2. misc-audio
  3. 1438352004

Bad experience with PurePower of Canada

This is my first post here in a long time, and I seriously considered not writing it, but the situation I'm about to relate to you has reached a crisis point, and I feel like I have little choice now but to call a manufacturer out in public for shockingly substandard customer service.

The company in question is Canadian firm PurePower, maker of an acclaimed line of AC power regenerators. I've owned their APS 1050 for several years now, and until recently it functioned flawlessly and made a decent improvement to my system's sonics. However, at the very beginning of June, a power surge blew out the input side of the unit and made it nonfunctional. (Interestingly, my other regenerator, a Chinese-made Dussun, escaped unscathed.)

I called PurePower and spoke to a gentleman named Damian. He gave me a repair quote over the phone and told me to send the unit in. It arrived at PP's Niagara Falls facility on 6/11/15. Damian said it would be a quick repair and would be back to me within a week.

Real long story short, by the middle of July, I had yet to receive my unit back. PP stopped answering my phone calls and emails and repeated requests for a tracking number. Damian's story had changed any number of times over the month PP had my 1050. First he said, "It's going out tomorrow" (that was around the 16th-17th of June), then "It has gone out" (he told me that a couple of times), and then "It's at UPS" (his penultimate lie). Having finally exhausted my patience, I threatened to take this whole thing public and consider legal action if I didn't get a straight answer. Only then, less than half an hour before my deadline to him, did Damian return my call. He said that the company had been on vacation for the past two weeks (though this wasn't reflected on their answering machine or their email, and he even admitted he had been in the office several times during the break). He said the unit was fixed and would go out Tuesday, July 21. Again, he promised me a tracking number.

As of today, July 31, I still have not received my 1050, and the company again is not returning emails. In fact, even more disturbing, their phone number is now out of service. What bothers me most of all, they cashed my check three weeks ago, and I have NOTHING to show for my expenditure. I'll stop short of calling it outright theft, but it sure feels like it.

I am now afraid that I won't see my unit again anytime soon, if ever. It's hard for me to tell if this whole saga is the result of PurePower's utter incompetence or something more malevolent. But, whatever it is, I feel seriously taken advantage of. As I've said, it wouldn't be quite as much of an issue had they not already cashed my check, but the fact that I did my part and paid them and they've completely reneged on theirs--and now refuse to answer inquiries . . . well, that pisses me off. And it won't stand. That's why I've taken to forums like this one to warn fellow audiophiles about PurePower's antics. After doing some research online, it seems that I'm hardly the only one to complain about their customer service in the last few years.

I hate to resort to a post like this, but the audiophile public deserves to know when a manufacturer clearly doesn't do right by its customers. And this, to me, is a case in point. With any luck, this situation will be resolved in my favor and I'll get my 1050 back, but until then, I'm damn well going to let my voice be heard. By its shoddy behavior, PurePower has forced my hand.

P.S. If anyone can suggest any consumer-rights organizations I can contact, I'd appreciate it. I've already reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, but have yet to hear back from them.
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snooker14
164 posts
 
WARNING about Purepower: If you just read in Audiogone the truth is very apparent and I do not need to go into it. Last year I had 2 of their units in for repairs and after many months of all the same type of BS, and getting nowhere, I finally reached them by phone. I told them I was interested in a 3000 unit, the most expensive. They said they could ship me one "right now". I said that sounded good, but I needed my 1500 and my 2000 back first and then they could have my money for the new one. I got both back within a week, after paying more for the Tariff !
Yes, I played them. Yes I feel crappy for resorting to this lie to get back my units, but nothing else worked for over a year. I now have both units which I will never use and I can't sell them because I will not subject anyone else to Purepower. Thinking about dropping them at the dump.
I will read any comments here, especially any from those two weasels in Canada. I take that back.... I was unfair to the weasels, sorry.

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snooker14
164 posts
 
Update: I took both my PurePower units to the dump. I just cannot in good conscience subject anyone else to the shenanigans perpetrated on such a regular basis by Richard and Damien. They lie, cheat and steal from their customers on every level. I cannot count how many times Damien told me my units were repaired and shipped, only to hear some excuse months later when they finally answered the phone. I resorted to blocking my caller ID to get them to answer!
I feel great now that the units are gone and trashed, as they should be. Maybe I could have sold them, but I just could not do to someone else what they did to several of us. I have a conscience and they obviously do not. I believe in Karma and it will catch up with them.....
These two con artists have given a black eye to the Audio Industry and we are all affected. Fortunately they are part of a small minority `and the industry will prevail and overcome their transgressions. 
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