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Magnepan service hello....

71.239.112.200
Posted on March 8, 2017 at 17:47:36
macmagman
Audiophile

Posts: 501
Location: NW Indiana
Joined: October 17, 2010
 I've left messages for their service department since Monday and have yet to get a response. I had heard they had some issues but that everything is back to normal. It's bad enough It's probably going to cost well over a grand to fix my mid-range panel in my second speaker now but I can't even get in touch with them to do so.

 

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RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 8, 2017 at 21:18:44
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
 Remember they are a manufacturer, not a dealer. Did you buy your Maggies new? Then contact your dealer. If purchased used you just have to be patient. They will get back to you.
Alan

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 9, 2017 at 06:08:20
66mgb
Audiophile

Posts: 252
Location: Neskowin Oregon
Joined: November 8, 2009
 Mike at Magnepan used to respond to service@magnepan.com but that does not seem to get replies now. I need a few minor items but haven't been able to reach anybody.
Russ

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 9, 2017 at 11:46:50
Norman M
 After Magnepan did something such as this the last time around, wasn't it indicated that a customer should contact Mr. Diller, and that he would remedy the situation?

(OTOH, perhaps I'm mistaken and it's only wishful thinking on my part.)

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 9, 2017 at 14:54:30
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 I got a note from Wendell -- it seems that their service manager resigned unexpectedly. Wendell and Gary, Magnepan's production manager, are filling in temporarily and he says they can manage, but that there may be some leakage around the dike.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 11:49:09
Norman M
 I really can't agree with this "contact your dealer" scenario. Suppose my dealer went out of business, gave up their association with Magnepan, or I moved far away to the other side of the country, and can't contact Magnepan as in fact persons posting here failed to reach Magnepan. Or my dealer is off somewhere, leaving some junior employees minding the store.
If I bought a new Maggie still under warrant,y I have a 'contract' with the party who issued that contract (warranty) and that's not any dealer. It's Magnepan's obligation to honor said contract with me. If possible and plausible my dealer should back me up in this matter, nevertheless their primary concern is new sales and I don't feel any necessity for my dealer (who who currently might no longer even be a dealer) to ask Magnepan to honor its contract with me.

Has their success gone to Magnepan's head/s? Long ago when an employee left his/her job causing people to make a remark or gripe, a typical response was 'what do think?' "This isn't the (old) Soviet Union and people don't have to stay in their job".

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 14:55:19
ahendler
Audiophile

Posts: 5151
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Joined: January 24, 2003
 "Suppose my dealer went out of business"
Suppose Magnepan goes out of business
Just thought a dealer might help you in getting in contact with Magnepan
Alan

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 15:34:44
macmagman
Audiophile

Posts: 501
Location: NW Indiana
Joined: October 17, 2010
 They are still there! got a hold of Gary today he is the production manager, it seems as it was stated they are still having some personnel issues. What he did state for the turn around time for the repair sounded reasonable and that was a big concern since I had such a hard time getting just to talk to someone. The panel is going out Monday so we shall see.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 16:06:36
pictureguy
Audiophile

Posts: 22597
Location: SoCal
Joined: October 19, 2008
 'My Dealer' is now gone and where it was located is a Korean Church or some such.

I'd have to go 100 miles each way to LA LA Land to find the 'nearest' Magnepan Dealer.
Too much is never enough

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 16:39:55
Norman M
 Certainly and why not?, under certain given circumstances the dealer could help. Perhaps a dealer might even be able to repair some defects. But that shouldn't be my sole recourse. One of those blue and white sheets of paper that I most easily found shows: MAGNEPAN, INCORPORATED LIMITED 3-YEAR WARRANTY doesn't even provide an entry place for a dealer's name. It begins by saying "save a copy of your bill of sale for proof of purchase".

The contract appears to involve Magnepan and myself, so why shouldn't I be able to save time and effort by going straight to the 'horse's mouth'?

Those of us not having any email addresses for Magnepan personnel should be able to contact Magnepan by telephone. (Which in fact is what they prefer for us to do, although not so easy for customers within some different time zones.) If only one single employee can tackle certain problems, and that employee is absent the entire system fails, which is in fact is what has happened twice within recent months.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 10, 2017 at 20:10:32
Boulder Bob
Audiophile

Posts: 28
Joined: June 23, 2008
 I had my Tympani I-D's rebuilt late last year and the communication was mostly email and sometimes took a few days but all in all not terrible. My contact was:

Mick Bucher
Parts & Service Dep.
Magnepan Inc.
651-262-1934
service@magnepan.com

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 11, 2017 at 02:12:09
russ69
Audiophile

Posts: 951
Joined: December 13, 2009
 Good points all. Although contacting your dealer sounds like a reasonable approach, the Magnepan dealer list is pretty small and for some it's a great distance to a dealer and that limits the effectiveness of the dealer/customer relationship.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 11, 2017 at 14:59:53
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 You can still contact them, there just may be a bit of a delay because they lost a key person so two other employees are filling in.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 14, 2017 at 18:52:10
paul3
Audiophile

Posts: 253
Location: Pacific NW
Joined: January 2, 2015
 Some might say that patience is a virtue.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 15, 2017 at 05:28:03
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 Funny, that's what the people who backordered my amp say . . .

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 15, 2017 at 09:59:26
Norman M
 IMO the owners of Magnepan should consider increasing the price of all their products so that they could hire more than one single individual to deal with such problems, thereby efficiently honoring their warranties.

I don't own an under warranty product so this doesn't even apply to me. Last year about 2 weeks prior to Thanksgiving I called Magnepan, pressed the button to speak with their repairs department (a one person department!) and heard their message telling me email service@magnepan (?). After several with no reply, I sent a second email, and still no response. Then ~2 months later I received a email informing me to call them.

Something of this sort might occur when dealing with a 'mickey mouse' operation, but not Magnepan! That said, as a new customer I'd be willing to pay more for one of their products making my warranty more effective.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 16, 2017 at 15:56:17
66mgb
Audiophile

Posts: 252
Location: Neskowin Oregon
Joined: November 8, 2009
 Gary got back to me and provided the minor parts I needed at no charge !!!

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 16, 2017 at 16:59:43
Norman M
 I never EVER said or implied that Magnepan wasn't/isn't helpful and generous, when that one employee assigned to take care of such matters is present and at the switch. What I found unbelievable and unacceptable was for about 5 weeks my attempt to get help didn't even illicit a response; nada, zip, bupkes.

Could anything like that happen at MartinLogan (or any other business Magnepan considers as one of their competitors)?

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 17, 2017 at 12:08:40
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 I'm speculating that they can't afford to put someone on just as a backup -- remember, a consumer electronics product sells to the consumer for four times what it costs to make, and labor costs a company a lot more than the wage itself. And the nature of the company -- large enough to have highly specialized employees but not so large that they have more than one employee in every specialized position -- means that an unexpected illness or sudden resignation can be a real problem for them.

I saw that first hand at the factory, when the person who rebuilds old Maggies broke her leg and everything backed up. They were doing everything they could but the other guys in the factory just didn't have the specialized knowledge to repair speakers that may have been made before they were born -- it's a highly skilled operation, in which they will literally build an obsolete driver from scratch if they have to. And they'd gone out of their way to get things moving again, including hiring her an assistant when she came back in with a cast on.

That said, I spoke to Wendell and he's very much aware of the problem. He was talking about some procedural changes that could reduce this kind of problem in the future. To me, it seems most important that customers be kept informed if there's a problem because I know from my own experience that it's worse to have a delay and silence than it is to be told that it's going to take some extra time.

Speaking of which, I'm wondering where my backordered amp is! Audio Advisor said 5-7 days, but it's been two weeks and it still hasn't shipped -- or if it has, they haven't told me. I think it's time to give them a call . . .

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 17, 2017 at 16:26:31
russ69
Audiophile

Posts: 951
Joined: December 13, 2009
 I think we have to admit that Magnepan is old school and they run an efficient old school business. The question is; How long do they wait until the business model becomes obsolete enough to start impacting the business. I think we have seen a few threads about current day customer expectations. They are not the same as 20 years ago. I hate to say it but you have to adapt or....

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 17, 2017 at 21:29:51
timm
Audiophile

Posts: 780
Location: Ann Arbor Mi
Joined: January 15, 2008
 Well. I happen to like the fact that Magnepan is on the more boutique side of the aisle. Wait time for speakers - I accept that. They are not something sittingin dealers stock for the most part - they are made to order ...yes? Rebuilding any speaker they have ever made? Martin Logan backed off of that and pushed costs way up there for replacement panels. A product completely made in house in minny...I like that too. I also like their cost structure. Getting a 20.7 is a complete stretch for me - but it is one I plan on taking. 20-25k and on up? Forget it - I can't do it. I have a very well known dealer two miles from me that sells wilsons, sonus faber etc... there is no way I would pull the trigger on a 40k pair of strads. Guess what - he doesn't sell magnepan. And who could blame him since he wants to sell speakers in the 40-100k price range.

Staying small also puts them in a better position to weather bad economic times. They must be doing something right.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 18, 2017 at 02:40:18
BDP24
Audiophile

Posts: 1070
Location: Vancouver, Washington
Joined: September 12, 2013
 Amen Timm, exactly my feelings. The only complaint I have with Magnepan is their lousy connector and x/o parts. Get rid of the ferrous materials (c'mon man!), the cheap resistors, capacitors, etc., and charge a hundred bucks more for the 1.7, an equivalent amount for the 3.7 (two hundred?), and whatever is takes for the 20.7. The speakers deserve and warrant better.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 18, 2017 at 05:51:59
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 Yep. And the irony for me is that I've never heard a Wilson that sounds as realistic as a Maggie. Some other planars do, and some other esoteric designs, but most boxes just don't rate if realism is your goal.

By the way, while it isn't a large manufacturer (Foxconn has 250 thousand employees building iPhones alone!), Magnepan is actually large by high end standards. A shot of the factory floor:



 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 18, 2017 at 06:13:41
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 That's the thing -- I think this falls in the category of "Be careful what you wish for." You can still call Magnepan and speak to an expert who will consult as necessary with other experts. Whereas when I called Microsoft the other day about an activation problem, I was connected to an Indian women who knew less about computers than the neighborhood cat.

She kept giving me misinformation and I had to read her *Microsoft's own web page* on the topic. Finally, I got fed up and asked to speak to second level support or a supervisor, and she tried to avoid that because she thought it would give her a bad mark, but I stayed firm. And he was able to do in a few seconds what she should have done in the first place, get my computer activated.

Something like half an hour wasted. In the days before outsourcing, Microsoft used to fix activation problems in seconds.

So yeah, Magnepan is eventually going to have to go in that direction, millennials won't even talk on the phone, but I think we're going to lose something when they do.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 18, 2017 at 07:10:36
Norman M
 Meaning no disrespect to Mr. Diller (I recently came across his involvement with HP in constructing the ID/QRS hybrid: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/classics-of-the-golden-age-of-speaker-design-tas-205/), but isn't the choice of the number of employees in any department ultimately decided by the Winey sons?

"Speaking of which, I'm wondering where my backordered amp is! Audio Advisor said 5-7 days, but it's been two weeks and it still hasn't shipped -- or if it has, they haven't told me. I think it's time to give them a call . . ."

I'm willing to be it won't take 6 weeks to get a response to your call as it did for my getting a response to my call to Magnepan's service 'department'.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 18, 2017 at 08:12:12
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 Sure, as president of the company, Mark Winey makes hiring decisions. But remember that he's also the one who's responsible for the bottom line.

Because of the 4x multiplier, consumer electronics manufacturing is intensely sensitive to labor costs. And Magnepan's mission is to make high end speakers for regular people, rather than for a few one percenters. They've sold more than 100,000 Maggies because they have such a stellar price/performance ratio. One of the ways they do this, and manage to keep manufacturing in the United States rather than in low-wage countries like China, is by keeping an extremely tight lid on costs of every kind.

In fact, it was Mark who told me how much an employee costs them per hour. I've been asked not to disclose the figure, but unless you've been in business, you would likely be surprised at how costly it is.

"I'm willing to be it won't take 6 weeks to get a response to your call as it did for my getting a response to my call to Magnepan's service 'department'."

No question about it, in fact I spoke to them yesterday (they said the amps are likely to arrive from China on the 23rd, and I should call them then if they don't). And as I said Magnepan is aware of the problem -- they do read and are concerned about these posts -- and looking for ways to minimize the disruption should something like this happen in the future.

But I think we should be careful what we ask for. See my other post about spending half an hour with a Microsoft tech rep in India who didn't know what the hell she was talking about. I've watched the opposite at Magnepan -- Wendell, a senior manager, taking a customer's call -- someone from India who had received the wrong screws -- and immediately talking to the appropriate people and getting the screws sent out to him. The handoff was impressive, like a basketball game. If Magnepan goes the route of other companies today that level of customer service will be lost and I know that Wendell very much doesn't want to do that.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 19, 2017 at 09:39:05
Norman M
 In fact my dealer died several years ago, but the shop had new owners which don't know a single thing about me. I can just about imagine my going into their store (same location) asking for advise with my the Tympani 1C, ARC 76As, GAS Ampzilla, ARC SP3-A-1, Linn LP-12, Tandberg O/R deck I bought there. I can just about imagine being told the equivalent of "get the hell out of here you fat bastard".

(Although, in reality I'm skinny.)

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 19, 2017 at 10:16:12
Norman M
 "I saw that first hand at the factory, when the person who rebuilds old Maggies broke her leg and everything backed up. They were doing everything they could but the other guys in the factory just didn't have the specialized knowledge to repair speakers that may have been made before they were born -- it's a highly skilled operation, in which they will literally build an obsolete driver from scratch if they have to. And they'd gone out of their way to get things moving again, including hiring her an assistant when she came back in with a cast on."

Isn't that a perfect reason she should impart her knowledge to an assistant, colleague or co-worker before it's lost? OTOH perhaps refurbishing old models doesn't produce much revenue for Magnepan and they'll just stop doing it. I wonder what the profit figure is for restoring a Tympani IV/IV-A. Since the original owners of these 'vintage' speakers are most probably hearing impaired and/or dead, or very soon will be, it can be abandoned altogether with no large financial loss to Magnepan.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 19, 2017 at 11:44:03
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 According to Mark Winey, they run their service department at cost, so it seems that they aren't making a profit on those rebuilds at all.

Really, I told Wendell when I got some parts for my IVA's that they should charge more because what they charged me was ridiculous! I don't see how it could even pay for their actual costs. I'm glad that they don't puff up the cost of service and parts the way so many companies do, but it seems to me they should make a fair profit on it, doubly so since rebuilt speakers can cut into their current sales.

On the other hand, the fact that they do support products going so far back has to be a plus for their reputation -- remember the fuss when Martin Logan announced that they were going to stop servicing older speakers and got so much flack that they had to back down? I know that one of the questions I ask when I buy audio equipment is whether the company will be around to service it, or be willing to. There are great people like Graz who can fix or upgrade products that are no longer supported, but it can be quite costly.

That said, while Magnepan will rebuild the oldest Maggies Wendell points out that it doesn't always make economic sense for the customer to have it done. Certainly on something like the IVA's it would, particularly given the absurd prices they were selling for until recently . . . for the kind of music I listen to, I'd take my IVA's over most of the high end speakers I've heard recently because for all their flaws they actually sound like real music. I've been experimenting with some MQA albums Tidal is streaming now and boy, do they sound good.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on March 19, 2017 at 17:27:57
BDP24
Audiophile

Posts: 1070
Location: Vancouver, Washington
Joined: September 12, 2013
 I feel so grateful there are still companies and people like Magnepan and Wendell, as well as Music Reference and it's owner/designer Roger Modjeski, and Eminent Technology and it's owner designer Bruce Thigpen. Look what has happened to Audio Research Corp. since Bill Johnson died.

 

+1 (NT), posted on March 19, 2017 at 20:01:49
josh358
Industry Professional

Posts: 12332
Joined: February 9, 2010
 .

 

RE: Update; Magnepan service hello...., posted on April 3, 2017 at 16:48:22
macmagman
Audiophile

Posts: 501
Location: NW Indiana
Joined: October 17, 2010
 So Wednesday it will be a month since they had my mid-panel, 2 weeks to finally talk to Gary, last week he said it will be shipped out this week (which was last week) or this week, because of finances I had to wait for a while to get it repaired I know this is not their fault but it's $1400 to repair.

This is the second one to fail,not very happy, What also concerns me is that if I blow another tweeter how long will it take for a replacement? I used to call Karen (I think that was her name) on Monday and have a new one in 3 days I don't see that happening any more, luckily since I bi-amped I have not had an issue with the tweeters.

 

RE I called, posted on April 7, 2017 at 18:22:17
benie
Audiophile

Posts: 1851
Location: Alberta, Canada
Joined: October 24, 2004
 This was a few years ago when I got a kit to redo my ribbons.
When I called they put me in contact with the girl in the back that was doing the ribbon tweeters. She was very helpful in helping me with info on how to do the ribbons.
I have actually called them a few times over the years, with good results.
Sometimes with the time difference in different parts of the country it can be a little more challenging. But keep trying and you will be rewarded.

 

RE: Magnepan service hello...., posted on April 12, 2017 at 07:33:01
joelbaumwoll@earthlink.net
Audiophile

Posts: 10
Joined: April 11, 2017
 The technician I spoke to recently is named Wendell. He was very helpful.

 

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