2. speakers
  3. 1343065235

Magnepan Service HORRIBLE???

I am now into my 5th week waiting for Magnepan to evaluate shipping damage to a pair of MG 3.7's. My wife and I paid Craters and Freighters to build a custom wood crate for them so they would not be damaged further by the trip from Richmond to Minnesota.

I know everyone will say they are a small company and I need to be patient but this is ridiculous to my mind. I have called 5-6 times and the seller has also called. The last time I called Shelia acted like she had never spoken to me before despite the previous phone conversations.

I know the MG 3.7's are supposed to be sensational speakers and I bought my first pair of Magnepans in 1975 but I am seriously considering flipping these if Magnepan ever inspects and repairs them. The aggravation simply is not worth it to me.

A month and I can not even get anyone at Magnepan to open the crate, inspect them, and give me a damage estimate to provide to FedEx who is ready to pay the claim. Unfortunately, they can't pay until Magnepan provides an estimate of the damage and then I have to wait for the actual repair.

I never thought I would feel this way about Magnepan but this current situation has changed my mind to a huge extent. This is just ridiculous the way I see it and I can see no good excuse for it.
etmerritt33
etmerritt33 OP
36 posts
 
Magnepan just called. They inspected the damage and both speakers were damaged, not just the top one. The tweeters are ok but they will need to replace the aluminum trim rails on both, the wooden spacers, and the socks have to be replaced. They are going to get a return shipping estimate and add that in and send me a repair estimate today hopefully. This syncs with our theory about FedEx dropping the box on its edge.

The kicker is that I was told it would take 3-4 more weeks to do this simple repair because warranty claims go in front of shipping damage claims. The speakers were delivered to Magnepan on June 25th so despite what they claim this is the 5th week they have had them so it appears I am looking at a total (if I am lucky) of 8-9 weeks total from June 25th not including the time to ship back to Richmond which will likely be about a week.

So, I'll be lucky to see them back by the end of August and that will be 3 months since the time they were purchased during the last week of May. Some of the time was wait time on my end as I could not ship to Magnepan until the FedEx inspector came by and that was a couple weeks after I filed the claim.

More later as this unfolds.
wolf_garcia
6,734 posts
 
Does Magnapan know about this thread? I'm always amazed at how lame businesses can be about bad publicity. I wish there was a way to calculate the damage being done to Magnapan, and any other company ignoring the modern forum based wrath machines. I for one will remember this issue, and it's unlikely I'll ever share my cash with Magnapan.
etmerritt33 OP
36 posts
 
Honestly, this morning I felt like she knew or someone has said something to her because her tone made me feel that way. I could have been imagining it but that is what my gut was telling me.

I love the company and the products. Audio Art here in Richmond was the biggest ARC and Magnepan dealer in the U.S. when I became involved in 1975. My first pair of high end speakers was the MG 2's. This is the first time I have ever needed anything from them relative to service.

But, this current experience has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I am not even sure if I will unpack them and set them up when they get back. I know that would likely be stupid but I just don't like being in this situation and not being able to do much about it. The problem is that I have other equipment sales and purchases contingent on these speakers so everything is on hold at the moment.
etmerritt33 OP
36 posts
 
Brownsfan,

Thanks for your post. I've been so angry recently that I started researching speaker alternatives and as you say there aren't any good ones for anywhere near the price. I am wishing I had not sold the Soundlab M-2's we had.

What makes this worse is that I bought a Conrad Johnson preamp at the same time and that arrived damaged also and it has been sitting at Conrad Johnson (I drove to northern Va. and hand delivered it to CJ) for 5 weeks and not damage estimate either. The seller has refunded my money so I will also be in the market for another preamp. I also have a pair of MG-1.7's at home and if the CJ preamp had not been damaged I at least could have run the CJ preamp, the Krell FPB-300 amp, and the MG-1.7's while waiting for the MG3.7's to be fixed. But, that all got messed up too and we were out about $ 10K with nothing to show for it when we should have been enjoying the MG3.7's and the C.J. preamp with the Krell. The entire thing just got hosed up.

Tom
steveaudio
331 posts
 
Some questions.....FedEx Ground? They are notoriously bad. Also, maybe I missed this, but did you not use paypal? Shouldn't the seller have been on the hook? And those are very large speakers--are the orig. boxes not sufficient, or appropriate? Seems not. I routinely "double box" much smaller speakers than that.

And $1K to ship them to Magnapan? But this whole mess is now their fault? I usually assume that buying used gear made by small companies, esp. big, heavy items, may be a big problem to get repaired.

I don't mean to pile on, but it seems like this this whole thing is a chain of bad packing, shipping, etc, & I'm not sure how Magnapan, no matter how slow their repairs, should be left holding the blame in all this.
More to discover