Evening

Two weeks ago I wrote to the CEO of Bang & Olufsen, the General Manager Australia and BeoCare. My email was about my experiences as a customer over 20 years. I wrote of the marvellous experiences with my local store but also of the never ending software issues that I have been plagued with over the last several years as they relate to the Beosound 5 and Moment in particular. I've included my email below (though deleting my local store names etc).

As yet no reply whatsoever, not even an acknowledgement. I don't necessarily expect the issue to be resolved by now but a polite reply to say we're looking at it and thanks for taking the time to provide constructive feedback would be welcome and reasonable. I'm sure I cant be the only person who has experienced similar issues re software?

Dear Mr Henrik Clausen / Mr Julian Kipping

I writing to you to share some of my experiences with you as a Customer of Bang & Olufsen over an almost 20 year history. I hope you will find this feedback both positive and constructive and appreciate the time it has taken to write.

Let me start by saying that my first purchase was almost 20 years ago in one of your Sydney stores- a couple of Beocom 6000 telephones and a Beotalk 1200 answering machine. I was captivated by the craftsmanship and beauty of the products. The fact that they could actually also control a Tv and Sound system amazed me. That prompted me to buy a Bang and Olufsen television and sound system as I couldn’t bear not being to use the connected functionality of the telephones and the AV products. It was this beauty, simplicity and functionality that started two decades of dedication to the brand. Over this time I have purchased: Beocentre 26 TV, Beovision 8 TV, Avant TV, Beocenter 2, Beosound 5, Beosound 1, BeoPlay 6, Moment, Essence, Beolab 9s, Beolab 3s,  Beolink, a dozen vintage Beolit Radios from the 1950s-1970s, Beogram 7000, Beocentre 9500. Various remotes. I’d estimate I have spent aprox 120k AUD (575k DKr)

Part of the Bang and Olufsen magic is also of course not just the products but the brilliant after sales experience. Years after a purchase I can still go into a store, be offered a cup of coffee or a glass of champagne and be welcomed. The XX Street Store in Sydney is my local store. XX is the Store Manager and is always professional and helpful. I commend X and one of his technical team X. I also need to mention XX, a technical consultant working with Bang and Olufsen in Sydney who has assisted with various technical issues from product support through to internet/ wi fi support. He has been most generous with his time and support. 

Now I was  to make some constructive comments which I hope you will consider carefully. From about six years ago however I must say my products have been plagued with more and more frequent technical issues and software problems. This commenced with my Beocentre 2 and its constant inability to work with MAC/ iTunes properly. The problems were so frequent that the store offered to give me back my money on both the beocentre 2 and beolink module. I still have the product as a stand alone because it is so beautiful and an iconic piece. This issue is old history now, but important in the context of the next products purchased.

Due to the constant problems with the beocentre 2 after only three years, it was retired to a spare room and I purchased a Beosound 5 in January 2014. A lovely, lovely product. I painstakingly loaded one by one all of my CDs. It took weeks. I enjoyed the internet radio and spotify functions enormously.  In less than two years I started to experience significant problems; many internet radio stations links stopped working and I would have to let beocare know and they would try to fix. Then Spotify regularly stopped working, only to eventually stop altogether. 

In only three years the beosound 5  product had become barely useable. After much discussion with XX in May 2017 I purchased a Moment. We were both convinced this was the ‘future’ product. Before embarking on this XX suggested I also future proof my home internet and wi fi at considerable expense. I did this because I wanted all of products to work flawlessly and rule out any wi fi dropouts etc. The last six months have been one disaster after another in relation to my products.  Once getting the Moment home it became obvious that the CODEC the Beosound burnt my CDS in wasn’t compatible with the Moment system and I had to re load all my CDs again. Weeks of work. I couldn’t believe a CODEC (WMA LOSSLESS) available on one product would no longer be supported on another.

Within weeks of having the system set up, it was clear there were faults. The moment would stop, splutter, drop out on any of the functions played, i.e. Tunein, Deezer or my own collection via DLNA. Everyday for weeks I was instructed to reset or reboot the system. What should have been a joy to turn on my system everyday became an endless frustration re constant resets, turning products on and off, reloading the BEO APP.  The APP itself has had many ‘bug’ problems. Within a month or so I was given a second Moment as it was acknowledged the one I bought was faulty.

Bang and Olufsen installed the second Moment. While the second moment mostly plays, issues that were present with the first also continue. Artwork from my DLNA library does not display properly, partly displays, is blank or sometimes completely different artwork to what is loaded ( I have dozens of photos documenting these artwork issues). Despite waiting for an answer from Denmark on this issue for several months I still have no fix. The wooden side of the moment will not consistently turn on the moment or play music- occasionally it will, but mostly after a long period of inactivity, e.g overnight, it will not turn on products. Further to this the latest issue is that the mood wheel no longer displays correctly and only the inner ring is loaded, the middle and outer rings are greyed out. A factory reset has not resolved these issues. 

Simultaneously to these issues I have had numerous issues with my beosound 1, repeatedly being unable to connect to my network. I was given a replacement after bang and olufsen technicians tested the product and visited my house. My second Beosound 1 has similar problems, presumably software problems again.  My local store appear to now know how to resolve, I need to find the time to take it to be repaired.

On the weekend I read that the Moment, not even three years into its life is being deleted. I have had mine barely for six months and it has never worked properly.  I assume my experiences are not unique, rather a systemic problem of poor testing and software failures. While I accept technology changes quickly I cannot accept that I have paid so much money for products that don’t work and take hours and hours each week to reset and reboot. The joy of using your products has gone and what is left is frustration and extreme annoyance that what should be seamlessly integrated products is a litany of errors.

I wish to be very clear I have no issue with the level of service xx and his team have provided. They are exemplary and do their very best to assist. Rather I believe they are selling products with poor software and limited support from Denmark.

I’d be keen to know your thoughts as the CEO in relation to how you may be rectifying such systemic problems. At this point I’m very reluctant to consider another Bang and Olufsen music system solution, though ideally I’d love my present system to work properly and know it will be supported for several years to come (as when it does work its truly lovely!)

Med Venlig hilsen

Dr David Coyne.