Questionable service at Soundsmith

Rather than to conclude that they did a one-hour rush job on your cartridge after you finally got through to them with your complaint, I am more inclined to believe that your cartridge may have been rebuilt months ago and then stuck on a shelf somewhere, either through a bookkeeping error or simple negligence.  Your contact, which might justifiably have been done six months earlier, at least, finally made someone look around the shop to find your cartridge.  I would not indict SS for this sort of error.  In the end, they did not cheat you, and I doubt they ever would cheat you or anyone else deliberately.  It's a boutique business that seems entirely dependent upon the skill of one man who is not getting any younger, and maybe one or two disciples to whom Peter is hopefully teaching the art of cartridge repair.  Even so, I would bet that no re-tip leaves SS until PL has inspected the finished product. If Peter has had health problems in recent months, that could be the whole reason for your long wait.  All's well that ends well.

Soundsmith seems to be one of this forum’s sacred cows (reputation for stellar work, not a lot of competition). Posting anything critical about them is going to get you some responses you don’t like. I was going to send them a Sumiko cart that I’m selling for service but couldn’t stomach the stated wait time listed on their site.

So, after digging around online I saw some positive feedback for Andy Kim at Needle Clinic. I sent it to him for a re-tip. All it needed as a damper replacement. Two (2) week turnaround. $250. YMMV

This is not a exception. It took a year of waiting with no response for my friend with his Sony XL55 shipped to SoundSmith. Same situation. They are very slow and cartridge can be easily lost for some time and then re-discovered (somewhere on their shelfs), fixed and shipped. Normally they offer discount after all !

Question:  do you pay SS up front, or when the cartridge is ready to ship.

I won't get into the details of: your waiting time, "we'll check", "it's ready, please pay", although I direct you to lewm's comments above.

I do want to comment however, that there's a reason Soundsmith is a "sacred cow" around these parts.  It's because Peter ("the retipping guy") is indeed one of the good guys in the industry.  I have quite a few customers to have received nothing but first class work.

For the equivalent work from Dynavector (for example), your $450 would set you back about $2K.  I won't debate your extended wait, but I don't get why you're grumpy about paying $0.25 on the dollar for equally exemplary work.

It's clear to me that Peter is undervaluing his labor and he should align his pricing with that of the major manufacturers.  This would bring demand into line and no doubt improve delivery times.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier