Is good customer service about dead?

Gary Dodd is another great guy who exemplifies customer service. I can also add Blue Circle to that mix

VPI! - I purchased a "new" Classic 1 from this site at a nice discount, but it showed up with what I would consider a build flaw and a small ding to the wood. I contacted VPI and sent pics. Even though this table was purchased from a non-dealer, and seemed to be a shady audiogon transaction, they offered to replace the entire chassis for me for free (and pay 1 way shipping from NJ to CA!), without me even mentioning anything of the sort. Incredible customer service.

K&K Audio - I built the Maxxed-Out, first time doing such a thing, and Kevin was always there to quickly respond to emails. I ended up soldering two bits into the wrong place and Kevin instantly sent out two replacement pieces just to be sure there was no damage to the ones I de-soldered.

Salk Sound - Jim is fantastic in his email responses, very helpful, timely, and doesn't try and sell you what you don't need.

In this economy many company's have had to reduce staffing to bring costs in line with slower sales in addition many company's have had to lower their selling price as well as competing with on line sellers who provide no customer service. This means they have fewer resources. I run a small manufacturing company and it amazes me that we continually get clients who are comparing our pricing to on line or chinese vendors and give very little value to service until they need it. In the U.S. this must be what consumers want as they drive by local merchants on their way to walmart or use a local retailer to evaluate goods and then buy on line. In luxury goods its even worse as buyers feel they can now bargain to the point the vendor has no margins left. I could rant forever but you get it.

I have had excellent customer service, responsiveness, and guidance from many
companies in the high-end and I won't list them all, but since you do mention
speakers at that price point, I would say Merlin provides a great product and a
lot of guidance of how to get the speaker to perform it best with other
equipment and room issues. The speakers are not shipped from the shelves, so
don't expect delivery the next day, they are handmade and take some time to
make, but that is the nature of handcrafted products from small companies,
and well worth the wait, what you get for the wait is a very well sorted and
refined speaker, and the furthest thing from flavor of the month.

Truemaineiac is right. Sometimes the best thing is to pick up the phone. . . even in this era of email, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc