Are all cops bad cops? The answer is no. In fact,very few are bad. Sometimes an unfortunate case happens. Is it right? No. I am sorry the Op had a bad experience. I understand his frustration.
I am a Viking owner who had a super experience with Viking. I own a pair of Viking Acoustic Grande Voix Dual Horn Speakers. They are phenomenal. Prior to that, I had Sonus Faber Amati Tradition Homage and Wilson Audio speakers. My current GV's blew them away in SQ.
I can say to this forum that my experience with Viking was great. The customer service was outstanding. The speakers were hand-delivered to my house and set up by David personally. I even purchased his Gottenburg cables. One of them failed due to my error. I am functionally blind and pulled on it the wrong way. He replaced the speaker cable without any issues. The craftsmanship of the speakers I received was outstanding and a showpiece in my house.
So as I have read all of the comments from people hoping he goes out of business I find that to be sad commentary. I do hope the Op and David can resolve this issue. But it reminds me of the Raven and Prima Luna issue about two months ago. People just plain dumped on these Companies just like they are dumping on Viking. Why can't you just support the Op in his quest and be done with it.
For the people who will never consider Viking because of this interaction, you are missing out on a fantastic speaker. That is your right and there are 100's of speakers you can choose from.
For everyone who owns a Viking Speaker, this thread is damaging. What if we want to sell their speakers to upgrade to a higher-level speaker? Do you think it will be easy for them to sell even though their speaker may be in perfect condition and sounds awesome? If they post on Audiogon the answer is probably no. I should state that my Grande Voix's are my be-all-end all speakers so my comment does not relate to me.
I started a thread on the Lampizator Horizon DAC some months back. It is a brand new high-end DAC. Many of the comments were so crude, I ended up asking Audiogon to take down my thread and it was just meant to provide people information about the new Horizon. I found many of the comments to be disrespectful.
So not all Company interactions make a Company bad just like one bad apple cop does not make bad cops. I hope this forum can understand another perspective. I truly hope this issue can get resolved so that we can go one reading about new speakers, amps, dacs, and just enjoy our music.
Respectably stated.....