House of Music

Couldn't happen to a nicer person. Known for selling demo equipment, including plasma TVs with MANY hours of use, as brand new to unknowing customers. Box them up and deliver them as "new to you". Ruthann would have installers take the old equipment from customer's homes and resell the equipment without knowledge of the customer. Some worth a lot of money. She would have employees run charges on customer's credit cards without prior customer knowledge.
Ruthann Pietrofeso ran a once great San Francisco business into the ground with her arrogance, lack of business knowledge, flatout criminal level dishonesty and mistreatment of employees.
I hope that those she stole from managed to track her down and sue the crap out of her. I hope the DA will take action for her fraudulent use of customer's credit card numbers.

I actually prefer stepping in and out of the seldom place, I was planning on to buy a Rotel and Nad Products. I was planning to step in again, and again unfortunately..

I remember seeing Snell Audio, I was immersed and impressed by the sound & the location.

The environment is decent & luminous, the people inside were professional.

I am really disappointed that the business and closed/spiral and failed, I expected a lot. Was the business dying?

Let us not blame the owner of the business, I suppose she is busy / and personal issues u can't understand, so let us not step on her.

The reasons why businesses are closing is Covid 19, it is really sad we cannot get out of the Red Tier, Covid 19 is simple to fix wash ur palms & disinfect the areas.

I've been a customer of house of music since 1998. The store sells top quality high-end audio equipment, some of which you can only buy from an authorized retail location (such as McIntosh). I bought a gorgeous McIntosh home theater system around 1998 and then upgraded my system to newer gear, including a 4K JVC projector about 15 years later. I've spent more than $50,000 over the years, sucking it up because there's no other way to get this kind of gear other than paying full retail at this type of shop. For the most part I couldn't be happier with the equipment, installation was too-notch (thanks in large part to the expertise and work ethic Adam, who I think no longer works there). House of music had earned my loyalty.

However, things seem to have changed in the way the store is managed, and I can no longer recommend them. This is because recently I've received nothing but horrible customer service, despite giving them numerous chances to make things right.

After having the JVC projector about 4 years, it needed a new bulb, which is normal wear and tear, but because it's a sensitive high-temperature item, I thought it'd be best to have it professionally replaced. House of music offers this service so I took them up on it.

My unit also was one of the first ones manufactured of that model, and it's internal software was pretty buggy, with the projector frequently crashing. I looked online, and this was a known problem, which had been resolved by at least 3 firmware updates, and all I needed to do is upgrade the firmware. However, the manufacturer didn't offer the firmware upgrade as a user downloadable item which I could load myself (as I'm technically savvy and am comfortable with such things). By design, they want the original seller to take care of all service, and house of music was also willing to do this. So I called to make an appointment to have them come take care of both items. The cost was reasonable, I think they billed me for two hours service to take care of the two requested tasks.

When I called, the salesperson tried to upsell me on upgrading my system again, proposing like $12,000 (can't remember the exact amount) of equipment upgrades for my system which all sounded nice. However, I had just upgraded a few years ago and wasn't ready to shell out a lot of money when my existing system was already working well. So I politely declined.

The service team came out, and I was surprised that they sent two people. I wondered, how many service techs does it take to replace a light bulb, connect a cable and upload new firmware?

The two workers replaced the bulb, but struggled with the firmware upgrade. They brought the wrong lind of RS232 cable, couldn't get it to work and went back to go buy a cable (i think at Best Buy) and returned a bit later to finish the job. But they also couldn't get the new cable to work either. I didn't know if it was the cable, their laptop, or or lack of expertise that stopped them, but they did not complete that part of the job. The service tech apologized and assured me he'd return once they figured it out.

They also promised to help dispose of the old projector bulb, which contains toxic elements and cannot be put in the trash. They forgot to take it with them and I called, and they told me they'd pick it up when they returned to finish the firmware upgrade in a few days, and that they'd call me to schedule the 3rd and final visit. But it never happened.

I gave them a couple weeks, but never heard from anyone. I called about it and was sent to voicemail. I left a message asking them when they'd return, and never got a response. Over the next couple months I called back to follow up, with exactly the same outcome: I couldn't reach a person, and my message seemed to have been ignored.

A few months later I stopped by the store to try to resolve this matter in person, but the store had closed early, which I found odd. I called a final time, left a voicemail pleading for service and again got no reply. An email that I sent was also ignored.

I don't know what is going on with this place. For a shop whose business model is to make a big profit margin on non-discounted, full retail big ticket items, and especially considering the sizes of my past purchases, I found the lack of customer service inexcusable.

I'm a busy man who wants to get things done and i expect people who work for me to have integrity and professionalism, which includes proper communication, prompt service and keeping one's word. I don't really have time to write reviews like this, but I'll do it for businesses that are extraordinary (which you can see by reading my other reviews).

But house of music has been an extraordinary disappointment to me. If you are considering shopping here, I recommend to stay clear altogether, and recommend trying a different retail location, perhaps in the South Bay or the east bay.

I do NOT recommend doing business with these people.

Totally under new management and what a difference.
Zero service. Does not honor return of faulty products. Warranty work not satisfactory honored.

RUTHANN & her partner hired me to do pt installation work for them on an on call basis.

To say The work environment was hostile, deragatory & demeaning to employees would be an understatement.

so I left after a short stint.

STILL AWAITING PAYMENT 4 months later. !!!

My advise. Take your business elsewhere. They have good gear but mark it up beyond belief. Charge customers 75$ a hour for labor & pay there guys 25$ hummmmm.

I used to be a very happy customer who would refer House of Music to my clients. We've worked with Ruthann and her team multi times without any issue and with great customer service. Unit recently, we hired Ruthann to install a whole sound system at our new house. She bid the project and asked for a deposit for half. She promptly charged our CC. Then she charged our CC two more times, basically charging us for the whole job. When asked about it, she said it was an accounting error but never credited us. We didn't think much of it because we figured we'd prepaid the job. Ruthann was responsive when it was time to deliver the back boxes for the speakers and wires for our electrician to install. Then when it came to needing her to install the remaining items when our remodel was about finished and we heard nothing. Our electrician tried contact her. He never heard from her and had referred her to his other clients. They too couldn't get in touch with her. My husband called and emailed her. She never responded. I called, emailed and stopped by her store (no responses) and the store front was and still is locked up. I reached out to American Express and luckily I was able to get our money back for the items and services that weren't delivered. Luckily, my husband was able to find Harmony Audio Video in West Portal who was able to get our project finished.

Ruthann has never reached out to any of us despite our numerous emails and calls. I'd never work with her ever again or recommend her to anyone. I doubt she's in business anymore as I heard audio reps can't even get in touch with her.

Business is permanently closed, and building apparently sold as well. Owner's name was Ruthann Pietrofeso, and she closed her business without dealing with her past obligations and debts. Had done business with her in previous years. Did not return calls. Did not return emails. Take a look at all of her more recent reviews, which describes the unprofessionalism. Unfortunately, a lesson learned on who NOT to do business with. She may be working as an employee at another audio store, so buyer beware.

DO NOT WORK WITH HOUSE OF MUSIC! The worst customer service I've ever experienced. Ruthann (the owner) is a crook. I caught her repeatedly swapping out components I'd paid for with cheaper alternatives without telling me. Not only that, I've been waiting 7 months for her to finish the job she is contractually obligated to finish. She has become unresponsive and has thousands of dollars of work left to do. She delivered the wrong speakers, and has failed to replace them with the correct ones. Words cannot express how unhappy I am with them and I will be pursuing legal action. I never write bad reviews, but this one is unavoidable.

Don't do business with House of Music. The proprietor, Ruthann is dishonest. She stole thousands of dollars from us. We order equipment from her and it never arrived and I found out was never ordered. She made unauthorized use of our credit card that she had on file. She lied to my face and lied in emails. If for whatever reason you do decide that I'm crazy and just a disgruntled customer make sure to only pay AFTER you get your equipment (she asked us for downpayments and then on top of that made charges to the credit card that she never told us about). Also, don't give her you credit card number unless you are willing to check your credit card statement every month.

Dirty player.

Purchased $12k of various gear then later engaged in 16k more of gear & installation. They asked for half, did almost work, then demanded full payment. I asked for some demonstration that they are/were even 50% done. Crickets.

Now literally, Ruthann, the owner is too embarrassed or scared to even acknowledge the existence of the contract. She is almost like a deadbeat trying to avoid the IRS.

Other reviews here ring true.
Notice the good reviews: if you are willing to just write checks without concern, the equipment they unfortunately represent is first-rate.

However, if you have difficultly, Ruthann has an honesty problem. One worker said he got paid 25$/hr but got billed out at 75$. He may be upset to know that Ruthann was not (surprise) telling him the truth. She billed my job at 150$/Hr

Ruthann has an ethics problem. For the deceit expressed despite promises of service she gives before asking for tens of thousands of dollars, The Washington Post would give her four Pinocchios.