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Bad experience with Bluesound Soundbar's

I have never ripped a company for poor service or products, but I recently purchased a Bluesound sub at a local dealer as it was a floor model close out. I was told to purchase the Soundbar for my TV room. I called Bluesound to find out if their original Soundbar (was being sold as B stock for only 499) was comparable with my router. I was told that it works fine with any dual band router.

It was not able to synch with my wifi. I was finally told after over a week that I would have to make my router a one band router. I’ve never heard of such crap. They agreed to take it back, but it took forever for them to get back to me etc...

I then went to a store to purchase the new Soundbar 2i which is much more expensive (I had their sub and the store won’t take it back, so I’m stuck with Bluesound). Well, the NEW Soundbar I purchased is broken out of the box. Couldn’t even get the sub to work with it wirelessly. It’s taken forever to have them get back to me. For weeks, I’ve tried to get this thing to work and I have done evetrhing they told me to do. Their response time is painstakingly slow.

I finally got a tech to teach me how to send them a report and sure enough, he said it was a hardware problem. Said the he was sending it to sales to take care of. I have been trying for days now to get them to give me the shipping and return info. I PRAY they send me another NEW unit and not fix this one as I don’t trust it and I don’t trust them. I STILL haven’t gotten anything back from them about what the next step is in order to fix this mead ss.

I won’t be able to get it sent back next week as I have a lot of medical procedures etc...so it’s going to be at least another week before it gets sent back and then a week for them to get it and a week for the new one to come. I’ve never been this upset after a purchase and they have totally ruined the fun of getting something new. I really wish that I had gotten another soundbar. I can only have a front firing one as it’s in a cabinet and the upward firing cones don’t work. I sold my Linn Kiko system as I just couldn’t get it to work in my set up (bedroom, so no I won’t be changing out the set up, lol).

I’m sure many of you have had a great experience with the company and are happy. I’ve owned NAD products since the late 70’s and still have some gear lying around. It really hurts more than anything, so know the company takes so long to get back to you.

Oh well, live and learn. Wish I could just sell the sub and get my money back.
ctsooner
8 responses Add your response
gdnrbob
4,447 posts
 
Sorry to hear this. I bought their Nodes used and they provided decent help- not stellar- but decent/good.
I am pretty sure none of the earlier models supported Dual Band Wifi.
(In fact, I had to get a Netgear router to achieve a 5ghz network capability).
If the second sub wouldn't work, I would have returned it to the store for a refund or exchange.
Bob
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
Bob, it's really crazy as I have owned NAD since the 70's. I still tell folks to buy their gear.  They gave me the wrong information and I had already bought the store demo from a local place.  It was a final sale, but I didn't think I'd have to deal with all of this.  They still haven't gotten back to me about what I'm supposed to do with this broken soundbar.  Never seen anything like this.  As you know, I can easily call a few folks who could intercede, but I want to see how long this is going to take on my own.  
mahler123
3,357 posts
 
I had problems with with Bluesound which I have detailed in other threads in the digital and the pc audio areas.  I have the Vault2 and 2 Node2s for the 3 systems in my home and when it all works ( and I am listening to Beethoven through one of them as I type this) it’s wonderful but I have had stretches of weeks where everything is unusable.  Their CS used to be exemplary but it’s gotten pretty bad I never the past year.
  One trick with them is that if you initiate a complaint, they answer, and then you have a follow up e mail, they treat the follow up as if it is a new request and boot it to the end of the que.  crazy on their part but maddening to the customer.  You have to give your follow up emails a new title, and then supply the reference number of the initial case.
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
Wow. Thanks. It’s total BS though. I have MS and limited energies to spend on stuff like this. I may have to return the soundbar and sell the sub at a loss because the store won’t take it back. 

I somt wven eant the damn thing anymore to be honest. 
blindjim
3,092 posts
 

I sure can't see anyone blaming a router that enables diverse items to operate and all except their's. wow.

a new sub with Charter/spectrum came with a hi and low band wy fy and each one uses the same criteria to log on to it. I just chose the 5G expressly for the iMac. everything else runs off the lower band with no issues if within range of course.  
OP is right... sometimes its a live and learn thing and learning ain't always a smooth road. hopefully all will settle up soon.

recently I found that by mentioning early on in the emails I was going to post this online in a few forums as to my experience in the matter, that the response came swiftly. in fact one agent called me, shared a screen session and tried to work out the issues himself.

I was getting no traction prior to insinuating going public on the whole of the support affair.

good luck.
gdnrbob
4,447 posts
 
I never had to resort to say I would be posting my experience to have Bluesound offer the Teamviewer response.
I was simply having issues with connectivity that I eventually found out was caused by my Watchguard Router. Bluesound, though not the fastest customer response, did try repeatedly to find the cause of my problems.
I know how frustrating it is when technology doesn't work as we would like, but I wouldn't tar Bluesound for lack of trying.
Could their customer service be better? -Yes.
But, they certainly aren't the worst.
Bob
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
Bob, maybe not the worst.  It's bad though. I finally did mention that I was going to post on forums.  You know how many influential folks I know in audio.  So far I've got nothing back from them from my Thursday or maybe Friday emails.  Just a sad situation as I am out a ton of money and have zero in return.  
ctsooner OP
2,480 posts
 
Finally got another email saying they moved to the sales folks. It’s a carbon copy of the email I got late last week. Word for word. No answers still. I now hate this company.  They sent a product that didn’t do what they told me it would and now they send a dead on arrival product. 

They are playing email trail for over two weeks or so and nothing new. What the heck gives here. I hate being negative towards any company. They deserve it.  
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