Customer Service in High-End Audio

If you are getting crappy customer service then you are dealing with the wrong people.  In a service industry, there is no excuse for poor service.  The best try and put themselves in their customer's shoes.....i.e., if I were a customer and contacted my company, what would make my interaction awesome and memorable?

Each company has a culture that is largely shaped by the leadership.....or, lack of leadership.  Some of the best industry people I have worked with have been one or two-person companies, but some have been much larger.  The best are great at being both responsive and friendly while meeting your needs.   

I used to try and limit my gear to "made in the USA" products but more recently, I have been working with two overseas companies, in two very different parts of the world, that both have provided extraordinary customer service.  I have purchased multiple products from one company and both companies have performed upgrades on my gear.  During the upgrade process, with both of these companies, communication was excellent and turn-around time was as-predicted or better. 

To summarize, the good guys are out there, you just need to find them.  Don't put up with crappy communication or crappy customer service.  Excuses don't cut it. 

From a previous post earlier this week:
I want to say a good word for JRDG customer service. I own a consonance preamp that is now 26 years old. An absolutely wonderful preamp. Early one morning during a "late night" listening session I made a boneheaded move and while adjusting the line level gain, put that module back in the preamp one pin off. That module became toast as soon as I turned it back on. Duh. The following Monday morning I called JRDG and to my surprise was able to talk to Jeff himself. He looked in his inventory & was able to find another module for the consonance (a 26 year old preamp!) of which I bought instantly. It was shipped out that day & I bought another fuse to put in the preamp itself. Long story short, I couldn't get it to not blow a fuse instantly when powered up, so prior to putting in the new module, asked Jeff if the new module would fix that issue. He said the module would not fix that, so I packed the whole thing up & sent it to him for repair before messing it up any further myself. He received that preamp on a Friday & the following Monday his secretary called me and stated he had it fixed.There was an issue with the power supply (as well as the toasted line module). I received it today & it sounds better than ever. Again, mind you this is a 26 year old preamp that he apparently made a priority of to fix. The new upgraded module & power supply cost a few hundred dollars and his labor charge to check this preamp out & fix it, was minimal. He certainly wasn't prompted by financial gain to fix my mistake, much less make it a priority. That my audiophile friends is great customer service.  

Some really good feedback here...

Good to hear that most folks are having positive experiences. I think that a little bit of customer service goes a long way, and I hope that manufacturers and dealers realize that we are taking notes.

Has anyone every purchased a product from a dealer or manufacturer who you knew or suspected had sub-par service, but you purchased the product anyway? I've noticed that some of the most talked about products on Audiogon have mixed reviews about customer service, but I suspect that some buyers (I'm guilty of this too) sometimes ignore them, and purchase the product anyway based on product reviews or hype.

I've had great service. The two standouts are Wilson Audio and Jeff Rowland.

I know a speaker company that quite by accident, left out some screws from one of the bottom woofers of the speakers I had bought. I told them that I didn't have those type of screws for a substitute. They sent me a padded envelope with the correct screws via UPS Next day air. Now THAT is what I would call customer service!!!! Pretty expensive screws for them to send, but that told me they really cared.