Service After the Sale


Does service after the sale mean anything to you?  It certainly does to me and has a tremendous impact on my future purchases. This week I sent three emails to three different vendors regarding their equipment that I had purchased or intend to purchase.  Yesterday (Wednesday) morning I emailed Alvin at Vinshine Audio regarding a question about a Denafrips DAC.  I had an answer early this morning (Thursday) when I woke up.  This by the way has been typical for me when corresponding with Vinshine. I've never waited more than a day for a reply.

On Monday I emailed two other vendors regarding their products.  Today (Thursday) I have not received replies from either one.  Isn't three (3) days long enough to allow for a reply.  These are not small vendors and interestingly are vendors who i've seen favorable reviews about.  That's why I choose to deal with them. I won't mention names, at least not yet.  That's not the intention of this post. I will email both again. I know that small, one or two person operations sometimes may not reply as quickly as you may like.  And then of course there are the people who never reply.

I know there have been several other posts like this on A'gon.  But I think Alvin and Vinshine deserve another shout out. I also know where my future purchases will be directed.  Do you?  

128x128marco1

The best CS is the one that you never need.  Streamers are networking computers and it’s not uncommon to have user issues.  If I was implementing an IT service for a small business it would be foolish not to hit the ground running with a support system in place, and usually one purchases a hardware/software/support package from a vendor.  I absolutely would expect some level of post purchase support for an IT product.  
  One reason that Apple became so successful was the level of support.  They offered all kinds of classes for the computer illiterate, and their phone support was far superior to the likes of Gateway or Dell.  It isn’t the same company now, but Apple Support is still pretty helpful.  One of the many factors that led to the demise of brick and mortar audio stores was their inability to adapt to the IT issues.  The places that I would frequent were manned by veterans who were great with analog sources and amplifiers and ok with CDPs and DACs but totally lost in the streaming world (and multichannel, which involved more IT expertise than 2 channel).  They usually relied on a teenager with tattoos and piercings to handle all these issues, and probably paid them as little as possible, and  their business suffered accordingly.

Similar experience with Denefrips. I recently did a firmware update and had a few questions afterward. Each email received a thoughtful response within a day or two at most. It’s clear they recognize the importance of CS. Perhaps they understand that a China made product must overcome US market hesitancy. In any case, kudos to the Denefrips team. Much appreciated.