So here is my experience with Valentine Research and their horrible customer service and rude staff.


I sent my unit in for repair/diagnostics in early April 2009. The unit towards the end of the last summer seemed to be acting a bit odd in areas of the city I knew so I just wanted it checked out. I had previously modified the LED colors in the unit so I knew full well it wouldn’t be a freebie under warranty.

I receive a call from one of their “Techs” stating he can’t find anything wrong with the unit. I say fine (perhaps I was just being paranoid) and he says he will do a few more road tests with the unit. End result is he found nothing so the unit is being shipping back to me. I get a VM on my phone a few days later saying they need a credit card for the repairs for the amount of $45 which is the base charge for diagnostics as listed on their website. To quote the website “For units that have been abused or modified, a repair cost will be calculated based on parts and labor required. You will be contacted if the repair cost exceeds the $45 basic charge.”

So I supply them with my card and expect the unit to be on its way. The next day I notice the available credit on my card down more than it should be so I call and inquire. Valentine Research had charged me $160 and change CDN. Bit of a step up over the $45 USD I was told.

So another phone call in with their rude phone reps and I was pretty mad. I explained that I would be filing a chargeback with my credit card company and wanted an explanation. They tell me because the unit is modified there was an additional $75 or something + extra for CDN shipping. Based on that quote above you would imagine that the price would be $45 USD considering they replaced nothing. I argued with the lady repeatedly letting her know you cannot just charge random amounts to customer’s cards with no notice or warning or CONSENT. The first time I heard about these additional fees was seeing it on my credit card. In the end, as mad as I was I said fine give me my item (detector) and hung up the phone.

A few weeks go by. No detector. I call and speak to another rude lady. I’m told she will talk to accounting and it would ship the next day once cleared. Another week, nothing. I call and get a lady who says she will look into it and call me back in the afternoon. Never calls. So I call her and she tells me she won’t have an answer for me till the next day. C’mon what kind of customer service is this? So I wait out the weekend and call again today. I’m now being told they will not ship my item, despite having my money for another 8 weeks so they can confirm there is no chargeback. All because I had told them without a justification for the additional charges that I never authorized I would be filing a charge back. Pretty common practice. I’m not going to pay for something I never authorized with no description. I got my justification (which I didn’t agree with) so I let it go. The amount wasn’t the concern here it was their poor communication.

So naturally I flip my lid. So they charge me ridiculous amounts for what should have been covered under the base diagnostic price, don’t notify the customer of the additional amounts, charge the amounts without authorization, don’t ever get back to the customer when they say they will, then attempt to hold MY ITEM and MY MONEY for two months.

This isn’t even about the money. It’s about the horrible communication and lack of customer service. This is my 3rd detector from Valentine Research and I will never give them a cent again. I’m posting my experience in hopes to deter others also. I don’t care how great your product is the company itself operates like a $2 sausage sizzle. Give your money to someone that deserves it, not these guys.

Jayson

 

Take a nice trip in the Z and pay them a visit, remember to bring enough ammo for yourself.

 

I love my Valentine. Seems I'm lucky though that I have had no issues.

 

I don't blame you, after being treated like that.

I had an experience with their customer service lately. It wasn't nearly as bad as yours. The "lens" part on the front has become somewhat scuffed (I switch my V1 from car to car often). I am concerned that it may be reducing its radar/laser visibility (although it still appears to work fine). So I called to buy just this lens part so I can replace it. The unhelpful woman said I can't do that. I ask why not, she said I just can't. I ask how I could get this part fixed, she said I could send in my unit to be serviced. That sounded pretty lame so I declined.

The impression I got, honestly, was that it was basically some answering service that is trained to take the common questions. It makes me think the company is being run by a minimal number of people, no innovation happening (there hasn't been an update in years). This is all just me speculating. It sucks to see a company with a good product turn to crap but it seems like most companies' destiny, unfortunately. Who will make the next V1?

 

they prob think that they are the best so they are slacking.

 

The unfortunate thing is that you are most likely speaking to Mike Valentine's wife.. there have been long threads about her and her awful service on radardetector.net.
The general consensus from there: If things START to go downhill, let it go.. then call back, ask for "Mike the Tech".
It's actually Mike Valentine, but if you start demanding to talk to the owner you aren't going to get anywhere with her.
From what I have heard, he is much nicer, calmer, more helpful, and understanding.

Of course if "Mike the tech" is wondering why you asked to speak directly with him.. might just want to say you heard good things about him being very helpful online.

 

Hey OP, I understand your frustrations man, but honestly my exp with their service wasn't bad at all. The only thing was the wait time, it took forever to talk to an operator. My story goes like this...

My V1 never get to stick too well on my 3M tint. I never intended to tint my front window but the guy offered them to me free so I took them without any second thoughts. Anyway, whenever there is a bump or if I turn too fast, my V1 would drop. For that, I had this little chip here and there over my V1. Finally one day, V1 decided to stop working and went into retard mode. It would give me this "E" thing whenever I turn it on. Lucky for me, it was still under warranty. They fixed everything and sent it back to me. The magic was, all it took was a week for me to see my V1 working once again.

Honestly, I think it really just depends who you got on the other side of your phone. Everyone who had a V1 would have to admit that this thing is pretty awesome. I would still deal with them just because its saved me countless tickets so far.

Again, I felt your frustration and all, but don't over look the fact that this little devil has saved your *** countless times. Just my 2 cents :P