In April 2011, I was gifted an Insignia SoundBar (NS-SBAR) purchased from an online source by my cousin.
Immediately, from the very first day there was a buzzing sound coming from it. A simple search online revealed that I wasn't the only one with this issue right out of the box. After much troubleshooting, research, and collaboration (especially here on the forums) we were able to get a response from the Insignia folks that this was indeed a defect in the device itself and that Insignia had found a solution to it that they would be offering to their customers (similar to an automobile recall; where the design-flaw is the culprit).
Details can be read in the original (long) chain of posts here:
http://community.insigniaproducts.com/t5/Home-Audio/Background-buzzing-with-NS-SBAR-Sound-bar/td-p/2...
After speaking with my cousin and being unable to reproduce a receipt for the Soundbar, I turned to Insignia. After all, it's not like the SoundBar went bad outside of a warranty period; the Soundbar was CREATED bad from the getgo, as in, this was a design flaw and we all purchased a flawed product. So In my head, any reasonable company would own up to its mistakes and make matters right for its customers, warranty or not.
If a vehicle has a recall, it doesn't matter what year it was bought or manufactured in, the car-manufacturer does those repairs for FREE, because the fault lies in the car itself and not the customer or how long they have owned the car.
I was wrong.
I am disappointed to let you all know though that after spending over 30 minutes on the phone with Insignia support and then with Best Buy Customer Relations, I have come away feeling let-down and chastised.
In case any anyone needs (or has the means) to do a lookup on the case # assigned to me at Insignia Customer support, it is: {edited per Forum Guidelines}.
I was first informed that since I do not have a physical receipt for the product that they can not offer me the solution for it, even though they KNOW what is wrong and it is their fault that is inherent in their product. The Insignia Customer Rep was very polite even though he did not help me one bit. I then asked to be routed to Customer Relations so I could speak to someone about the issue.
The Best Buy customer relations respresentative "{edited per Forum Guidelines}" (at least that is the name he gave me) did not only not bother to offer me a solution, but he told me that there is nothing that can be done in my situation and "any further conversation regarding this would be useless".
I have dealt with people over the phone before and I have to tell you that I have never been spoken-to and treated in this manner. Especially by a company that boasts parents such as Best Buy and Future Shop.
YES I don't have the receipt, but I OWN YOUR DEFECTIVE PRODUCT! And if you have a solution for that defect, you have the responsibility to provide it to your customers!
I would understand if something went wrong with the Soundbar and it was out of warranty. That is completely understandable. But in this case, this is a FLAW WITH THE DESIGN from the GETGO. This is something simillar to a recall repair in an automobile.
I am voicing my concern here on the Insignia forums because I am very frustrated. And while my first instict is to start writing reviews for Insignia/Best Buy online in general and the Soundbar in particular on Amazon/etc, I wanted to air out my grievances here first to see if anything can be done.
Has anyone else been given a similar answer or had a similar experience with this?
I know that it's a matter of $200 or so for most of us, but it's more than that at the end of the day. It's a matter of principle and consumer rights. If you're making a defective product, then you have to fix it. Simple as that.
