Could-care-less Manufacturers and Authorized Dealers Bash


This thread is for everybody who wanna fan out their frustration on manufacturers who don’t care about supporting their products.

I get that they love you to pay full retail and brand new thru their dealer network. But then again, what do they care if I am willing to pay full repair cost for out-of-warranty and/or non-warranty repair?

(please, real personal experience only ... what happened to your friend doesn’t count)

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My top 3, in any order ....

1) MBL
Got an 110v MBL from Canuck Audiomart Canada. Somehow an AudioTekne power cord toasted it (if you happen to use LossLess active cables with MBL, watch out too). Sent it to my local tech guy. Got ZERO cooperation from MBL with no schematics. Sent it to an ex-Krell repairman’s shop in Connecticut who services MBL too. Got ZERO cooperation from MBL neither. OK, I shipped it to MBL service center (in Los Angeles) MBL America couldn’t get a schematic to fix that from Germany neither. Had to ship it (again!) to MBL Germany to have it fixed.


2) Jeff Rowland
Got an pair of Model 1 - one of them stopped making sound for absolutely no reason. Sent it to the local authorized Rowland service center. That shop in Verona NJ (email me if you want the name) let it sat for 2 weeks, then charged me $95 "inspection fee" then told me to take it away. They said Jeff Rowland refused to send them the schematics needed for the repair. Contacted Jeff Rowland via emails. Got the 5th amendment treatment. Lost my shirts to sell them as-is.


3) Rotel
Once upon a time, stepped into an authorized Rotel dealer showroom and drove away an brand new Rotel receiver, even thought the dealer refused to demo it ("oh it’s too much effort to connect one for you when we have stuff a zillion times more expensive for demo for our big spenders"). What an insult. Anyway, once the unit was unpacked and then plugged-in, sparks abound, smoke came out. Totally dead. Talked to the dealer (email me if you wanna know that place in Summit NJ) - blamed that I don’t know how to plug the unit in (really????). Want me to ship it to the service center instead (which I recall, at that time, only in Japan). I argued and threaten dispute with credit card company - they didn’t care, just waved the receipt with fine print saying ’cannot be held responsible for misuse’. I lucked out since I didn’t fill out the warranty form and an Japanese member happened to like to buy one (it was considerably cheaper in USA than in Japan) and he was going to Japan. I gave him $200 discount and he was happy (he told me Rotel gave him a new once he moved to Japan).




bsimpson
I never had a "bad" experience in many decades. When I needed repairs, those dealers or mfgs stepped up.

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In 40+ years with lots of buying and selling I’ve had my share of equipment problems. Mostly, the manufacturers simply did what they should have, but some went above and beyond… while others IMO fell short.
First the great ones:

MODWRIGHT: infinite patience helping me solve a problem with my MW-modded Sony HAP music server, including sending me power supplies. 

MAKER AUDIO: Received the amp not working, likely due to shipper mishandling. I sent it back and (even though it was bought as last year’s demo) he updated to latest specs at no cost and paid return shipping. 

AURALIC: Sent me new transformers at no cost, even though bought used. 

EXOGAL: sent me a new after-market power cable when the one I was using failed. 

AUDIENCE: Re-terminated all ends when I broke the cable near one end. 

WYWIRES: exchanged my two power cords that weren’t working for pair of interconnects, and then upgraded to next level when they inadvertently took too long to ship. 

TACT AUDIO: Spent many hours on phone helping/teaching me subtleties of using their products. Too bad they went under. 

GIK: Immediately sent replacement product when I complained the finish of something I’d received wasn’t up to snuff, and let me keep the original.

 

The not-so-good (surprisingly, mostly cable companies): NORDOST: A Glass Toslink stopped working due to no fault of mine and their response was that they had lots of problems with their Toslink cables so they stopped making them. They offered no compensation and wouldn’t fix it. 

BEL CANTO: Amp died one week out of warranty. Wouldn’t fix it--only offered to sell me a newer model at a discount. REVELATION AUDIO LABS: Took close to a year and filing complaints with state agencies to get product I’d paid for. MIT: An expensive digital cable stopped working and neither the company nor their well-known dealer offered to fix it.

 

 


I really like to hear or read about people’s bad or good experience with certain manufacturers or dealers as it will make you cautious and think twice about spending money on certain product or dealer. Keep it coming, this type of review really helps.
Good repair experiences with:

Manley Labs
Thiel Audio

Poor repair experiences with:

NAD
conrad johnson