Infiniti: Stereo repair

I have a 1991 Q45, and the Bose amplifier in the front door went bad.
I have read through the newsgroups in the past, and I checked again,
and I did a web search.

The same limited number of repair people are out there, and they want
from $75 to about $130 for this repair, and some of them don't even
give a definite fixed price.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to email Bose to ask them about the
amp. I was surprised when they wrote back and told me it's a fixed
price of $75 plus shipping.

Although I haven't found out the shipping cost yet, it seems as if a
genuine Bose repair is the cheapest alternative out there. I was
wondering if anybody out there has used Bose for repairs and had any
good or bad experiences with them. I can't understand why others are
charging more for the same repair, so if anybody knows of any reason
to use somebody else, I'd like to know.

com (Hagrinas Mivali) wrote in message news:<google.com>... 


I got the paperwork and spoke to them today. It turns out that the
total repair cost from Bose including shipping is only $61.25 for the
amplifier. They warrant the repair for 12 months, but said that if it
fails after that, I should call them, and they implied that they stand
behind it. The original $75 quote was for the speaker enclosure (with
the speaker and the amp inside) and of course the warranty won't cover
the speaker if I send in just the amp. I didn't ask for the shipping
for the speaker enclosure, but I think she said that the repair of the
speaker alone is around $41. I didn't write it down and wasn't too
concerned with it, so I might be off a little.

As for the head unit, it's made by Clarion, and you can find an
authorized dealer on their website. According to Bose, "The
radio/cass unit can be serviced through Clarion Corporation in Gardena
CA for ~$125. Please contact Clarion Corporation directly for repair
information at 1-800-347-8667."

That price is about what I've seen on the web from carstereohelp.com
who says he repairs Infiniti Bose stereos. And he is a Clarion
authorized repair person. If you can find a local authorized Clarion
repair shop, I would assume it's the same job for the same price. He
didn't mention any difference in warranty. But he does warrant amp
repairs for life. But that's for $90 each. Personally, I'd go with
Bose. If you fix a pair and one fails again after a few years, it's
still about break even to send one it in again for another repair.
Since the original made it over a decade before failing, I'm not too
worried about the repair not lasting.

Willmans, also on the web, charges a lot less for the head unit
repair, but his $85 price is only an estimate. His warranty is 12
months and he's presumably more expensive on amp repair. He asks for
$75 for amp repair, but it's an estimate and could go up or down. He
says they do their best to keep it at that price and don't expect it
to get much lower. And his warranty is the same 12 months as Bose. So
I can't see any reason to use him for amp repair, but if you want to
save money on the head unit repair, you might want to use him and post
back to say how it went.