Warranty Repair Woes on a Defective A/V Receiver

I don’t particularly like the dispose-of-when-it-breaks-instead-of-fixing-it mentality, but this tale of a Design News reader that ran into a tortuous and ultimately fruitless experience trying to get appropriate repairs done on this Onkyo A/V receiver under warranty makes me rethink my position:

His letter:

“I am writing this letter to request further repair or replacement of my Onkyo TX-SR605(B) S/N 1761029069, purchased on October 27, 2007.

On February 6, 2008 I hand carried my receiver to an authorized service center, ACP Electronics Labs in Florissant, Missouri to correct a failure that resulted in loss of the left back surround channel. On Feb 12 I called to get a status on the progress of the repair to my unit and was told that circuit traces to the current protection circuit for the failed channel were repaired due to a crack in a circuit board in the unit. Additionally failed output transistors for that channel were being replaced. The next day I called back and expressed my concern over the acceptability of such a repair and was assured the repair would be sound.

Upon getting the receiver home from warranty repair found the damage reported to be much worse than explained and the initial repair to be of unacceptable quality as evidenced by the attached pictures. Although the unit is fully functional electrically for all the functions and inputs I am using, The repair to the circuit boards is unacceptable because the damaged parts were not replaced with factory new or equivalent parts. I feel as though I had a repair done to my car under warranty and got it back in apparently good working order, but found the dealer used bailing wire to repair it rather than factory equivalent parts.

One problem with the unit is a crack in the main board through a hole occupied by a plastic spacer similar to damage described to me by the service technician.

Crack in main board through spacer hole

However, in another location, the main board is broken and a small piece of the board is missing

Main board with section broken out, broken support spacer.

and I found another cracked circuit board near the main power transformer:

Broken board by main transformer.

I attempted to return the unit to ACP, but they refused to accept the unit for further repair saying that they only returned the units to electrical functioning. I expressed concern as to the safety of the repair, especially since the original failure resulted in excessive power being applied to my speaker sufficient to burn it out and melt insulation on the speaker internal wiring. They also said that the other areas damaged did not compromise any additional circuit traces, but that is impossible for me to tell since the circuit traces are not visible unless the unit is disassembled.

I have contacted support and spoke with both Don Phillips and your warranty manager Diane (last name unknown). Both have refused my request for additional repair indicating you do not cover shipping damage or abuse. I cannot accept this ruling since there is no evidence of shipping damage or abuse to the carton or exterior of the receiver and neither requested any evidence to support my claim that the unit did not exhibit signs of shipping damage. I took the unit and the photographs to the Circuit City store I purchased the unit from requesting replacement due to unseen shipping damage, but they refused since neither the unit nor shipping carton shows any damage.

Because there is no evidence of abuse or shipping damage, I feel Onkyo should return the receiver to the condition it was intended to leave the factory in. I request that an agreement be reached to replace the circuit boards to return the receiver to an undamaged condition or replace it.

I appreciate your consideration in this matter and await your reply.”

PS. Onkyo refused further repair making the assumption that either the unit was damaged in shipping or the user damaged it, despite documentation to the contrary. In a word — unbelievable.