Official Epik Subwoofer Thread - Page 619

I never said they were out of business. Everyone just thought they were during this last prolonged "dark hole". It wasn't a "theory", it HAPPENED. The fast that they were "alive and well" is even worse, no excuse to do what they did. But maybe you have lower expectations.

You shouldn't believe everything you read in a forum thread...I didn't even come close to saying you said they were out of business, perhaps you have reading comprehension issues as well.

You're so cool, insulting people on internet forums. Awesome. Anyway, you said, "There have already been several posts indicating Epik was alive and well during your "dark hole" theory." You're insinuating that I said they were out of business. I NEVER SAID THEY WERE OUT OF BUSINESS. Several people THOUGHT they were. It got so bad that someone who lives close to Epik's headquarters was going to drive over there to see if they were still open.

The bottom line is...and this isn't a theory, it's fact...Epik's customer service is spotty. Sometimes they're great as people have posted here in this thread. They've also SUCKED as posted in this thread. This thread is FULL of people not being able to get a hold of Chad or anyone at Epik. And you're insinuating that I shouldn't believe all of the negative comments about Epik? Maybe I shouldn't believe all of the positive posts, maybe they're all lies as well. When you're so busy that you can't consistently reply to your loyal customers within 1-2 business days, you need to hire someone else to help you.

I'm not insulting you but if the shoe fits you're welcome to wear it. You said in response to my post "I never said they were out of business" when I said nothing that would lead you to say that. Like I said, you have comprehension issues. You can whine/rant/whatever, I really don't give a crap. I've had great subs and great service when I needed it and if I have to call and avoid voicemail, as I do with many businesses, so be it. Not a deal killer unless you're some whiny "I'm a consumer and my ass is blessed" kinda guy....and when you actually run a small business (I have) you go ahead and just hire people when someone tells you to.

IMO, I.D companies live and die by their reputation. They can't afford to just "disappear", despite the excuses of fanboies.

The community as a whole isn't as tolerate as it was a few years ago, which is a good thing.

So much angst, and here I just want to know if ssabripo ever bought an Epik subwoofer.

Matt,

I totally agree. Let me just say that I have spoken with Chad previously and I found him to be very nice, helpful. knowledgeable, intelligent, etc. He took the time to listen to my room, challenges, placement, etc and really was very helpful. I did have to call a few times to get in touch with someone at Epik (it sounds like Chad is the only one there to answer the phone).

I frequently have recommended Epik subwoofers on this forum and others, as well as to friends and neighbors. That said, there are many disturbing trends that I am seeing with this company that I previously had first hand experience dealing with eD (as a customer). Amp failures. It seems that these occur more frequently with Epik than with competing brands such as Hsu, SVS, Rythmik, etc. When they do occur, Chad seems to take care of them, but the trick can sometimes be getting in touch with Chad and getting the RMA. As a customer, it is very frustrating when such a critical component of your home theater is not working and it can take days or even weeks to start the RMA process. I know there was a recent phone switch, but I have literally read through this entire thread when I was researching a subwoofer purchase, and it seems a number of people have had issues getting in touch with Epik. I think this points to Chad being very busy and, from what it seems, a one man show.. If Chad gets sick, goes on vacation, gets very busy, etc there is a gap in communication.

My advice to Chad is to either hire someone part time to help work the phones, and if this is not feasible, understand that you will lose potential business. You also cannot go dark for weeks at a time and need to do a better job communicating if you are out or there are technical issues. This is something as simple as a post on your website letting users know there is an issue with phones/email and offering a workaround number or email address. Like Matt said, as an ID company you have to have a good reputation and a big part of that is customer service. There is lots of competition in the ID audio space and more companies emerging all the time. Some of which have been around awhile and answer the phones on the first try and respond to email within hours, not days. I know I am reluctant now to recommend Epik products based on what I have read and observed in recent weeks. I think it would help if Chad would address the issues with real answers and solutions and provide more confidence to current and future customers.

Chad replaced my amp in June.

I'm actually going to try and sell my Legend and another sub and get an Empire! I just got an Velodyne SMS-1 and I could use a few more HZ in my room.
Edited by sdolen - 9/14/12 at 7:55am

I guess the question would be, would people keep buying Epik subs if they had to be increased in price from say $799 for an Empire to $999 to cover the overhead of bringing in more people to help with customer service and communications?

Minimum wage is what, $8 an hour? Bring someone in 4 hours a day 5 days a week to answer email, phones, and return voicemail. You are talking less than $200 a week. And you have to consider that not answering email and phone calls = lost sales. So the additional business alone would most likely pay for the person, and would also keep current customers that have issues happy and would equal more return customers.

You apparently have very little understanding of the actual cost of hiring an employee. $8 an hour with all of the payroll taxes, etc? That's a good one. Not to mention that you don't necessarily want the bottom barrel person being the face of your small but growing company.

The "run rate" for an entry level employee at my wife's business is more like $20 an hour when you factor in all of the overhead.

Understood, but it is the cost of doing business. There are lots of options, my neighbor owns a business and uses an answering service. Those services are relatively cheap and flexible with little cost.

I am just trying to help the guy out. Like I said, I think Chad is a nice guy with a good product, but you won't last long in this business if you can't answer the phone and email in an adequate amount of time. I have a hard time recommending a product to someone else if the customer service is sketchy. Most people don't have all day to keep trying to call someone hoping they catch them at the right time when they are by the phone and free.

The point I'm making is that it's very likely that if the business costs go up, by even $1000 a month to bring on a part time employee it's possible that prices will have to go up. Honestly that might be the right call to make at this point, as once you transition from a "hobby" product into one that's more well known this is somewhat expected. Example, SVS.

All I know is that I'm sure Chad would LOVE this thread to full of legitimate questions about Epik subwoofers and comments about the performance about Epik subwoofers. His spotty customer service has caused a very public thread that is dedicated to his company to be full of complaints about his customer service. In turn it's also full of those that have received good customer service sticking up for Chad and Epik. I doubt anyone can fully deny that Epik's customer service is spotty and it's a crap shoot on what kind of service you'll receive, if you ever need service from Chad and Epik. Now, if my amp ever goes out on my Empire, the first thing I'm going to think is...I really hope Chad isn't in one of his black hole periods for customer service.

To post something vaguely on topic my Empire showed up today, it was supposed to be here Monday but Fedex instead delivered it today.

It is freaking nuts. I calibrated my AVR with XT32 and the sub set at 75db and then after calibration I put it up another few dB. I don't know if it's what I would call bone-crushing bass, but it's a massive upgrade from my last sub, an SVS SB12.

Also, can anyone confirm that the crossover adjustment is disabled when the LFE input on the Empire is utilized?

Sorry to hear you're so disatisfied with your Epik Empire and have taken it upon yourself to trash Chad's company and products because of what some posters( no real proof they actually ever bought Epik subs)have decided to come to the AVS Official Epik Subwoofer thread with the main purpose to dissuade possible subwoofer customers from buying an Epik sub. You can sugar coat it like you're just trying warn everyone from buying an Epik sub, but you're actually hurting Chad's business of offering a great sub for a great price.It's hard enough for a small company to stay in business these days, nobody's perfect so cut them some slack. For the money,they hold their own in the tests I've read here. If you really don't like your Epik sub, sell it to someone else here and buy something else so you can complain about on their thread. JMPAGE2, I'm thinking that if you're plugged into the LFE rca input, go ahead and turn the crossover on the sub to max, 200 hz.? The amount of bass will vary due to cu.ft. of your room ,sub placement, time to break in the sub etc... Kep us informed.

Yes, the when using the LFE input on the Empire the crossover setting means nothing.

Chad has an amp on it's way to me for $500.00.

EPIK sounds like great sub from feedback i've read, tests , etc and I was about to order, but why so many amp failures????? Are they failing due to being pushed to limits? Is this really small % of failures compared to total sold? I don't drive equipment close to its limit. I probably would not push sub anywhere close to max. But I dont want to get caught up in parts just going bad. If this bad amp problem persists it does not sound like the company is interested in correcting the root problem. I woulda thought that new units would have amp fix and the problem would go away. Can anybody in the know help make me feel better about buying?

I have not had any problems with my Empires and I push them very hard.I have never owned a Legend, but the run of bad amps where with them. I just know for the price Epiks are hard to beat.

From the research I have done most of the amp failures were on an older amp version in the 12" Legend not the Empire. The reality though is that amps do fail, eventually. .. Anything under about five years would be quite premature.

And yet another week goes by and my sister gets no response from Chad/Epik. Yes sir wonderful customer service...........

We're up to a month now. I find it hard to believe anyone on these forums finds that acceptable and that myself and others are out of line addressing the issues here. It's an EPIK THREAD. It's to discuss both positive and negative experiences. My previous experiences with Chad were positive. This one not so much. I've posted both so neither myself or the others with problems give a crap if you like it or not.

That sucks big time. I own dual Empires and have had no issues, but after following this thread I do not know if I would ever buy again or recommend. I know this is out there or if you have tried their Facebook?? You should not have to go this far to contact them, I do not know what their problem is.

I don't know either Bluvette. She talked to Chad last Tuesday, shortly after my post, and then he sent an email saying to check the fuse, although if he had read my email would've realized they were fine, so we did anyway and emailed back and nothing since last Wednesday. That's bs. She hasn't used Facebook because he did call her and sent an email. Anyone would reason ok he'll just email me back then. I guess not. I have no idea what's going on there but he seriously needs to hire someone to at least take calls and emails. You don't have to pay someone $40k for that so I don't want to hear their prices will skyrocket. Even if he charged $100 more per sub they would still be a great value. I'm just tired of people defending their awful customer service. There is no excuse. None.

For the record I would've and have recommended Epik as well. Not anymore. I even told my sister to get the Legend instead of a Rythmik simply because I didn't want her to push the Rythmik FV-12 past it's limits. I figured the Legend is like the Empire and reaches its limits gracefully, which it does, and *if* the amp went Chad has a quick turnaround. So of course I am pissed since I told her that and yet it will be easily over a month before this is resolved. I don't know what to tell her. I'm at the point where I'd buy her another sub because I'm so irritated with this whole mess.

I went through *six* amps on my custom pos eD and every time one went out it took at least a month to get another one. I expected that from them but not from Chad. To not post updates and then take this long just to get a response is unbelievable.

Anyway sorry for the rant and btw your set-up is very nice. I like the room too. I checked it out a couple times and I always appreciate a nice clean looking room.

How DARE you post something negative about Epik's customer service! It's ok though, I'm sure the excuse this time will be something like..."A lighting strike brought down our electricity and it affected the internet access at my home, on my cell phone, and my Grandma's house. Sorry, I had absolutely NO WAY of helping my customers".

Any minute now lovinthehd will come to Chad's rescue accusing you of lying and acting like Chad's sh!t doesn't stink. Then after lovinthehd personally attacks you other forum members will come by and act like you're crazy because their customer service experience was perfect. People need to pull their head out of their asses and realize the truth...Chad and Epik's customer is less than desirable. I think you need to take this up with the Better Business Bureau.

Could be the teacher's strike.

When did you talk with Chad? A week ago and agreed what? Without knowing the details of your contact and what you agreed it's hard to give a crap

Ikr. I should be tarred and feathered for speaking about my "real" experience as some would call it. I never said one thing about performance because they are great for the money, but yes you are 100% correct, they're CS is questionable. That alone makes you wonder if they're worth the money. I seriously don't give a sh!t about anyone on these forums who defends Chad/Epik and attacks me. Every one has a big mouth on the forums which is why I rarely post. I just want others to know in advance that it *could* happen to them too. That's all. And to vent............a little.

Read post #18565 first paragraph. I thought I was pretty clear in my description of what happened??

Either way remember I don't care if you do.