Manufacturer Warranty

How long have you had it? Most warranties even 2+ year ones usually have some clause of 30 to 90 days for full refunds. If you have used it over a year, then a new B stock will be a replacement in better condition than the one you lost, so you would have a hard time claiming they are ripping you off. Read your warranty. What does it say? You can probably find it on the Harmon website if you lost it. You also have to wait and see what Harmon does.

Giving a new B stock replacement is a common industry practice. They have made you whole, when all they are required to do is fix the old one.

Gently get the dealer out of the picture and deal directly with customer relations at HK. Be pleasant but persistent and you'll probably get what you want.

Good advice by Bishopwill. Always better to deal direct with the manufacturer in most cases. There are some great dealers who will bend over backwards to help, but by the sound of your post, your dealer is not one of them.

I had a similar experience with a Nakamichi CD player. I took it to my dealer and he later said it was fixed. It wasn't. Then the warranty expired. So the dealer fixed it again and charged me. It was still broken. Eventually the dealer gave up and refunded my money. Nakamichi took over and fixed it right for free the first time. My guess is the dealers shield the manufacturers from the simplest of issues (e.g. did you plug it in?) but are clueless with the real problems.

If you bought your HK via mailorder, I'd take whatever they're willing to give you. They may need your defective unit to ship to the next guy, haha. If you bought it in a face to face transaction go and complain at a busy time when lots of customers are milling around. Good luck!

Rockvirgo,
you sound a little like me, (capable of a mean streak when ripped off), and believe me that is an option I had reserved for last. However, doesn't look necessary. HK rep. agreed to replace for free. They will ship me a knew one within a week. The dealer did try to riggle out, but went to bat for me when pressured. In any event, I was happy with the quality of the Surround features, it had a nice additional touch called Logic7 with I ran my cd thru sometime, gave it a larger sound stage playing thru 5 speakers.
thanks for help and advice guys, I will let you know how this turns out.
joeb

Well, just for those of you interested, HK finally sent me a new (refurbished) unit. It works perfectly, in fact, after having this unit, I realize the old one was deficient in several ways.
At any rate, HK honored their warranty and I am pleased with this product.
joeb

I'm glad you shared your experience with us. I'm also glad that your happy with the results. I wouldn't be as happy. Why did it take them so long to give you a replacement? I would have expected a "new" unit to replace the new one I bought. Not only were you inconvienced by not having the original unit for such a long period of time, you were inconvienced by not having the rest of you system up to full function. All the while Harmon Kardon had full use of your money and you had no use of the money spent on the Harmon Kardon piece and compromised value on the money spent on the rest of your system. As for bypassing the dealer, I don't agree. The purchase was made through the dealer, as such the dealer is agent of the manufacturer and had the responsibilty to rectify the matter. I expect the person collecting the money to resolve the problem. Taking the money and passing the buck isn't appropriate. I hope your refurbished (someone elses used damaged goods) unit came with a new extended warranty effective from the time you recieved it. As I said, thank you for sharing your experience. Harmon Kardon won't be recieving my business for a while.

Unsound,
Well, I was pleased just to have the unit back in working order, And I agree that 3 months of hassle is unacceptable. However, after listening to feedback, this appears to be "standard industry protocol", weather I like it or not seems not to matter to the industry. As for the warranty, no, it was not extended. It continues from the date of my purchase of the original unit. I'd complain, but I think it will fall on deaf ears.
thanks,
joeb

I don't know who standards you are going by. I think that as consumers that have the money that the manufacturers seek to displace, we should raise the bar. With all do respect, you posted that you were pleased with the product. Well this defective unreliable product was down for three months tying up the rest of your system investment. Instead of enjoying the rewards of your hard earned money, you were caught in the hassle of eventualy getting ripped off. If it was me I would be posting how disappointed I was and discouraging any one from doing business with Harmon Kardon. There are reputable firms out there that treat thier customers with the respect they deserve (see my post "Customer service?"). Hey, if your pleased I'm happy for you. I am grateful that you followed up with ther results of your situation. I just don't like encouraging this type of customer abuse.