Magnolia Audio Video Centers

worst ever after purchase services i have been trying to contact them since 9 to 10 months but nothing happened

I have been purchasing equipment from Alex Ramirez for many years (at Magnolia in San Ramon and now at BestBuy in Dublin). He is a great example of superior customer service, and Magnolia and BestBuy are fortunate to have him as a representative. Alex takes care of his customers by advising clearly and honestly on what to buy, what you do not need to buy, and how to get the most for your budget; explaining how to use what you buy; organizing installations; and troubleshooting any problem that may arise. He is a terrific guy and an asset to his employers!

My son and I went to Magnolia needing bookcase speakers to replace my present speakers in my newly remodeled family room. Sienna, our salesperson, did a superb job of pointing out the need for a sub woofer and showing us a range of high quality sound. On repeated visits, he took the time to demonstrate all of them with appropriate music. When I finally made my decision I was delighted with the audio system we bought.

Great customer service. I told them the budget I had and exactly what type of tv I wanted. They did their best to get me a set in my price range and went the extra mile to find me a deal. Delivery was just a drop off of the set but not expecting much in that department anyways. Ask for Alex.

I love, love my sound system. Alex from Magnolia was extremely helpful with what would work for my house. He was very patient with my numerous questions I asked about speakers and tv installation.
The end result is perfection. They mounted a tv to my brick fireplace and it looks excellent. Albert and Carlos worked all day and in to the evening on my two tvs and sound system. They were both very respectful and knew what they were doing. They also were careful during installation to not scratch floors and kept everything clean.
I am so happy I hired Magnolia to take the headache out of my tv install! Great company!!!

I went in just to look and walked out with a great deal on a Samsung 32″. I wanted something small for our guest room and it was easy in… easy out… no pressure and a great TV. Thanks, Alex!

Went here to grab a speaker system for my new 4K TV. Alex was very knowledgeable. Set me up with some nice Martin Logan XL SLMs, surrounds, sub, and the perfect slim line Marantz receiver. System compliments the TV very well and is perfectly speced for my room size/​layout.
Had to go back when I was shopping for a sound bar for the bed room. Went through 3 sound bars before settling on SoloCinema XTR. Alex was always courteous when I came back to switch out sound bars and worked with me until I was fully satisfied.
After having an extremely negative experience with the «Magnolia» store within the Pleasant Hill Best Buy I was EXTREMELY satisfied.
When I am in the market for A/​V equipment again, I know EXACTLY where I am going and it isn’t Best Buy or Frys.

I had a very good experience with my recent purchase from Magnolia Audio. Alex, who is also the manager, helped us determine what we needed and never pushed us to up sell into things we didn’t.
The installation had some logistical issues but as soon as Alex got involved they were resolved.
It was a challenging installation but Albert and Trevor were persistent and did a great job. They are obviously very good at what they do. They were also very professional and helpful.
I possibly could have saved a few dollars going somewhere else, but I recommend Alex, Albert, and Trevor if you are looking to upgrade your audio and video.

About 2 years ago we engaged the staff at the San Ramon store to do a major AV overhaul at our house. It has been an absolute disaster, plagued by poor equipment recommendations and the absolute lowest customer service I have ever experienced in my life. This store is probably fine if you just want a monkey to sell you a TV but if you want someone who really understand more sophisticated systems you’ll need to look somewhere else.

I was in this store today. It was crawling with employees but there appeared to be only me and one other customer. Out of all of these employees, I was completely ignored even when I approached the counter trying to catch the eye of one of the employees. I had a question about something I had bought at Magnolia. They seem to think that whatever meeting they were having was more important than attending to a customer. Also, I tried to get on the Magnolia web site to let them know before posting this here but their comment application doesn’t work. I will be taking my business elsewhere in the future.

I just sent the Store Manager this email:
Hi Store Manager,
I typically never write these kinds of emails, but I felt compelled after my experience in working with several employees at your store. Several months ago, I went in to your store to look at home theater systems. Alex greeted me promptly and since I had no idea on what to purchase, Alex showed me a variety of different possibilities and helped educate me on the different brands, features and functionality. With all of this information, I wasn’t ready to purchase, so Alex gave me his card. Since this was going to be a pretty large purchase for me, I decided to shop around a bit. The experience I had at your competitors was nowhere near the excellent experience I had at your store. I returned to see Alex several times to look and listen to many different systems, called him when questions came up, and even texted him many times. Every time Alex was responsive and knowledgeable on the products and answered all of my questions. I ended up purchasing several Marantz components, a Bowers & Wilkins surround speaker system, all Audio Quest cables, and a Bello TV stand. Alex scheduled an appointment for delivery and installation. Initially when the installers arrived at my home (Dave), I was a little nervous because I knew they had to cut into my ceiling to install four surround speakers. Watching them lay all of the blankets on the floor and take extra care when working with the components quickly put me at ease. In the end, I was very impressed with the attention to detail and outcome of the installation. All of the wiring in the back of the components were neatly tied together and everything was just perfect! After the installer left, my wife and I noticed that the fan on the Marantz amp was always on and never turned off even if the unit was cool. The noise was somewhat loud and my wife disliked it very much. I decided to call Alex to ask him if this was normal and he invited me into the store to look at the same amp in the showroom. When I looked at it, I noticed that the fan never turned on so I knew something was wrong. I explained this to Alex and he quickly scheduled a date for the amp to be swapped out. I had the same awesome experience when Dave (installer) came out to my house a second time and the amp worked great after it was replaced. I have never heard the fan turn on again.
A few months went by and I needed to buy two new TVs. Based on the great experience I had with Alex, I went back to him. Once again he helped educate me on all of the various brands and features and I decided to purchase two Samsung TVs. I asked if the delivery folks would take and recycle my two existing CRT TVs I was replacing and it was no problem. To my surprise, when the delivery folks got to my house, they were unable to pick up the two TVs as one of the delivery people had hurt her back recently. I understood and called Alex to let him know. Alex apologized and said he would reimburse me for the cost of a third party hauling company to take away the TVs. I did so and sent the receipt to Alex. Somewhere in the process there was a mix up and the store could only reimburse me for one TV to be hauled away. Again, Alex apologized and offered to pay for the other TV pickup out of his own pocket! I disagreed, but without me knowing, he did so and credited my Magnolia credit card at his own expense. This is what I call going ABOVE AND BEYOND! I have never had such a great experience when shopping for big ticket items, and Alex has earned a customer for life. I will go back to him for all of my future home audio/​video needs (which come up frequently), and I’ve already told my family and friends about him. I am also going to post a positive review on Unilocal.
I thank you for having such an awesome staff at your store and wanted to personally recognize Alex for his knowledge, customer oriented skill set and for going above and beyond.
One Happy Customer,
Eddie

I am a practicing attorney. I am also over 65 and technologically challenged. My home is over 70 years old and my stereo system is less than accessible. I am your nightmare audio video consumer.
Rick, a member of the Magnolia Santana Row team just installed a Sonos speaker system. The installation proved well beyond the comlplexity anticipated. While this unnerved me a bit, it seemed of almost of no concern to Rick who used his skills and training to determine what I wanted, needed and what he could do that was practical (read $). Rick’s comment was, «its the Magnolia way» .
In a word, excellence.

When I wanted to purchase a big screen TV, I went to this Magnolia store and I am glad I did.
Alex spent a lot of time with me explaining the various aspects of a big screen TV including picture quality, features, costs etc. He eventually offered me a TV for a price much less than what Amazon was offering. I also purchased a Home Theater system from him and received exceptional service.
I scheduled a speaker installation for the Home Theater and was very pleased with the service received. The guys came on the date and time scheduled; they discovered that the front speakers I had installed were too big, they came back after a few days and installed the front speakers for no extra charge even though it was my mistake.
This store has great products for the best price, the best sales people, and the best installation crew.

I have purchased approximately $ 5000 of equipment from this store and have not intention of purchasing anything else from them. My latest purchase was 2 Pairs of Bower & Wilkins speakers. One of the speakers brackets was busted. I returned to the store asking if they could break open a box and provide me the piece & replace it an order piece. Sounds like something you would do for a customer that just bought $ 2000+ of speakers. But customer service is something they do not provide.

The TV we just purchased from Magnolia is terrific, but the main reason I’m writing this review is to highly commend Trevor and Brenda, who delivered it yesterday, for their outstanding work. Since our old TV was mounted on the wall, and the new one would be taking its place, this was not a simple installation – particularly since we did not have documentation on this particular model of wall mount. But undaunted, they patiently and cheerfully took the time to sort it out, and before long, they had the new TV mounted perfectly. Very impressive. And this is about as good as customer service gets.

I came back again to pick up a new home theatre receiver. I had already done my research so i sort of knew what i wanted however joel helped me reassure myself. The best part i like about coming is here is that i don’t get rushed as soon as i walk in. Plenty of time to browse and look around. All of my questions were answered and I’ll definitely be coming back. Thanks again

WOW… I normally don’t write Unilocal reviews, but this is the exception. I stopped in with my wife (on our way to Whole Foods) saying «I just want to take a quick look». Alex greeted us and gave plenty of his time, showed us the TV, sound bar and amp what would be ideal for our smallish room. We never felt pressured and said we’ll give it some thought. I returned later than day and the entire purchasing process was explained in detail. It was a truly a treat dealing with Alex and Magnolia Stereo.
The installation guys Dave and Mike were true pros. They showed up on time, very polite and cleaned up after themselves. They made this part of the process very easy and enjoyable. The recommended electrician was also great.
The best part is we have everything we wanted and MORE.
Thank you Alex and Magnolia.

This review is based on the professional and courteous nature of Alex! My husband has been on the hunt for AV for a while and we are pretty particular about what we spend our money on… especially something this pricey and important! We came late on a Saturday evening and spoke with Alex. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable, but he made us feel completely at home — constantly checking our reactions to make sure that we liked what we where hearing. We cannot wait to purchase all of our equipment from Alex! And of course — everyone we know that is in the market for AV equipment is getting a referral to Alex. If you are looking for excellent customer service please see him at this store, you will not be disappointed!

Audio/​Video is my life. There is not a week that goes by I don’t find myself in an electronic store somewhere. If you are into great quality/​very high end stuff, this is the place.
I obviously love the store, but probably would not be a regular there if it wasn’t for one of their employees — Alex — whom I met in early ’06, when he was working at the Best Buy location.
The first day I worked with him, he didn’t BS me, was real about certain products, and gave me cold hard facts, but also an opinion. Since then, I have purchased 4 big screen TV’s, and several surround sound units, continuing to upgrade my sound. I haven’t bought a single piece of my electronics from anyone but Alex.
I have a small gym, and have referred several of my clients to Alex. All of them have loved the experience, and have walked away with great equipment.
I recommend the store, and I highly recommend Alex.

DO NOT GO HERE
I went in a few months ago to look at systems and was really impressed with the brands carried. The offered a financing deal, 3 years 0%. I love to use other peoples money and leverage my own. Sounds like like a plan.
Did credit app, and CJ estimated costs of the system. Surprise-​suprise, he went 50% over the limit that I wanted for costs and then stated that he would be able to increase the credit line amount to be able to to the deal. Ok by me.
After two weeks he still couldn’t get the lender to approve the increase. I told CJ to stop the process, I’m done.
Two weeks ago I received a statement from the institution stating minimum payment was due. Huh? It seems that CJ had ran this as if it were a purchase. Note: I never made a purchase, never took merchandise and never agreed to what could be remotely considered a final invoice for product and services.
4 phone calls to institution and CJ resulted in no responsibility taken by Magnolia for this mistake. I asked for the name of the manager and called Vasily the next business day at their Santa Monica location to get this handled. The same response of it’s not Magnolia’s fault. Thanks for this insight and making me feel like a welcomed customer. Vasily ended the conversation stating that he would take care of it. I was hoping the first thing he wanted to talk about was this and not the last part of the conversation.
Questions you need to ask…
Was this mistake legal? How can a company like this make mistakes like this? Why would a customer need to make more than one phone call to resolve? Is this mistake common and not really a mistake, but a means of completing the deal?
I’m so very disgusted with Magnolia, Best Buy and Geek Squad.