Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Subwoofer Buyers Beware

As I mentioned, Axiom has excellent customer service Ian is not the type to sit back and have customers upset - within reason of course!

Sorry for not responding sooner, but this was my first time posting on these forums and I presumed I would get some sort of notification that someone answered my post. I never did, so I never checked back here until today because today was the day that I decided to throw the EP500 away and purchase a new Sub and it reminded me of the post I had left back in mid October so I decided to check.

Yes, I am upset about this since I own three Axiom systems and have spent large amounts of money with this company. One of my systems has the EP600 which is used WAY more than the EP 500 ever was. It is older and is running at least once a week. I feel that have paid a lot for these speakers and feel that this thing should have lasted a lot longer. The broken EP500 is in my vacation home which I am in MAYBE 40-50 days out of the year MAX. Of those days, I may have used my home theater 50-75 percent of the time MAX. So do the math. This thing may have been in my possession for almost 8 years, but it was very rarely used.

I have always felt that this company would be the type that would stand behind their products better than most based on their pricing and their reputation. That is why I chose to purchase from them in the first place. That is also why I allowed strangers into my home to audition these things. When I called about the broken EP500, the first words out of the woman's mouth after she pulled up my account was that my unit could NOT be fixed. That seems like total crap to me. How complex is a powered sub? It's a driver and an amp. How do you build something that costs this much but make it disposable?

I have no idea why it doesn't work. It played fine the last time I was here in February, and when I got back in October, there was just nothing. And before you all start telling me about power surges and storms, etc..please know that my entire home theater system is protected by a Monster Power PRO-7000 and an AVS-2000 plus there is 8U worth of APC backup battery power in the rack. The theater was designed and tuned by Bob Hodas. Some of the best available equipment (at the time) was used. It is not some thrown-together room with some chairs and a TV.

Not sure about Ian ever trying to reach me. When I called about this, they had my current phone number and e-mail address on file. I was NEVER contacted.

PS: My name is FRANK not FRED.

Woah, settle down cowboy. You have to mark your message for notification, thus the reason you never saw a response.

Also, your unit is 8 years old, well out of warranty.
You have it is a "vacation home" in which you state that you are in the home 40-50 fays MAX, and 50-75% (MAX) of that time you would use the home theater. So yeah, lets all "do the math."

That leaves 315-325 days of the year (MINIMUM) that you are NOT in the home. And possibly up to another 25 days that you were there, but didn't use the home theater.

You have no idea what could have happened during those time periods. That is a LOT of time where you were not even at the location... over 8 years, that is possibly around 2,600 days that you weren't even on property.

We travel a lot in my opinion, and there are probably 30-40 days that we aren't home at all in a year, that is just 320 days in comparison, and we still experience oddities around the house. Power issues happen almost always when we aren't home. I know, I know, you have some super fancy surge protection and power filtering in your vacation home, well those aren't always 100% fool proof either, that is why they still have to provide some sort of warranty against product damage should they fail, and they do fail. That said, I doubt that power through those devices are it as long as they were installed correctly. I say that because you can actually cause issues connecting multiple surge protection devices together if not done correctly. I am, however, saying that nothing, and I mean nothing, electronic is fail proof...

Personally, we've had water issues, heat issues, etc during those limited number of days that we have been gone. I can only imagine what any sort of electronic device is subject to in a vacation home that isn't used for about 11 months out of a year.

An idle item also doesn't mean that it isn't exposed to issues. Good luck taking a car (ANY car), leave it parked in a garage for 8 years, and use it a few days a year. It will still have issues or need maintenance just like a car that is driven regular. Sure, not the same amount of things, but you cant just let it sit and expect it to be "like new." Heck, your 8 year old "new" car, could end up a cozy home for a family of mice and have damage that you don't see until later on. Is that the car manufacturer's fault? Is it something that they should just fix because it "wasn't used much?" Heck no.

So settle down a bit, and tell us more of the story. What exactly did they say besides "it can't be fixed?" What did they tell you was wrong? Don't say "nothing" because we all know better than that. I understand that you want to vent, but you have to give the full picture here, or else it just comes across that you are trolling for responses and puffing your chest about spending a lot of money on a system for a vacation home and how it is impossible that anything is to blame but the subwoofer itself.

Seriously , this guy owns a vacation home with a theater and bitches about an 8 year old sub dying. Talk about first world problems, you really need to give your head a shake dude. Shit breaks down all the time, my buddy spent 3400 getting a 98 caravan fixed cause the starter wasn't working. Look it up its a common problem what do you think chrysler canad woulda said to him LOL.

Would any company deal with a product 8 years old and three out of warranty?

Enjoy your new sub and move on with being happy. Life is short and you sound well off, so enjoy what you have.

Mr. Bear - You were offered a replacement amp for your subwoofer. This upset you. When "the woman" (she has a name - it is Debbie) offered to see what she could do on the price of the amp, you hung up on her.

You are not a reasonable person. Most subwoofer amplifiers that are 8 years old are out of production, and the parts not available for a repair.

Add into this the cost of skilled labor for a "one off" job of trying to replace the parts, and it would likely been well in excess of $500 in labor alone.

Had you held your temper, you would have been offered a split of the cost of the unit - $340 - for a brand new amp.

I had a Velodyne FSR-18 that failed after 6 years. It needed a new amp. I had an SVS Ultra fail after 7 years, it needed a new amp. That is normal in audio.

A suggestion for you since you think that this is so easy: Start a subwoofer company. Then get a forum going. I will buy one of your subs and test out your skills.

Peace.

Mr. Bear, is your vacation home climate controlled while you are away? Humidity and heat are notorious enemies of electronics and the sealed nature of subwoofers makes them even more vulnerable once humidity gets in... I know that at my cottage, I have more issues with my electronics than at my home. Partly because they don't get as much use but mostly because my cottage is not air conditioned when I'm not there.

I have to agree with others though, I'm not aware of any electronics company that would give you a freebie swap after 8 years. Most would be willing to work something out (like I believe Axiom did) but beyond warranty, forget it. I recently took in a NAD amp for repair at a local shop and the diagnostics and subsequent capacitor repair/replacement cost me $300 (for what was likely a $0.50 part ). This was on a 12 year old unit. I could have shipped it to an authorized NAD repair center (at my cost) and would likely have faced a similar repair bill.

My neighbour has a Classé CA-2300 amp that died on him. The unit was less than 6 years old (and originally cost $7000 with a 5 year warranty). Classé graciously repaired it for him for $1200! Considering what he paid for his system, he still didn't expect it to be free. Just like owning a luxury car, he knew the repair bills would be higher