"THIEVES! FRAUDS! SCHISTERS! SCAM ARTISTS! CRAP CUSTOMER SERVICE! THEY NEVER RETURN EMAIL EVER! NO 800 NUMBER!

BERNIE (MANAGER) THERE IS A LIAR AND CON! No one will give last names and they do the customer service shuffle and act as if they are all new hires, knowing nothing having to ask each other what to do.

Where to begin? I ordered a Kenwood HTB-504 (Home Theatre in a Box). It was $80.00 cheaper than I could get locally. (I paid $488.85 shipped) It was on "SALE". "Special" In fact it is still on special on there website.

Friday: It took a week to get to me. Ok fine a week I waited. I received gloss printed original Kenwood box that looked as if it had been around the world 10 times. It also happened to be opened on top and looked to have been taped back up 10 times too. I had UPS note the damaged looking box and that it had been opened.

I then notice that there is a hand written sticker on 2 sides of the box. One side english and the other spanish. The stick says VR-505 in handwritten letters. This sticker is stuck over the gloss printed box are where the included receiver model number is indicated on each side. It indicates that an inferior model receiver is in the box. BAIT AND SWITCH? DAMN RIGHT!

After searching Kenwoods homepage and talking to Kenwood customer service I learned the VR-505 in completely inferior to the VR-507. The VR-507 is the model shipped in the HTB-504 home theatre package. So I open the box and not only has in been bait and switched it is a REFURBISHED inferior receiver! I was shocked. I now have to wait the whole weekend to try and retun this trash. I email and email. No response to any of my eamil ever.

I call there phone number. No 800 number just good old long distance charges to Los Angeles. I am put on hold. Again when someone answers they will not give a last name only John. I ask for manager "Bernie". Again everyone is clueless as to what happened. They say send it back with our UPS label. He says he'll email it to me. I wait 2 hours and call back he tries to email me and give me a "Your email is broke" as he is on the phone I test email him and me. I get my email back in seconds. He stutters and assures me he has and wil email the label to me. I say fax it. An hour later he faxes it to me.

I take time off work to go to UPS and ship this garbage back.

Next Monday: I call 9AM and enquire as to the status of my FULL REFUND. I am shuffled to Bernie and he hems and haws trying to find my information. They ask if I included a letter in the packafe. I ask why? Are they confusing me with the thousands of others that they rip off daily. I demand a full refund. More hem snd hawing and a weak committment to get on it right away and give me my refund.

Tuesday: NO REFUND. No answers to my emails. I decided enough I will make my judgement on this company regardless of their compliance to the full refund. My bank will handle them if I am not fully refunded. Federal Trade Commission will be investigating there practices. Southland Better Business Bureau will hear from me. Yahoo Shopping will love my rating of them and have been contacted to investigate them as a reseller on Yahoo. Anyone know of anywhere else I can report this totally inappropriate activity to?

I WOULD SUGGEST STAYING FAR AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY REGARDLESS OF THEIR "SPECIALS".

Bernie if you feel this is an unfair review then REFUND MY MONEY NOW, e-mail me, call me after all you have my lifes information. It is not that hard to provide satisfactory customer service. You have failed me. Los Angeles (Southland Branch) of the Better Business Bureau reports numerous settled and unsettled claims of this type of fraud against this company.

***Update I was refunded my money in full, however this does not excuse their business practices. I would rate them on a scale of 1-10 a minus ten.

Good luck Electronice Closeout.

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