My vote goes for Sonic Frontiers, as Best! I was contacted within an hours, after e-mailing a question. Wery friendly and helpfull!(they can count me-in on the next purchase) Thw Worst? Linn audio! It's been over a month since i submited a Q! I am stll e-mailing the question...i am sort of amused by now!
Prior to buying my 1 owner Esoteric C 03 preamp a mint Ayre KX-1 e just appeared on Audiomart, I wanted to verify if it was an Evolution from the factory. I called Ayre and to my surprise they were very courteous and Informative, I gave the serial # he took the time on hold to confirm it was a factory Evolution model. I had a question about the volume control repair and he was very honest and said we dont gouge are customers like other brands. I mentioned ARC he chuckled and said nothing!
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Except that it was NONE of those things. Just adding to the list of companies with awful customer service. Oops...hope THAT doesn't offend the mods too.
Worst: Jungson. After weeks of back and forth two Jungson representatives came out to my home under the guise of promising to replace my defective amp under warranty. It was definitely under warranty. Instead of bringing my new amp as promised they listened and checked and confirmed mine was defective and then having learned as much from me as they could they promised a replacement and left. From that point on they stopped responding leaving my dealer to step up and make good. He told me Jungson never did make him good and he stopped carrying Jungson after that.
Horrible, horrible company. No surprise. Look who they are, where they are based. Worst ever.
I was too gracious re. My previous post about Cary. They stink. About 5 years ago the microprocessor in my 306 CD player started to malfunction.. They refused to even look at it, stating they didn't have any parts on hand. They were polite about it but totally useless.
I would ad a big positive shout out to JL Audio service.
The amplifier in one of my F113V2 subs died (out of warranty, purchased over six years ago) and my local dealer indicated that JL does all the service. So I contacted them via their website and found that, for out-of-warranty service, they offer a fixed repair price that includes installing the updates they offer in current models. Since the subs weigh so much they need to be shipped by truck, JL provided me excellent instructions on how to remove and later re-install the backplane amplifier, so the package could go via UPS.
The worst, Stereophile, Manley Labs and Solid-tech racks. I ordered and paid for their racks 3+ months ago and still not delivered them. The ETA was 2 weeks.
My best experiences are with Acoustic Audio in the EU, in the USA distributor is horrible, CH, TechDas, SAT and Kuzma.
NAIM has been pretty terrible. Good luck trying to get a response after you email them with a technical question. Not what I expected after dropping $10K on new NAIM gear.
Sony has been even worse. Don’t get me started.
In the plus column, I’ve had very good service from The Music Room.
I just had an experience with Upscale Audio that I'd like to share.
Suffice it to say that I purchased a fairly expensive component from Upscale about 15 months ago and recently realized that it was an earlier version of what was described in my correspondence with them. The outside of the units are virtually identical other than a change in the input/output locations and after a complicated move from Florida to the NYC area I wasn't paying much attention at the time.
I decided to list the item for sale a few weeks ago and based upon detailed pictures that I posted in my ad, an observant audiogoner told me it looked like the earlier version. I sent off a note to Upscale and within hours, my salesperson responded that in fact it was the earlier version and he'd check with management as to how to handle.
Within a few more hours I got a note back with a label to send my unit back in exchange for the new version, which I just received.
Upscale has earned my loyalty. Class outfit. Mistakes happen.
Never never never ever!!!! Call VTL for a repair, you will be told to take your amp apart to show them that it was not modified. Then the woman told me she was going to China for a week and to send her an email to remind her of the conversation we had, then I was directed to the company web site. and was told to download the repair agreement. What a JOKE, THEY WILL NEVER GET A DIME FROM ME!!!!!!
Best I've experienced was by Vlad B of Audio Mirror.
Never had a bad experience, although once while inquiring about service I needed on one of my pieces I spoke with a connection to well known and respected repair guy and was told my gear was not high-end enough to bother him with it. Not bad service, but instantly deflated my audio ego. Ouch!
Gmosley: Just curious how you made out, e.g. whether ultimately they (VTL) agreed to service the unit or whether you had to have it done locally. That’s still no excuse for the gyrations you had to go thru but a refusal to service the item is really, really bad in my opinion.
Back in the Dennis Had days, the customer service at Cary Audio Design was fantastic! There was gentleman named Kirk Owens working there who was absolutely great! He would answer any and all questions I had whenever I needed to call CAD on the phone. Once I even got the big man (Dennis) himself. Back in '20 I needed tech support, and getting a reply to an email was like pulling teeth, and forget about actually talking to a human on the phone (unlss you want to buy something). When I finally did get an email reply, basically what they told me was what their hourly rates were and instructions on shipping the amp. I actually found someone on another audio forum (AA) who helped me troubleshoot and repair which saved me literally hundreds of dollars (if not more). The customer service I got from Cary Audio in '20 may not be the worst out there, but it certainly was no where good as what CAD used to provide back in the '90s and early 20000s.
It's difficult to name one "best". It's much more objective to list "TOP TIER".
TOP TIER companies I have encountered over the last three decades.
Valve Amplication Company - Do not be surprised if Kevin Hays answers the phone himself. He is the quintesential gentleman as has been stated many times on this forum. Fantastic products.
Linear Tube Audio - Nicholas is quick to respond and has the right answers. LTA makes some very nice products.
Audio Advisor - Good to very good products. Very quick response time.
Quicksilver Audio - Mike Sanders makes great products, responds on a timely basis to questions. Even my stupid ones.
Mapleshade - Eldon has great products and is very responsive. He spends an abundant amount of time making sure he understands exactly what products will work best for you and makes great recommendations.
Oliver Sayes - if you want a custom amp or pre amp Oliver is a great guy to work with.
Abbas Audio - Abbas makes great tubed DAC's. He has some other products as well. He responds to questions. Being a very small outfit, I don't understand how he does all that he does.
Spatial Audio - Great speakers and great service.
If you buy something new be sure to check the warranty terms and conditions closely before you buy. There are several good reasons to buy American even though some of my gear is not. If you don't buy Anerican check that they have service available in the US (if you live in US of course) or be prepared to pay serious shipping costs and endure the risks involved in shipping.
If you buy used, be sure you know where you can get repairs done for that item. Most of the good repair shops are backed up for months at this time.
I'm not ready to hammer anyone at the moment butI I have a situation in the works that is not up to par.
ISO-Acoustics- Best Service to Date: Specifically Sean at Customer Service.
I have changed my speakers and the footers a couple of times. Each change I needed different threaded adapters. Man, were they fast to comply. I couldn’t ask for better service!
And... they never charged me for the adapters even though they knew I bought the footers used.
I've been in this hobby for about 50 years. Hands down, worst service ever was Shanling of China. They've had a long history of reliability issues and have very little interest in customer support.
Eversolo /Zidoo. My Dad's A6 streamers USB quit working after their latest firmware. Denied there were any problems... but at the same time others are having issues with USB.
I asked them for the last firmware, they said no that's dangerous. So after them insisting there were no FW problems, I let them know there were only 5 days left on the warranty, could I please send it in. Silence, they totally ignored my request for warranty service. That was 6/22.
I thought it was a decent streamer but unfortunately I can no longer recommend Eversolo.
I let them know there were only 5 days left on the warranty, could I please send it in. Silence, they totally ignored my request for warranty service. That was 6/22.
There’s no excuse for that. They owe you service as long as you can document that they were notified of the trouble prior to the warranty expiration. I hope you press them to make things right.
I must admit that I have been very fortunate to have never had any issues with any audio manufacturers. In no particular order I can say that my experience with the following companies have been stellar.
There's no "pressing" a company like Eversolo. They do not care about the end user. You are simply one of their Beta testers, hopefully whatever issues you have will be addressed in future updates.
I'll just be sure to warn fellow music lovers to stay away from the brand. It's al you can do with Chinese fly by night companies
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