Maybe I should rephrase that…don’t always trust the experts word.  I say this in response to an experience I had with one of my clients today.  They had purchased a Denon receiver from a major electronics retailer and have been experiencing issues with it. It goes in to protect mode after about an hours use, volume goes up and down at will, sometimes doesn’t pass video, you know the usual things!  She was still under the 24 month manufacturer’s warranty so I suggested to take it back and have them fix it, which she did. This was about 5 weeks ago, and she got it back yesterday. Not a bad turn around in the grand scheme of things (no that wasn’t sarcastic, that actually isn’t bad).

So I went over there today and set it up for her, and of course it wasn’t 100%.  They fixed 0 of the 3 major issues. And I know what you HT geeks are saying…”it’s the HDMI cables silly English guy”.  I thought this also, so after the 4th different HDMI that I tried it still wasn’t working, all 6ft cables so no issues with length of cabling.  I digress, so I asked to see the repair invoice she got from repair people. It said the following:

“Factory update firmware; factory reset.  Tested all modes and function, all working”

So here’s the 2 reasons for this blog…

1. There is no physical way that I know of to do a firmware update on a receiver with no USB or Ethernet, or no factory listed firmware update on their support site for the specific model.

2. Obviously they didn’t test ALL modes and function’s because they STILL don’t all work!!

So as I said…don’t always trust the so called “experts” word for it.  Ask them to show you that the item is fixed before you leave the shop. Also question anything on the invoice that you don’t understand. My client is a little old lady that didn’t know any better, so I got her on the phone and she questioned the person she was on the phone with.  Lets just put it this way he started talking BS to her for about 2 minutes before I took over the call and asked him to explain how they did said “updates”. After he said “uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..wellllllllll…..i thiinnnkkkkkkkkk….” I was on the phone with a store manager and my client has a credit for the receiver coming back to her credit card and we are replacing the receiver with one that if it does go wrong, I will fix it and not lie to her about what we’ve done.

Have no fear…The English Guy is here!!!!!!  Seriously though, if you don’t know ask someone. Any reputable install company that I know of will be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have whether you purchased from them or not!! Don’t be stuck taking the “experts” word for it…because some “experts” don’t always know their you know what from their elbow!!!!