@roxy54 Thanks. I have moved on from these speakers. What I experienced may not be representative of what the brand has to offer. I wrote the post to bring awareness when buying from overseas; be aware of shady dealers and pay attention to the track record of the brand’s customer service.
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.
59 responses
I think that the company should have helped you far more than they did joezz for what those speakers cost, but it does surprise me when I read about audio accidents involving small children. If I had children, which I don't, I would never let them get within reach of my gear. Still, sorry to hear about your bad experience. |
@stereo5 Then in your logic, nothing is returnable, because things can be swapped and the sellers are dumb enough to be not knowing. Hope you never return things. |
All I can say is the dented tweeters are on you. You need to learn to keep the kids away from the speakers. As for the woofer, I have to side with the manufacturer. How do they know you won’t send the damaged woofer back, keep the good one, and try to get credit for it? You could also have a crossover problem and it may not be the woofer. Do they have a Facebook group that perhaps can help you before you order the woofer? I personally would not buy something that expensive that doesn’t give any customer support, but that’s just me. |