Complaint Review: Clarion - Santa Clara California

Chandler, AZ is absolutely correct.  Clarion's stereo equipment is junk and their company's customer service is terrible.  The website title "Ripoff" fits perfectly with Clarion.  Their stereo/CD mechanisms are definitely not up to industry standards.  You can research all the individuals with Suzuki vehicles who have had the CD mechanisms eat their CDs and have been unable to retrieve them.  To make matters worse they have contracted with various auto manufacturers to make proprietary headunits for vehicles.  When the headunits fail, which all Clarions eventually do, you are forced to take the unit to a dealership to have them send the unit into Clarion.  It does not matter whether the vehicle is in warranty or not.  This allows the dealership to up charge the repair by adding on the extra cost by going through them for the repair.  Clarion is very adament that they will not accept these proprietary units unless they are sent in through the dealer.  This cuts the dealership into part of the "ripoff scheme".  They do have a parts supplier, PacParts, that supposedly carries parts for these proprietary units but they are conveniently always "out of stock", awaiting order fullfillment.  When you call Clarion tech support they tall you that they can repair the unit right away if you go through the dealership since their own company repair facility has the parts. Isn't that interesting that the Clarion repair department have the needed parts on hand but the parts supplier does not have these same parts.  It's all a scam to cut the auto dealerships in on the repair costs.  If you have a factory Clarion head unit junk it and buy a good aftermarket.  If you are considering purchasing a new car make sure the audio system is not manufactured by Clarion (Suzuki and Honda are for sure).  If it is check to see if there are any other audio system options.  If not I would consider purchasing a vehicle without a Clarion.  Dave, the one who rebutted the original report, is obviously a schill for Clarion. 

As an installer in the car audio business for over 15 years, and as an employee of a company that currently carries the Clarion line, I assure you Clarion doesn't "suck". Your problem is with the shop, not Clarion. I frequently send stereos in for repair with all the brands we carry and the Clarion units usually come back in a timely fashion (1 to 3 weeks). This is pretty much the industry standard no matter which manufacturer made the stereo. The very fact that Clarion knew nothing about the repair when you called them, leads me to believe the stereo shop was jerking your chain. Clarion is one of the oldest car audio manufacturer around,(if not THE oldest..) and most of their units carry a 2 year warranty (pro audio line). My experience with the Clarions is that they have no more problems than Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, Eclipse, etc..... You had the unit working fine for (1 year to 20 months....?) with no problems. Car audio environments are tough on electronics (spilled coffee, dust, vibration, etc..) and stuff happens, that's the nature of the beast. In the future what you might want to do is see if there is a factory authorized service center in your town. Many times a company will authorize a local repair shop to complete warranty repairs. This way you can actually talk to someone face to face concerning the repair, as opposed to sending the unit out of town and then having to depend on the word of a shop that most likely dropped the ball... Hope this helps.