MY EXPERIENCE WITH BOSS & PLANET AUDIO & SOUND STORM LABS CAR AUDIO PRODUCTS
It’s not often that I use this space to complain about a product I purchased, but I am making an exception here because they sell such bad products. I spent almost $200 on a new car radio, and I’ve had too many years’ worth of aggravation with it. Boss Audio, Sound Storm Labs & Planet Audio are the same company. They make inexpensive car stereos. Inexpensive is a comparative term. For a librarian, that $200 is a lot of money. But inexpensive shouldn’t mean the product doesn’t work.
So here’s the story. A few years ago, I purchased this: BOSS Audio BVCP9685A Apple Carplay Android Auto Car Multimedia Player – Double Din Car Stereo, 6.75 Inch LCD Touchscreen Monitor, Bluetooth, MP3 Player, USB Port, A/V Input, Am/FM Car Radio. They no longer make this model as far as I can tell, but it had decent reviews and it didn’t cost a ton. It was installed, and everything worked pretty well except the radio. We were only able to get one FM station, but since I rarely listen to the radio, no big deal.
If you are not familiar, Apple Carplay means the radio basically uses your phone for everything. Siri is available to make phone calls, for instance. My apps, like Overcast, which I use for podcasts, and Spotify show up on the screen. Google Maps and Apple Maps are there. It’s a touchscreen, incredibly easy to use, especially while driving. I can stop at a light and switch from one to the other or ask Siri to do it. It read me my texts, and I could dictate a response. It seemed like a good thing.
The day after it was installed, there was no sound. No radio, no podcasts, no maps, no Spotify. Everything looked like it was working, but there was literally dead silence in the car. The next day it worked again. Then it didn’t. After two weeks of this insanity, I contacted Amazon, where it was purchased, and arranged for a warranty return and replacement. Easy peasy.
A few weeks later, the new radio was installed. It worked for a while, but the same problem kept happening. I would be listening to a podcast, and the sound would just cut out. Or the map would stop speaking, which certainly isn’t ideal as I have a terrible sense of direction. I put up with it for months, and finally, it just dropped dead altogether. That was in June, so I contacted the company directly since Amazon doesn’t care about anything 30 days past your purchase.
The radio came with a one year warranty, but they extend that to three years if you purchase through Amazon. So I wasn’t really worried about it other than it was super annoying to have the same problem happen on two different, albeit the same model, radios. It didn’t take a genius to realize that perhaps a different model would be better.
The customer support from Boss Audio, someone named Christian Hill, contacted me and asked for receipts and so forth. I explained that I didn’t want another obviously badly designed radio, and asked for another model. They suggested a radio made by SoundStorm, but the reviews all mentioned the same issues. He then sent me a list to choose from. I picked the model that didn’t mention those issues in the reviews, but they wanted another couple of hundred dollars for that one. Not sure why he offered it other than to upsell me? Finally, they told me which models I could actually choose from without having to pay anything more. One didn’t really have any reviews, so I figured no reviews are better than bad reviews, and I selected the Planet Audio model.
Christian stopped contacting me, but someone named Candice Peterson did. She’s wasn’t very nice, to say the least. They told me the warranty didn’t cover uninstalling or reinstalling, so it was on me. They also charged me $20 for shipping their POS back. A few weeks later, the new radio arrived. And guess what.
This was the worst one of the bunch. The sound worked, but only on the podcasts, Spotify, and the radio. The radio even got several stations, which would have been nice had I wanted to listen to the radio, but I did not. What didn’t work? The phone. The maps. Siri. Major, major issues for me. What is the point of offering Apple Carplay if most of the features don’t work?
So here was my dilemma. I’ve been putting up with it, but it’s super annoying. I have to unplug from the radio to use the phone or maps, completely defeating its purpose. If I can’t use the phone hands-free, I don’t need this. Do I want to pay someone to uninstall and reinstall another new radio from this company that is bound to be another piece of shit? Hell no.
I wanted my money back. I was done with the company and all the crap they sell under different names, like Boss Audio, Planet Audio, and Sound Storm Labs. They are all the same junk. I emailed their customer support and asked for a refund. I was not hopeful, especially as the immediate response was just a form letter asking for a copy of my receipt so they could replace it with another of their horrible radios. Their customer service is apparently run by a bot.
They have all these companies, and they keep changing the model numbers. The models I had are no longer available. The same crappy radios are available though, just with different numbers. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but I ain’t no fool, and I’m done.
Follow up: As I suspected!
Hello Stacy,
We apologize for the inconvenience your new unit has given you. We would be happy to replace or upgrade your unit; however, refunds are only available via the original vendor from whom you made your purchase.Thank you
Frank
I have long agreed that the very definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. I’m not insane, I’m angry. And they know full well that Amazon doesn’t get involved with refunds more than 30 days after purchase. So they replaced it yet again, with a different, updated model. Again, return shipping was on me, as was the removal of the unit and installation of the new one.
It’s been a couple of years now. This newer one works sometimes, and it’s the best I can expect at this point, so I just live with it. Sound still cuts out regularly. Sometimes the maps work, sometimes they don’t. Same with all the other features. If I had extra money, I’d just replace it, but at this point, it’s an old car, and I don’t want to invest any more money into it. When it works, great. When it doesn’t, I manage without it.
I should have waited and saved some more money to get a decent Apple Carplay radio. I’m putting this out here, hoping someone will learn from my mistake! My mother always told me that sometimes cheap is expensive, and expensive is cheap. As usual, she was right.
Consider yourself warned. You’re welcome.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 