Hi all. I had the most frustrating, shocking experience with Hsu customer support today that I am utterly in shock of their solution. The reason I am posting here is to get this off my chest (vent), look for suggestions, and because Outlaw has partnered with Hsu on their subs.

I bought an Hsu VTF-2 sub in 2003, which had 1 year warranty on electronics and 5 year warranty on the woofer only. I had read some problems/reviews online around 1 year after I had already had my sub about the foam surround failing (cracking/splitting). I figured just a few faulty units or people driving them too hard. Well, last October, I notice mine is making a large popping sound with high db output. I send an e-mail to tech support to ask what may be at fault. The voice coil?, amp?, etc. I get a response to check the surround for cracks/integrity. Sure enough, the foam surround has hardened, become very brittle, and cracked/failed. So I ask how much a replacement will be, not knowing it is still under the 5 year warranty (which tech support failed to tell me, despite me telling them when I bought it), and they tell me to contact sales.

So before I did this, I check my original sales receipt and owner's manual, and sure enough it is still under warranty! Yeah for me! So I call sales and explain my problem. They tell me to send in the woofer and they will fix it if possible, or send me a NEW one (key word here). I get an e-mail stating that it cannot be fixed and they will therefore send a NEW replacement at no cost. So today I get the package, open it, and I find a decrepit, dirty, REPAIRED sub in the box that is NOT MINE. They actually sent me a refurbished 5 year old woofer, that looked much worse than my tip-top woofer (besides the cracked surround) when my 5 year old woofer failed simply for being old. I called to complain and they said there must be some mistake. I am about to send pictures at their request when I get a call from them. I answer and they tell me that there was no mistake, that they simply "cannot send everyone the latest and greatest items everytime something breaks as it would put us (them) out of business". He then goes on further about that if they had a new OEM replacement, I would have gotten that, but since they do not, that I should be grateful to get anything because if they did not have this old woofer laying around, I would have had to PAY for a NEW one, despite it being under warranty still. He continued to argue this point with me, and ended by saying, "well, do you want to send the woofer back that works and we will give you your old, broken, one back?"

Unbelievable!!! And the replacement costs $85 only. So in other words, if the OEM woofer cost $85 and they had a new one laying around, they would send that to me, but since they do not, I have to either get used crap, or pay full price (still $85 mind you!) for a comparable woofer that is new.

I would appreciate any imput on this. I did not know what else to do other than file a complaint with the BBB, which I did. I could slander them all over the web, but am waiting to see if they do right with the BBB involved.

p.s. I will post pics of the "replacement" if I can figure it out.