Rainbow- A Horror Story from Customer Service

[konechiwa 10+ year member]

I have had a absolutely horrible experience with rainbow's customer service, easily the worst i have ever had from any company that i have ever dealt with. I want the word to be out so that if any of their reps come around these forums, they'll be able to see this and hopefully rectify the absolutely terrible customer service they have.

Let's start out at the very beginning..

OK. So it's middle of February, and after my previous system was stolen, and after hearing about the tremendously good reviews about the SLCs, i pick up a set of 265 Kicks and a Hammer 12 sub from Premieraudio. Some of my friends had profile amps, and they always worked and did what they needed to do, so i bought some amps directly from profile. I also picked up Knukonceptz wiring, because i heard good things about them to.

So flash forward 2 weeks. My box is ready (carpet isn't entirely on...however it is ready for use). SLC's are installed, wires have been ran, everything is ready. Right? Right. I hook up everything...then the SLC's amp fuses blow. Strange i thought, but i had 20 extra fuses at the right amp rating, so i decided to see what the problem was. I unplugged the right side's wires and first wanted to check if the wires were shorting or anything. I turned everything on, and the fuses DIDN'T blow. However, the tweeter on the left side didn't play (the woofer played fine) and then after about 10 seconds, the crossover's capacitor (might i say it is 100 volts) exploded. Turned everything off, took everything out, etc.

So i tell Aaron (premieraudio) and we both agree that it seemed to be a faulty amp. I later checked my wiring, and their were no shorts at all (it had worked only 2 days before the incident, and nothing had changed since). He says i should send it to him, who in turn would send it to Rainbow California (American Distribution Center). So i did, and after about a week and a half (now early march) it arrives at rainbow.

Aaron tells me he convinced them to fix it, as they said they would do it, and says it shouldn't take long. A Week goes by, and nothing. Two Weeks. Three (i was in contact with Aaron the whole time).

finally call rainbow, and when they pick up all I hear is, "Hi". I almost thought i had the wrong number. I tell the rainbow rep what happened and everything, and he says, "Oh yes, let me check for you". He knew exactly what i was asking. He checks and comes back on the phone saying, "Yea, we'll probably ship it out at the end of the week." Fine by me, and i told Aaron. He called them too, on the same day, and said they told him the same thing.

Later, he told me that rainbow told him the crossover shipped. A week went buy. Another. And Another. Still nothing. 3 Weeks after they said they shipped it, they did nothing. Aaron finally told me he'd get me a crossover out of a SLC set, which was supposed to come the middle of last week (Wednesday).

Wednesday rolls buy. No shipment.

Thursday rolls buy. No shipment.

Friday. Nothing.

2 and 1/2 months later, rainbow has done nothing at all, and seems content to let their engineers sit on their ***** while my broken crossover sits in Chino, California.

Should anything ever break again, I fear I might as well buy something else because I know rainbow wont do shit to fix it.

In short: Rainbow has the worst customer service I have EVER dealt with, and this entire thing would have been a Terrible experience (it still kinda is) if Aaron wasn't a stand-up-guy. He is a terrific person, and the only reason why i probably would get another crossover at all is because of him.

In short:

PremierAudio (aaron)= A+

Rainbow Customer Service= (F-, Or whatever grade is the worst. x2. x5. squared).

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif

Click to read more...

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

That sucks man, sorry to hear that.

 

[konechiwa 10+ year member]

Yeah, I just want to get the word out. Every on this board seems to love rainbow, and the speakers sound awesome (I got to listen to them for about 30 minutes the day before, when i was installing the speakers), But i want people to know that their customer service (as of this point) is absolutely horrid.

 

[dkmesa 10+ year member]

Didn't read the whole thing but I absolutely agree that Premier Audio is A+ and I could easily understand why a German company would have Nazi costomer service

 

[thesandman 10+ year member]

must be some sort of communication error

 

[munchies 10+ year member]

Didn't read the whole thing but I absolutely agree that Premier Audio is A+ and I could easily understand why a German company would have Nazi costomer service

LOL! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[konechiwa 10+ year member]

must be some sort of communication error

But that's just the thing, they don't communicate.

I literally almost hung up because i thought i had the wrong number.

I don't remember word for word, but the conversation went something like this:

R=Rainbow

M=Me

R= Hello

M= Hey....Is this..

R=Hello

M=Is this rainbow?

R= This is the american distribution center.

M= So it is rainbow?

R= This is the american distribution center.

M= Ok..well i bought a SLC 265 Kick set off of premieraudio a while ago, and my crossovers capacitor blew on me and i sent it back to him and he said he sent it back to you.

R= Oh, yes. Let me check on that for you.

M= Ok.

(Time goes by)

R= Yes, one question, who made the amp?

M= Profile. I bought it off them refurbished, but it was directly from the manufacturer and came with a warranty and everything.

R= Who makes it?

M= Profile.

R= Profile?

M= Yeah, Profile.

R= Ok hold on.

(Time goes by)

R= Ok so my engineer tells me they haven't looked at it yet, but it seems to be an easy fix and we will ship it out to premier audio in a couple of days, by the end of the week.

M= Oh, Ok.

R= Thanks, Bye

(he hangs up).

I think i remember his name was...Adam? i dunno. But either way that was over 1 month ago, and it doesn't take that long to ship from california to nebraska.

Nazi's can be so mean some times.. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif

 

[DistinctUSA]

Hello everyone. My name is Steven and I am the Sales & Marketing Director at Distinct USA, the exclusive US distributor for Rainbow. I have been lurking around this forum for some time now but after reading this thread, I decided it was time to join.

Let me start off by saying how sorry I am to hear about your horrible customer service experience. I can assure you that we at Distinct USA value each and every customer and strive for nothing less than complete satisfaction.

After reading your post, I took some time and looked into the issue you wrote about. I see that we did receive a crossover from Premier Audio but we had a brand new crossover shipped back two weeks later. We always try to take care of RA's within a week so I do apologize for the extra week that your RA item took. Also, if an RA number was provided to whoever you spoke with, they would have been able to tell you everything in detail about your RA. Another thing I want to mention is that we are a distributor, not a manufacturer. With that said, we are not certified to repair any defective items. For all defective products covered under warranty, we always provide a brand new replacement.

After all this, I hope you are satisfied with the Rainbow product itself. In the future, if you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

 

[DistinctUSA]

Hello everyone. My name is Steven and I am the Sales & Marketing Director at Distinct USA, the exclusive US distributor for Rainbow. I have been lurking around this forum for some time now but after reading this thread, I decided it was time to join.

Let me start off by saying how sorry I am to hear about your horrible customer service experience. I can assure you that we at Distinct USA value each and every customer and strive for nothing less than complete satisfaction.

After reading your post, I took some time and looked into the issue you wrote about. I see that we did receive a crossover from Premier Audio but we had a brand new crossover shipped back two weeks later. We always try to take care of RA's within a week so I do apologize for the extra week that your RA item took. Also, if an RA number was provided to whoever you spoke with, they would have been able to tell you everything in detail about your RA. Another thing I want to mention is that we are a distributor, not a manufacturer. With that said, we are not certified to repair any defective items. For all defective products covered under warranty, we always provide a brand new replacement.

After all this, I hope you are satisfied with the Rainbow product itself. In the future, if you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

 

[Omarvelous 10+ year member]

Hello everyone. My name is Steven and I am the Sales & Marketing Director at Distinct USA, the exclusive US distributor for Rainbow. I have been lurking around this forum for some time now but after reading this thread, I decided it was time to join.
Let me start off by saying how sorry I am to hear about your horrible customer service experience. I can assure you that we at Distinct USA value each and every customer and strive for nothing less than complete satisfaction.

After reading your post, I took some time and looked into the issue you wrote about. I see that we did receive a crossover from Premier Audio but we had a brand new crossover shipped back two weeks later. We always try to take care of RA's within a week so I do apologize for the extra week that your RA item took. Also, if an RA number was provided to whoever you spoke with, they would have been able to tell you everything in detail about your RA. Another thing I want to mention is that we are a distributor, not a manufacturer. With that said, we are not certified to repair any defective items. For all defective products covered under warranty, we always provide a brand new replacement.

After all this, I hope you are satisfied with the Rainbow product itself. In the future, if you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/handclap.gif.0c301076f534e244f0460706894f19e0.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/youreawesome.gif.a27e190c662afa8e2be5686b27bd1659.gif

Sounds like Premier Audio kept them a nice brand new shiny crossover.....

I'd give them a call...

 

[johnson 10+ year member]

You keep saying "amp fuse" but it's the crossover fuse...

 

[Ruthless Pastor 10+ year member]

Props to you for trying to resolve the situation Steven, but you may be 3 weeks too late...

 

[hazardous0388 10+ year member]

this is one reason why i've been thinking about just buying from local dealers. **** all this mess

 

[WiCKeD 5.9L 10+ year member]

Sounds like Premier Audio kept them a nice brand new shiny crossover.....

I'd give them a call...

Why would they do that? How much would a crossover really be worth to them? They don't even sell them individually! Either someone misplaced it, it got lost in shipping or someone is lying...
This is why I hate buying retail.

Example:

New HEX S600S $500 - $550 +tax (local)

New HEX S600S $250 (eBay)

If it ever goes out, it is guaranteed that I can buy a whole new set for half the retail price or probably less. Whereas a warranty would only cover you for 3 years and you may have to deal with the kind of hassle above.

If manufacturers stopped price fixing, they would all have to compete on the same level. Is there a risk of getting a fake? If you buy from a reputable eBay seller, the risk is extremely slim. More importantly, because of the price fixing, the high-end brands themselves have already made themselves so obscure except to a handful of audiophiles, that it does not pay to manufacturer fakes!

I respect anyone who sells speakers (hey, I might try to buy from you!), but the artificial prices hurt the company and the much larger user base who would be willing to pay a more reasonable amount.

So drop the Germs to