That's service

After unpacking my Michell Mycro (I've recently moved house) I discovered that the platter didn't rotate freely. I phoned Michell and spoke to a friendly tech guy and, after some detective work, he worked out that the little ball was missing from the bearing.

They posted a new ball the next day (the phone call was too late to make that day's post). When I asked them how much I should send them they just said "forget it".

And I thought you didn't get service like that any more.

 

Nice one

I needed a driver replaced in my missions and contacted them about getting a new one. First time I called they told me the price and how to pay etc. Left it a while and called again thinking I might be able to blag it, knowing they *would* have been under warranty.......... but are second hand. Didn't have to blag at all though! They arranged someone to collect them and replace the driver. I'd only have to pay for the return delivery. Got them back, the mid/bass driver replaced in BOTH speakers And didn't have to pay for anything! Including the delivery!!! Very please I was

Still some good guys out there I guess!

 

I bought an Ex-Demo MF X-Ray from Vickers hi-fi.

It arrived by post. I put in a CD and pressed play. After a few minutes there was a 'Pop' through the speakers and smoke poured out of the transport

I phoned the shop and they replaced it with a brand new model which was delivered when the van came to take the broken one away.

How chuffed was I?

:MILD:

 

I had a pair of kef q35s, a couple of years ago, and a terminal or two snapped off the back.

I called kef and they send about 8 black and red ones free inc post.. good of them

I have just had to get the voice coil and cone replaced on an oldish atc soft dome, not free, ouch

 

I bought an ex dem Rotel RA971mkII from Sevenoakes in croyden. Took it home hooked it up afer about 30 mins, pop. One channel down!
Took it back and they lent me another amp until they fixed it.

In the end they gave me a brand new amp. Great service.

(Shame the power button on that one broke after about a month! Although under warrenty for another 2 years I couldn't be arsed to go all the way back to croyden again, and as I always leave it on anyway it didn't really matter. So its still broken!)

 

I walked into my local shop, lookng for some RCA>BNC adaptors for my TV/DVD. The guy just walked into their Home Cinema room, disconnected the [curently active] projector, popped of the plugs, handed them to me and said, "No charge."

 

Sauerkraut, it seems to me that you and Rotel just don't go together

 

LOL! You know Warren you could be right. They seem to have given me some serious greif! Shame they sound so nice!

Hope its better behaved with you.

 

Have you spoken to ATC? I got a tour of their factory a few years ago. They were servicing Nick Masons (P. Floyd) amp & speakers which we cranked up DSOT Moon on!

Their MD collects tractors!

They wind their own coils so they may be able to fix them for you at least cheaper than a new driver.....

 

My Quad 77 amp started to hum loudly at times. Took it myself to Quad service dept in Huntingdon. They said was faulty transformer so they replaced it and checked everything else as well and only charged me the simple service fee (a hell of a lot less than a new transformer for it). All done whilst i enjoyed a cuppa listening to a nice set of electrostatics in a quiet room

 

I bought an Arcam CD82 from Cloney in Dublin. After a couple of weeks it gave a pop and died. I brought it back and they gave me a new one on the spot. Two weeks later... same thing

Back again, another new machine. It worked fine but I was a bit concerned about transformer hum. So they gave me a CD93.



Great service, but it paid them back in spades. A happy customer is a spending customer...

 

I've had nothing but the finest service from ATC. The most amazing example of such was when my Concept 2 subwoofer just up and died one day after about 8 months of use (I wasn't overdriving it or anything - 'twas quietly playing background music at the time, so it wasn't my fault, honest!) I rang ATC the next morning (was after business hours that it blew up), they sent a courier round that afternoon. The next morning I got a call from a very embarrassed ATC engineer who told me that it was a catastrophic component failure (a resistor, I believe) that just doesn't happen to ATC kit, and he said that the only way he felt he could make it up to me was if he built me a bigger sub - so they built me a Concept 4 sub!!!! The C4 is the next model up from the C2 and is bigger, heavier, has a bigger driver, much more powerful amp, and costs twice as much (£2000 to the C2's £1100!) How's THAT for service??

Another good example was when the power socket on one of my Active 10s came a bit loose and started letting air in and out (not very good for a sealed box speaker....) Knowing from previous experience that it can sometimes take a while for ATC to get things done, I asked them if they could send me something to tide me over while they repaired my speakers - so they sent up the only thing they had lying around the offices at the time: a pair of Active 20 Pros, which were dropped off when they picked up my 10s. :MILD:

ATC also always pick up any courier charges.

Only down side with ATC is, as they're such a small company, and everything they do is meticulously hand-built, you do sometimes have to be patient while they build your kit...

Also had good dealings with Mission and B&W, who have happily sent me minor components free of charge when I rang them up.

Dunc

 

So in fact, service in the Hi-Fi industry is pretty good.

Or is it?

 

What an unusually heart warming thread. I even feel some of my cynicism fading.

Nice to know there is still good service and customer care going on. Keep it up all!

Certainly helps make desicions on what kit to buy.

Now if anyone can tell me where I can get a TEAC VDRS-7 instruction manual from for less than £15 I would be overjoyed.

 

Dunc, WOW!!!

I thought my service from mission was great (would have cost about £100 or so), but that's absolutely spot on mate! Good work ATC!

As said above, a happy customer is a spending one!

I wonder if barnie will post on this thread

 

Wm's had very good service from M/F yep when I had the 3.24 dac, it spat a digital input (quite common, when used with ceratin transport output voltages apprantly), they arranged a courier, and turned it round in 2 days, delievered to the door, no fuss or hassle top marks M/F (for the service).
Wadia also fab service, my wadia 8 didn't have a manual, the sent one over from the states F.O.C. plus various spares, V.quick & helpful.
Moorgate acoustics too are excellent in the customer relations dept.
Seven oaks in chelt were good too, when my DV27 fried an output digital line, they lent me another, superb service.
I think the true measure of a hifi company, is when (if) things go wrong and now they deal with that

 

Ha! yeah good service!
If Michell wanted to charge for for a simple engineering ball costing £0.0001 pence per piece I would be disappointed. But it was good that they could diagnose your fault over the phone. - Without using their eyes!
I too was surprised by Richer Sounds some years back when they didn't want to charge me for a tweeter in my (out of warranty)monitors: it just goes to show what this stuff actually costs them.

 

I bought a Creek 4330SE from the local retailer. My speaker cables were especially thick, and not very flexible. With the location of the amplifier my retailer gave me some flexible leads to attach the speaker cables....they had no insulation sheath.

Slid the amp back into position after wiring it up and turned on the power. Pffffft. The flexible leads made contact, shorting the outputs on both channels. Totally fried.

Called the retailer. They felt stupid. Mike Creek e-mailed me. Told me to not be so stupid next time (in a very nice way). Gave me a new amp. No questions or hassle.

 

How much did that cost Data if you don't mind me asking?

Just that that leads me nicely into my story of good service, indirectly related to ATC but related more directly to The Power Plant in Brighton where I bought a brand new pair of ATC active 50's from a few years ago...

Had the ATCs delivered and set-up at home for me, which at the time was in Chandler's Ford (near Southampton). Everything seemed fine initially, but the next day I was troubled by what seemed to be some strange rustling or reasoance type noises on certain pieces of music. Now this was only on certain pieces of music or certain tracks from certain discs, mainly ones which had plenty of dynamic range but also which had lots of quiet passages in them too e.g. classical solo piano or chamber music. Also, as this was on a very small handful I discs, it was very hard to reproduce. I played the tracks which seemed to be troubling me and tracked it down to a strange resoance coming the dome midrange unit on one of the speakers. So, I phoned up the Power Plant to let them know.

Xavier, one of the proprietors at the Power Plant offered to come out one evening after the shop had closed and to pick up both ATCs (because if there was a problem both needed to go back to the factory at the same time even if there was only a fault with one so that they could be both matched and re-calibrated as a pair). I demonstrated the problem and he agreed that there did indeed seem to be a problem. So both speakers were packed up and Xavier took them back to the shop to be couried off to ATC.

Two weeks later, the ATCs were back and once again they were delivered to me at home in person by Xavier from the shop. Apparently ATC sent prefuse apologies and that they were very embarrased as they'd never before experienced a failed dome midrange which had been sent out to a customer. Now, if my name was Dunc, then they might have offered me a free upgrade to a pair of 100's instead! An invitation of a factory tour was also offered, one which to this date I have still to take up, but would still like to.

I think the thing which pleased me the most about this story was that someone came out in person from the shop to take them away and bring them back, which meant I didn't have to take 2 days off work to wait indoors for a courier. :MILD: