Bluesound Tech Support


Has anyone else had this nightmare of an experience with Bluesound? This concerns a Vault 2i.

For the first six months it was ecstasy. I loaded over 1000 CDs into the vault and reveled in the ability to lie on my couch with my iPhone, choose any, many, of my albums or songs to play, using any of the many different criteria for the search, and thoroughly enjoyed listening to my music. All that changed 6 months later when the unit was no longer able to burn another CD. Then began the descent into hell when I entered Bluesound‘s tech-support nightmares! 

Sadly, most of the complaints you read about Bluesound’s tech-support are true. It is all done through email because they never answer their phone. It took them over two weeks to finally agree to replace my unit. I returned my unit and then another two weeks later they send me a used “repaired” unit that did not work at all! Two more weeks battling their tech-support (they finally called me and spent an hour and a half on the phone with me running diagnostics on the unit.) Once again they agreed that the unit is bad and needs replacement. The Tech-support gentleman says he will forward his report to the sales office and they will handle it from there. I asked him to email me a summary of his findings for my records, and he does. Meanwhile I hear nothing from the sales office for yet another week. I call my dealer who sold me the unit six months ago and plead with them to get involved to help me resolve the issue. I certainly did not want another “repaired“ unit! I wanted it replaced with a new unit. My dealer was fabulous! The customer service rep, Laura, agreed to contact Bluesound and try to get this resolved. She even told me that if all else fails, she would refund my purchase price. She then spends a week back-and-forth with Bluesound and assures me that Bluesound will be sending me a new unit. Another week goes by and, finally, the “new” Vault is delivered. I open the packing slip that is attached to the shipping box. It is a “Repairer’s Affidavit!” From a company called Lenbrook America (apparently the company that distributes Bluesound products.) It stated that the repairer received the unit for the sole purpose of it being repaired; that the “media board” was replaced and tested, along with the cost of the repair. Dated July 27, 2021. So much for it being a new unit! Now, inside the box was yet another packing slip from  Lenbrook America: A “Shipping Document.“ The customer listed was my original dealer; the shipping address was to me. The instructions stated “to deliver to service for quality control prior to shipping.” Does any of this sound like it is a new unit???

The next day I decide to plug the unit in anyway to see if it works; I really had nothing to lose. I proceed to test it by burning five CDs. All of them burned correctly without a problem. I tested all the streaming services, and they work without a problem. I test it’s synchronization with my Bluesound node 2 that I have on my bedroom stereo; it works without a problem. I then proceed to do the “restore“ of all my 1,000 + CDs from my backed up external hard drive. Six hours later, and after a re-index, I have, once again, all my CDs on the vault. Including all the categories and genres I set up. Testing several albums, they work without a problem. 

Overall, it took over two months to get a working vault once again. Ridiculous. And, here is where I gave up. The old “bird in the hand“; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“. I will be using this vault until it decides to break down once again. And when it does??? Stay tuned!




llarry
@OP, 
I understand your frustration, but...
Bluesound offers a lot for not much money, so in some ways:
'you get what you pay for', might be applicable.

I owned Bluesound Nodes, and had issues with them. Bluesound did take some time to diagnose and correct the issues, but they did come through for me.

That they sent a non-functional replacement is cause for negative post, but, once again, they and your dealer got things corrected. (And, it seems your dealer would be standing by you, should things not work out).
That you got your original unit back with a new board shouldn't be an issue. A unit with a new board is essentially a new unit with an old case.

So, now you have everything working again. Yes, it took 2 months, but, stuff happens, and when you are using fairly new technology, things are bound to happen.
Bob

Bob, I hear you. But one tech-support phone call would have saved weeks of aggravation. 

I went back and forth with their tech support for over two weeks on each of the two incidents, having to use emails to communicate. Each email would suggest something for me to do to remediate the issue. I would then have to email them back the results. Each exchange would take several days. In each email I sent, I asked them to call me to expedite debugging the problem instead of wasting so much time with back-and-forth emails. All of the debugging they had me do with the emails could have been done in one phone call. Finally, after weeks of emails, they call me, run their diagnostics and determined that the unit needs to be replaced. 


@llarry,
I agree, it should have been handled better.
In my case, after a couple of back and forths, they scheduled a TeamPlayer session, which is something they should have done for you.

I know it can be aggravating, but, hey, things worked out in the end.
B
I’m more sympathetic to the OP than Golden.  Yes it worked out—so far—but that is a ridiculous Customer Service tale.  The OP seems to be aware of previous complaints so he probably came across my poor experience, which I won’t rehash here, but it was bad enough to drive into the arms of another server.  I’ve been very happy my Melco N100, although truthfully I don’t know how their customer service is, because I haven’t required it.

Being now married to Bluesound, (until death do us part) going to another server is completely impractical for me, unless there was a way for the Melco N100 to be able to restore the Bluesound’s proprietary backup drive of all my burned CDs. My original CDs are scattered among friends, relatives, etc. never to be reassembled. And, I am much too old to go through a divorce!

@llarry,
Here is a link to copying your files. I don't think they are manipulated by the Bluesound App, so you should be able to play them in any other streamer- I think.
https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/200387457-Accessing-the-Bluesound-Vault-s-Internal-Storage-From-a-Computer

But, in the future, I recommend making a copy or three (one on disc, and one on backup, and one far away from home). So, that you always have a way to restore in case of disaster.
Bob

Bob… thanks for the advice. I am very familiar with accessing the Vault through my Mac. I’ve been accessing the database to make changes and using MP3tag to modify the tags. And, as far as backups, I have an external hard drive on my Mac with a copy of the Vault’s “Music“ folder. So I have both; Bluesound’s proprietary backup and a backup of the database. I am an ex-IT guy so I know the importance of backing everything up.  


Before I bought the vault, one of my first considerations was how their backup and restore worked. I posted questions here about people’s experience with restoring Bluesound’s backup. I did not get any concrete responses and so the first thing I did when I got the vault was put a bunch of CDs on it, take a backup and then restore that backup to make sure their software worked. It does. It also worked perfectly when I restored my thousand plus CDs to the replacement Vault.


Back to the database and other streamers. The rub lies in the ability to port that database to another streamer. That is an unknown that would have to be tested before I spend another pile of money into changing things. Again, for now, all is well and I will let it ride until it isn’t.

Larry

@llarry I have the opposite experience with Bluesound.
I currently have the Node 2i, the power Node 2 and the PulseMini speaker.

I did have a small problem about 5 years ago that was related to my router and NOT my first Node 2 but the tech support was able to help me fix the issue which I thought was outside his area of responsibility, so I was very impressed

I later upgraded to the Node 2i and it also has worked flawlessly, along with all the other units I own and I have only had the one issue.
Compared to my earlier forays into streaming using Apple TV or my iMac, which suffered numerous OS and player software upgrade issues, the Bluesound product line, software AND support has been a breath of fresh air.

When I was looking at how I wanted to store my music I did look at the Vault, but it appeared to require some effort WRT backups and restores

So I use a NAS drive to store music files, which has RAID mirror capability, to store my music and whilst it has had suffered one drive failure, I just popped in a new drive and the unit mirrored the content onto the new drive automatically in the background - but I also keep a separate backup on another NAS drive for safety

The other advantage with this approach is that I can upgrade the drives to a larger size or faster technology very easily.

I also live in Canada, which may also have some bearing on my more positive experience.

Never the less - you SHOULD have had a more positive experience

Regards - Steve.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your input. First, your experience with Bluesound tech was five years ago. I’m sure a huge increase of bluesound products have hit consumers since then, putting increased pressure on their tech-support. Second, your experience is with the node, not the vault. The node, basically, has no moving parts; chips and software. The Vault on the other hand, has motors, spinning discs, drive belts, etc. Much more prone to breakage. I have a Node 2 for several years and I’ve never had a problem with it. Bluesound tech-support seems to be based in Canada, at least that’s where the tech I finally spoke with said he was located. 

It should be noted that Bluesound deals with a distributor - Lenbrook America, to distribute their products. Distributors are famous for not caring about their customers, which clearly was the case in my situation having to receive the replacement units from them. Again, one early phone call from a Bluesound tech would’ve cleared up the issue instead of wasting two months of back-and-forth email nonsense. 

Larry





@llarry, 
Given that different streamers will utilize different protocols, I would think having your catalog backed up in it's original format (mp, Flac, or whatever) would be the best way to go, should you decide to jump ship to another streamer.
As things are working as they should, I agree with your leaving it for another day...
B