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When i e-mailed paradigm about having some service done to my speakers they said their dealers handle all warranty service. The dealer eventually replaced the speaker with a new one(cracked vinyl). I am pleased with paradigm speakers and would purchase them again, but I would like to know if anyone else has heard this from paradigm. It will make my choice of a potenial dealer more important. Thanks.
Follow Ups:
Your experience mirrors mine. The tweeter in one of my Studio/100's developed a nasty resonance just a few weeks after I received them. Paradigm directed me back to my dealer, who immediately replaced the driver - as I stood there and watched, amazed. Fantastic service!Yes, choose your dealer carefully, in case you ever need service.
IMO, this is a mixed blessing at best. I hope that "handled by the dealer" means that you return it to the dealer, who can then return the speaker to Paradigm for repair. Even at that, I think I might prefer to have the option to return directly to the manufacturer, to save time. I imagine Paradigm does this as a way to refuse service to people who bought from "non-authorized" dealers and also to discourage people from price-shopping among dealers who may be further away.One thing I'm sure of from this discussion is that I won't be buying Paradigm speakers. The local dealer here has absolutely no service expertise and is very difficult to deal with. While a good dealer is definitely an asset, I would always like to feel I could get help directly from the manufacturer and not be at the dealer's whimsy.
This is interesting to me in another light as well. It seems to me that Paradigm views its customers to be the dealers, not the purchaser. This same local dealer has quite a few "surveys" and such posted rating Paradigm as "best value", etc. Who participates in the survey? Dealers. The "best value" to a dealer would be the manufacturer whose speakers sell quickly and / or have a large profit margin, not which offer the best sound /dollar. (Bose was the second place manufacturer in the majority of these "surveys".) In the business sense, this is probably a very good practice, loyal dealers are a prime asset to manufacturers. But it isn't really in the best interest of the consumer.
You make a very good point. Ideally, the parent company would be responsive to customers if they were to complain about poor service from a dealer, but your analysis is undoubtedly correct. Only if a dealer shows (consistengly) poor sales/profits would the parent company consider moving the dealership. But that would take several (many?) customers having a bad purchasing/ownership experience. No comfort to the disgruntled customers!Sigh. As in too many things in this world, the dollar rules, obliterating any other concern.
I suppose if I were in your position, I would bide my time, save a few more dollars, and purchase some speakers that I wanted even more than the Paradigms (which IMO are good value for the money, but not the last speakers I'll ever own), from a dealer I trust.
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