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Hello all. I've been having serious customer support problems with Welborne Labs, and I was wondering if anyone else has had similar issues. I don't intend to flame Welborne Labs, I just want to relate the story as it has unfolded. Since my ordeal has dragged on for nearly a year, I apologize in advance if this post gets rather long.Nearly a year ago, at the end of April 2006, I ordered a pair of DRD 300B amps with solid state rectification and TJ mesh plate 300B tubes. At the same time, I also ordered the wood chassis upgrade, the Caddock resistor upgrade, and the silver wire upgrade. The total came to $1602, with another $30 added as a handling fee, for a grand total of $1632. The amount was charged to my credit card the next day, and I received an email with order confirmation information and an invoice number.
Then I waited. And waited. And waited. After about six weeks with no information or delivery, I emailed Welborne Labs in mid-June to inqiure about the status of my order. Welborne Labs replied that they were waiting for the wood chassis, and they were expected within a week. When the chassis arrived, my order would be shipped out immediately.
Then I waited some more. After another month had gone by, with no information or delivery, I sent another email in mid-July. Welborne Labs replied that my order was scheduled to ship the following week.
Finally, my order was delivered near the end of July, almost three months after I had placed it. The order was missing several items, such as some of the larger capacitors, the silver wire, and the 300B tubes. The 300B tubes were listed as backordered on the invoice. The missing capacitors arrived later, in a separate shipment. I sent another email to Welborne Labs to inform them of the missing items, and the missing stuff was recieved by me within a couple of weeks, except for the 300B tubes.
I proceeded to begin assembly of the amps. After a few more months passed, I had still not received any information on the backordered 300B tubes, so I sent another email in early October. I recieved no reply, so I send a second email at the end of October. More than two weeks later, I finally received a reply from Welborne Labs. They said that they were having trouble getting the tubes from their supplier, and offered to refund the price of the tubes to me if I wanted to get them on my own.
I did a quick check with DIYHiFi Supply in Hong Kong, and they said that they had the TJ mesh plate 300B tubes in stock and ready to ship. So I ordered a pair of tubes from them and requested the refund from Welborne Labs. Welborne Labs agreed to refund the money; by now it was mid-November, nearly 7 months after I placed my order.
Much to DIYHiFi Supply's credit, I received a pair of the tubes, shipped from Hong Kong, within two weeks. BTW, I can't say enough good things about DIYHiFi Supply! They were a pleasure to do business with, and I highly recommend them for anyone looking for tubes or DIY supplies.
But back to the story. I finally finished assembly of the amps around Christmas of 2006, and tried them out. One amp was pretty quiet in terms of noise, with only a small amount of hum audible with an ear right up against the speaker (Klipsch Forte II). The other amp, however, had a large amount of hum audible across the room, and was picking up a local AM radio station. I went over all the wiring at least 6 times, and found no problems. I sent some emails to Welborne Labs seeking help, and their only reply was to check the ground circuit, or send the amp to them for troubleshooting, at $45/hour plus shipping.
Well, I've traded some emails with another DRD 300B builder, and after a few suggestions, I seem to have lost most of the hum, and most of the radio interference. But the bottom line was that Welborne Labs provided very little help in debugging the amp.
But don't forget the refund for the 300B tubes that Welborne Labs never supplied. It is now four months since Welborne Labs agreed to refund the amount, and I have not yet seen the funds. I've sent several emails to Welborne, none of which they have replied to, and placed several telephone calls to their support line. I've never reached a human being there, only their phone mail, and the messages I've left there have likewise never been answered.
So to wrap things up (sorry for the length of my sad story), Welborne Labs has been incredibly bad in terms of customer support, and I'm still out the $300 that they charged me for the tubes that they never supplied! Is there anyone else out there with similar expereinces?
Follow Ups:
I only needed about a 20 minute conversation the Mr. Welborne a year or so ago to figure him out. Sorry for your trouble with a such a jerk.
All you have to do is scroll down the page to read about similar experiences. I got the same help/service that you have. But don't worry people will be along shortly to defend him. I was sucked into the "what a great guy and product line" and ended up being sorry that I did business with him. Luckily, I had used my credit card and let Visa do my talking.
Welborne has finally e-mailed me to confirm that they will be refunding my credit card for the tubes I never received and the tubes the I did receive but which did not work. I paid for the tubes I didn't receive almost a year ago.The company has a very good product, just the management leaves something to be desired.
Even with all the trouble, I'm still glad I made the pruchase because the Terraplanes are quite special. There are only four parts in the analog singal path. The 6.5 Watt Welbornes were actually more dynamic driving my Linn speakers than my Linn amp. (Though I have better speakers now.)
"Hello all. I've been having serious customer support problems with Welborne Labs, and I was wondering if anyone else has had similar issues."
You run a risk with any kind of uninsured private party transaction. I learned my lesson with your favorite DIYhifi. When one of there US reps, Brice Donnelly almost took me for $2.1K on an amp order. Had to have a local detective from my PD get him. Had the bastard arrested at work (put a big smile on my face after the hell he put me through) and gave him the option of being charged with a federal offence of wire fraud (in his state taking someone for $2K or more constituted wire fraud) or get me a refund. I was the only one helping myself though it all. Got my money and a HUGE lesson on buying online. ALWAYS use your CC when outside ebay (not paypal as I did, yeah I get the dunce cap for that one, although paypal was confirmed on both our ends so there was a paper trail to the rat). You give CC all that money, why not get their lawyers for it. Obviously time frames come into play and many other things. I wasnt the only one Brice screwed over, dont know how the others faired. Brice is no longer affiliated with DIYhifi so he is no longer a worry.Im happy there are people / small businesses that offer services and products to small niches such as ourselves. But one definitely needs to keep track of things when taking these online ventures.
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