Official Epik Subwoofer Thread - Page 618

I don't give a damn if he went on vacation, to Cedia, or anywhere else. To not return calls or emails is inexcusable. Period. What could possibly happen that you have no communication with your customers whatsoever?? What Chad(or Karen for that matter) doesn't have email at home?? There's plenty of ways to let people know what's going on. One post here would even suffice. It's also one thing to not take orders, but to leave people with problems out in the dark is asinine. My sister hasn't had a working sub for almost THREE weeks now, and who knows how long it will be till we even know something. That is just as bad as eD. No excuses will make it better or acceptable. I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt but this is bs plain and simple and I'm tired of people defending their terrible business practices. Please stop makin excuses for the guy. I can't imagine HSU, SVS, Rythmik, Seaton, or any other reputable company doing this. I own a business and no matter what happens you don't treat customers like this.

Hopefully Gov will stop by and let us know what's going on. Probably a moving sign on the building.

Hello everyone.

Just an update: We're shipping products as usual. We shipped 10 Empires today alone.

Some customers have voiced some concerns lately regarding our customer service. The reason for this, is that our industrial park/area switched over to Comcast recently and a lot of things have been messed up in the process. Our voice mail is not working correctly yet and the internet is slowly getting figured out.

If you have left us a message and we have not returned your call, or if you are calling and not getting through to us, please contact us again and always leave a message if you don't reach us the first time. We are often on another line with another customer or we are having trouble as of late, receiving the messages with the new phone service. In any case, we hope to have it cleared up by the end of the week.

Honestly, the switch has caused us headaches, and I would not have switched everything over if i knew it was going to cause this many issues. However, we did not have much of a choice, as the entire area had to agree to the new services, in order to be wired into the streets of the entire industrial park.

It is business as usual here at Epik. The phone and internet situation is frustrating for sure, but we aren't going anywhere. I am an insanely busy guy. I am on the phone all day, every day in addition to running the rest of the business. I sincerely apologize to those that haven't been able to get through. To everybody else, we've got plenty of subs in stock and shipping daily!

Chad
Edited by Chad Kuypers - 9/11/12 at 2:25pm

GREAT NEWS
Chad just called me and he is going to call me back tomorrow with a price for a new amp. He needs to dig way back on the shelves to get at the old Conquest parts.
I guess I'll pull the old amp out. He assures me that it isn't the 18" driver. He said that you can't hurt that beast.
They are having lots of phone related problems.

Still unacceptable. Something just isn't right. I've been following this thread for quite a while now. It seems like every week someone pops up talking about how they can't get anyone to call them back or return an email. Chad, maybe I'm overstepping my bounds with this suggestion but maybe you need to hire someone else and you're grossly understaffed? People shouldn't have to wait days to get a response. These response problems have been going on for over a year at least so they're not all related to your recent technical difficulties. I know I'm just one customer but I'm praying that my Empire holds on because I don't want to have to deal with the horrible customer service of getting replacement parts.

^^^^good to hear...thank god we don't have a E.D double take...

Really?? That wasn't that hard was it. I'm sure most people post on AVS at their homes or on their cell phones, and a few can post while at work, and you mean to tell me you couldn't post this three weeks ago from your house or phone?? Give me a break. It took people to post here and complain and raise hell for you to post. That's unacceptable Chad and surprising that you would use that as an excuse. Karen could've posted as well. GlobalGreg is right hire someone to help out because weeks between any sort of communication is inexcusable regardless the reason.

I see Chad has already addressed the thread so I won't rehash the phone situation. Yes he is still alive and producing product. I spoke with him just awhile ago about the same problem 290-16K has. I also disconnected my Conquest for 2 weeks and upon reconnection mine also produced a few thumps and crackles. A freaking scarey sound to hear for sure. So the fuse checks out fine but my shorts needed changing. The good news is replacement amps are available.

I kinda agree. However, I have seen where posting to the forum while you work out issues is considered making excuses. As long as they don't take orders while they work out their issues, which I have never seen with Epik. People looking to purchase should just exercise their options. Those awaiting replacement parts do have a valid gripe, me think:D

I have never had a problem with Chad/Epik before. He has had a great rep on the forums for getting back to customers and taking care of them. However, to not give your customers, present or future, a heads up is definitely bad business. It was a very simple solution. Post here, where I'm sure *most* of his business comes from, and let people know what's going on. It's not hard to do and excuses only make it worse. Just say I messed up I'm sorry it won't happen again. Don't pretend you were living in the stone age for three weeks and had NO means of communication. That irritates me and can only hurt your business. I(my sister actually) wasn't waiting on parts even. I was waiting for a phone call or email in response to my call and email saying the amp was toast. Now I gotta wait another week for it to arrive. Unacceptable. I expected that from eD not from Chad.

Chad has always been good about overnight shipping a new amp to his Epik customers under warranty, once_ he knows of the problem.You should be getting the new amp promptly.He'll also include the tool to cut and crimp the new fastener. Just send the bad amp and tool back to Epik, Plus_ I believe there's no charge for return shipping.

I have the Epik Legend and Epik Sentinel but I can say Epik customer service and amp reliability suck big time! I'll be shifting to SVS or HSU as soon as I get rid of my junk.

Are you selling them? Are the amps working now? Where are you located? I need a small potent sub for a HT project. Let me know

I just wanted to post my own observations as I had commented a few posts back about nervousness in dealing with a newer company (like Epik) vs. the "old hands" at places like SVS.

After doing a ton of research I discovered that for my placement limitations the Epik Empire was actually the best "fit" in the space that I had, and at the price it was pretty tough to pass up. I called a couple of days ago and Chad picked up after the first couple of rings and answered quite a few questions about placement, suitability in my room size, etc. He also pointed out that if I bought an Epik now, that if I ended up going with a second one (stacking, etc) that he would still offer it to me at the price if I had ordered two up front.

I needed to ask another question today, and the first time I called I got voicemail. I called again an hour later and again Chad picked up, was courteous and answered that final question about distance of the driver from furniture.

I placed my order and recieved order confirmations and a Fedex tracking # less than 90 minutes later.

I can understand the frustration at unanswered calls, etc, but I can only comment on my direct personal experience in asking pre-order questions about the Empire and placing my order... all of which went smooth and by the numbers.

I'm looking forward to my new sub... hopefully I am pleased, it was very hard to resist that Rythmik sub, but the Empire will make it easier on my wife, so I hopefully don't have to ship anything back. Also my comments are unsolicited, I just thought that in lieu of the recent excitement in this thread I should provide my own first hand account.

Interestingly enough I had sent a PM to Ed at SVS asking about suitability of the new SB13 in my room and never heard back from him... so there's your grain of salt.

Why would you PM them here instead of contacting the company directly?

all i can say is SVS is absolutely top notch w/ customer service. i just got my ultra, and unfortuneately it was banged up a bit. i have some replacement parts coming no q;s asked and always EASY to get ahold of someone. love the live chat....they are great subs..albeit not the best bang for your buck. maybe HSU here...

+1...

I did contact them via Chat and did not get satisfactory answers to my questions, I thought that direct PM to Ed might give me more insight. My primary concern with going the SVS 13" sealed box route was that it would not adequately pressurize my huge space. The fact that the cost was $600 more didn't make a convincing argument either. I'm sure it is a fantastic sub, but I was concerned I would have to get two of them and stack them to get the desired performance.

Sorry I don't buy the cutting over to Comcast story either. At the very least post a big message on your website from your cellphone, home network, Starbucks wireless, etc stating that you are having phone and email issues and then offer an alternate email address and redirect phone calls to a cellphone.

This is not rocket science...

Exactly. All you need is a *little* common sense. Just a little.

Chad always tries to get out of a sticky situation with a pathetic excuse and makes up for it by saying "We shipped 10 Empires today alone." It could probably been 1 Empire and exaggerated to 10.

I was just there on Saturday afternoon. I picked up 2 Legends in person from Chad and chatted with him about ideal placement and found him to be very helpful.

Sorry to hear others are having trouble as I know it would be frustrating to not receive support for products you paid good $ for but I can honestly say my recent transaction with him was very smooth (no ph calls necessary however).

No doubt Epik subs sound great when working. When your Legend amps get busted, you will be on the same boat as the other disappointed Epik customers.

Lancito, I saw a number of posts back that Morrischestnut60 asked you if you're selling your Epik Legend and Sentinel subs? If you're that unhappy about Epik products and service, sell them and buy something else.

I had an amp issue and it was resolved very nicely by Epik. You just seem to like to whine a lot...

My Legend amp busted as you say but I am not a disappointed customer, just the opposite. I was very pleased with Chad and his support. Yes it took a little work to catch him on the phone but part of that is my impatience. If you don't mind being a little patient with sales and support, the Epik are a huge value. If you want immediate turnaround, you should probably be purchasing from a brick and mortar store. (And paying twice as much!)

How long ago?

Dude I own two Empires and have not had any problems with them or Chad ! He has always been very helpful.
Edited by firemanast - 9/13/12 at 6:27pm

I can only imagine just how much nastier he is on the phone:eek:.

Just be glad the time you needed help wasn't during one of the "dark hole" periods for Chad and Epik. Up until a few days ago he wasn't responding to anyone or anything for several weeks. There were customers who needed assistance and Chad finally posted after everyone here thought they were out of business and gave some retarded excuse about his internet and phones. It's funny, last November Chad gave a forum member the same excuse about their phones were being worked on. For all of you that say you've had no problems contacting Epik...that's great! There's also those that were NOT able to reach Chad within a reasonable amount of time.

There have already been several posts indicating Epik was alive and well during your "dark hole" theory. Our company "upgraded" phones and carrier and we're still having issues months later... phones ain't what they used to be, mostly crap now.