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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Previous: Alabama quarter | Main | Next: Software error message
November 10, 2003 12:03 AM
Broken: Bose radio buttons
Beth Hondl writes:
This is a little thing, but it could cost me my job. I have one of those much-advertised Bose clock radios that I use to wake up in the morning. The sound is great, and it's generally easy to use.However, as shown in the picture, directly above the large snooze button there are three smaller buttons, two of which (the ones marked "On/Off" and "Aux") actually turn off the alarm altogether! As far as I can tell, the "Aux" button is meant to redirect the sound to a secondary set of speakers. Since I don't have a second set, the result is silence.
Now, as someone who regularly relies on the snooze button to ease my way into wakefulness, the proximity of these buttons has caused some problems. On more than one occasion, when I've hit what I think is the "snooze" button, I've been a few millimeters off and accidentally turned off the alarm. Of course, I immediately fall back to sleep, then awake to a panic when I see what time it's gotten to be. My boss is starting to think it's not so funny anymore.
Seems like it would be easy to enough to move these two buttons further from the snooze button. If I was hitting the volume button, the presets, or even the AM/FM switch, I would still at least be hearing something to wake me up.
P.S. This is the 100th post on This Is Broken. Thanks to everyone who has sent in additions to the site... please keep sending them!
-Mark Hurst (mark at goodexperience dot com)
If your job depends on it, it might be a good idea to buy a couple little self-adhesive rubber feet to stick onto the snooze bar to help your sleepy morning brain identify it.
Similarly, a small sheet of stiff plastic could be used to cover all the other buttons.
Sure, it's broken, but if it's going to cost you your job, why not spend a buck or two and fix it?
Ironic... I have a $15 clock radio with an enormous snooze button, and a little raised dot on the "off" button (far from the snooze button) and I was thinking this very morning what a great, simple design it is... you can use it with your eyes closed...
Another solution would be to buy a second alarm clock radio and set that up across the room. That's what I do. The second alarm goes off 30 minutes after the first one, so if I accidentally turn off the main alarm, I still get woken up.
Sounds like a typical whiney lilberal who can't take responsibility for his or her own actions. I bet anything that happens to you is never ever you fault, am I right. Get a life! these Radios ROCK!
Get real, the Bose Wave CD has raised dots on the snooze button to aid in knowing which button you push and no one can approach the awsome sound.
I purchased 2 Bose products. A wave radio and a wave radio/cd player. I have had to send both back for repairs a total of 6 times, at my expense.
Buy a radio at a discount store!!
I purchased a Bose radio with cd player and had to send it back. The FM connector on the radio fell off while trying to connect to a cable and the aux connection did not work at all. Good sound but shoddy construction. Not worth the price.
Are the Bose CD units reliable? - I have had trouble with clicking, tracking errors and general noise.
What does a few millimeters or centimeters or inches really matter if you are that groggy when you are awakened by a clock? So, you bought the Bose for the sound... HA, HA.. do you really need Hi-fi to wake up? I don't get it. Need proper button placement because of being groggy, but somehow you are in tune with great sound?!?! Quit whining...
In response to Peter. I also am having trouble with CD tracking on my Bose Wave Radio. First couple of songs OK but from there on lots of skipping. Doesn't matter if CD is brand new or old.
While I do agree that the button placement sucks (and also that I'm having some very mild tracking problems with my Wave Radio), I have also thought that the Wave Radio was a fine example of consumer-minded engineering. A few examples that I point out to interested friends:
1) The display auto-dims with the ambient light, preventing the room from being lit-up at night, keeping you awake.
2) The alarm clock gets slowly louder & louder (and very slowly, I might add, unlike some other alarms I've had), very gently easing you back to consciousness.
3) Similarly, when turning it off it does about a 1-second dim-to-half-volume before turning off. It's short enough not to be annoying if, say, the phone rings, but long enough to be a more comfortable on/off.
4) Upon pressing the on/off button, the CD will just start playing if the radio was in CD mode, thus avoiding the sillyness of pressing "on" then "play" (you can just press "play" while it's off, too).
All in all, the Wave Radio has pretty great user-features, though I have to agree on the annoying tracking issue. I hope my doesn't bite the dust soon... (at least it was a gift. why would anyone pay that much money for one of these?)
I have a bose radio but the light for the clock is so dim I can't see the time 6ft away at night. Is this normal? If so what good is the clock at night?
These units are great! I have purchased three Wave radios and would like to get another (all as gifts ;^). I agree that the buttons and user interface are poorly designed and the button placement is the pits. The WAAVE radios have been good, but the CD unit has had a variety of problems that include tracking problems and a total failure of the alarm clock! Since it was purchased more than a year ago, it is $$ to fix.
The nasty $9 alarm clock thingy is back on the job. For the design effort and cost these things should last a lifetime. It would be nice if Bose offered a better warranty, at least 10 years on parts and labor.
Cheers,
- Rick
http://www.bose.com/pdf/customer_service/owners/og_wr_s1.pdf
The light display can be adjusted--instructions for that and any other questions about the Bose radio can be found in the above link.
I have heard that the Bose CD Radio is not as good as sound as the Bose Radio without the CD....can you comment on this, please?...
Thanks much, Phyllis
The CD on my Bose CD Radio will not play any CD's. It just shows DISC with the CD flashing. Any ideas? I do not want to pay $150 to Bose. I have done the basic checking it out. Thank You!!!!
Larry Jutres
"The CD on my Bose CD Radio will not play any..."
Duh. CDs don't play CDs. CD *PLAYERS* play CDs. Take the CD off your Wave Radio, insert it into the CD PLAYER, and voila!
One of my pet peeves. And cars don't have DVDs. They have DVD Players. (if so equipped, duh).
Yeesh.
holy crap! what an unbelievable waste of time. this is probably the most useless blog i have EVER seen. you idiot, how can you blame your $500 yuppy radio on your lazy ass no wanting to get out of bed?
Butt Is Aint
Thes Should bee ____ Typo ____ Thes r the thre mst commn words- What the hell-Shooooot!- and-You dumbass
Our 2000 Bose gift from daughters plays CDs weakly,FM,AM are a loud noise only.The factory no longer repairs or provides parts,and I was quoted $150.00 by local authorized repair shop where I would not leave a $25.00 clock radio .Factory offer!Send unit back,they will then sell me a new Whatever for only $570.00 Anyone have a schematic?Incidentally ,this is not an old model,pc board mfg date is Dec 1999.
Set the radio across the room. Then you'll have to get up to turn it off. The AUX is like most all other audio equipment. That is an AUXILLIARY INPUT!! I run my TV through the AUX input.
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I had one of these. I hated it and sold it. It was useless as a clock radio. Good sound, but unreliable. And yeah, that button placement sucks.
Posted by: Josh at November 10, 2003 08:54 AM