Audio Research service


I have heard that ARC's service is not the greatest, is there truth to this? Give your experience.
brianmgrarcom
All of my experiences with ARC have been excellent. And speaking of Ruth ... think of all of the various companies you've called over the years. Has there been a better telephone voice than that which is projected Ruth? She makes me smile.
Ruth is great, helpful, sweet - just great and she always makes my day. One day they had a problem with my creditcard when they charged it - she called me, wondering - I asked her to try again, and it worked.

I live in Copenhagen, Denmark - 7 timezones away.

That's service and customer care...
The tubes on my A.R.C. Ref3 preamp were $550. The hours i put on it required me to change them once a year . It only broke once in the there years I owned it .
My experience has been so-so. I recently purchased a VS60 and trying to speak to Calvin has been tedious at best. He's never available and I have to leave a message. Sometimes, he gets back to me and sometimes not. I ended up going to the ARC tech here in NYC.
I've had to deal with AR service three times in the mid to late 80s. Leonard was the man back then, as he is now. The first time was converting it from 240V to 120V when I emmigrated. Quick turn around time and reasonable charge. The second time was when one channel started to make a rustling sound. With just a phone call, Leonard says 'You probably need to replace V1- a 6DJ8. Which was exactly the problem and exactly the solution. Finally one of the filter caps leaked electrolyte all over the circuit board, essentialy destroying it. In spite of the amp being probably out of warranty, and purchased in a different country, it was fixed FOC, including return freight I believe.

I don't know how service is 25 years later, but if it is only half as good as it was back then, it still adds immeasurable value to any of the AR products.