Did you buy the speakers new?
Vivid Audio speakers, my experience
So I am sharing my experiences with this company, their product and services for those who may be interested or on the fence.
For those who do not know Vivid Audio, it is a speaker company based in South Africa, founded by previous B&W engineer Laurence Dickie who designed the famous 800 Nautilus series speakers and their distributor Philip Gottentag. Vivid speakers are unique to say the least.
I have a pair of B-1 speakers and they sounded good. While their products work, it is all good and wonders. But I have so disenchanted by my recent experience with their US customer service. I am quitting this company altogether.
The drivers on the B-1 (especially the tweeters) are completely exposed and easily subject to damages from, say, children’s poking fingers. That happened to my drivers. Also, one of the speakers started producing a distortion in the upper bass/lower mid range. I sort of traced the problem to one of the woofers. I contacted Vivid customer service in US about replacing these drivers. They put me in touch with one of their dealers (Supra HiFi, be aware!) who quoted me astronomical prices (so high that is about 70% of the MSRP for the 10 year old speakers). I did some research and found other people got their replacement for way lower prices. So I reached out to the Vivid Audio in South Africa. So it turns out Scott from Supra HiFi quoted me about 5x the correct prices!
So Vivid pointed me to their US rep again who was supposed to get the replacement drivers from Vivid to me. Because Vivid has no service facility in the US, they cannot provide any technical services like diagnosis, let alone repairs. So the customer needed to replace the drivers themselves, which is fine. But because I am not a professional, I may not have diagnosed the full scope of the problem with my speakers. So I asked their US rep Todd whether I could return the undamaged woofer to him in the case if replacing the driver alone does not fix the speakers. He said no because he was concerned about reselling the driver if it was returned. I was shocked. Since Vivid has not service capacity in the US, I though this is the minimum they can do to help. I was so disheartened by this response that I did not reply in a month because I was giving up on this company.
Today, I finally reminded myself to write the email to the owner and their US rep that I am quitting this company.
Anyway, this is my experience. YMMV.
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Vivid drives are notoriously fragile. In fact, their entire speaker line build quality is subpar, IMO. However, expecting the manufacturer to send you new drivers just to “check” if that fixes your problem and expecting them to take them back (when they are no longer new and perhaps damaged as well) is totally unreasonable. |
@henry201 OK. Let’s reason in your logic. Then is it unreasonable to return an iPhone or any other electronics within the return period? Also, you need to consider this was the only option that was on the table. As for "when they are no longer new and perhaps damaged as well", again people are not stupid, if it was ever damaged in my hands, I would have been fully liable, just as I would if I return a damaged iPhone. How is this situation different? Am I supposed to pay a good sum of money to perform an expensive diagnosis when I was told there was no support any other way? BTW, Vivid takes back damaged drivers and repair and refurbish them possibly for resale anyway. For people who think like you do, I hope you never have to return anything in your life. It’s also people like you, who encourages these manufacturers in audio industry to think they are "special" and not expected to perform to the same standard as other electronics makers. |
Sorry man, I know you are hurting, but your logic is way off. You bought used speakers, most likely no longer under warranty, you damaged them, and now you expect Apple return policies treatment? You should have read the fine prints first. No other high-end audio "electronics makers" will treat you differently. Regarding not having any service options in the US, I agree; it’s lame, yet it’s on the buyer to verify all that before buying. No one should buy such an expensive product without confirming after-sales support options. I am sure you know; audio equipment does fail occasionally. |
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