VPI service problems

VPI has created a monster! In spite of their loyal following and years of great reviews, they chose to offer increasingly more upgrade paths than the market could absorb and, sadly are counting on their reputation to "see" them through.
I was attracted to them initially because of their upgade path. In recent years, this path has led us all down a road of confusion.
I think that as a company, that is so confused, as to answering customer's questions and keeping up with all of their own frequent upgrades.
It's a shame.
I would like to have answered, one question. Do they have more than (3) employees? The (live) female person you get,(Mon. thru Thurs.) if you're lucky, then there's Mike, then we all know that Harry must be around somewhere?
I could go on, but I have to ask myself... why? This is obviously a company who has been riding on their reputation for too long and, knows it!

It seems that you have been less than honest with your posts. Why posting and continue with smearing posts when you have been offered free service out of warranty. Those who want more of this story go to Vinyl Asylum and search for "dcbluesplayer@aol.com" post tread number 208.255.189.74

http://www.audioasylum.com

and HW answer:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/messages/91/918444.html

Again it shows what people on forums can do...they would probably never behave that way in person. Pity...

I can perhaps understand, why in cases like this, the moderators "moderate" before the posts hit the boards.

The amount of responses are staggering at audio asylum, and after all was said, it appears the jury is still out.

My intentions, were to be a helpful member, and not to hurst anyone's feelings.

As for the comment above, about VPI, I am happy a company like VPI is standing steadfast, trying to keep a company running, without resorting to running south of the border, or to Asia.

So many american iconic companies, take JBL for instance I hear is moving production to mexico soon. I can assume cheaper labor, cheaper products, but not cheaper prices.

Seems to me, a company like Harmon International, is nothing more than a CBS of the 70's, where they took Fender, Rhodes, Rogers, etc, and ran them into the ground.

I'll continue to support VPI in the future with my dollars. They always done me right when I needed their help in the rare occasion. Mark

Let me clarify a few things for everyone. All my statements are factual and accurate descriptions of what has happened. Harry and a couple of his buddies on AudioAsylum are now trying desperately to spin this any way they can to try and cover up his lack of/poor service. I have never met Harry , spoken to him or had any direct contact with him. Not ever, not once. It is certainly not because of a lack of effort on my part. In the course of two service problems I have sent more than a dozen emails and left countless phone messages for him and not had one response, not one. When the HW-27 failed five months ago there was no mention of free warranty repair at all. In fact I was told that I would have to pay for any parts or pay to have it shipped back to them and then pay for any repairs that they performed , so I opted to buy the part needed and do it myself. Now that part has failed again.Never has any free warranty repair work been mentioned. After once again ignoring numerous emails and phone calls, Sheila only responded 18 days afterwords with the following terse email "Use RA # 21236 and enclose a copy of this email with machine. The machine will be thoroughly checked before it is returned to you.Sheila" First you can see that the message is from Sheila not Harry as he claims, second there is no mention of any free warranty coverage being offered. I had to pay last time why would I think that I wouldn't be charged this time? And this response ignored everything that I asked for which was simply to obtain the proper replacement part. After three more emails in three days and numerous more phone calls (all of which went unanswered and unreturned) I finally in desperation turned to the audio websites seeking help from the members. Only when this went public did Harry respond and then not to me directly but by posting on the forum that "he had gone fishing, had brown outs,etc" as a reason for not responding to me initially and saying that "we stand behind everything we make long after the warrantee is done and gone." Well that hasn't been my experience, as I said earlier, Harry wouldn't repair it free last time and you can see by Sheila's only email response to me that there is no mention of any free warranty repair. I think that Harry is being disingenuous in his post. The explanation for not responding in a timely fashion smacks of "my dog ate my homework" I mean come on, fishing trips and brown outs accounting for more that two weeks without a response? (remember that it took him more than a month to respond and send me the part last time, I guess Harry must do a lot of fishing) Offering a free repair only after you have been called out in a public forum? But I think that the most telling part of this whole sordid tale is the simplest one. If Harry was really serious about customer service or actually gave a damn anywhere other than on the public forums he would just pick up the phone and actually call me, himself directly. Or email me, himself directly. I am sure that this could all have been easily solved with just a little communication. But he has chosen not to. Harry could still get in touch with me, I am easy to reach and easy to get along with. I don't want anything for free. I am not out to smear anyone. I have tried endlessly to reach Harry all to no avail. Instead of posting on line he could have just picked up the phone at any time or sent a quick email and fixed this in probably two seconds and I would have been the first to write what a great guy he is and how wonderful his products are. That's what I would have done. I think it's what any good small business owner would have done. I still would love to be able to write that post.
The good news is that with the help of several members the HW-27 is up and running again and it only took me one day to get the part and put it in myself. Kinda neat when the forum actually works and people get together to solve problems instead of bashing each other. I hope Harry reads this and takes the time to actually call me. I would still love to be able write that positive post about VPI.