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HELP Electrocompaniet stole Christmas

What a mess:
After finally deciding that spending money on the latest EMC-1 parts mod, I contacted Electrocompaniet's distributor back in October to arrange to bring my EMC-1 MkII to him directly in PA so as to avoid RT shipping risks and expense for this 50 pounder. All was set for a Christmas week mod, as I was to be in NJ visiting my relatives that last week.
I called on Christmas eve to arrange a drop-off time, and was told that Christmas Day noon would be fine, but that I had to arrange the deal through a dealer! Yikes! So I remembered Fathers & Sons and called them, arranging for the paperwork and profit to be credited through/to them. Fine. So I drove 2 hours through a nasty winter storm to arrive at Warshaw's house, where he said he'd NOT perform the mod if my EMC-1 didn't have a serial number on it, as there was a grey-market guy in New York who sold a few of these this year. I assured him that mine indeed had a serial number, was produced in spring '01, and bought used by me in summer '01. He said OK, and lugged the player into his house, saying he'd call me in a couple of days to pick it up. Great!..............
I returned to NJ and watched the storm intensify....
Two days later I called to arrange a pick-up hour, and Alan told me that he did NOT perform the mod because the player had been originally sold by a Danish dealer, and NOT through him, so he had made a decision to NOT support any players not originally sold thorough him. No warranty repars, parts, nor mods!..............
I was stunned, couldn't convince him to make an exception since he had never asked me to provide a serial number beforehand, and I went through a total of a half-day of driving through a storm to accomplish this mod.
He just told me to come pick it up at my convenience. I glumly arrived on Saturday and retrieved my untouched puppy, where Alan said that unfortunately I had to share the victimization of the gray-market. I asked if I should contact a Danish dealer to see if a board-swap could be done (of course thinking he didn't really know the answer), but he thought that Electrocompaniet wouldn't support my player either! I asked with some incredulity what was going to happen with all the players that people have when they move from one country to another (!), but he said that this policy was the only way they have of penalyzing the gray market.... I suggested that in THIS CASE he should have installed the mod because of his lack of due diligence in assessing the production/sales history of this particular CDP, ESPECIALLY given my enormous effort in delivering it to his doorstep on Christmas Day.... I left sadly but gracefully.
WHAT SHOULD I DO? I contacted the Danish dealer but he's not responded. Should I contact Electrocompaniet directly and try to arrange a board swap or purchase the parts mod "kit" and instakllation directions (I'm pretty familiar with boards and soldering)? Should Alan have acted differently? Isn't the world getting small enough so that internationally-sold products should have protected lives independent of sales point?
PLEASE HELP!
A Happy and safe New Year to all!
Ernie
subaruguru
kotta's avatar
kotta
649 posts
 
I agree with you Mike that we need to be civil and realize that human beings have feelings and make mistakes at times.
Mr.Warshaw should have, without any doubt, in my mind performed the agreed upon work. (This would have been the honorable/just/human thing to do given the circumstances involved.) I personally find it very disturbing that the mods to Ernie's CDP could be done but now at the escalated price of $1600! Mr. Warshaw had an opportunity to realize his errors and diffuse the situation by doing right. I'm not a business savvy person but I find it hard to believe that one would risk one's reputation for customer service over 10 "grey-market" units! Policy should have already been in place to handle such a situation (especially since a problem was known for sometime.) I have no doubt the EC products are world-class competitors but such an incidence would give me hesitation in a future purchase. Please do change my perception with the correct/just actions.
fs_audio
148 posts
 
Sean,

I believe your post is directed at Father & Son Audio, not SoS, correct? Just want to make sure Stewart of SoS is not skewered for something I said.

My comments in regards to what Joe stated about Alan have to do with the method of delivery, NOT about Joe himself. Keep in mind that Joe's thoughts are ONE person's opinions of another and very personal in nature. This is just NOT the place for such things. Whether these things are true or not, they have NOTHING to do with this specific situation. I don't even know Joe, I am only speaking of this specific situation. I am sure he took no offense from my statement, nor should he. Let's stay professional, eh?

I think everyone just needs to calm down, take a deep breath, and give Alan (and myself) a chance to rectify the situation to the satisfaction of all involved.

I will refrain from posting again until the situation is resolved, at least I will try ;-)

Best Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio
sean
6,231 posts
 
Sorry for the confusion and i do apologize to Sos for my "second round" of attacks.

Fs: yes, my comments were directed to you and in response to your last post. I'm sorry if you find them inappropriate, but that is how i feel. I am not good at hiding my thoughts / feelings, so i simply go with the flow. This has gotten me into trouble before and i'm sure that it will in the future. Then again, it has allowed me to "cut to the chase" many times and saved a lot of hassles along the way for everyone involved.

As to Joe's comments, they are applicable as it seems to demonstrate that Alan is consistent in his dealings / public relations / attitudes in dealing with people. Ernie presented the situation and one was left with the idea that Alan was not easy to work with, lacked customer skills and was not very "people friendly". Joe's past experience and comments basically confirm what Ernie's "one sided story" laid out for us. As such, i've just heard from two members that i both respect as individuals and as audiophiles that have shared relatively common experiences with the same "jerk".

The bottom line is still the same: will EC support the products that they manufacture and market ? Whether or not they do is the prime consideration. The situation with Alan is secondary at best. Ernie ( and others judging by previous posts ) simply wants his EC product upgraded. I don't think he'd care if Alan or a monkey did the work so long as it was done "right", the actual work performed and parts installed had a warranty and the total experience was "reasonably priced". He's really not asking for much. Sean
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fs_audio
148 posts
 
Trelja...Please forgive my emotional response. Simply a defensive reaction to your statements, which I should have toned down before posting.

Best Regards...Mike - Father & Son Audio
bigkidz
3,390 posts
 
Ernie,

What a pain in the Ace! Everything has already been said but since this is not a warranty issue, why not do it. Used, grey market so what. Solve the customers problem and this big mess would not have been debated on the Gon.

BTW, Ernie and I emailed recently about the EMC-1, I will not be buying one either. Sorry Ernie, I would be out of business if my company did not resolve our customer issues no matter what, period. Looks to me like they missed the opportunity to turn a negative from a customer into a positve. Imagine that. Oh yeah, bought a used Pass Labs X-1 preamp here on the Gon a few weeks ago and Pass sent me a shorter connection cord that goes between the pre and power supply for free. Too bad they don't make CD players.

Now, hows that Ayre sound again!!

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