Great Customer Service

A few years back I purchased a 3 year old used Krell 200 FPB here on the Gon. A couple months later the amp started to smoke and shut down. I called Krell and told them what had happen and how I had gotten the amp. They asked for the serial number and gave me an RA number for return shipping. Two weeks later I called and asked if they had looked at it and if so how much would the repairs cost? The nice lady told me my amp had just shipped out and there was no charge. If and when I give up my tubes Krell will be my first choice.

I have some serious concerns. I think service should not be an issue. For instance: jjmali's KRC was a $6700 preamp. IMO, a piece of this cost should see years of absolutely trouble free use. Upestateaudio has had to send two different pieces back to Classe. This equipment is not quite as expensive as the Krell, but should still be EXTREMELY reliable. I am somewhat disappointed. I feel as though I have been pretty unlucky with my equipment. My equipment ranges in age from 6 mos. old to 7 years old. And every last piece I own, except for my B&W matrix 802's, has given me trouble. This truly bothers me. A friend's father has had a Fisher integrated amp for 25 years. It still works, and was but a mere fraction in cost. Vegasears, I believe you are among the lucky. Any experience I have had with Krell has been VERY slow, similair to jjmali's experience.

Jimwitnauer,
Please keep in my mind that my story did not involve a piece of Krell equipment breaking, it involved me dropping and breaking something. Beyond that, the cd player has operated flawlessly and is a joy to use. As far as high end equipment in general breaking down, I would hazard a guess that it's a pretty small percentage of gear that fails. Since it is the nature of people to speak out when something goes wrong we end up hearing a disproportianate amount of negative stories.

My Ksa-250 took about 6 weeks for rebuild, not sure if this is bad or good as compared to any other company. I was just glad that Krell treated and serviced this old amp.

I have a pair of VMPS speakers that lost a woofer. Paid almost $2,000 for them (great speakers), EXCEPT, at around 1 year out of warranty (warranty was 5 years), VMPS no longer makes this woofer..now thats what I call crap service!! Now I have a 200lb. speaker with a 15 inch whole were the woofer should be. And to top it off, VMPS didn't tell me they no longer made this woofer until after they told me to pull it out and send it to them (I thought they were going to fix it!) Now this is a speaker that is only about 6 years old at the time, and VMPS has no replacement woofer and didn't offer any help of any kind. To be fair, they did offer to sell me one of their new LARGER woofers..but left it to me to figure out how to cut the larger hole these would need (of course I would need two of these to match the other speaker). You would think that VMPS would have offered a little help ( Like: I'll have the dealer install these new woofers for you if it will help). Now thats poor service.

Dave

Dave

Dave, very few companies will stock specialized parts for their older products. I once read that Quad did this for their classic planar speakers, but for the majority of the other manufacturers, it is a non issue. Asides from this, some speaker manufacturers match their drivers to a certain spec that eventhough you might be able to get a replacement, not from the manufacturer, unless you change both the left and the right and someone is willing to match them to close tolerances, your speaker will sound faulty. Are the VMPS speaker drivers sticking out of the cabinets or are they sunk in? If they are sticking out, it should not be too difficult to cut a larger hole with a electric jigsaw...just need to be very careful. If you like the speakers so much, why don't you get a small router set to make the job easier...and you can use it later for other DYI projects.....Another option, check Madisound and tell them the specs of your driver, I am sure they can help you match something close.
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The best customer service I have ever experienced is the Etymotic research people. I bought a pair of E-6 ear isolator earphones, and one of the silicon body molding became frayed, I do not know how. When I called them, they sent me an RA number, I shipped it to them, I got the back the week after. Both of the body molds had been replaced, as well as the ear tips and they ran a full test. All free of charge and out of warranty.