Vendor war stories . . . good ones that is . . .

I see lots of bad mouthing of companies but sometimes, these folks building our gear are really amazing. I've worked for a few notable electronic companies and sometimes it was a source of great personal price.

I'd like to tell a few positive ones about the companies who have amazed me with their own pride-of-product . . . and I encourage you to do so yourselves.

Bryston - I own a nice little integrated amp (B60) that I bought used about five years ago. Three years ago, lightning struck a tree outside my house, traveled down the tree into the dog's "invisible collar" wire and into the house. Once into the 4 way electrical outlet, it blew the dog collar transmitter completely apart (imbedded into the opposing wall but not the dog) and took out everything on that outlet, including my Bryston. It goes without saying that the integrated amp was toast.

I sent it to the Vermont service guy Bryston has (I didn't get around to mentioning the lightning) and about a week later got a call from the repair tech. He said - and I quote - "this is really unusual, we don't usually see this sort of failure". Being a good boyscout, I confessed the lightning strike. He said he'd get back to me.

A few days later he called back (notice I'm dealing with a real person here? A person that actually knows what he's talking about . . . not someone with a prewritten script in front of them)? He says, and I quote again, "We don't actually warranty against lightning strikes. So the next time this happens, we won't be doing it under warranty."

Wait, WAIT! "THE NEXT TIME?" THEY ARE FIXING MY AMP UNDER WARRANTY? IT'S AT LEAST 15 YEARS OLD, IT'S BEEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. JESUS CHRIST, WHAT KIND OF COMPANY IS THIS?

Guy said he'd ship it out the next day. Meanwhile, I'm pretty much totally speechless. I say "Thank you." and hand up.

Vendor of choice.