Why is no technology upgrade a simple affair for me? All I wanted was a better car stereo. Here’s part II of what went wrong this time.

My Blaupunkt Syracuse receiver a couple of weeks ago along with the accessories. I unpacked it and started looking at what it would take to connect everything up. I immediately noticed a problem. The back of the unit had only one auxillary input jack, not two. This was the whole reason I ordered this unit. There was simply no spot to plug in the second input.

I decided to contact Crutchfield and instead of calling them and waiting on hold, I would try out their real-time chat feature. This sounded like a good idea, but I can’t imagine it being useful for anything other than the most basic of questions. Based on the speed at which most people type and communicate, it must be extremely frustrating for the poor support people on the other side. They can “push” pages to your browser though so you can look at the same thing, but there are some other problems with their software as you’ll see below.

I spent 45 minutes chatting with a nice lady named Marie, who was helpful but was ultimately unable to solve my problem. Here’s an abbreviated part of the transcript that they helpfully email to you afterwards.

09/20/2005 01:00:37PM Agent (Marie): “Hello. Welcome to the Crutchfield Chat team. My name is Marie. How may I help you today?”
09/20/2005 01:01:06PM Jeff Boulter: “I bought a Blaupunkt Syracuse car stereo. Just arrived.”
09/20/2005 01:01:47PM Jeff Boulter: “I bought it because it looked like it has two aux inputs.”
09/20/2005 01:02:31PM Jeff Boulter: “but once I opened it, it looks like it doesn’t have that input”
09/20/2005 01:03:26PM Jeff Boulter: “I thought perhaps the next model up (Monterrey) would have it, but it doesn’t appear so.”
09/20/2005 01:03:36PM Agent (Marie): “This says it only has 1 set of auxiliary inputs.”
09/20/2005 01:05:57PM Agent (Marie): “However, you need adapters for either input.”
09/20/2005 01:06:31PM Jeff Boulter: “So it looks like that accessory shouldn’t be listed for this receiver.”
09/20/2005 01:07:36PM Agent (Marie): “I’m checking. One moment, please.”
09/20/2005 01:13:50PM Agent (Marie): “Are you using a CD Changer?”
09/20/2005 01:14:01PM Jeff Boulter: “no”
09/20/2005 01:14:33PM Jeff Boulter: “I want to connect an iPod and an RCA adapter.”
09/20/2005 01:16:35PM Agent (Marie): “One moment, and we will have a definite answer for you. However, it looks like the aux1 and aux 2 adapters will give you what you need.
09/20/2005 01:17:17PM Jeff Boulter: “there’s no place to plugin an aux 2 adapter on this model”
09/20/2005 01:21:55PM Jeff Boulter: “It looks like some of the higher end blaupunkt models that you don’t carry have this 2nd input”
09/20/2005 01:21:59PM Agent (Marie): “Here’s what we have found.”
09/20/2005 01:22:12PM Agent (Marie): “The Syracuse should have it.”
09/20/2005 01:32:04PM Agent (Marie): “So, you only have 2 rectangular pin areas?”
09/20/2005 01:34:04PM Jeff Boulter: “I have all the pins shown on page 33 of the manual, but no others.”
09/20/2005 01:35:02PM Jeff Boulter: “The aux 2 input I have is shaped such that it won’t fit anywhere on those pins.”
09/20/2005 01:42:05PM Jeff Boulter: “There’s an empty space where the aux 2 input pins should be.”
09/20/2005 01:42:08PM Agent (Marie): “The technicians think it should work.”
09/20/2005 01:42:15PM Agent (Marie): “However, I don’t think it sounds like it will.”
09/20/2005 01:45:49PM Agent (Marie): “I am on the phone with Blaupunkt.”
09/20/2005 01:46:06PM Agent (Marie): “Let’s get an answer for sure!!!

— DISCONNECTED —

Suddenly their chat software disconnected me! I had no way to get back on with Marie. I sent them an email, then left it for a few days, hoping they would contact me. Finally, I CALLED them. Marie’s notes said that Blaupunkt said it wouldn’t work, but they were checking with their rep to make sure. It was obvious to me now that this wouldn’t work, but I had to work through 4 different people on the phone before I could just get a return authorization.

Meanwhile I got on Blaupunkt’s website and researched what Blaupunkt models would support 2 inputs. I had to go up a product family to the Acapulco model. Fine. They’ve apparently both been discontinued, but I found some new ones on eBay and I ordered one right away at a “Buy it now” price. I had to spend a bit more ($220 vs. $140), but hey, it’s my birthday present.

I guess because I hadn’t used my PayPal account in a while they forced me to do this eCheck payment method which took 4 days to clear. Then did I didn’t hear back from the merchant for a few more days. When they did, it was bad news. They were “out of stock” of the Acapulco, but would offer a model up, the Seattle, for $40 more. I was suspicious of the bait and switch here, but when I looked up the Seattle, I saw that they were giving it to me at a significant discount. It’s a $430 receiver and I would get it for $260. I agreed, sent them another $40 and they shipped it. The new receiver arrived a few days later and I just needed a weekend to install it.