Maybe they should change there name to Pure garbage .
Bad experience with PurePower of Canada
This is my first post here in a long time, and I seriously considered not writing it, but the situation I'm about to relate to you has reached a crisis point, and I feel like I have little choice now but to call a manufacturer out in public for shockingly substandard customer service.
The company in question is Canadian firm PurePower, maker of an acclaimed line of AC power regenerators. I've owned their APS 1050 for several years now, and until recently it functioned flawlessly and made a decent improvement to my system's sonics. However, at the very beginning of June, a power surge blew out the input side of the unit and made it nonfunctional. (Interestingly, my other regenerator, a Chinese-made Dussun, escaped unscathed.)
I called PurePower and spoke to a gentleman named Damian. He gave me a repair quote over the phone and told me to send the unit in. It arrived at PP's Niagara Falls facility on 6/11/15. Damian said it would be a quick repair and would be back to me within a week.
Real long story short, by the middle of July, I had yet to receive my unit back. PP stopped answering my phone calls and emails and repeated requests for a tracking number. Damian's story had changed any number of times over the month PP had my 1050. First he said, "It's going out tomorrow" (that was around the 16th-17th of June), then "It has gone out" (he told me that a couple of times), and then "It's at UPS" (his penultimate lie). Having finally exhausted my patience, I threatened to take this whole thing public and consider legal action if I didn't get a straight answer. Only then, less than half an hour before my deadline to him, did Damian return my call. He said that the company had been on vacation for the past two weeks (though this wasn't reflected on their answering machine or their email, and he even admitted he had been in the office several times during the break). He said the unit was fixed and would go out Tuesday, July 21. Again, he promised me a tracking number.
As of today, July 31, I still have not received my 1050, and the company again is not returning emails. In fact, even more disturbing, their phone number is now out of service. What bothers me most of all, they cashed my check three weeks ago, and I have NOTHING to show for my expenditure. I'll stop short of calling it outright theft, but it sure feels like it.
I am now afraid that I won't see my unit again anytime soon, if ever. It's hard for me to tell if this whole saga is the result of PurePower's utter incompetence or something more malevolent. But, whatever it is, I feel seriously taken advantage of. As I've said, it wouldn't be quite as much of an issue had they not already cashed my check, but the fact that I did my part and paid them and they've completely reneged on theirs--and now refuse to answer inquiries . . . well, that pisses me off. And it won't stand. That's why I've taken to forums like this one to warn fellow audiophiles about PurePower's antics. After doing some research online, it seems that I'm hardly the only one to complain about their customer service in the last few years.
I hate to resort to a post like this, but the audiophile public deserves to know when a manufacturer clearly doesn't do right by its customers. And this, to me, is a case in point. With any luck, this situation will be resolved in my favor and I'll get my 1050 back, but until then, I'm damn well going to let my voice be heard. By its shoddy behavior, PurePower has forced my hand.
P.S. If anyone can suggest any consumer-rights organizations I can contact, I'd appreciate it. I've already reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, but have yet to hear back from them.
The company in question is Canadian firm PurePower, maker of an acclaimed line of AC power regenerators. I've owned their APS 1050 for several years now, and until recently it functioned flawlessly and made a decent improvement to my system's sonics. However, at the very beginning of June, a power surge blew out the input side of the unit and made it nonfunctional. (Interestingly, my other regenerator, a Chinese-made Dussun, escaped unscathed.)
I called PurePower and spoke to a gentleman named Damian. He gave me a repair quote over the phone and told me to send the unit in. It arrived at PP's Niagara Falls facility on 6/11/15. Damian said it would be a quick repair and would be back to me within a week.
Real long story short, by the middle of July, I had yet to receive my unit back. PP stopped answering my phone calls and emails and repeated requests for a tracking number. Damian's story had changed any number of times over the month PP had my 1050. First he said, "It's going out tomorrow" (that was around the 16th-17th of June), then "It has gone out" (he told me that a couple of times), and then "It's at UPS" (his penultimate lie). Having finally exhausted my patience, I threatened to take this whole thing public and consider legal action if I didn't get a straight answer. Only then, less than half an hour before my deadline to him, did Damian return my call. He said that the company had been on vacation for the past two weeks (though this wasn't reflected on their answering machine or their email, and he even admitted he had been in the office several times during the break). He said the unit was fixed and would go out Tuesday, July 21. Again, he promised me a tracking number.
As of today, July 31, I still have not received my 1050, and the company again is not returning emails. In fact, even more disturbing, their phone number is now out of service. What bothers me most of all, they cashed my check three weeks ago, and I have NOTHING to show for my expenditure. I'll stop short of calling it outright theft, but it sure feels like it.
I am now afraid that I won't see my unit again anytime soon, if ever. It's hard for me to tell if this whole saga is the result of PurePower's utter incompetence or something more malevolent. But, whatever it is, I feel seriously taken advantage of. As I've said, it wouldn't be quite as much of an issue had they not already cashed my check, but the fact that I did my part and paid them and they've completely reneged on theirs--and now refuse to answer inquiries . . . well, that pisses me off. And it won't stand. That's why I've taken to forums like this one to warn fellow audiophiles about PurePower's antics. After doing some research online, it seems that I'm hardly the only one to complain about their customer service in the last few years.
I hate to resort to a post like this, but the audiophile public deserves to know when a manufacturer clearly doesn't do right by its customers. And this, to me, is a case in point. With any luck, this situation will be resolved in my favor and I'll get my 1050 back, but until then, I'm damn well going to let my voice be heard. By its shoddy behavior, PurePower has forced my hand.
P.S. If anyone can suggest any consumer-rights organizations I can contact, I'd appreciate it. I've already reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, but have yet to hear back from them.
62 responses Add your response
I'm having a similar issue with one of the biggest names in the industry, I have been treated poorly, and robbed of $600! I will withhold the companies name until I find out how this will play out, but it really makes you feel slighted doesn't it? Why? On what planet is this acceptable behavior? What have they got to gain from mistreating their customers? It must be nice to mKe so much money that you can throw customers away like that. With that said, I have had excellent service from several other companies. Including Parasound, Magnum Dynalab, and Legacy, all great customer service! Worthy of mention. |
Taters, Do you mean they had a bad reputation before this post? I never knew about that. I am curious if we as a community with this special interest can form our own feedback rating system for positive and negative experiences. I do not doubt Hoopers experience but if they already had a bad reputation, he might have been more cautious, e.g. paying with a credit card only after the job was done. If they have had many many good feedback points from others, you could say this was an exception.. I am sure you get the idea. |
Mechans: A lot of PP's negative feedback did not occur until after I bought my unit. I did my due diligence when I bought my 1050, and I don't remember there being much negative feedback about the company at that point. Maybe I didn't look closely enough, but I don't remember it. There was negative FB on Audiogon from a few years ago, but I didn't notice it until recently, and it I think occurred after I bought my unit. |
. Same M.O..... AA thread . |
I'm not familiar with PurePower or their products, but I did see a thread on Audio Asylum where a number of people complained of being badly treated or losing money. Hell not just the money they are out shipping the unit back to the PurePower scammer in Canada plus the supposedly repair cost money up front, more than that they may never see the unit they shipped to Canada ever again! Quote from AA post. AA Thread . |
There are more than a few threads on this company with more current issues going back over the last 3-6 months to 3-4 years ago. They would not know 'the truth' or the concept of it or good customer service and integrity if it walked up and hit them over the head. I know of 3 other audio hobbyists here and myself plus one dear friend/audiophile (also a PP dealer at one point before he died a couple years ago) that have all been absolutely screwed and/or lied to, misled, talked down to, maligned, etc...by Richard and Damian. They are not ethical businessmen or trustworthy in any aspect. Stay Away... Unfortunately, chasing people like this through legal and/or BBB-like channels is a true waste of time. At one point they built quality units (I owned a PP 2000 built in late 2010 that was amazing) but after the split of the company (also written about in various threads and on the internet), the people that remained with this form of Purepower up in Canada started to produce products with serious issues (also written about on various threads) and act in unethical ways. There is ample material on Agon about them including my own personal experience with them and that of others. Unfortunately for the poster of this thread if past history is any indication, the money will not be returned, the unit will not be returned and if the unit is returned 'fixed' it should be scruitinized for other new issues with it soon after due to probable questionable parts, build/repair techniques, etc... |
This was very informative. i was thinking of buying a new pure power pro or a PS audio P10. I quess this solves that question. I like to suppport Canadian or USA made products, but poor service and wworkmanship cannot be tolerated no matter where the place of origin is. Thanks to everyone who put in tbere comments. Once again very helpful. |
| Post removed |
I just lost about $5200, after I returned a trial unit to PurePower, and Richard Janzen failed to refund me the money claiming that they don't have the money to refund me ... yet. story: 1. got a PurePower+ 3000 on a 2-week 'money-back guarantee' in March 2017, paid by PayPal. It buzzed so loudly (reported by many online) I had to take it out of my system 2. got a replacement unit shortly, same problem. Richard gave me all the same sort of lies/non-sensical explanations that have been reported by others. 3. I was naive and stupid, and probably was too busy at the time to research further online so failed to realized others had all the same bad experience. I bought into Richard's lies about 'progress in fixing' the buzzing problem, and that they will send me one without issue soon. So the most stupid part here is that I failed to request a refund, which at that time I was still protected by PayPal should PurePower fail to refund me. 4. Days turn into weeks into months. Requests for updates (calls, emails) often went unanswered. Then was told they are working on upgraded model (PurePower 3000 Gold) and they decided to wait to ship me that new model. 5. Red flags all over and I should have seen it coming, but didn't react. But I suppose by this point in time I was already out-of-luck since I am no longer protected by PayPal. Was told 'new' model will be ready by fall of 2017 6. By spring of 2018 still didn't get a unit. Finally got Richard to send me the 'new' 3000, which by the way, I think they just repackaged the same circuitry inside a new-looking chassis, but replaced the older sealed-acid battery with lithium battery. 7. Received 'new' PurePower 3000 Gold on May 9, 2018. Hooked it up and OMG it made the same disturbing loud buzzing noise. 8. Richard then claims that they had 'misunderstood' what I told them when I first reported the noise (and sent them audio recording of the sound), claiming that they had focused on fixing this and that, but now he proceed to claim the source of problem is my home AC electrical system (power from the wall). WHAT??? Isn't that what his product is supposed to help improve or eliminate? Now he is blaming my home AC wiring for causing their coil to buzz (but that, in fact, was what he had acknowledge since day one and said that they were 'working towards a fix’)! 9. Again, I was naive, stupid, or at least totally UNINFORMED, so I continued to work with Richard to try and help him find the source of 'probelm' (in my own home AC). Finally, I was done checking, testing this and that for him, and I sent unit back to him May 30, and they received it on June 6, 2018. 10. As of today, July 13, I still don't have my refund. 11. Now seeing service of an attorney 12. At this point I've pretty much resigned myself to be out $5200 and don't expect being able to recover that. But I really think this scam has to come to an end so I am posting this to warn fellow audiophiles. |
Because, 3 reasons: 1. I know of two audiophile locally who have PurePower and were happy with it 2. I felt the idea of regenerated AC from stored power source (i.e., battery, as in PurePower) would be better than direct wall AC supply (i.e. as in PS Audio). There is no basis for that belief, just my own thoughts. With that in mind, choices are very limited. At the time I only know of PurePower (later I learned that IsoTek and ProPower) 3. I thought I was dealing with the ’real and legit’ PurePower (after the breakup and legal issue), and bought into the idea that production brought back to Canada (so that it is now in-house with quality control as opposed to contracted out to some Taiwan manufacturer) Yes, had I read through all the various thread, I would have realized that all the complaints reported were actually directed at the PurePower Partners LLC, Richard and Damian Janzen. |
| Post removed |
and based on the posting by member jea48 on 8-2-2015, it looks like what Richard and Damian Janzen did was they defrauded ProPower by purchasing units from ProPower but never paid for them. Then Richard and Damian put the ProPower internal circuitry into a new casing and market as their own PurePower units. |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
Hi Charles, check never came of course. Every call it's some different story/excuse why he cannot refund me, and the same delay tactics |
Hi Charles, |
| Post removed |
The first of his many lies and delay tactics, back in May 2017, 2 months after I had shipped the units back to them. On May 23, 2017, at 3:31 PM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: |
Yes,...this is a long-running and very bad/tragic story for many audiophiles here and elsewhere and I know several people including myself who were subject to their varying degree of b.s. over the years and for many, fraud. I luckily dodged the fraud aspect but my dealer did not. He died a few years ago with PP still owing him money for a PP3000+ unit after a string of broken promises. Bad mojo with these 2 fraudsters,..>STAY AWAY!!! |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
| Post removed |
Oh my god, audiophile around the world, Richard’s non-sense continue to amaze me (and it should amaze you, too, after you read his email to me. On Jul 22, 2018, at 2:53 PM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: Richard Janzen, let me make few points perfectly clear to you: 1. The units you sent me are YOURS, NOT mine. They are NOT ’my unit’ until I tell you that I am buying and keeping it. 2. Don’t bother me any further with your b.s, about new spins and new reasons why you do not have the money to refund me. Even if they are true, that’s YOUR problem and I don’t care to know. You have YOUR hardware back, so send me MY MONEY. I have given you enough of my ’sympathy’ and ’patience’. 3. The 3 units you sent me are garbage. First unit I operated it for 5 minutes and took it out of my system. Second unit I turn it on and turned it off, in 1 minute. And after waiting for more than 15 months, the third unit I operated it 5 minutes and took it out of my system. I refused to even call them ’audition’ time as they were making such loud buzzing sound that listening to and enjoying music was impossible. Again, they are YOUR units, and were NEVER ’my unit’ I want you to understand clearly that our offer to refund your original purchase price after a year was based on our ability to resell the unit you returned. 4. How dare you making that statement. "Want you to understand clearly that our offer to refund ... after a year ..." You were the one who kept me without anything to audition for 15 months. You should have refund me after I sent the first 2 units back to you (within less than 2 weeks of my 'starting audition') The hardware are yours and never mine until I tell you I will keep it. You have no legal ground to claim that you have to sell ’MY UNIT’ before you can refund me my money. We shipped three seperate PurePower 3000 units to you. Each one ot those units was carefully tested before leaving our plant. Each one was fully tested when it came back. Each of the three PurePower 3000s were perfect in their operation. 5. Anyone reading this thread will only have to Google search for keywords ’PurePower buzz buzzing noise’ to see that the problem had been reported by many and over the past many years. I rest my case. You have to have at least a little sympathy for our side of this issue. We delivered three of our best models. We expended countless hours trying to make your noise issue appear in our test room. We had to sell the first 2 untis at a 25% discount. We shipped 6 cartons to and from California. Our financial losses have been well past $5,000 - all in the name of trying to provide customer service above and beyond. 6. You have just exposed yourself to the world what a fraud you are in above statement. Huh? "Our warranty and promise to refund does not apply to perfect product with no faults". ANY offer on a FREE home audition/trial, by ANY audio manufacturer or its distributors, with 100% money back guarantee, NEVER hinges on prospective customer having to provide a valid reason - whether customer return the unit because it is defective, or whether the audio gear failed to perform as advertised (even just on sound quality, satisfaction ground). Here are your own words back in March 1 of 2017: On Mar 1, 2017, at 2:49 PM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: "But 2 days is usually enough" ... You are right, I didn’t need 2 days; only needed 5 minutes to know that I don’t want them. Finally, let me wrap up by posting the remaining text from Richard’s most recent email, with subject line "Why we need a new way to resolve your refund issue" You could have sold it to another San Francisco Audiophile for $5300 and they would have had a fantastic bargain and truly great sound. 7. Are you *!@&* kidding me??!! Suggesting that I try and sell your junk to someone else so I can get my money?? I think you have again exposed your true, ugly self for the whole world to see. 8. Let me make it PERFECTLY clear ONCE MORE - and paraphrasing what you said - "If things don’t improve in 10 days, then maybe I’ll just have to find money outside of the company to pay you" That should have been the first thing you do on June 6, 2018 when you received my return (which is already 3 weeks after I informed you about returning the 3rd unit for refund due to the buzzing noise), not 2 months later (and still just all talk but no action). Bottom line: Refund my money immediately. |
New Jersey state business license record for PurePower Partners LLC Richard and Damian Janzen names are nowhere inside that doc. https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/shady/messages/6903.html It's a defunct store, on Main Street of Hackensack, NJ. Owner was some Korean guy, selling audio/visual (TV, stereo, CDs, Records) |
@falconquest the two addresses advertised on their purepoweraps.com are probably bogus addresses. One lawyer told me that Niagara Falls address is a UPS location. Their real address might be here (but then again, they may not actually have any office at all) http://canada411.yellowpages.ca/bus/Ontario/Cambridge/Audiophile-APS-Inc/6986565.html?what=519624973... 100 Sheldon Dr, Cambridge, ON N1R 7S7 This site is also illuminating:http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/d26bmXlJQ |
Here are just a few examples of PurePower constant delay in shipping me a ’fixed’ unit June 23, 2017, which is 2.5 months after I sent back their units due to buzzing noise. On Jun 23, 2017, at 2:14 PM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: On November 14, 2017, still nothing from PurePower, except this, now from Damian Janzen. On Nov 14, 2017, at 10:49 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: On April 1, 2018, still nothing from PurePower On Apr 1, 2018, at 11:47 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: |
Richard, your attempt at blaming your unit’s buzzing noise on solar inverter is probably b.s. Google shows this: Your solar system will turn off at night as there is not enough sunlight to sustain operation. Once the solar radiation is high enough the inverter will start to operate automatically again each morning – it will start off with a self test before feeding the grid with electricity. But that’s really besides the point. Your statement about ’making demand .. ’ is ridiculous too: Why did you make demands on the manufacturer that tried its very best to fix a problem we didn’t create? I made no demand on you other than going out of my way repeatedly, wasting my time testing this and that for you, thinking that I am helping a small company to solve a problem affecting their equipment, so that they can survive in this highly competitive hi-end audio gear market. That, of course, was when I was still foolish to believe in that PurePower was a legit business. My correspondence to you on May 11, 2018 made it very clear to readers around the world that I made no blames nor demand anything from you, other than helping you and giving you multiple chances to fix the buzzing noise.
And finally, your outrageous claim OUT OF THE BLUE, that you would have to ’sell MY unit’ in order to refund me my money, and that b.s about unable to refund through PayPal, credit card, etc, and about sending me a check. On Jun 19, 2018, at 6:59 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote: |
Richard, regarding your email subject: "Why we need a new way to resolve your refund issue" No, we don’t need a new way to resolve my refund issue We just need the old fashion way - manufacture/distributor receives the returned unit, manufacture/distributor immediately refunds the customer his/her ’100% money-back guarantee’ money. |
Audiogon member @cbachalo reported the same buzzing noise issue in Dec of 2013. Exact same story as mine! https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/beware-of-dealing-with-purepower-partners-inc |
