Let me begin with a rant about Riverside: Why must your roads be so horrible? Why must your drivers be so inept!??!?!? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I was waiting at a stoplight and two teenaged kids in a Chevy Silverado truck DO A POWERSLIDE into the lane next to me. They scared the crap out of me when they almost slid into my bumper. Sigh.
But on the the good stuff! My Alpine NVE-P1 (which is the navigation/Bluetooth module for Alpine IVA-Wxxx line of head units) died on me last week. For some reason, it would only display a blank screen — even after I reset it or pulled it out and blew on the connector, SNES cartridge style. I thought I was screwed, ’cause I bought it online through Amazon. After flipping through my purchase history on Amazon, I found out that the vendor who actually sold it to me was an authorized Alpine dealer — Pacific Stereo in Riverside. I called this morning and asked them what I could do, and the guy told me to just “mail it in” and that they would “change it out for me, no questions asked.”
Suspicious of the guy’s claims, I decided I would drop by the store instead, just in case they decided to decline my claim or pull the ol’ switcheroo (or delay the shipment). One can imagine my delight when I walked out after 3 minutes with a brand new, sealed-in-box unit that worked the first time I plugged it in. Score!
So, thanks, guys at Pacific Stereo — now I can rely on my nav instead of my underdeveloped sense of direction! :)