Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - My LaCrosse bc900 died after 3 weeks!

It quit over the weekend before it had refreshed the second set of batteries; am I glad it happened before I got back to riding outside again. I emailed their customer service last night and still haven't heard from them, I'll let everyone know how their customer service is when I hear from them.

Please do let us know. I'm interested to hear how it compares to Maha, which has excellent customer service.

Please do let us know. I'm interested to hear how it compares to Maha, which has excellent customer service.

I'm going to call them later if they don't reply to me email. Has anyone else had this problem with the version 33?

From what I've heard of Lacrosse's customer service it seems more like a 'don't ask, don't tell' from the people that had the v3.2 firmware. I know you're using v3.3 but it's just that attitude before from what I've heard/read about that bugged me. If I recall right you have to foot the shipping back to Lacrosse which might end up costing you $10-15.

Have you tried talking to the store you bought your charger from and see what they can do?

From what I've heard of Lacrosse's customer service it seems more like a 'don't ask, don't tell' from the people that had the v3.2 firmware. I know you're using v3.3 but it's just that attitude before from what I've heard/read about that bugged me. If I recall right you have to foot the shipping back to Lacrosse which might end up costing you $10-15.

Have you tried talking to the store you bought your charger from and see what they can do?

I bought it online from Thomas Distributing. I'm going to call LaCrosse first, I'll let you know what happens.

It quit over the weekend before it had refreshed the second set of batteries; am I glad it happened before I got back to riding outside again. I emailed their customer service last night and still haven't heard from them, I'll let everyone know how their customer service is when I hear from them.Sorry to hear about your problem. I bought my Lacrosse BC-900 from amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-BC-900-AlphaPower-Battery/dp/B00077AA5Q/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1201690167&sr=8-1) recently. It's been working fine so far.

Please do let us know. I'm interested to hear how it compares to Maha, which has excellent customer service.

I called LaCrosse this morning after not getting a response to Sunday nights email (2+ business days should be more than enough for a reply), and left a message after listening to the annoying voicemail prompts. I then called Thomas, and the lady who answered the phone was able to tell me to send it back to Thomas with a note describing the problem for a replacement in less time than I spent waiting on the phone with LaCrosse. LaCrosse must not want to hear from their customers either, they don't list a toll free number in the instruction manual.

Thomas Distributing has excellent customer service. THey have a good reputation on that. Lacrosses makes a nice product at a price fo rthe masses but seriously lacking in the customer service dept.

Thomas Distributing has excellent customer service. THey have a good reputation on that. Lacrosses makes a nice product at a price fo rthe masses but seriously lacking in the customer service dept.

Thomas has been great to deal with, I don't think I'll buy anything else LaCrosse makes without really shopping around first.

I called LaCrosse this morning after not getting a response to Sunday nights email (2+ business days should be more than enough for a reply), and left a message after listening to the annoying voicemail prompts. I then called Thomas, and the lady who answered the phone was able to tell me to send it back to Thomas with a note describing the problem for a replacement in less time than I spent waiting on the phone with LaCrosse. LaCrosse must not want to hear from their customers either, they don't list a toll free number in the instruction manual.

With all due respect, you did not give them a chance. Blackburn backs their products. They did not answer an e-mail for 30 days. I was not in a hurry because I had 3 other tail lights. When I saw someone else post on the forum complaining about the same thing, I called them and they sent me a new tail light after about a 3-minute conversation. The other forum member then did the same thing with the same results.

You sent an e-mail and only waited 2 days and then called them and let a phone menu discourage you. I really don't think you have a leg to stand on as far as complaints go.

Look at their website and see all the great products that they produce. It shows me nothing but quality. I don't have first hand experience, but then it appears that neither do you. Thomas Distributing would not be so accomodating if they were not certain LaCrosse would reimburese them, would they?

Good customer service still requires the customer to make some effort, doesn't it?

I've sent two emails regarding my faulty BC-900 one several months ago & then another several weeks ago & neither have gotten any response. The charger still works, but I have to babysit it to make sure it doesn't overload & overheat. My next charger will be from a company that specializes in them like Maha.

Blackburn was bad in regards to email support too, but their phone was much better. They still never managed to give me good System X6 light set with the claimed 3 hour+ runtimes after several exchanges. I got tired of this & just sold my set that only ran 2h 15m for a 1/3 of what I paid...

I've sent two emails regarding my faulty BC-900 one several months ago & then another several weeks ago & neither have gotten any response. The charger still works, but I have to babysit it to make sure it doesn't overload & overheat. My next charger will be from a company that specializes in them like Maha.

Blackburn was bad in regards to email support too, but their phone was much better. They still never managed to give me good System X6 light set with the claimed 3 hour+ runtimes after several exchanges. I got tired of this & just sold my set that only ran 2h 15m for a 1/3 of what I paid...

Thankfully I missed out on the Blackburn X6. I almost purchased one but had a chance to read RoadbikeReview.com reviews and avoided it.

I have not found any companies that respond to e-mail. I don't know why that is, but it it across the board. All forms of communication should be treated the same regarding service and response times, but they are not. Companies monitor telephone service. I am surprised that e-mail is not monitored also. For some reason it is neglected.

I recently e-mailed Adidas and just received a reply back. It took almost 3 weeks and it was a very simple question.

With all due respect, you did not give them a chance. Blackburn backs their products. They did not answer an e-mail for 30 days. I was not in a hurry because I had 3 other tail lights. When I saw someone else post on the forum complaining about the same thing, I called them and they sent me a new tail light after about a 3-minute conversation. The other forum member then did the same thing with the same results.

You sent an e-mail and only waited 2 days and then called them and let a phone menu discourage you. I really don't think you have a leg to stand on as far as complaints go.

Look at their website and see all the great products that they produce. It shows me nothing but quality. I don't have first hand experience, but then it appears that neither do you. Thomas Distributing would not be so accomodating if they were not certain LaCrosse would reimburese them, would they?

Good customer service still requires the customer to make some effort, doesn't it?

I think you mean well, but we seem to have different expectations for service and warranty. The product failed regardless of my being annoyed or delighted by their inability to respond to an email in 2 days and they annoying voicemail system LaCrosse has. I can't see it working again at all after failing within the first 3 weeks of use in accordance with the instruction manual supplied with the product - shouldn't that be enough of a failure to complain about? Personally I'm glad I didn't get one that melts, even if it would give me more to complain about.

If it's the customer service that you don't think I have a right to complain about, I have made an effort and haven't had the pleasure of a response until I called Thomas. Who knows why LaCrosse hasn't responded yet, whatever their reason is they're not making me think they're selling a quality product and value their reputation. Quite the opposite. Perhaps dealing with companies like L.L. Bean have spoiled me in terms of customer service. Last week, I was able to talk with someone in their customer service department (without navigating a voicemail system) who was able to place an order for the replacement item before they received the item I was returning. Many years ago when I worked in the retail tire business, I found that the companies that did sell a good product also offered good customer service and would respond quickly to customer complaints (Toyo, Michelin, Goodyear) , regardless of their validity. The companies that sold inferior products all had bad customer service departments (Firestone, Bridgestone, Uniroyal, Pirelli), and I can't remember any companies that sold a good product and had bad customer service. Bad customer service started with avoiding the customer, and often lead to not honoring the warranty for their product when they should have. I don't expect to hear back from LaCrosse, but will let you know if I do and their explanation as to the delay.

I'm assuming (and you know what that means) that Thomas is being accommodating because they value their reputation, and that they can get LaCrosse to honor the warranty better than I can due to Thomas buying much more of their product than me. I'm going to mail the charger back to Thomas today and let them handle things from here. Afterall, it's only a $40 battery charger and there are other products available that can charge my batteries for me.

Customer service is sorely lacking in many large companies. It's one of the reasons many people are still skeptical about buying items online, the hassle of dealing with a company if what you get out of the box doesn't work. If you buy it local, you just hop back in the car and take it back to the store, but online purchases are a different animal.

30 days as a response time for email is completely unacceptable. I can't even imagine a condition where it would be acceptable, the fact that any consumer would argue it is acceptable shows just how low our standards have become. It's a LOT cheaper to answer email than it is to take a phone call, companies are slowly figuring this out, I have worked in the support field in the past and understand the dynamics of this. I knew people who could answer 30 emails per hour or more, not many people can take 30 calls per hour.

At any rate, the company is taking your money in exchange for a functioning product, if you get something that stops functioning, the company needs to act as quickly as possible to resolve your issue. Thomas Distrib. seems to be taking care of the issue at this point, but it doesn't say much for lacrosse that you had to go to them.

I recently emailed Garmin about my Edge 305. I love my edge, but the heart rate strap recent stopped working, put new battery in, still no go, reads my heart rate at 250, then 40, then 0, all within about 5 seconds :) I took it apart, knowing I was voiding any warranty (due to the fact it is almost a year OUT of warranty anyway) and discovered the circuit board was corroded, which means the strap was allowing sweat inside. I emailed Garmin about this on Monday morning, thinking I didn't have much of a chance of getting a new HRM, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Yesterday I got a reply (2 days, not too bad) saying they just needed my mailing address and they would ship me out a new hrm right away. And you know what? I've told 4 people the story already, and now I've told every reader of this forum, isn't that a lot better than Lacrosse? And what did it cost Garmin for that? One email reply, and a hrm it most likely costs them 5 dollars or less to make.

Sounds like a good business move to me, especially considering the didn't HAVE to do anything.

Joe

If Thomas Distributing does not have the authority and has to send the unit to LaCrosse anyway, you may wish you had spent more time navigating the LaCrosse telephone system. I hope it gets processed quickly.

I really struggled between LaCrosse and Maha. I have a Ray-O-Vac PS3 that has given me and still gives me flawless service. But I wanted analysis and refurbishing features. Since I have never used the C, D, and 9V capability of the Ray-O-Vac and did not need more than a 4-battery capacity, the meltdown problems of the LaCrosse appeared to be solved, and there were good customer reviews at Amazon, I decided to go with the less expensive BC-900 and buy it from Amazon. I am dismayed to learn that LaCrosse customer service is so bad.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the day after I called Blackburn they responded to my e-mail on the 31st day.

If Thomas Distributing does not have the authority and has to send the unit to LaCrosse anyway, you may wish you had spent more time navigating the LaCrosse telephone system. I hope it gets processed quickly.

I really struggled between LaCrosse and Maha. I have a Ray-O-Vac PS3 that has given me and still gives me flawless service. But I wanted analysis and refurbishing features. Since I have never used the C, D, and 9V capability of the Ray-O-Vac and did not need more than a 4-battery capacity, the meltdown problems of the LaCrosse appeared to be solved, and there were good customer reviews at Amazon, I decided to go with the less expensive BC-900 and buy it from Amazon. I am dismayed to learn that LaCrosse customer service is so bad.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the day after I called Blackburn they responded to my e-mail on the 31st day.

I debated between buying the cheaper, easier to use LaCrosse or the more expensive and more complicated Maha, and figured the LaCrosse would suit my needs better than the remaining "free" charger that came with some of the rechargeable batteries I already had. It did work fine before it quit too, and like most electrical devices that fail due to manufacturing defects, it quit shortly after I got it.

I had some problems with the gift card I used when I purchased the charger from Thomas, and the customer service person I talked with there was very helpful. I anticipate having the replacement charger from Thomas before I hear back from LaCrosse - you'll know what happens here.

One of the reasons I ordered mine from Thomas was a special they had when I ordered it. For an extra 87 cents I got 4 four slot battery cases in addition to 4 AA and 4AAA rechargables. The cases are for carrying spares, and hold AAA or AA batteries. I figured the peace of mind I'd get from having a spare set of batteries with on my night time rides was worth the 87 cents - did Amazon have an offer like that?

I debated between buying the cheaper, easier to use LaCrosse or the more expensive and more complicated Maha, and figured the LaCrosse would suit my needs better than the remaining "free" charger that came with some of the rechargeable batteries I already had. It did work fine before it quit too, and like most electrical devices that fail due to manufacturing defects, it quit shortly after I got it.

I had some problems with the gift card I used when I purchased the charger from Thomas, and the customer service person I talked with there was very helpful. I anticipate having the replacement charger from Thomas before I hear back from LaCrosse - you'll know what happens here.

One of the reasons I ordered mine from Thomas was a special they had when I ordered it. For an extra 87 cents I got 4 four slot battery cases in addition to 4 AA and 4AAA rechargables. The cases are for carrying spares, and hold AAA or AA batteries. I figured the peace of mind I'd get from having a spare set of batteries with on my night time rides was worth the 87 cents - did Amazon have an offer like that?

The package I ordered included a nice carrying case and 4AA and 4AAA LaCrosse batteries-2400mah. Is that what you received when you ordered from Thomas?

I was tempted by the Thomas offer because I wanted some of those battery cases, too. I need to remind myself to try and find some locally. I cannot remember how much better the Amazon price was than Thomas, but it was enough to get my order. Amazon was offering free ground shipping also. We order from/through Amazon and all our shipping and credit information is pre-loaded and convenient.

The package I ordered included a nice carrying case and 4AA and 4AAA LaCrosse batteries-2400mah. Is that what you received when you ordered from Thomas?

I was tempted by the Thomas offer because I wanted some of those battery cases, too. I need to remind myself to try and find some locally. I cannot remember how much better the Amazon price was than Thomas, but it was enough to get my order. Amazon was offering free ground shipping also. We order from/through Amazon and all our shipping and credit information is pre-loaded and convenient.

I got the same batteries and carrying case too. I'm not sure when I'm going to use the carrying case, but it all came packaged in the same box (except for the battery cases) looking like it came that way from LaCrosse. The battery cases cost an extra $3.87, but that entitled me to a $3.00 saving of some sort on the shipping, so it ended up being pretty reasonable.

Thankfully I missed out on the Blackburn X6. I almost purchased one but had a chance to read RoadbikeReview.com reviews and avoided it.

I have not found any companies that respond to e-mail. I don't know why that is, but it it across the board. All forms of communication should be treated the same regarding service and response times, but they are not. Companies monitor telephone service. I am surprised that e-mail is not monitored also. For some reason it is neglected.

I recently e-mailed Adidas and just received a reply back. It took almost 3 weeks and it was a very simple question.

On a side Planet Bike does email you back in 2-3 days and tends to give good intel on thier products. I don't work for them but I got the info I needed by people that answered my questions on the PB Blaze when it first came out. I paid ~$17/ea CDN for my dual 1/2W set but now with the clone copies out from Chinese companies you can get them for like half to less then half price apparently.

I find with email 30 days for a reply is like a year to half a year on the internet. IMHO 1 week should be the longest time for a reply back. I mean I know not all companies are like some big companies where if you email them they offer you a reply back in 24hours.

It quit over the weekend before it had refreshed the second set of batteries; am I glad it happened before I got back to riding outside again. I emailed their customer service last night and still haven't heard from them, I'll let everyone know how their customer service is when I hear from them.

The defective charger arrived at Thomas on Saturday, the replacement charger arrived at my office Wednesday, and LaCrosse still hasn't responded to either my email or my phone call. I'll post another response if I ever do hear from LaCrosse, but I'm not expecting to.

Glad to hear it!

Good to hear that Thomas cleared things up for you. Hopefully the replacement unit will work better. :)

The defective charger arrived at Thomas on Saturday, the replacement charger arrived at my office Wednesday, and LaCrosse still hasn't responded to either my email or my phone call. I'll post another response if I ever do hear from LaCrosse, but I'm not expecting to.

Here it is over a week since I received the replacement charger from Thomas, and I finally received an email from LaCrosse 2 1/2 weeks after my original email. Makes me glad the replacement has been working!

Here it is over a week since I received the replacement charger from Thomas, and I finally received an email from LaCrosse 2 1/2 weeks after my original email. Makes me glad the replacement has been working!

What did LaCrosse have to say in their email?

"In order to send a product back to La Crosse Technology, you will need a Return Authorization Number. Please forward your Name, Physical Address, Daytime Phone Number, Model Number, Date of Purchase, and a Brief Description of the issue with the unit. I will issue an RMA# and include all necessary return information.

Please note, an RMA cannot be issued without all of the above information." Followed by contact information.
And nothing as to why it took them so long to respond, or that they were sorry I had problems with one of their products.

Ever since I got my charger, the battery in bay 1 would always show "3.7Ah" when it was fully charged. Obviously, this was incorrect but I decided to let it go. Spurred by this thread and a quirk I noticed with my own BC900 charger, I decided to open the thing up and take a look.

Improperly soldered joints! Solder bridges! And, a missing part! I'm an electronics technologist by training so I know what I'm looking at. I fixed the bad soldering, cleaned all the old flux residue off the board, and set to work on that missing part. Guess what? It was part of the circuit for the first battery bay. Each bay has the same group of parts, and I determined that the missing part was a 1000 ohm resistor. Once soldered in place, I put everything back together. No more 3.7Ah reading! Yay!

I must say, while the operation and design of this charger is pretty good, the quality control is severely lacking. I won't be so quick to recommend it should anyone ask.

Ever since I got my charger, the battery in bay 1 would always show "3.7Ah" when it was fully charged. Obviously, this was incorrect but I decided to let it go. Spurred by this thread and a quirk I noticed with my own BC900 charger, I decided to open the thing up and take a look.

Improperly soldered joints! Solder bridges! And, a missing part! I'm an electronics technologist by training so I know what I'm looking at. I fixed the bad soldering, cleaned all the old flux residue off the board, and set to work on that missing part. Guess what? It was part of the circuit for the first battery bay. Each bay has the same group of parts, and I determined that the missing part was a 1000 ohm resistor. Once soldered in place, I put everything back together. No more 3.7Ah reading! Yay!

I must say, while the operation and design of this charger is pretty good, the quality control is severely lacking. I won't be so quick to recommend it should anyone ask.

The replacement unit has been working like it should, but I'm not going to buy another one if this one fails soon. I had better luck with the "free" chargers I got buying batteries than the first one.

Ever since I got my charger, the battery in bay 1 would always show "3.7Ah" when it was fully charged. Obviously, this was incorrect but I decided to let it go. Spurred by this thread and a quirk I noticed with my own BC900 charger, I decided to open the thing up and take a look.

Improperly soldered joints! Solder bridges! And, a missing part! I'm an electronics technologist by training so I know what I'm looking at. I fixed the bad soldering, cleaned all the old flux residue off the board, and set to work on that missing part. Guess what? It was part of the circuit for the first battery bay. Each bay has the same group of parts, and I determined that the missing part was a 1000 ohm resistor. Once soldered in place, I put everything back together. No more 3.7Ah reading! Yay!

I must say, while the operation and design of this charger is pretty good, the quality control is severely lacking. I won't be so quick to recommend it should anyone ask.

How could that ever pass QC in the first place?

How could that ever pass QC in the first place?

The inadequate soldering was functional, but not up to any standard (IPC, for example). The missing resistor was a surface mount component, and it looked like it had been soldered on one side at some point, but broke off some time later. The unit was still functional, but I suspect the resistor was some part of the monitoring circuitry and its absence meant the battery measured at the absolute maximum the charger was capable of displaying, regardless of what the current actually was. I'm just glad that this flaw didn't blow up my batteries.