Bose Lifestyle 5 stereo fault.

[poor mystic]

Hi Guys
I bought my Bose Lifestyle 5 a few months ago and didn't get much of a chance to use it for a while. It was in somebody else's hands while they "looked after it carefully" for me, and within an hour of very moderate usage once it had been returned to me it had failed catastrophically. I suspect that the stereo has been thrashed.
So I took it to the local Bose repair place and they repaired it, absolutely not, despite charging me nearly $300. The repair docket claims that a new (2nd hand) pcb has been fitted.
When I first got it back from the repair shop, it wouldn't work at all. I was`powering it as I always had, from a 1kVA auto transformer that runs the 240V down to 115V.
I returned the unit to the repair shop and after a few days they called back saying "no fault found".
Indeed, the system was running nicely in the shop - plugged into 240V. The repair shop said the unit was designed to run on either voltage without re-jumpering and it seemed graceless to complain that I had been used to running it on 115V and it should still work on that voltage. If it ran OK on 240V I could make room for that.
I powered it up at home today and it made a loud, fluttering noise in the bass, while whiter noise, in synchrony with the fluttering, appeared in the treble.
Obviously the unit must be returned, and for the 2nd time. :-(
Can anybody advise me what is likely to be going on with this unit? I gave these repair people all my month's spending money and I'd like to have some idea whether I'll ever be able to actually use the unit.

 

[(*steve*)]

The best option would be to take it in and demonstrate the fault that doesn't exist.

Perhaps whatever signal source they use doesn't show up the fault.

 

[poor mystic]

Ahh well...
Between BOSE and the repair shop and myself we have determined that it's a write-off.
Thanks for your time.

 

[(*steve*)]

It would be nice if you found that out before they charged you $300.

Did they at least refund you the cost of the replacement board which "fixed" the problem?

 

[poor mystic]

I decided to take a productive approach. This thing was causing me nowt but grief.
Weeks ago, I lost hope of gaining joy from the unit; today I got rid of it.

The repair shop called me this morning in response to my email, saying they weren't interested in trying to repair the stereo any more and that I could have my money back less $80 for their time (which must have been some hours).
They did say they'd like to get the parts back they'd unsuccessfully used in their attempt to fix the problem, and I thought "why not?".
Bose in Sydney confirmed that the repair shop was good (not that I'd doubted it) and that parts for the unit were now unavailable. (It's 20 years old.)
So I took the entire, gut-twisting, black hole to the repair shop. placed it on the counter, and said "This is yours now. I never want to see it again in my life".
They were so pleased they waived the $80 labour fee, and I walked out with a relaxed guts and $300.

WIN!
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