Hello All,

Thank you for your continued patronage. It is rare when we visit this site. Normally we do not monitor or post to this forum. I would like to take this opportunity to address a few issues that was bought up about our changers, we do not intend this article to be a sale pitch in anyway, it is ultimately your decision on who you want to purchase from and what type of equipment will work best in your vehicle. However, after browsing a few messages, we decided to clarify a few issues on our OEM AUDI changers.


1. Thank you for your continued support. During the months of June and July, we was upgrading our server. During this interim, we was switching DNS names with Network solutions, moving our Verisign Certificates and had to move over 2,000 products to our new storefront/software. Unfortunately, during that time, a small percentage of email was being lost because of some errors with our DNS change (there was actually about 4 or 5 DNS IP address changes during that period), the servers were not sending the email to the correct alias and was not forwarding email. Some customers who had a old DNS cache like AOL had their browsers pointing to old sites for 24 hours or more while other people were viewing another site. But, lets not bore you with the technical issues.As you can well imagine, we went operationally, (3 weeks ago), we had to address a lot of questions, emails, etc. We hired new employees, and gave our employees incentives ($$$) to service us customer email from home (since our system is powerful enough to allow remote access to our database).

During that time, there was a run of Panasonic 8 disc changers that had bad mechanisms. Since that time, we had no further problems. We sent the entire batch of changers back to Panasonic and their engineers for anaylst. We still have not heard any new news on that batch of changers.

Why were so many changers bad? Well, as many of you know, we stock each product we have in LARGE quantities and the 801 and 601 changers are something we stock in VERY LARGE quantities. This allows us to ship quickly and efficently (many of our customers on the east coast receive their orders within 20hrs!! of their purchase). Our storefront is streamlined for efficency, orders are processed 'very' quickly. So, when we do get a bad batch, it may affect a few customers. We keep our customers updated often on product recalls and products, a sheet with an address on where to check on upcoming problems is included with each and every order (if only we can automate this into your computer for you, but you will have to type it in manually). The symptoms with the defective changers 2 months ago was the changer would not eject or give an error message. There was a little plastic tab inside the changer which slid the cds up and down and that piece was breaking. In worse case scenarios, if you shake the 8 disc changer, it would actually rattle because of that piece. In all circumstances, we REPLACED all the defective units with new ones. We apoligize during the months of July and June that returns was a little slow and our email response was a little slower than usual, but we wanted to get our new improved site online quickly. The 8 disc changer problem has been eliminated and we had no further problems with these changers.

Tracking (quicker and instant): Our new storefront at http://store.autotoys.com gives you DYNAMIC tracking information, it will give you order status, payment information and shipping date of your order. Once your order ships, go to your shipping area and click on past orders. ONE BUTTON will be in that area, simply CLICK on it and it will give you the UPS tracking information within our site. It is that simple now, no need to call or email us, no tracking #s to remember or to type. Also, with both of our OEM AUDI 6 and 8 packages, UPS GROUND shipping is INCLUDED in the price, so the price you see is the price you pay. Since our system remembers who you are once you registered once, all you have to do is visit our site and click on the service area to check on your orders now.

Since then, this is our 3rd week of operation with our new storefront and redesigned site (this is our 5th year of operation ONLINE). All email is answered WITHIN 20 hours now (sometimes within 4 hours) and returns on defectives (if any) are processed as quickly as humanly possible. Since we are a 'e-commerce' based company, we differ from other brick & mortor companies or catalog companies, ordering through our server is just easier, quicker, more efficent and better if you choose to order online. We are not the only vendor offering a changer for your vehicle, nor I doubt if we are the least expensive, but I think except for the past 2 months during our server move, our track record speaks for itself.


In addition, we are beginning to ship our new 2000 Panasonic 610 changers (the 601 is discontinued) and we have these units in stock with 8 disc combos.

Thank you for your time. If you had any further problems with our company, we welcome you to email us. (mailto:sales@autotoys.com)

I had to go directly to the manufacter for help! I dated all my e-mails that I sent to you guys asking for help... I got only 1 messages as the "answer" to my problem.
That "answer" was no better than those given by Microsoft when I have to deal with them. Meaning? Unless information that I already know.

I thought you guys were good.... now, I am left with a bitter taste from my experience.

Cris

In May you sent me an 8-disc changer for a '99.5 A4. It came with the wrong adapter. Beginning in May, I attempted to resolve this problem, by email and by telephone. Your server was working well enough to send back automated responses, but over a period of two months the most I received from you was a claim that a replacement adapter had been sent to me by US mail. It never got to me, which in retrospect is no surprise.

The automated email response said to contact you by phone. But the voicemail message said "No one is available to speak with you.....click." Catch-22.

I disputed the charge with my VISA company. They told me that I had to return the changer. Your invoice says "no returns without an RA#", but there is no way to contact you to get an RA#.

This is one hell of a way to deal with your customers. If your server is not functioning properly, you should damn well shut down your operation until you can serve your customers properly. Or hire more staff and install more phones.

nt