JeanJohn's repaired unit, which he had to wait so long for, has been returned to France via UPS - under warranty and at our shipping expense of $648.00.
We have had some service problems this year (mixed in with a lot of customers who received exemplary service) but we are making good on all of them - even if it has taken a long time.
Heres why.
PurePower Partners LLC had outsourced its production to Taiwan in 2008 after 5 years of production in Canada. Not to cut costs, but to expand production.
We had been building to order, and sales had outstripped production capacity. We believed we could maintain quality, even with outsourcing, by doing final assembly steps and QC in Canada. That worked OK, at 2008 fuel and shipping prices. By 2011 air freight costs had become prohibitive.
At the end of 2011 we had already made the decision to return production to North America to improve shipping cost and address QC issues when a contract sales employee in Florida conspired with our Taiwan builder to attempt to steal our brand, IP and trademark. The full story is available on our web site at www.purepoweraps.com.
They believed they could pull off this coup by commandeering our prepared inventory, sabotaging our sales, outspending us in marketing, libeling our personnel and company with a series of outrageous claims, and ignoring US court orders to cease and desist. But after 9 months, our trademark infringement and breach of contract lawsuits have finally been effective. Over 90% of PurePower dealers worldwide refused to purchase the counterfeit product in spite of the fact we were not able to deliver genuine PurePower product until the new PurePower+ designs were ready and the new Canadian assembly plant was fully functional a process that took over 6 months.
During that time we did not have sufficient repair parts stock of the old models or enough technicians to keep up with normal service needs while also working on the new designs. As many as a dozen warranty service repairs suffered completely unreasonable delays. In some un-repairable cases we offered to supply a replacement PurePower+ model as soon as they were available.
We have made good on most of them although there are still 3 customers waiting for new PurePower+ replacements for their old un-repairable units which are due to ship in early October.
We suffered very significant financial losses due to the counterfeiting activities, which we will probably never recover in spite of favorable court proceedings. Nonetheless we have come out of this experience with a dramatically improved product, complete in-house control over production and QC, and the knowledge that most high end audio dealers are a very honorable group indeed. We also learned that our customers are spectacularly supportive.
We are excited by the results of the PurePower+ launch and ready for the year ahead. We can also make a clear commitment to improved warranty service. With production, service, and most parts either in-house or sourced from local companies within a 60 mile radius we will no longer be at the mercy of overseas suppliers, expensive shipping, or long lead times.
PurePower is back on track and ready to deliver quality products, service, and support.
