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I'm looking for a sounding board here as I don't want to jump to some unfair conclusions. My pre-amp is from a small company with a great reputation for customer service. In doing some tube rolling, I may have damaged it, so first I called them, then on their suggestion subsequently shipped it to them with a note describing the problem and my contact info per their instructions. I shipped this rather expensive pre-amp on 7/25 and it was received on 7/29. I would have expected that they would have contacted me in some manner to let me know they had received the pre-amp but this didn't take place. Subsequently on 8/4 I contacted them, just to make sure they had indeed received it as you never know if the shipper had delivered it to the right place or not, etc. They reassured me that it had been received and said something about really hectic around here....Yesterday, 8/13, I sent an e-mail inquiry just to learn the current status of the repair with no response as of yet. What I'm really looking for here is good communication, which is basically good customer service and I'm thinking this doesn't seem to be the case here. Any thoughts on this.
Follow Ups:
The question to ask them is, "How long is your backlog?" If the tech has at least two weeks worth of gear to get through before starting on yours, at least your expectations will match the likely reality. And some repairs can be tricky and take a long time. I had a Manley amp with failing p/s caps (big pops and fireworks coming out of the chassis) but after each failure, the caps would then proceed to work just fine... sometimes for days. Their tech Paul had it playing for over a week before it put on a show for him.
Also be aware that, if you are working with a company that has both hifi and pro products, they may have a policy of letting critical pro repairs jump to the head of the line. I view that as a big plus, 'cause that kind of company has to hit very high reliability marks to survive, which is not (ahem) always the case with pure "hifi" outfits.
In any case, if you can have a friendly chat with the tech, find out what his backlog is, and ask him when you should check back with him, 'cause you understand that stuff changes, at least you'll have an open line of direct communication.
In the meantime, it might make sense to pick up an Advent 300 on ebay. It can be the universal substitute piece - decent preamp, crummy little power amp, and a mediocre-sounding tuner with a decent RF section. For $100 to $125ish, it's a cheap way to keep the music coming. (Yes, it will be ready for re-capping. If you don't want to figure out which electrolytics to get, look at davidreaton.com - he used to sell cheap easy recap kits, which let's you get it done in about 15 minutes.
Another option is a Hafler DH-110 preamp, which is pretty good, easy to work on, and often goes real cheap.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
Thanks for helping me understand. I'm totally patient with this at this point. I have an old Threshold pre from my first "hi end" system I'm using while I wait and it is very satisfying.
Hire a fulltime technician and set-up his work bench in your house.
Only solution to your issue.
A couple of things:
Expecting an email reply within 24 hours may be asking too much
of a VERY small business; I'd give it a couple of days. After all,
you've already been assured that your package arrived. But, they
should reply soon and let you know where things stand.
If it were me replying to you, I would be sure to under-promise (with
the goal of over-delivering). After all, what people hate most is the
uncertainty. So, if I think I can get to it in less than four days, I
will say "I can get to it next week. Depending on what I find and
parts availability it could take X, Y, or Z amount of time to repair."
IOW, always longer than I think it will actually take.
Now the customer knows what to expect, won't keep calling for status
updates, and will be thrilled when the unit is repaired and returned
sooner than expected.
People just want to know what to expect.
If you don't become the ocean, you'll be seasick every day.
—Leonard Cohen
I was (briefly) the ONLY repair tech for a medium sized electronics company (roughly 150 employees from exec down to manual labor). Turn around was usually measured in weeks, at the very least; warranty or not.
Of course, all bets were off if the needed part(s) weren't in stock or back ordered from the distributer! Some parts might not even be stocked by the manufacturer; they might only order enough for a single production run at any one time, and have to wait until they can justify the cost of ordering to get something specific (or horror of horrors, the distributer again is out/back ordered). This can hold up production as well (which takes priority over repairs, usually!).
Just my thought from the inside...
"If the audio industry built gear that sounded as good as it did 50 years ago, there would NEVER be a need to re-issued anything!"
They have only so many hands to work on repairs. Depending on the number of items in the repair que, they may take from a few weeks to get to your unit, to several months to fix it. This is standard small audio company practice.
In fact the same guy who is building new ones may be fixing broken ones..
Chill.
Realize they have to spend time diagnosing the problem. Then fixing it. Then letting it sit, running for a few days to check if it is going to be OK. If it is not really good, then more diagnosing and fixing and sitting. Sometimes it is a lot of work. And they may be a stuck doing other stuff at the same time.
So give them time to do it right.
Edits: 08/14/14 08/14/14
nt
I doubt it but understand people don't want to be without music.
A manufacturer has to determine the right number of people to have to keep them busy instead of sitting around with not enough to do, as it is in almost any business. Just because someone expects instant turnaround doesn't mean they will get it.
Been there, done that. I give due consideration to products and companies all the time. Performance, build quality, reliability, reputation, perceived value, and people behind the company all factor in. There are plenty of well run companies with mediocre performance products. Meh. Conversely, there are products that perform incredibly well but are unreliable and/or the people are flaky or hard to work with. Just because something gets a rave review or becomes a hot topic on the forums doesn't mean much, and as time goes on such things matter less.
Buying an audio component should be approached as a long term love affair. Don't just jump into bed with the cheap lay you'll have to wake up to in the morning.
Brian
So much music, so little time!
nt
Thanks for the feedback! I will chill (be patient). I'm using a "back-up" pre in the meantime which is pretty good, but the one in for repair is way better!
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