Commercial Electronics

NOTE: I just downgraded Commercial Electronics from **** to ** not because they no longer sell Sonos (though that is a factor) but because when I went in to get another Sonos component one of the staff told me they got out of selling Sonos «…cuz it’s such crap and we sell much better stuff.»
Not a good thing to say to a customer who a year before laid down some serious cash for a system they were raving about.
The review below was written 3 years ago:
I just purchased a Sonos wireless media system from Commercial Electronics for my new condo in Vancouver, and I was very happy with the service I got from Mackinzie Partington, a very knowledgeable young salesman, as well as extremely thorough back-​up help from Hal and James. Their service was detailed, attentive, and authoritative. I couldn’t ask for more. As an American visiting in Canada, I have become used to a high quality of retail service, something that is frequently (and sadly) lacking in my native Nevada.
I read all three reviews on Unilocal about Commercial Electronics, and the first two were very positive, just like the one I had decided to write.
The third, by Kat D. (an elite Unilocal reviewer) explains why she was so critical. It reminded me that on my initial visit, I too was ignored, until I was ‘rescued’ by Mackinzie. He was absolutely terrific.
I love the system I bought. (As an aside, go to Amazon and look at the 129 reviews of customers who bought the Sonos System — pretty much straight A’s). I recommend Commercial Electronics highly. But customer service, as Kat points out, requires constant attention to detail. «You never know who is going to walk into your store,» she wrote, and I agree wholeheartedly.

I have been a customer of Commercial Electronics for years and know that I am getting great quality and service whenever I go in there, especially from John Foster. I’m sure I can shop around and go on Ebay or other auction houses to get better pricing but I prefer to buy from a reputable dealer, one that sells quality products and stands behind them. Brad who services all the B&O products is excellent and very knowledgeable.
I’m sure there may be issues in every retail store in town from time to time, I think if you don’t get treated exactly like you want, go elsewhere, I don’t think you need to bash a complete store because of ONE bad experience! If the pricing is not what you like, go elsewhere, stop complaining!
Will be shopping there again to add to my system!

I am a past customer with CE when they were on Burrard Street, however they have moved to a Bang & Olufsen front, and new facilities on 7^th. With the sophistication of the product and showroom and facility I would have thought the customer service would come along with it. No so. I had negotiated a $ 5000 tv system with accessories, installed, and was in the process of paying a down payment with my debit card. It could only do $ 400 a day, so I came back the next day with a $ 2600 money order. In discussion with my self titled «salesman» Kelly, he mentioned that the install may be more than 3 weeks from now, and I said I think a current Samsung tv could be accessed in North America by that time. With this he got very aggressive, and said emphatically that he wouldn’t lie, and stared at me in silence to ask what «I» was going to do. With this attitude and $ 2600 in my hand, I asked for my $ 400 back. Other employees at the service desk witnessed this behaviour, but ignored me. It took about ½ hour to determine they did not have the technology to refund a debit card, and finally issued me a cheque. The last word from Kelly was «you wasted my time.» Don’t waste your time here, until they get some customer service training. If you have fools standing in front of high ticket items, high ticket items will not sell. There are other suppliers in Vancouver.

I can only speak for the Service Department. Last week the projector at work went on the fritz and needed to be fixed. Does anyone know how hard it is to find a place that does projector repairs? honestly you would think there would be more in the Financial District, but I digress lol. Anyway, when I called here I was completely satisfied with the way they explained everything to me about cost etc. I had called around to the few places I could find but they were very sketchy about cost, which put my price radar up. Even though I am spending company funds I don’t want it to be outrageous.
So I sent it via courier to the service department. When they received it, they called me to let me know and to ask for a deposit of $ 84.00, which isn’t bad considering this could have been a big fix. At that time they also advised that they would call me if they thought the fix (as it had to be diagnosed first) would be over $ 250, otherwise they would just fix it and call me for the balance later. It only took a couple of days to fix it, I think 2, not sure because when they called on Tuesday the call wasn’t directed to me, it was directed to the one person that wasn’t in the office until today, at which time it was directed to me. Again I digress.
I called them today and the balance was just under $ 100, which isn’t too bad considering. So I sent the courier and had them pick it up. What I also learnt is they do not keep credit cards on file, which is nice. I just gave them the new card and they put me on hold to make sure it went through, without the pain in calling back if it didn’t.
I will definitely use them again for an office fix.

I went into Commercial Electronics on a recent Monday at around 5:40 pm. My friend had just moved to Vancouver and wanted to buy electronics for his newly purchased Yaletown condo. The rumpled man with what looked like dirty curly hair stared at us and then went back to talking to the woman sitting behind the desk near the door. He didn’t even greet us. We circled the store as the so-​called «salesman» continued his conversation with his female co-​worker. Unfortunately my friend took all his money– and it was considerable since he was not concerned with shopping around– to The Sound Room on Broadway. We got good service from people who understand how to treat customers. You never know who is going to walk into your store. Stop talking, do your job and remember that.