Sounds like you have been yes - they’re far from perfect no arguments there, but my 2 BV screens and various speakers have been fine in the 5/6 years I’ve had them

There are those who’ve had unacceptable problems and B&O have a spotty record at times in addressing these. A good helpful dealer can help at times

Escapist wrote:

Beolab 20 - one failed and expensive to fix as B&O say my fault.

In what possible way could this be your fault?  If this is still under warranty it should be fixed at their expense, period.  The same applies for any other items under warranty.  Unless they can prove damage caused by deliberate acts like wiring the AC power cord into the NL port or submersion of the unit into your swimming pool, failures should be covered under warranty.

For things out of warranty . . . well, unfortunately electronics do sometimes fail. B&O gear should be no more or less robust than similar equipment from other suppliers.  (I design electronics for a living.  B&O has access to the same components as LG, Sony, etc.  Unless they have completely failed in thermal design, the HDMI chip in B&O's board will be no less reliable that the same chip in another brand's TV.)  Of course one expects to receiver better support for a 10,000 Euro TV than a 1,000 Euro TV, but the likelihood of a repair being needed shouldn't be any higher.

If you don't get satisfaction from your deal, perhaps try another dealer, or contact Struer directly.  Someone who has invested 100,000 Euro in B&O gear should get great support.

I hear you on the dealers!

My U.K. dealer on the south coast are useless a s refused to even try to help.

my Spanish dealer in barcelona don’t just sell B&O amd are honest about the poor reliability amd service. They are also very kind so they helped me get my U.K. issue resolved. They pushed via Denmark and once I had B&O U.K. on it the issues were fixed free of charge.

my current issues are in Soain and the dealer is angry with B&O for being unfair (claiming it’s my fault two TVs and a speaker broke when mugging else did - only B&O stuff - and are nos arguing with head office again. I’ve spent over £200k in all with B&O so I expect some service but my dealer has pretty much told me I should give up on B&O for the future as they are the worst manufacturer to deal with. 

It’s a shame. I like the styling and unique combination of sound and vision but they are way overpriced for what they are so you kind of expect a lot of support. My recent Harmony was 18k euros where the same LG screen I out in the gum was 1,400 euros. That is a lot to pay for a speaker and brand. 

anyway, I guess my post was to find out how common reliability issues are and how good service is; also how best to push B&O to fix things! 

They say that there was a power surge.

unlikely as I have surge protection across the house, items were plugged into a surge protector locally and nothing else at all broke...

For me B&O is very fragile and delayer says far more so than any other brand they sell.

 

 

 

 

I don’t believe that statement to be the case at all, sorry to say. I’ve had my own issues with them, ofcourse, but i honestly can’t phathom a dealer saying they are way more fragile than any other brand. If nothing else my experience with their products is the complete opposite. They’re not perfect, for sure, but bl20’s just breaking like that sounds very unique to me.

Escapist wrote:

They say that there was a power surge.

unlikely as I have surge protection across the house, items were plugged into a surge protector locally and nothing else at all broke...

Please excuse my language, but that's complete bullshit.  For decades all power supplies have had significant surge suppression built-in, so unless there was a direct lighting strike on your building there is no way power surge would cause this problem even if you didn't have additional external surge suppressors.  Further, as you said yourself, no other equipment failed so power surge can't be the problem.  Finally, if the problem is with the HDMI board then power surge is not possible: the HDMI doesn't connect to the wall power outlet, it connects to another electronic device with low-voltage signals, so power surge into that HDMI port just isn't a possibility.

For the amount you have spent you should get fantastic support.

 

Lightening strikes can do weird things.  I had a lightening strike near my house, and it took out the MasterLink boards on my BS9000, BS5, BV8 and NL/ML Converter, but didn't bother my BL3500 or Active. It also took out my cable box and intercom system.  No other electronics were damaged.  No power supplies were damaged in any of my B&O.  My BV8 lost HDMI and ML capability... IIRC, these are both on the same board so they were both damaged.... but don't know if the jolt came through the cable box to the BV8 to the ML'd products or the jolt induced a current in the ML cable or some combination of both.  In any event, being a lightening strike, my insurance covered it (and then raised my rates). 

 

Stan wrote:

Lightening strikes can do weird things.  I had a lightening strike near my house, and it took out the MasterLink boards on my BS9000, BS5, BV8 and NL/ML Converter, but didn't bother my BL3500 or Active. It also took out my cable box and intercom system.  No other electronics were damaged

Yes, a nearby strike can do very odd things, but I don't think that's the case here.

When I was just starting my electronic design career I had to design some one-off equipment that was being installed on the other side of the USA.  Cables running in conduit connected equipment roughly 1km apart from the master unit.  I knew nothing about lightning suppression at the time and had no mentor at the business, so I designed fragile equipment.  During the first storm I was told that sparks were coming out of my controller.  Oops!

When I redesigned the system to survive the location I threw every surge suppressor known to man into the circuit.  The following year they had a direct lighting strike to one of their buildings, and lost about 20 pieces of electronic equipment, all made by large multinational corporations.  Only my box survived, because I had 5 times the suppression that would normally be designed into such a unit for mass-production. 😂

 

Anyway, I agree that a nearby lightning strike can take out all kinds of equipment, in an unpredictable way.  If the original poster is being told his device has lightning damage, he should request photographs of the damaged board.  Lightning damage will show exploded ICs and burnt traces on the PCB between the connector and the surge suppression devices.

Let me share my 20+ year experience with B&O products I owned or still use in different places. I let you judge if I had just bad luck or if there are reliability issues with some of the products:

 

B&O products with issues:

BV6-26: Back panel broke; was replaced

BV7-32: DVD player had read errors; was replaced under warranty; BeoLab 7 power supply dead was replaced

BV7-40 MKII: Display panel was defective, PC32 digital sound card, PC14 AVS and PC5 digital card all defective; all pieces were replaced while under warranty

BV7-40 MKV: PIM card defective; BeoLab 7 crackling sounds; all replaced or fixed

BV7-55: Graphic card was replaced under warranty; back panels broke and were replaced

BeoPlay V1-32: Motherboard was defective and replaced

BeoPlay V1-40: PCB01 card was defective and replaced under warranty

DVD2: Stopped working; took several months until the cause was identified; arm of front panel broke; fixed it myself

BeoLab 4: Power supply dead; replaced under warranty

Beo5 (5+): Replaced most of the batteries

Beo6 (5+): Several screen panels went dead as well as one keyboard: most of the batteries

needed to be replaced

BeoRemote One: Battery holder broke when replacing batteries; replaced free of charge

BeoSound 3000: Doors get stuck when closing; never fixed it, closing them manually now

BeoMedia 1: Stopped working several times; capacitors were replaced and power supply; stopped repairing now, not worth anymore

BeoMaster 5: Stopped working several times; capacitors and motherboard dead; were replaced several times; still working

Earset A8: Cable got loose; unfixable

BeoPlay H3: Stopped charging; got 20% off new earset

BeoCom 2: Display goes off after a while; need to do a reset each time to get it back

 

B&O products that never had an issue:

BeoCenter 6-23

BV7-55

Horizon-40

Horizon-48

HDR2

Beo4 remote (5+)

BeoLab 2000

BeoLab 3500 (2)

BeoLab 4000 (3 pairs)

BeoLab 6000 (1 pair)

BeoLab 2

BeoLab 18

BeoSound 5

BeoLink Active

MLGW

ML/NL Converter

BLI

Earset 1

BeoPlay A1

BeoPlay E8 Sport

Beoplay H8i

BeoCom 6000 (3)

Serenata

Serene

A9 Keyring