Funny, I was just gonna post about Arcam having tons of problems in the past but not sure if it’s gotten any better in recent years. The OP’s recent experience is not a very good sign. Too bad because they do seem to be a step above in sound versus most others.
As as a former Chicago resident, I’ll give a shoutout to Audio Consultants in Evanston. Many years ago I bought a Rotel prepro from them that developed a problem. I brought it back and, at least back then, they had an in-house repair guy who fixed the problem in a day or two. No questions, no hassles -- they just fixed it. I didn’t think about it too much back then, but with the multitude of problems seemingly plaguing almost all AVRs these days along with an utter lack of customer support these days, I think that level of service would be a really nice feature -- if it still exists. Haven’t been there in 20 years so take this FWIW.
As as a former Chicago resident, I’ll give a shoutout to Audio Consultants in Evanston. Many years ago I bought a Rotel prepro from them that developed a problem. I brought it back and, at least back then, they had an in-house repair guy who fixed the problem in a day or two. No questions, no hassles -- they just fixed it. I didn’t think about it too much back then, but with the multitude of problems seemingly plaguing almost all AVRs these days along with an utter lack of customer support these days, I think that level of service would be a really nice feature -- if it still exists. Haven’t been there in 20 years so take this FWIW.