Amp Warranty Repair - What's an acceptable timescale for turnaround?
Hi
My amplifier failed at the end of January of this year. I contacted the retailer who advised me it was still under warranty and he undertook to contact the distributor. At this stage I assumed that its repair would entail a trip to a highly regarded technician whose workshop is a 2 hour drive from my home!
The dealer got back to me and said that he had spoken with the distributor who said that the amp could not be repaired locally and would have to be returned to the manufacturer.
I left the Amp with the dealer on the 1st February 23. As returning it to the manufacturer required an overseas journey I did not expect the turnaround to be a quick one!
I last spoke with the dealer on 30th March. He said he was trying to chase things up with the distributer but did not know anything else about the Amp as they had not updated him about it.
The conversation ended with me asking him to try and contact the distributer for an update and to see if he could get an approximate date for its return to me! The Dealer said he would try, and to be fair to him he has, on 2 occasions, offered to loan me an amp, He also said he felt awkward as he didn't know what to tell me, and added that he had to go via the distributer as he could not contact the manufacturer himself (politics I guess!).
Now I don't expect miracles, but am I unreasonable in thinking that this lack of communication from the distributer is an example of appallingly poor customer services! I would also add that they have my details as the product was registered with them!
Any thoughts would be welcome as I am not sure what the best way forwards is!
That is bad service, no doubt. When I was in the "biz" and other service organizations in my career I would always say 4-6 weeks. That is a reasonable time to cover most delays. Add two weeks or so for overseas shipping.
You should have your gear back by this time. I am so tired of receiving and hearing about terrible customer service. Sick of it. I would publicly be calling out the manufacturer on every forum I belonged to.
I get shat on every time I advocate "Made in USA" but this is why... most US audio companies you are dealing with the mfg. directly and shipping is days not weeks
I really hope you get this resolved quickly. And you should take your dealer up on the loaner , its the least he can do at this point. Good luck.
Is a long time yes, BUT, if is returned as same cond shipped, and works perfect, meh, what’s a few weeks, to get you back jammin to tunes
Patience. Happened to me, but I received it back same as when shipped, I honestly think, they just said, “let’s hold this for a month and a half, ship it back, “
he won’t know, brought to a very good audio shop in northern illinois, in 1.5 weeks, it was fixed, cleaned, for 175$
I sent the copied receipt to the company, with a nice hand written note (wofe wrote it)
they apologized massive, sent me a huge box of nothing.
lasted a couple more years, then did a office space copy machine beat down to it.
wont buy another component from them ever again
they dropped the ball on a expensive once, they were supposed to be a good warranty known company.
if it’s returned in fixed, great cond,…go with it
Which is why I’m loyal to Audioquest, bought a pair of nice Xlr’s in early mid 90’s, about 3-4 years ago, I hooked em up, there was a wire which had broken 😠 snide the jacket, sent them in, they phones me, said all fixed, there n the way back to me
love that lifetime warranty. They are a good company.
as is Klaus at odyssey, and Roger from Sanders sound.
but, if I have other issues, I will drive the hours to northern illinois for that mom and pop audio shop. Somewhat introverted in personality, their work was / s very good
This is not warrantee related but nevertheless relevant. I just had one of my MC30s worked on by audio classics that I sent up the first week of January and it’s still there ready to be shipped back this week. I fear it’s going to get worse because the shortage of technicians working on audio gear and the amount of gear needing to be worked on. My experience anyway.
Mine was not a warranty repair, it was actually elective surgery I sent her in for😁. I have a Simaudio Titan 5 channel amp that is 20 years old. I bought her used a few years ago. Though she was super clean and sounded every bit as good as I had always dreamed, it was a 20 year old amp. I contacted Sim HQ in Canada and though the rep stated they "overbuild" their amps and that "every single Titan is still out in the field" it would be a good idea to send it to them for cleaning and calibrating. This was at the very height of Covid when literally everything was shut down and you couldn't even get in to Canada. The rep told me about 4-6 weeks. It ended up being a little over 8 weeks. But again this was at the very height of Covid so to be expected it would take longer I guess...And mine was elective as I said.
Your situation is different, and yes this is bad communication/service. BUT take him up on the loaner! I ended up buying a Monolith 5 channel ($1299 at the time so I figured why not?) to fill in. Though this amp was nowhere near the class of the Titan, it did get me through. The silver lining for me was as soon as I got the Titan back and connected her I was truly truly awestruck! I think a lot had to do with it really hit home how different amps can sound and what an affect a higher end piece of gear can have on your system. Made me appreciate the Sim all the more...
I ended up returning the Monolith and got a full refund!
There’s distributors out there that seem to protect the manufacturers like it’s some sort of job security thing. Dealers aren’t allowed to contact the company directly. Distributors attitude is if you want this fantastic product you have to wait, we’re not going to tell you anything about lead times on manufacture or repairs. I wish dealers had the ability or power to just drop these awful companies but it’s the way they make money and there’s always customers to buy this stuff even with the horrendous customer service. I feel bad for the dealers as it’s rock/hard place. To answer your question, anywhere between 4 and 26 weeks would be totally normal. Take the dealer up on the loaner. When the equipment comes back, sell it, tell the dealer you’ve sold it and tell the dealer to tell the distributor. Most likely nothing will change but if enough people stop buying from companies that don’t give a crap about them maybe, and that’s a hard maybe, things will change.
There’s an awful lot of generalization going on here, and not a lot of facts to work with. What product for example? We had a situation recently with an internationally respected speaker brand that was unable to supply parts for a speaker model still under warranty. We negotiated a trade up for the owner who was willing to pay for a better model he wanted, and received 100% refund on his unrepairable ones. If the manufacturer is having trouble sourcing parts for an obsolete model, maybe they should offer you a similar deal.
My experience with Balanced Audio Technology was stellar. Last year my 20 year old VK-30 preamplifier threw some strange errors. Steve at BAT first walked me through some reset instructions, but the problem would not go away. He provided an RMA number and I double-boxed my preamp on a Saturday, it was picked up by UPS on a Monday for a trip from NJ to Delaware. On Tuesday I was informed of the prognosis, work was performed for a reasonable fee and it was back in my hands by Friday of the same week!
Many thanks everyone for replies and advise - it is much appreciated!
I accept, and apologize for the fact that I am being frustratingly vague regarding details about the product and the distributor. That's because the only thing I am certain of is that I delivered the Amp in person to the dealer on the 1st February.
I don't want to 'name and shame' at this stage because for all I know there was a delay between him receiving and forwarding the unit, or it could be on its way back to me as I type! Perhaps the distributor is struggling with a health/family issue that is affecting things, etc etc.
Its the lack of communication that I have the biggest gripe with, but as I have so little information to go on I don't whether this is the fault of the Dealer, Distributor or Manufacturer....
The next time I speak with the dealer, if he cannot give me an update then I will tell him that I will contact the distributor directly myself and if they do not respond I will then contact the manufacturer as there is nothing to stop me doing either of these things!
Based upon what other people are saying, any future purchases I make will be determined, not so much by how the product performs, but upon the level of support/customer service the distributer/manufacturer provide....
one needs to think carefully if/when they choose to call out a retailer, dealer, distributor or manufacturer for bad service on a public enthusiast forum
but doing so without specifics is completely worthless, as are the replies engendered as a result
What's odd about this saga - other than the fact the manufacturer remains a mystery - is that it's about an amplifier. Those are among these easiest components to repair for a competent technician. Any good tech, given access to decent schematics, should be able to troubleshoot it readily. I can't imagine why it would need to be shipped overseas for repair, where it will be subject to potential damage on return.
I have Bel Canto amp that developed an issue in one channel. I contacted Bel Canto, got a RMA and sent it in. It arrived on Thursday. They sent an email that day confirming the issue. The tech suggested during the repair he could upgrade the input stages for both channels for a modest cost, which I agreed to. The amp was on its way back completely repaired on Monday. Outstanding service.
I also recently sent my Soundsmith cartridge in for complete refurbishment. When I called to get the RMA they said it would be 4-6 weeks for the work. It took less than 1 week, again outstanding service.
@bazbJust so you know, the supply side shortage thing is still going on. Depending on what your item needed in terms of repair the lead time might not be something anyone can say with any accuracy.
Just to give you an idea, we placed an order for some high end resistors last July; they came in last week. Before the shortages that vendor was tupically 10 weeks. The last order we placed with them in December is quoted for shipment this coming November.
I wrote a while ago about my experience with Carver. Briefly on a Sunday I had a problem, I emailed them, Bob called me at 730 pm est that day and worked with me about 1/2 hr, we couldn’t fix the problem. Shipped it on Monday and received it back with tech notes the following Monday. Carver pays to back ship,(no 2 way shipping for the customer) under warr so no charge and perfectly fixed. Do business with USA companies that’s all I can say. Some like me love Carver, some don’t but you can’t beat their follow up when you buy one of their products. Mine is a Crimson 350 btw.. OP it might have been better even under warr for you get the tech 2 hrs away and pay for his bench time. Small problem pay for it yourself, huge problem maybe not but manufactures out of country that don't have US service centers can be a problem as you've seen. Sorry for your amp problems.
Many thanks for replies and words of wisdom. I can't figure out how to quote another poster but I think I'll be patient and hang on for now.
I apologize again for not naming the manufacturer but I can't be certain the delay is down to them - something beyond their control could be holding things up and although I know the Amp was shipped, I do not know when it arrived at their factory!.
To be fair to the manufacturer, the dealer told me they wanted the Amp back because the fault I reported was completely unique, and was something they had never encountered before. He told me they wanted to examine the unit themselves in order to diagnose the exact cause of the fault. He also told me the distributor had said that faults with this manufacturers products were 'practically unheard of!' and that everyone associated with it was 'completely baffled.
OT, my streamer has been out of service for three months. I am told there’s an refund if its not fixed by early this week. waited until mid/end of the week - I sent two emails, waiting game again.. sheesh
Back in the mid-late 80s, it took Marantz over 2 months to fix a CD transport under warranty. The dealer wouldn't even give me a loaner while my 3 month old CDP was in the shop. Makes it hard to justify the depreciation hit if warranty work isn't swift and painless. OTOH, Schiit turned around two DACs that had developed issues inside of 14 days including transit time. That's the way it should be done.
Admittedly these brands in the video are all high-end brands where an expectation of service is greater than bargain brands. The advice to buy American components is good due to costly and slow shipping to get components serviced overseas.
What's the name of the amp manufacturer? These types of things need to be openly discussed for the benefit of mankind.
Did you take advantage of the spare amp your dealer offered? I would buy a second amplifier as a back up. If you have a foreign made amplifier and it's got to go back to the foreign country for repair it's at least several months and an absolute nightmare.
Conrad Johnson has great customer service you should consider a New amp these guys who are in the US.
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