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There Ought To Be A Law, Or At Least A Rule

A common post goes, "Is XXX company still in business? I've tried reaching them with no success..." I recommend Audiogon limit these types of post. High end audio is populated with many under financed small, if not single person operations. Anyone who has ever run their own business knows how difficult it can be to handle research, marketing, manufacturing and distribution at the same time. I'm not trying to defend unprofessional behavior, but some slack should be afforded to the smaller firms. A post on Audiogon questioning a company's viability cannot in any way help these small entrepreneurs and high end audio in general. I propose that anyone starting this type of post have to include the actual dates and methods contact was attempted as part of the post. Furthermore, I recommend Audiogon delay posting the question for 48 hours as an attempt is made to contact the manufacturer and alerting them to the post's content. Possibly some of the regular posters could volunteer to perform the contact.
128x128onhwy61
blkadr
739 posts
 
Sorry, I also disagree with the premise. If a manufacturer gives lousy service potential customers should know. Usually someone knows the scoop, so if theres another explaination we get it. When the answer is something like they are on vacation, changed phone service or they moved their website the info is here and they actually are getting a free service.
On many occasions loyal customers rush to their defence, so in effect they get free positive feedback listed here where lots of people browse around.
Would you want to find out a company went belly up or that they are the dregs when it comes to service before or after making a purchase?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sometimes I wonder if such postings are not a promotional device. The follow-up postings are usually an explanation of why there was difficulty contacting the manufacturer, plus praise for the fine product. Many times this is all about an outfit that I for one had never heard of, before the original posting.

"There is no such thing as bad publicity".
c123666
871 posts
 
Some companies simply do not find email that useful and only use the phone which screens out a lot of tire kickers. Steve Sank and Nick Gowan are both much more responsive to the phone than email as they get a lot of idle questions via email.

If they have history with a customer then they use email more effectively. People like Steve and Nick that have been around for years and actually do what they say are few and far between.

Convergent Audio Tech is another one with no web presence I've been able to find. CAT responds to phone calls.
gammajo's avatar
gammajo
846 posts
 
Both sides of this have merit. I think that anyone intiating possibly negative feedback should be extremely sensitive to its possible undeserved negative effects. Yet poor service or reliability should definitely be published. Then copied to the "offender" to give them a chance to respond with their side of the story.
Perhaps the person initiating the post could least say something like " I tried calling on 3 seperate occasions over a period of ten days, after having verified that I had the correct number", versus "I called three times" (which all could be on the same day to an inadvertently transposed number)
jeff_jones
418 posts
 
Small or large, a business needs to either provide good product support (at high end audio pricing it should be excellent support, imho)or else be willing to take the hit.
Have three components from small firms, manufacturer support from two of them has been A+++++ world class. The third seems to be a 'take the money and run' outfit, I think it is good for the industry for us to be able to brag on the good ones as well as warn each other about the bad ones. Perhaps nothing will drive people away from the hobby quicker than dumping significant funds into something and then finding out a year later that it is effectively junk because of lack of repair support or parts support.
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