measured. I can say that with the Forbes plug coming out and especially with the frequencey that this Forum just comes up anytime you Google Rotel or one of the rotel models, anyone doing research on the net will hit this forum for sure and will make judgements based on what they see.
For the record, I bought 4 pieces in Sept and had one problem with my 1080.
The blown channel was fixed in two weeks as mentioned above and the rest has been operating great. And it sounds fantastic.
Just my 6 cents.

[mitch57]

Perhaps someone should put together a poll. Something like this:

1. Have you ever had a defect which required repair?

2. How long did it take to repair?

3. Was it fixed right the first time?

4. How long did it take to get a response from Rotel tech support?

5. Was the repair done on a pre/pro, Amplifer, or tuner?

Something to that effect. This might help in determining the number of problems versus the number of responses.

What do you think Andrew?

[Andrew Pratt]

I don't know if our forum software is set up to do polls but it would be interesting to do...so long as things were done fairly and honestly unlike the reviews in say audioreview etc.

[mitch57]

Andrew,

Your forum looks very similar to audioholics.com and hometheaterhifi.com. Here is a link to each of their site's forums.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/

http://hometheaterhifi.com/forum/index.php?

Check out the poll they did on receivers here:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5402

If your software supports it this would be a great asset to acquire and distribute information.

Would you mind checking into it for us?

Thanks in advance.

[Andrew Pratt]

Mitch as soon as our forum programmer is back on duty i'll see what I can do.

[Mitchell]

Andrew,
if you are seriously considering a survery I suggest making it significant by limiting the amount of times an individual can respond and getting a decent sample size. If it cant be done that way it could do more harm than good.
Imagine people trying to forward their own agendas, pro or con.
I am sure there are other things that could be done to make it relavent as well.

[Andrew Pratt]

if you are seriously considering a survery I suggest making it significant by limiting the amount of times an individual can respond and getting a decent sample size. If it cant be done that way it could do more harm than good.

That's exactly what i'm affraid of Mitchell.

[aud19]

The site's software can do polls. Unfortunately the software can't keep them fair... :lol:

[mitch57]

Andrew,

If you look at Audioholics survey it prevents you from voting again if you have already voted. It displays a message at the bottom when your logged in stating that you have already voted. I would also suggest preventing unregistered individuals from voting.

[DanR]

They seem to be having a lot of issues with their Home Theatre products not working properly. Rush to release???

[Kirby]

I find it interesting that I have ready many posts concerning the quality of NAD equipment and people say to stay away from it because of their quality control yet Rotel definitely have a quality control issue with their receivers right now and all of the people in the Rotel forum are pretending it is OK. I am sure the problem will be fixed but folks this is unaceptable when you pay $2,000 for a reciver or $3,300 for the 1067.

[PiDD]

I find it interesting that I have ready many posts concerning the quality of NAD equipment and people say to stay away from it because of their quality control yet Rotel definitely have a quality control issue with their receivers right now and all of the people in the Rotel forum are pretending it is OK. I am sure the problem will be fixed but folks this is unaceptable when you pay $2,000 for a reciver or $3,300 for the 1067.

Agreed... but keep in mind that out for the 1000's of units sold there are few that have problems. Forums are good places that allow people to communicate common interests and great places to seek help. Forum sites have to be taken with a grain of salt... I would be just as leery to purchase from a site that had only rav's about its products. I have always said a good measure of a company of how they react to the problems.

Another person in another thread remarked that people are scared to speak up with problems with their gear. I dont know why. This thread was started and there isnt a negative post or any death threat PM's! :E Maybe because I know where Andrew lives!

This forum community is friendly and helpful I wouldnt hesitate to post ANYTHING.

[PiDD]

I have always said a good measure of a company of how they react to the problems.

Can I quote myself!??

I just got my 1098 replacement and WOW!! To be honest I was a little worried that the function dial problem I was having was with me. Well this new one is PERFECT. The LCD screen is also PERFECT!

This is what I had in mind when I purchased flagship gear from a reputable company!!

Thanks Mike and Andrew for your patience and help!

[Andrew Pratt]

Just doing my job :T