vipvop

I have the Pioneer DEH-8500MP, and it randomly stopped working a little bit over a month ago. When it stopped working it had only been installed in my car for 11 months, so I brought my car back to the audio shop and they sent it off to pioneer for repair.

Today I get a call from the audio place, saying pioneer wants $175 to fix the HU, apparently not realizing that it should still be under warranty. Im going to fax my receipt to the audio place tommorrow and supposedly that should take care of everything, but I'm still annoyed pioneer wanted $175 to fix it.

If it had been my carelessness that broke the HU it'd be one thing, but apparently there's a design defect with this model (and some others), since the owner of the audio place said its a common problem (and someone on here pointed out that a guy on ebay will fix certain common problems with this HU for $55). I know they can't just fix all the HU problems for free, but if this had happened a little over a year (or whatever the warranty period is) after I paid $450 for a HU I'd be pissed that Pioneer wanted $175 to fix it (especially since it's probably $3 in parts to fix).

Just bitching, but thought I'd let people know to consider something other than Pioneer when getting a new HU.

(this whole thing is basically the same reason I won't be buying another acura - it's not if there are problems with the product, but how the company handles the problems that come up) ((and acura doesn't seem to handle them very well, in my experience at least)).

Scott P

actually the problem with that headunit actually does cost atleast 175 to fix. basically i am betting that if you had the common problem that most have with the specific hu, then you you shorted out the ribon cable that connects the front face with the rest of the hu and in turn shorted out the boards within the radio itself. it all needs to be replced hence the cost of the radio. More over it sounds like a problem with the shop that sent it back to pioneer in regards to the warranty issue. I have had to deal with pioneer a few times on this issue at our shop and they have always been really good about getting it fixed.

Personally I have had pioneer running in my cars for almost a decade now and never have I had a problem, but then again i've also made a point to shy away from that particualr swingface, it seems to be the chink in the armor of an otherwise good reputation of Pioneer's

havokgroup

That sucks..hope it gets covered under the warranty.

shawhite

no pioneer sucks period.. i have delt with them a couple times and they try to get money out of you any way they can and i would have to tell you to get rid of that headunit after you get it back.. i had the same unit fixed by pioneer 3 seperate times and it came back good and broke shortly after.. finally after having it fixed for the 4th time i sold it to a friend for next to nothing and told him the history on it.. he still wanted it and everything was good for like a month and then it broke and he had to send it back to pioneer.. this time it was 2 months out of warranty and they wanted a ungodly amout of money to fix it even though they had it for over half the warranty period.. i called about everyone i could at pioneer and got the run around with all of them.. point blank pioneer customer service sux... and there products are not all that great either...

vipvop

they aren't replacing the whole board, just a couple of transistors on it. You also know it's not that expensive since you can get it fixed on ebay for $55 (apparently one of the places pioneer sends their HUs to get fixed will fix it a lot cheaper if you don't go through pioneer). The post right above mine worries me though, the place on ebay will actually use better components to replace the busted ones, but I'm going to be pissed if pioneer sends it back to me only to have it break a month later.

Scott P

chances are it will break again, maybe in a month, maybe longer. who knows? the problem lies in a inherent design flaw in the hu that really can't be averted. basically you get a deck that may look cool, but it really suceptible to problems like this. Kenwood has had similar problems with similar desigend decks. Personally i wouldn't trust that design to save my life. But on the other hand the 8000r, 9200, and now 860mp, have been great for me (i'm still a little weary on the 860 over the longhaulb/c they changed so many of the internals on it. i guess time will tell though.

wonton

maybe you should go with an alpine or clarion.

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

maybe you should read the date of the thread

uncald4

iTrader: (3)

Dammit! This always happens when I drive the Delorean.

wonton

hahaha yea i should...