Alpha Electronics

What I had to send Pioneer:
Kathy,
Can you help me followup with Alpha Electronics. I have called them several times over the last 3 months and they still have not repaired my receiver. They are creating a bad image of Pioneer with the time they are taking to send my receiver back. I think I have been more than patient with this whole process.
Can you please have someone from Pioneer call them and ask them why this is taking so long? I am having no luck. They give me very short answers and not one follow-​up. I had even left them a message in the box to contact me when they received the package and they had not even done that.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. And just an FYI, this receiver is my only source of switching between all of my A/​V equipment and i need something in place to use what I have.
UPDATE:
Alpha electronics was to ship my receiver back to Pioneer… well guess what, Alpha said, «We can’t find it…’ WTF??? after several more days and Pioneer verifying tracking number and calling them, Pioneer ended up shipping me a band new SC-​85. Don’t bring your equipment to Alpha, they are very dishonest. How the hell do you lose a 35LBS receiver!!!

I have long thought that Unilocal enables complainers. Now I KNOW it does, given all the horrible reviews that Alpha Electronics has on Unilocal.Not at all been my experience in numerous visits there, which makes me think that for every bad review, there are probably 10 good experiences that their customers have had but didn’t pen a review. After all, you expect things to be done correctly and when they are, no need to write a review.
I have had my Samsung 50″ DLP 1080p HDTV repaired 4 or 5 times over the last seven years by AE. The picture is such high quality that I have it repaired (relatively inexpensively) instead of buying a new TV. About 3 days ago (¹²⁄₂₈), I fired up my TV and 5.1 surround system and after a few minutes I looked up from working on my laptop only to find a black screen with sound. I pulled the plug from my Monster Power Box and plugged it in again. The TV booted up and failed three times. The next day, I called AE and Dave the lead technician answered. Usually the phone is answered by someone at the front desk. I told him what occurred and thought it might be a color wheel failure. I meant to take my TV in yesterday (¹²⁄₂₉), but I had something come up, so I called this morning about 9:45AM. Drew answered. I told him of my history with AE and that I talked to Dave. Drew asked my what the exact model number of my TV is, so he could check if they had a color wheel in stock. I told Drew that I a friend was trying to talk me into buying a new TV with all the yearend sales going on. Drew called back promptly saying that they have m y color wheel in stock and that Dave could fix it for $ 320, but added that they could give me a deal, $ 300. I got to AE at 12:30 with my TV. Drew said that Dave was on his lunch break but would install the color wheel as soon as he returned. Yes, same day repair!!! I went to the SR Mall and then to Tex Wasabi’s for lunch. When I returned to AE, Dave had the TV at the front desk screwing all the rear covers to the back of the TV. As I walked in the front door, I said the TV screen is on, which is a good sign. Drew proclaimed (surprisingly excited), «You have basically a new TV! It wasn’t the color wheel, it was the DMD board. We replaced both the DMD board and the color wheel with new parts.»
I was braced to hear a bigger $ number, but when Drew printed out the invoice, he asked for $ 289, less than the reduced price quoted to replace only the color wheel. Same day service. Exceeded the work needed. Courteous demeanor. What more can you expect?

I didn’t want to believe other reviews of this place but they are true. We’ve had our TV in there for over a month. We’ve left messages to ask them to tell us when our TV will be ready. They don’t call back at all… ever! When we do get someone on the phone, all they can tell us is, «The part will be here any day.» No hurry on their part to help us. They couldn’t care less about the customer. This repair is on a used TV THEY SOLD us and said it was in great condition and would last a long time! Do not take your appliance here! Very unprofessional!

I’m amazed by the other reviews. Maybe because I’ve never had a repair done by AE, I have had a different experience. A few years ago I bought a 40″ Sony used TV there. I was extremely happy with the price and the reliability of the TV. I tried to buying a smaller TV there. I never got the promised call back when one was available. I guess that experience fits in with others. Recently my cat broke the Sony TV. Yes, my cat broke it beyond repair. I went to AE looking for another. They had one available for a very reasonable price. The frame needed a small repair. It was ready when they said it would be. It is working great. I did have a problem with the universal remote. When I called they offered a house call. Dave Schwarz came to my house, fixed the remote issue, and took my broken Sony away for no charge. He arrived within 15 minutes of when he said he would. He was extremely helpful and pleasant. He offered to walk me through any other remote issues. I ordered one from the manufacturer and intend to take him up on that offer. I would always go to AE before buying a new TV.

I would give them a zero if it was available. They had our microwave for three months and every time we called or stopped by the technician was out on a call and waiting for parts. They were very rude and defensive which tells me they were never going to get it done. They were one of the only places that said they could repair our brand. I guess they misled us since the parts never seemed to come in. We took it there before reading the reviews on Unilocal.Our mistake.

This was a disaster. Do not under any circumstances do business with these guys. I took my receiver to them over 2 months ago. They gave me one story and excuse after another. It is still not repaired. again go anywhere else.

I have no idea why Alpha E is still in business. All the 1 star reviews are true. I finally just went and picked up my TV, because it was going on 3 months for a 2 week repair. They did manage to scratch it up, moving it around not fixing it. Soooo disappointed!

I have to agree with the other 1-​star reviewers. Sometimes these guys do a fine job, and that’s just wonderful. I have had many items repaired by them over many years here in Santa Rosa. Video cameras, Televisions, and many times they did a fine job. But they just don’t know how to say «I Give UP!» and let you know that. They will shut you out, not return your calls, make excuses, say one thing and just completely ignore the fact that they said that the following day, and like a sociopath just keep on smiling and acting normal. The «tech» is a ghost as far as I can tell. I had to sneakily trick them into telling me the «tech’s» name. (DAVE, everyone). I had an expensive difficult challenge for them, but they took it on, «yes, we can repair this!» 13 months later, I don’t have the thing. Why? «Parts back ordered.» For over a year? Just where are they coming from? Or is someone just not following through here? Finally, I got the unit back, and it worked for 3 months (used only very sporadically, mind you). It was within the time period of their warranty, so they took it back. That was it. I never saw it again. It’s been almost 3 years, and although they refunded me the repair amount, they haven’t returned the unit to me. WHY? I have asked, I have walked in the door and demanded it («We will deliver it to your house tomorrow» I was told), another Alpha Original B-​S promise. So I called, once a week or two weeks. Where is my unit? I would like it back. They won’t give it back to me! They have torn it apart to use the parts for other repairs, is my conclusion, even though it wasn’t theirs to do that with! But will anyone there give me a straight answer about this? NO. Is the tech there? NO. Can you have him call me please? Yes, but that really means, in their parlance, NO. Use these people with extreme caution.

Don’t be taken in by the $ 20 tv diagnosis. Bad customer service. They pass the buck like they were some massive conglomerate. No apologies for crap service.

Horrible customer service. Never called with quotes or status — I had to call each time. Initial fix didn’t work. No follow up calls and mixed up pricing — went from under warranty to 1 board to 2 boards needed. Acted like they really don’t care nor do they want to fix televisions. I opted to purchase a new television after their numerous mistakes and poor communication.

I have given them a chance. In fact, this would be my second public web review ever. I have (had) a Denon receiver. Inadvertantly, one of the speaker terminals was shorted and the receiver became inoperable. I called around and Denon said two weeks and $ 250. This seemed excessive and this company said repairs were two weeks out and around $ 220 for the repair. Long, painful story made short, I was told a few days ago (May 7±) a lot of parts had been replaced and the unit was still no good, the mother board would probably need to be replaced. This would be around $ 400 and the unit is not worth it. It took FOUR months to tell me this. I made perhaps dozens of calls to these folks and was always told some story and the owner would call me back. That rarely happened and when it did I was told it would be repaired in a couple of days. They did not do the courtesy of contacting me to let me know they were more problems, they strung me out. They always said «maybe», «it could be» or «it probably». This leads me to believe they do not know what they are doing and It would also seem there is some level of dishonesty going on here and yet, they are a service provider. Go figure. I highly DO NOT recommend this company and I remain very disappointed in how they handled this issue. Boo.

took in my stereo
o in sept 2013 for repair = 3 weeks later done = worked for less then 15 min and not well. switches were backwards and volume not same. took back in and has been there now since oct 2013 now its 4÷1÷14. keep calling and same answer each time part will be in in 1 week. brought other items in shop yrs ago with ok repairs but this 1 did it in for them. going to try calling one more time to see if done. if I could give 0 stars I would have.

I am writing this review to thank Alpha Electronics for my positive experience with my recent warranty work preformed by them. I had the misfortune of a newer $ 2500 Samsung tv become completely inoperable just after 5 months. Contacted Samsung to report issue, and within 4 hours Ken from Alpha Electronics had called to inform me that he was aware of my situation and had already ordered my part which would arrive in a few days.
True to his word A.E.called back, the part arrived (main power board) and we set a repair time the next day. The technician (Ken as well) arrived within the quoted time given, and was courteous and professional. He had my tv up and running in less than15min. Total time elapse from initial call to Samsung, and having my tv repaired was just 4 business days. Thanks for a job well done A.E.

If I could give zero stars I would. From not returning phone calls to techs that don’t show up to work, it was a problem from the start. After 3 weeks of having my TV, it was returned to me in the exact same condition, no picture, kind of hard to argue with a black screen. I spoke to a rude employee named Damian who told me that a refund was out of the question and that I would have to leave the TV for another 3 weeks to see if they could fix it. Almost $ 300 paid for repairs and still no TV. of note: my TV was on the floor in the entrance of the shop when I came to pick it up, it now had a scratch on it. Damian «couldn’t believe» it had a scratch, but of course did nothing about it. He also would not let me speak with anyone else in the shop as «they will tell you the same thing». The way you speak to customers makes a huge difference, Damian will be the downfall of this business for sure.
Better Business Bureau grade for this shop is D– !

Nice guys but no call backs, I had the bring my unit back three times before they could replicate the problem. It was a simple problem but it could have saved me two trips.

Beware!!! I took my Denon blu ray player for a led light to be replaced and after a week of having my unit, they called to tell me my unit was fixed. I got it back home, plugged it in and the led light was never fixed!!! I called Alpha about this issue and the owner asked me if the led light is supposed to be active all the time. My response was to ask him if they were qualified to fix my Denon. The owner proceeded to tell me how he has the best audio tech around. Ya right!!! I sent my Denon to another audio repair center in Ca. Fixed perfect the first time! Bottom line— Don’t waste your time with this company!!!

As with every review I do… I highly recommend if you’re looking at someone’s 1-​star review… check out the other reviews they gave. Do they give a balanced number of «stars» to businesses? Or do their reviews fall only on both ends of the spectrum (1 star or 5 stars… and hardly or no 2/​¾ star reviews)? The purpose is simple, sometimes 1 star reviews are just not justified. My review is 5 stars. and here’s why.
I live in San Jose. They’re in Santa Rosa. I drove all the way from San Jose to have my Pioneer CDJ1000 Turntable repaired. Turn-​around time was a reasonable 7 business days. My unit was returned in the same condition as it was brought in. Why would I drive all the way from San Jose do you wonder?
It’s just $ 20 for the technicians to look at your unit. I did my shopping around, and for a lot of electronics companies just for them to look at your problem start at around $ 50-​$ 75. $ 20 is really hard to beat, hence the 2-​hour drive from San Jose.
They’re Pioneer-​certified so they have to know how to fix Pioneer products. Okay, so you’re thinking or brought in something for them (or anyone) to repair. Are they certified to repair your brand? If not then you could worry something might happen. then again if you owned a Ferrari and took it to a auto shop that didn’t fix Ferraris because you wanted a *good deal*, you run that chance that something won’t happen the way you would expect, right? I hope so.
Besides the low cost of looking at the problem and the average turn-​around time, and being certified, customer service was great. The staff took note I drove 2 hours to have my unit repaired so they took all the necessary… no I take that back… more than the necessary precautions to make it right the first time to save me multiple trips up and down… and they took the time to educate me on the problem… *and* I had the option to talk to the technician directly if I had any more issues. This in my opinion is an excellence in customer service.
If Alpha Electronics is an authorized repair center for your product, I recommend considering them for help. If they are not authorized, I still recommend them but that’s on you if things do go as expected (note the Ferrari analogy above?).

I had an awful experience with this place. I received an old turntable for Father’s Day last year. It worked fine but the arm won’t pick up and retract at the end of the record, so I brought to to these guys to fix.
They are extremely nice in person. But their service is awful (at least in my case).
They said I would have an estimate in the next few days, it ended up taking weeks (and a few phone calls from me). After I gave them the okay to do the work, they said it would be a few weeks. I started trying to follow up in August. At first, they were like «oh, your turntable is next up», then it was. «They are almost done. Just doing some fine tuning».
Then, in September, I had to call again for an update and found out they couldn’t get the parts! I thought I was days away from getting it back! I asked why they hadn’t told me that, and they said, and I quote, «We don’t call our customers. We have way too many customers to call them with updates.»
So I said I wanted my turntable back as my wife was due in the next few weeks and I didn’t want to forget about the turntable with the new little one home. The girl there said it would be ready that weekend. I drove up there that weekend to be told it wasn’t put back together yet. Then I had to wait another week to go back up and get it. Finally, in October (4 months later), I took it back home in the same condition I dropped it off in.
What makes me upset is not that they couldn’t find the parts, or take long to work on projects (I would be okay with this), it’s that they never told me updates (in fact, they seemed to be telling me wrong updates when I called) or even see the logic that one would expect an update. They never called me once — it was always me calling them. Something makes me believe had I never gone and got it, it would still be there today… waiting.

I brought in a friend’s tv for repairs and since it wasn’t a HD brand new tv, I guess the guys that loaded it didn’t care about it, they scratched it up and were not careful with it at all. I don’t care if my tv is from the 1900s you don’t treat a customer’s belongings like crap. The estimate was way too high, they tell you one thing in the phone and then they switch when you are there will definitely not be doing business with them ever again.

Never, never, never go to Alpha Electronics! If you do, all I can say is «I TOLD YOU SO!».
This happened last October… I took my Vizio TV in to Alpha E and got a quote of approx $ 400 to replace the main power board. I ok’d the price and was told the part would come in the next week, weeks went by, no calls ever from them, and every time I called them I got another excuse about the part being on back order. Finally on December 24^th, I went into their store and picked up my TV. I was able to find the part in stock at Best Buy Parts and decided to do the repair myself! This is not over though… when their techs were loading my non-​repaired TV back into my car for me, they TOTALLY SCRATCHED UP THE WHOLE SIDE OF MY TV! I was outraged, went back into the shop and made them sign a document that they were responsible. They promised me they could get the part within a week to fix it. Of course weeks went by, more excuses. I finally had to fax memos and small claims paperwork to them to get them to repair what they damaged. It took them until mid-​February to fix it. It was the worst experience ever! They always had excuses and never did I once get an apology! Wish I could give them zero stars!