Best Customer Service (Manufacturer)


There are many audio companies that are competing for our hard earned dollars. The impressive guys are the ones that stand behind their products. Nothing is more disappointing than the companies that "take the money and run". One of the notable good guys that take their accountability seriously is Bryston. They stand behind their products with an unheard of 20 Year Warranty. What are some of the experiences with Bryston and the other "Responsible" audio manufacturers?
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It was Dunlavy for me. I had a series of problems from my amp a few years back and blew two woffers twice. They replaced them right away and helped find the problem. The fire in the amp also helped me to figure it out. After the fire I traded in those speakers for my IVa's. I once had a follow-up question so I called them directly. The tech guy I got was John Dunlavy, who spent a half an hour chatting. Very impressive man and company.
My remote for my Electrocompaniet amp was recently devoured by the dog! My fault for sure, but I was worried that I would have trouble replacing as there are no current dealers in my area. I contacted Jason Scott distributing and Alan was very kind and helpful. I had a new remote in 2 wks and he charged me his cost of $25 bucks. Fantastic service and very prompt reply. This company has been around for over 25 years and if the products speak for their longevity I believe they will be around a long time into the future.
We have had wonderful experience with Roger Sanders at Innersound. Knows his stuff, has a very personal touch and goes the extra step every time.
I second , third , and fourth the vote for PASS LABS. Excellent customer service.
SME! Reg Edey was super at helping me get my SME tonearm back up and running. I was going to purchase replacement parts from him in England, and he referred me to someone in the states to purchase from (saying it would be an easier transaction locally), which I agree with. And he actually forwarded the purchase order with all the part #'s to the company in the states, and for them to contact me. Which they did! Now that's service!
I also have a Camelot Technologies Lancelot phono section section. I wanted to increase the gain in my unit and Mel Schilling took my unit and replaced two resistors free of charge (including shipping)to increase the gain 10db. I find his attitude outstanding, this is a cheap way to get word of mouth advertising.
I purchased a second hand Herron Audio Phono section. Steve Herron himself answered my e-mails and confirmed the unit I purchased had two resistors added to reduce gain. He informed me all I needed was to cut them out.
Castle Acoustics of England. I recently inquired in regard to a replacement binding post for one of my Castle Acoustic Isis speakers (I stripped one of the nuts due to my ham handedness). I communicated with Andy at their UK location and before I had time to follow up on my last email the part plus three spares showed up at our door via speedy air parcel service. The binding post bolts on and took less than five minutes to install with the help of my wife (who is not ham handed). I had originally contacted Castle just to get the address of the US distributor, that I had misplaced, and they ran with the ball. I also had similar super service from the US distributer when I purchased the speakers. Great company and great reps.
Krell has out standing service. I bought a used Krell 200FPB. After a few months started to smoke and shut down. I called Krell and a person answer the phone in the service dept. No, really a real live person was on the line and polite too. They asked a few questions regarding what happened and gave me a RA number and said ship it. I was so shocked I forgot to ask how much the repairs would be. Two weeks later I called and asked how much it was going to cost. I was told “no charge” and the amp had shipped out earlier that day. When I got home from work that night I had an email message with the UPS tracking number. Over the years I have had to deal with various Mid-fi and High End companies over repairs issues. Never has it been that easy and trouble free.
I have bought and sold alot of equipment and with out a doubt the 3 best companies that I have had the pleasure to deal with are Thiel,P.S.Audio and Genesis. That is why I will continue to buy there products. They go above and beyond. Keep up the good work,Thiel,P.S. Audio & Genesis!!!
Talon Audio has to be the best I've heard of. A friend of mine blew the inside woofer of one of his Khorus speakers. He also had one of the bases damaged from shipping after buying them second hand. He called Talon. They overnighted the parts including two new bases, and flew a guy out the next day to repair the speakers in his home. All of this was done with no charge. They also upgraded his speakers cones to the current versions being shipped with the speakers. All of this for a second owner. I am amazed!
Bought a Krell KAV-300CD player used - it arrived and was clearly used - pretty dusty, etc. Unfortunately, it also wouldn't recognize the disc when inserted. FWIW, I don't suspect it was sold to me knowingly imperfect. Anyway, I contacted Krell - they didn't even ask for a serial number since the model itself was <5 years old and therefore still under warranty. Shipped the unit to them, they turned it around in two weeks, and when it came back I swear I could have sold it as NIB it was in such great shape - cleaned and polished, perfectly packaged, and repaired. The perfect service, no questions asked / no guilt for buying used stance, made me a strong believer. Some of the best customer service I've ever received.
gotta 2nd the vote for bobby. he loves his speakers & totally supports his customers--i know, i'm a pain in the ass. he's helped me a lot with system matching, speaker placement. he's the best. rhyno
If I judge by the courteous service they gave me on a transport I bought second hand, I can't imagine what they'd do for one still under warranty. Great products, great sound, great peopl - especially Greg Fowler, who had the misfortune of picking up the phone the first time I called and got stuck with me for the following 3 months of follow ups.
I bought A Classe Audio D A Converter from here and had problems with it shortly after. Not only did Classe fix it for free but they payed for the shipping as well. No warrenty and I had it back in my hands, fixed for free, two weeks after I contacted them.
Bobby Palkovic of Merlin Music is as good as they get. He will do whatever is necessary to have his speakers sound their best down to making recommendations on room treatments providing he has the information. He ALWAYS will spend the time to help. His help has been immeasurable to me. A class act.
My dealings with Peter at Pass Labs have been outstanding. Peter is kind and helpful. Other companies should learn from Pass Labs what customer service is all about.
I want to throw a vote to Michael Kelley of Aerial Acoustics. About 4 years ago, I bought a pair of Model 7's that had been demo units. The cabinets had a couple of very minor surface scratches. I called Aerial to buy some stain to retouch the cabinets. Michael returned my call, asked me how the speakers were working with my system, and offered to send me the stain, no charge. He finished the call by telling me to let him know if I had any questions or ever needed assistance. A class act all the way. True customer service! I continue to endorse and recommend their products. You didn't specifically ask, but I had a terrible run in just TRYing to buy a pair of Dunlavy Audio Labs prior to purchasing the Aerial 7's. I bought the DAL speakers from my local dealer, and agreed to wait the 3 weeks for them to come in. I didn't realize that this was around the time of CES and my dealer didn't get the order in before the Dunlavy team packed up for the show. As a consequence, my speakers didn't show up in 3 weeks, and the answering machine at DAL was allowed to fill up while my dealer tried in vain to reach them. My credit card had been charged, AMEX wanted payment and my dealer (in Atlanta) told me that it wasn't their problem and I had to just wait. I told the dealer to cancel my order and called AMEX to dispute the charge. I sent an email to Dunlavy and got a quick response from one of thier marketing (I believe) managers. His response was not to offer an accomodation or try and talk the delaer into working with me, but to suggest that in my price range, nothing else was going to beat the Dunlavy. Guess what? I have purchased 2 more pairs of high end speakers ($2k - $4k) since and will never again consider Dunlavy. I found them to be pompous and self absorbed with little concern for a customer. Vote with your dollars.
Douglas Brown, Tech. Rep. at Sonic Frontiers is excellent, as is Todd Sutherland, Customer Relations at Madrigal. I bought two used Levinson components last summer and Todd asked for serial numbers then immediately gave me significant "remaining warranty". Steve McCormack at SMC, and Richard Vandersteen at Vandersteen Audio are also excellent.
Vandersteen has always been highly responsive to questions and issues I have put to them regarding their loudspeakers; on one occasion I was able to speak with Mr. Vandersteen personally. Very impressive service, very impressive products.
I have had good service from B&K Components, who replace some binding posts on an amp that had been damaged.
Pass labs does rule. I called them up to ask about phono stage matching. They actually went and got their 'phono guy' on the phone to help out. Outstanding. I've had Peter help me out via email too. It's obvious they go the xtra mile, and are happy to do it. Nice that their product is great too.
Pass Labs is terrific. Peter is one of the most considerate people I have ever dealt with.
Aragon, There're one of the best customer service A++++, Rogue Audio, Bryston, and Apogee Acoustic(back then) also wonderful. Rute.
I have had great responses from the 3 of the 4 companies I have communicated with. Conrad Johnson, B&W Speaker and Vanevers were all great. In the case of Vansevers it was Mike Vansever himself. My only bad experience was with Audio Plus Services AKA Plurison who import and distribute YBA, Audio Refinement Complete and Cambridge Audio in the US and Canada. They were just terrible and actually gave me false imformation at one point.
I had a great experience with the Pass Labs. I think they have the best customer service of any high end that I know.
I completely agree with the prior response. I have been an audio hobbyist for more than 35 years, and Bryston -- both the company and its individual employees -- try hard to resolve all problems to the complete satisfaction of the customer. And if you ever send a question to them via e-mail, you will get a virtually immediate response, very often from Chris Russell directly. I have had the privilege of meeting Chris Russell personally at the last two CES shows and came away from our conversations extraordinarily impressed with his integrity. And that is one of the reasons why I selected Bryston equipment. One of the other reasons concerned some Bryston equipment that I sent in for repair about 4 years ago, the fault being entirely mine. It was repaired free of charge within 24 hours.
Purchased a used BP25 preamp and when received the separate power supply had been monkeyed with. The previous owner,(jerk) had hard wired (and very poorly I might add) in a crappy orange extension cord in hopes of making his own "upgraded" power cord. E-mailed Chris Russell at Bryston who informed that I should send it in for inspection and 9 days later I received a brand new power supply - and not the butchered unit fixed!!! I have always been a large Bryston supporter and this goes to show they go above and beyond the call of duty. I have since sold the BP25 but they will have to pry my 4BST out of my hands after I die...