The Bogg
02-01-09, 12:26 AM
So much for the "rule of 3s". I was going to post about the customer service I received for 3 product "failures" in the last year but I just had a 4th!
I'm posting it in this forum for a number of reasons. The products of the companies involved are owned by forum members or are products I think may be of interest to the members here as they are reasonably considered "high end".
First up was my Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 cd recording machine. I bought it off ebay from a company in the US (I couldn't find any dealers here in Canada initially - strangely enough I subsequently discovered one 5 minutes from my home!). I powered up the machine when I received it and all was well. I then put it away while my media room was being constructed. Many months later when everything was hooked up I turned it on to make my first cd copy. The display screen was just showing jibberish and horizontal lines. Damn. Sent it to California for repair and Alesis/Numark were good enough to cover it under warranty even though I bought it from the US. To my surprise they even covered return shipping costs. Bravo.
I bought an Equitech 7.5RQ balanced power unit. It made a strange loud buzzing noise at the same time every night so I figured it was a power line issue. I had an electrician check the wiring inside my house and the power company checked the supply on the outside. They couldn't find anything wrong. It was bizarre and extremely frustrating. I did discover that instead of getting a "Q" transformer in my unit as I had expected they had put in an upsized "non-Q" transformer that was from the 10RQ model. This explained why the unit didn't feel as heavy as I had expected - it was "only" 160lbs instead of 220lbs. The "Q" version is supposed to be immune to line noise and harmonics.
Equitech arranged for someone to pick up the unit from my house and send it back to Oregon at their expense. It took a couple of months because they gave me an updated version of the 7.5RQ in a new larger chassis and there were delays getting the new faceplate. I was told that the first faceplate manufacturer went under. This was in November 2008 and I was getting really nervous because the economy was beginning to tank and I was worried that perhaps Equitech might be in financial trouble and that I might even lose my 7.5RQ. Rick - director of sales - stayed in communication throughout and was just awesome to deal with. He had taken care of a few issues I had prior to sending the unit back. Eventually the new unit did get sent to me and there hasn't been any problem with it. It does have a "Q" transformer and is large and %@%@%@ing heavy. It was a bit deeper than the old one so it sticks out of my rack:
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction012.jpg
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction013.jpg
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction015.jpg
Once that was all set up I was doing some calibration of my speakers and noticed that the left main speaker sounded weird with no bass but plenty of "crackling" noise.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/atcwoofer.jpg
The woofer from my ATC Anniversary 100 speaker had unexpectedly failed. These speakers are babied and are designed for studio-type abuse so I was very surprised. I called ATC and Bob (director) was away. I spoke with Nicky who promptly shipped out a replacement driver which arrived in a few days. Didn't even ask for proof of purchase. Mind you there are only 30 pairs of these so she knew who I was because my info would be on record.
I figured that my product failure run had to be over because things happen in 3s. Not so. I bought the ARC eq kit for my Anthem D2 and was calibrating the woofers. One of the 4 Fathom F113 subs was making a rattling noise which was new. I called the distributor who put me in touch with JL in Florida. After a few questions and troubleshooting he authorized a replacement F113 from the Canadian distributor who is 20 mins from me. I would've had the replacement sub within 24hrs of developing the problem but it seemed like the guy was dodging my calls - apparently it was a busy couple of days. I did get my new sub a day later which was Christmas Eve. Crossing my fingers that my equipment woes have ended!
It's nice to see companies take care of their customers even when the economy is in trouble. It's inevitable that there will be product failures but how a company deals with it affects my decision on where to spend future $$$. If we support the companies that provide good service then they will thrive and hopefully continue to provide good service.
I'm posting it in this forum for a number of reasons. The products of the companies involved are owned by forum members or are products I think may be of interest to the members here as they are reasonably considered "high end".
First up was my Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 cd recording machine. I bought it off ebay from a company in the US (I couldn't find any dealers here in Canada initially - strangely enough I subsequently discovered one 5 minutes from my home!). I powered up the machine when I received it and all was well. I then put it away while my media room was being constructed. Many months later when everything was hooked up I turned it on to make my first cd copy. The display screen was just showing jibberish and horizontal lines. Damn. Sent it to California for repair and Alesis/Numark were good enough to cover it under warranty even though I bought it from the US. To my surprise they even covered return shipping costs. Bravo.
I bought an Equitech 7.5RQ balanced power unit. It made a strange loud buzzing noise at the same time every night so I figured it was a power line issue. I had an electrician check the wiring inside my house and the power company checked the supply on the outside. They couldn't find anything wrong. It was bizarre and extremely frustrating. I did discover that instead of getting a "Q" transformer in my unit as I had expected they had put in an upsized "non-Q" transformer that was from the 10RQ model. This explained why the unit didn't feel as heavy as I had expected - it was "only" 160lbs instead of 220lbs. The "Q" version is supposed to be immune to line noise and harmonics.
Equitech arranged for someone to pick up the unit from my house and send it back to Oregon at their expense. It took a couple of months because they gave me an updated version of the 7.5RQ in a new larger chassis and there were delays getting the new faceplate. I was told that the first faceplate manufacturer went under. This was in November 2008 and I was getting really nervous because the economy was beginning to tank and I was worried that perhaps Equitech might be in financial trouble and that I might even lose my 7.5RQ. Rick - director of sales - stayed in communication throughout and was just awesome to deal with. He had taken care of a few issues I had prior to sending the unit back. Eventually the new unit did get sent to me and there hasn't been any problem with it. It does have a "Q" transformer and is large and %@%@%@ing heavy. It was a bit deeper than the old one so it sticks out of my rack:
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction012.jpg
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction013.jpg
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/construction015.jpg
Once that was all set up I was doing some calibration of my speakers and noticed that the left main speaker sounded weird with no bass but plenty of "crackling" noise.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk97/The_Bogg/atcwoofer.jpg
The woofer from my ATC Anniversary 100 speaker had unexpectedly failed. These speakers are babied and are designed for studio-type abuse so I was very surprised. I called ATC and Bob (director) was away. I spoke with Nicky who promptly shipped out a replacement driver which arrived in a few days. Didn't even ask for proof of purchase. Mind you there are only 30 pairs of these so she knew who I was because my info would be on record.
I figured that my product failure run had to be over because things happen in 3s. Not so. I bought the ARC eq kit for my Anthem D2 and was calibrating the woofers. One of the 4 Fathom F113 subs was making a rattling noise which was new. I called the distributor who put me in touch with JL in Florida. After a few questions and troubleshooting he authorized a replacement F113 from the Canadian distributor who is 20 mins from me. I would've had the replacement sub within 24hrs of developing the problem but it seemed like the guy was dodging my calls - apparently it was a busy couple of days. I did get my new sub a day later which was Christmas Eve. Crossing my fingers that my equipment woes have ended!
It's nice to see companies take care of their customers even when the economy is in trouble. It's inevitable that there will be product failures but how a company deals with it affects my decision on where to spend future $$$. If we support the companies that provide good service then they will thrive and hopefully continue to provide good service.