Hey everyone,

I thought I would share my experience with etronics.com to warn others before making a purchase through them.

I ordered a Soundstream Van Gogh 500.4 amplifier from their website on 4/9. The item was said to ship in 1-2 days, was a good price, and the company seemed to have a good return/exchange policy. On 4/13 I receive an email stating there is a delay with my order with no explanation why. I wrote an email to their service department to find out what the hold up was. They respond the next day that the manufacturer was slow to ship them the item and they were told it would be there by Friday (4/16) the latest and it would ship to me immediately. Now I was a little miffed over the fact that what was supposed to ship in 1-2 days was now more like 7-10 days but I wasn't in too much of a hurry since I won't be installing anything for a while. It is now wednesday (4/21) and the amp still has not shipped. I emailled them this morning to find out why and received a response that the item is currently out of stock and won't be back in stock for 5-7 business days.

I decided to look them up on resellerratings.com (I know, I should have done this before ordering). It appears this retailer is notorious for lying about items being in stock and people wait weeks without any merchandise being sent. They just keep telling people "it will be a couple more days" when in truth it is probably never showing up.

Sorry about ranting but I needed to blow off a little steam. I will be canceling my order this afternoon. Just wanted to give people a heads up who were considering purchasing from them.

Now my dilemma is where do I buy this amp
It seems I wasted so much time with this retailer that it has sold out almost everyplace else. The only other places I can find it are http://www.infinitecaraudio.com and on ebay through National Audio Center
Does anyone have any experience with either of these or know of anyplace else I could get this amp?

Thanks for your help.

 

Be prepared for them to put off your order cancelation just long enough for them to actually ship the item. This happened to me, so I reported them to Yahoo since I found them through Yahoo Shopping. Supposedly Yahoo keeps track of this sort of thing, and should enough complaints come in, they drop the vendor...whether or not it actually happens, I have no idea, but why give a crappy company a silent thumbs up by NOT saying something...

 

They are really bad with that. I just got screwed with my gooseneck from them. Ordered it, needed it in 2 days, took 2 weeks. I called my credit card, and simply disputed the charge. They have good prices, and all, but service is garbage.

 

God help you if you ever want to return something.

I was a BIG supporter of etronics and ordered LOTS of Camera equipment off of them. Then they screwed me on a return (the first one I ever needed to do with them.) I got the Better Business Bureau involved, but never got anywhere with it.

I ended up going to all the reseller rating sites I could find and rated them poorly. I will never order from them again.

 

The only good thing is they haven't charged my credit card yet. When I first ordered the amp my credit card showed that the amount was being held (my available balance was minus the cost of the amp but the charge was not posted). As soon as I got the first email stating the delay my credit card showed my full available balance again like they canceled the charge. This is what initially worried me that I may never be getting the amp.

Any other suggestions where I can find one of these at a reasonable price and where I won't go through this garbage?? I don't mind paying a little more if I the company is reputable.

Thanks for your help and support through this difficult time.

 

This is where I have found it so far:

www.infinitecaraudio.com - $399 (emailed them and they claim it is currently in stock)

Ebay: National Audio Center - $379.99 (claims 8 available but does not refund under any circumstances)

www.millionbuy.net - $595 (priced a bit high but orginally ordered D'Artagnan amp through them and received it with no problems)

Any feedback or other suggestions is greatly appreciated!

 

Email NFR, he is the man when it comes to finding stuff for cheap. I am not bad myself although he is still the man. PM him he is very cool and has been a great hekp to me.

 

I bought a pair of Alpine SPX-177A Type-X Components from them on eBay. Shipped right away, no problems.

 

Thanks guys,

I'll probably drop NFR a line and see if he has any suggestions.

 

Well you guys aren't going to believe this.

I went to the etronics website to cancel my order, and wouldn't you know it, the amp shipped today! Now assuming the amp actually shipped (and they didn't just post a tracking number to keep me from canceling my order) I guess I retract some of my previous bitching. The company still has a ways to go to improve their customer service, but at least I'm getting my amp and the price was good.

I guess you can take what you will from my experience dealing with this retailer.