Letter to Honda Customer Service
January 9, 2006
I just faxed this letter to Honda Customer Service regarding the Honda Music Link iPod Adapter.
I think that I have contacted every group that would hold any interest. Honda of America’s Customer Service, Apple Computer Company’s PR division, ZappTek, a number of Honda-related message boards, and the dealer from whom I bought the part.
You sometimes really have too much time on your hands Steve…seriously! LOL!
Naw, not really. This is a problem I’m having, and I’m rather frustrated by both the experience and the loss of the ~US$180 on the product. It doesn’t do what Honda said it did, and I also want to keep others from buying it. Or at least until it’s fixed…
why didn’t you just return it?
It’s an automotive electrical component. One can almost never return them.
did you even TRY to return it? especially after all the fuss you’re raising…why not take it to where you purchased it from (or a sister store) and demand a refund, or at least exchange it for the same thing to try again. maybe you had a particularly buggy adapter (you never know).
you shouldn’t be surprised though. voice-activated menu browsing? sheesh. anytime a ‘new thing’ comes out, you know the first generations are going to be awful anyway. is it really necessary for all this stuff?
besides, it might even be the ipod’s fault somehow. it’s not like all the iPod products have been without fault…and i definately would say they don’t have the nicest / most solid user interfaces.
I think you guys definitely have some points here.
I have emailed the company I bought it from, but I have not yet tried to return it. I’m less concerned with returning it than I am with keeping others from getting screwed in the same manner.
The factory head unit in the car does voice-based stuff really well already. It’s not beyond reason to expect that the part work as described.
Nope, it’s not the iPod’s fault… It’s working exactly as designed, and others online have experienced the same things. I’m just being a bit more vocal about it, to say the least. In my opinion, if one doesn’t speak up about something being crap, a company will just continue to foist such products on the public.
Email isn’t always the way to go. The most effective way to get to someone is via phone by calling customer service and climbing from there.
That’s if you have a normal problem which someone can just solve. This is an issue with Honda corporate, which is why I faxed them. Whoever I got on the phone wouldn’t have been able to do anything for me.
With regards to sending email to College Hills Honda, they play a very small part in this. They did sell me the part, but they aren’t responsible for it’s poor quality.
I also am attempting to engage Apple’s PR people via the most useful method, email. It’s also a lot easier to communicate complex thoughts via email, because then things are in writing and people can take their time to formulate a proper response.
So, while I do agree that for ‘normal’ problems a phone call is the way to go, I think this is a bit beyond that.