Bluesound Tech Support

For the first six months it was ecstasy. I loaded over 1000 CDs into the vault and reveled in the ability to lie on my couch with my iPhone, choose any, many, of my albums or songs to play, using any of the many different criteria for the search, and thoroughly enjoyed listening to my music. All that changed 6 months later when the unit was no longer able to burn another CD. Then began the descent into hell when I entered Bluesound‘s tech-support nightmares! 

Sadly, most of the complaints you read about Bluesound’s tech-support are true. It is all done through email because they never answer their phone. It took them over two weeks to finally agree to replace my unit. I returned my unit and then another two weeks later they send me a used “repaired” unit that did not work at all! Two more weeks battling their tech-support (they finally called me and spent an hour and a half on the phone with me running diagnostics on the unit.) Once again they agreed that the unit is bad and needs replacement. The Tech-support gentleman says he will forward his report to the sales office and they will handle it from there. I asked him to email me a summary of his findings for my records, and he does. Meanwhile I hear nothing from the sales office for yet another week. I call my dealer who sold me the unit six months ago and plead with them to get involved to help me resolve the issue. I certainly did not want another “repaired“ unit! I wanted it replaced with a new unit. My dealer was fabulous! The customer service rep, Laura, agreed to contact Bluesound and try to get this resolved. She even told me that if all else fails, she would refund my purchase price. She then spends a week back-and-forth with Bluesound and assures me that Bluesound will be sending me a new unit. Another week goes by and, finally, the “new” Vault is delivered. I open the packing slip that is attached to the shipping box. It is a “Repairer’s Affidavit!” From a company called Lenbrook America (apparently the company that distributes Bluesound products.) It stated that the repairer received the unit for the sole purpose of it being repaired; that the “media board” was replaced and tested, along with the cost of the repair. Dated July 27, 2021. So much for it being a new unit! Now, inside the box was yet another packing slip from  Lenbrook America: A “Shipping Document.“ The customer listed was my original dealer; the shipping address was to me. The instructions stated “to deliver to service for quality control prior to shipping.” Does any of this sound like it is a new unit???

The next day I decide to plug the unit in anyway to see if it works; I really had nothing to lose. I proceed to test it by burning five CDs. All of them burned correctly without a problem. I tested all the streaming services, and they work without a problem. I test it’s synchronization with my Bluesound node 2 that I have on my bedroom stereo; it works without a problem. I then proceed to do the “restore“ of all my 1,000 + CDs from my backed up external hard drive. Six hours later, and after a re-index, I have, once again, all my CDs on the vault. Including all the categories and genres I set up. Testing several albums, they work without a problem. 

Overall, it took over two months to get a working vault once again. Ridiculous. And, here is where I gave up. The old “bird in the hand“; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“. I will be using this vault until it decides to break down once again. And when it does??? Stay tuned!