Thiel, 10 year warranty, unbelievably good customer service! The best customer service I've ever experienced from any manufacturer or service provider in any(!) business, bar none!
I have enjoyed good customer service from Conrad-Johnson and B&K as well. |
Scott Nixon of Scott-nixon.com who sells the latest generation of his DAC designs either with or without tube output at a laughably cheap price. His customer service when analyzing, repairing, and cosmetically enhancing his older generation Anodyne ATAS DAC totally amazed me, and at a price more charitable than commercial. When a manufacturer will look at their old equipment over ten years later, and take care of it completely for less than the cost of just the estimate fee locally then I am impressed. His newer designs are so elegantly simple in design it will take 20 years to need work in or out of warranty, and by then we'll all be listening to some technology not yet dreamed of. |
There are dummies out there who buy stuff from other countries, then whine and cry that the US distributor or retailers won't assist with Warranty claims!! (DUH!! Like, everyone knows this applies to just about ANYTHING you buy across the borders!!)
Then they have the nerve to complain about the manufacturer not supporting the product, and whine about it on A'Gon or the Asylum....
Sure, avoid the local dealer and the US economy because you're a cheap bast*rd, then complain about customer service when you're not really a US customer!??!!?!?
Anyone else heard of stories like these? |
Golden ears, you are golden more than that.Splendid. |
B&W has bent over backwards to answer all my questions and provide product support. Excellent!
I recently bought a Denon product and had a question / problem. The answering machine at Denon said to leave your phone numebr and your call would be returned. So Denon does not take calls. And they never returned my call. So I returned it. Good riddance Denon!
Whine, wahhhh, complain, snivel, arggggghhhhh, moan, sigh, |
As a short comment on Golden_ears comment, (some story there?? ill feelings?), is that I think its easier buying used than new, for that reason. Specifically, and esp in photography, there is alot of grey market stuff sold that isnt always up front about country of origin. Now WHY a phillipines distributed camera lens is not warranty-able in the US I'm not quite sure, except I think its just a corporate turf war about who pays for what.
Here on Audiogon, I have fewer expectations.
But I would think manufacturers though would get the 'good service+good warranty=good used prices=more tolerated higher retail' equation
But as I said in my originating post.. lets stick to specific equipment & facts and not digress too far with our rants |
Thor Audio clearly has the best warranty in the industry: initial purchaser gets a lifetime warranty and the second buyer can pay a few hundred dollars to get a 5 year warranty to him (this fee includes a complete inspection by Thor Audio, complete retubing, and one way shipping).
The only way they could make this warranty program better is to simply provide an unconditional lifetime warranty, which they wont because it would support the not-for-profit used market. |
Hi Lester ears,
Sorry, I'm not trying to take things off-topic. It's just that I have seen this kind of thing happen, where someone bitches publicly about a company because they wouldn't support a Warranty on a product they bought outside the US, or has been passed-through two or three owners and has been damaged by stupidity. (I mean, just read the warranty info with anything you buy, and you'll see that it's for the US-only! How can you expect anything else?)
Ya, Bryston is pretty good with that warranty. But then, they have less to worry about, since an amplifier is a pretty simple device, compared to a CD player, for example. Like, what can go wrong under normal usage? I don't know for sure, but it seems likely that there's a clause that allows them to decline warranty service if the amp has been abused/used improperly, or accidentally damaged, which is often the case with amp failures. So, they're pretty safe, but the 20 year warranty does make for good ad copy.
When it comes to high end, I've found that most of the manufacturers I've spoken-to are pretty helpful, in or out of warranty. Of course, the attitude of the person calling them fo help is very important... |
KRELL
In or out of warrantee, I have never found ANY company, audio or not, that could match the service from Krell. The owner called me once when I had a question, but everyone there has always been extremely helpful.
I would probably give the biggest "thumbs up" to the head of the service department.
Richard |
Golden ears, suffice to say I couldn't disagree with you more. |
Pass Labs period. They are one of the tops in the business at customer service and repair.
Happy Listening. |
Hard to beat Bryston's 20year transferable warranty. And you don't pay a dime to get it either. Lifetime warranty is cool but it is well known that audiophiles don't keep things all that long. The neat thing is I can buy a used Bryston and just not care if it is broken or not.
The history on the warranty is kind of funny; they were always in the habit of freely fixing anything that people sent to them (that didn't have beer in it or wasn't run over by a truck). From the time I started this hobby in the 70's till now, I never knew anyone that had to pay for a repair from Bryston. Their marketing boys just said "If you are going to do this, why not advertise it?" And so they did.
Good point about the problem in warrantying things like cd-players which do have moving parts. May indeed be why Bryston doesn't market any. Can't say as I blame them. |
Quote:
"11-23-03: Unsound
Golden ears, suffice to say I couldn't disagree with you more."
Uh, okay......you can leave it at that, I guess, no harm done to me, that's for sure.
But then....
Your argument, if that's what it is, is like your chosen name - "Unsound", because you didn't say what you're disagreeing with! (Bryston issue or ridiculous out-of-country-purchase warranty claims??) |
Both my McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe and Audio Research CD-1 were bought used here on Audiogon. In both cases I called the companies to inquire about service or updates on pre-owned gear prior to purchasing the items. This is my final checkpoint before making a decision to purchase a major component.
Steve McCormack replied, personally, about the amp through SMc Audio. It just gets no better than that.
My most recent purchase was an Audio Research CD-1. I made a phone call to Audio Research, asked for service and proceeded to have a 10 minute conversation with the technician about the CD-1. I was not even put on hold! Essentially they service (sometimes update) anything they ever made.
Oh and my last new purchase, Von Schweikert VR2s. A 10 year warranty, transferrable I think since I sent in the card.
Sure makes spending all this money a lot easier if you know your covered by the manufacturer. |
Golden ears, I disagree with your dismissal of Bryston's warranty policy. I disagree with the idea that out-of-country purchase warranty claims are ridiculous. The most disagreeable thing is the impolite manner in which you have trolled this thread. |
Thiel,Rogue,Pass labs.In that order in my experience.
Biggest headache ever was from Music Hall...woops. |
I'm sorry if you think I'm not "polite", but I wasn't trying to be obnoxious either. I was merely raising what I thought were valid points. You're taking certain points in my posts out of context to challenge and conveniently ignoring other points I made that balance the arguments. That is scheming, manipulative and political, which I consider to be worse than "impolite"!
1) Since when is it "ridiculous" to have a belief that we should support the US economy (in this case the US distributor/dealer network, or even private sale from an individual in the US) instead of buying off-shore? (The fact that the item may be manufactured off-shore is irrelevant. The distributor/dealer network is set-up to support the US economy) And, if someone by-passes that network to buy off-shore just to save a few bucks, should they really expect to get the same customer service from the US distributor? Now THAT is "ridiculous"!
2) I didn't "dismiss" Bryston's warranty. I think it's great if they repair things that may have just worn-out after years of use. I merely pointed out that there are less things to go wrong in an amp vs. a CD player, for example, so they're safe there, and their warranty, like just about everybody else's, probably doesn't cover what they consider to be abuse or accidental damage, which is usually the cause of failure.
Since you decided to attack me on the Bryston discussion, I copied and pasted this off of their website:
"This warranty is considered void if the defect, malfunction or failure of the product or any component part was caused by damage (not resulting from a defect or malfunction) or abuse while in the possession of the customer, tampering by persons other than factory-authorized service personnel, or failure to comply with Bryston operating Instructions."
So, there it is. That's all I was saying. No evil agenda here! |
I believe that the warranty should be transferrable and that the equipment bought abroad should be covered too. However, I don't think that in this case US distributors or dealers must have anything to do with it.The manufacturer can do a favour and arrange the service with a dealer, but I have no objection to sending the piece oversees.Shipping should be split. |
