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  3. 137710-88615

A shout-out to Manley Labs customer service

I just wanted to quickly praise the customer service I recently received at the hands of Manley Labs. Last month, I bought a new Chinook phono stage and from the moment I plugged it in there was too much idle hiss. I played it for a few weeks and the hiss got neither better nor worse. Short story long, I contacted Manley and they immediately sent a return shipping label to me to return the unit to check it out (at their expense). I sent the unit, they did a minor adjustment (dropping the noise floor 12db!) and shipped it back to me in one day. They even asked if I'd like the wider (19") face plate installed (for free) so as to better cover the unit. I really wanted the wider plate when I bought it but it was not available so I said yes.   
In today's crazy, swirling whirlpool of perfectionist audiophile expectations, having a small company not only make a great-sounding product (And, oh my goodness, does the Chinook sound good!) but stand behind that product with fantastic customer service, makes such a strong statement. I'm sure the warranty work on my unit erased their profit margin entirely, but they acted like it was a job they wanted to do, never asking me if they had to do it, never whining.
Some of you will say, "Well, they're supposed to do that." or, "In today's world you either support your products or go out of business." and while that sentiment is true, sometimes I don't think we appreciate how expensive, challenging, and thankless it is for a small made-by-hand company to compete with the big factory players and I think these companies should be recognized for all of their hard work as well as personal and financial sacrifices.

Thanks Manley Labs for such a great product and such great customer service. Gamma, you're the man!

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route-66's avatar
route-66
56 posts
 
My local audio club (LAOCAS) met at Manley Labs for one of our meetings a few months ago and EvaAnna gave us a tour of the entire facility. She was very down to earth a extremely knowledgable about high end audio. 
jollygreenaudiophile2's avatar
jollygreenaudiophile2
275 posts
 
I have to say that as of this week, "Manley Laboratories", Has in my humble yet fairly experienced opinion.
 "Far and Away", The best customer service I have yet to encounter in the audio industry. A fairly close second place would go to "Pass Labs", but after that? The next companies that I could list are several rungs down the, "Service and Support',  ladder. One company that did surprise me though was, "McIntosh Labs", But not in a good way.
   I purchased a "Used", but mint condition MS750 music server recently and the CD transport is frozen. After a week of calls to them which after talking to the receptionist, I always ended up having to leave messages as no one was ever available in either "Parts, Tech support or Service"!.
 I finally did receive a call back "1", from McIntosh. Only to be told "quite abruptly", that it could not be fixed. And they would not even look at it under any circumstance! So, "0" support for a component that they were selling six years ago for $6000? I called back a few times with other questions over the next week and asked three different people about this. Two of them were again, "Quite abrupt", in telling me that I was on my own. But the third person did listen and explained that, "IF", there were parts that might work, "Like an entirely new CD drive or Hard Drive, from a different manufacturer they did not know about them. And it would never work anyhow because of their, "Proprietary", software that would not support anything but the original build components.
 I have since heard that there is a company that will still service them but, "IF", that is the case? Why was I not told? You would think they would have at least kept abreast of thing such as that!
   I will have to rethink my thoughts on McIntosh service after this mess.
4krow
80 posts
 
 My experience with Manley labs, though not as a consumer of audio gear, but by buying RCA jacks that they offer, for my products, has been exceptional. They do stand behind their products and service. I am glad to have a public place to share the good experiences that I have had with them over the years. 
 I also would not hesitate to buy any product that Manley has to offer.
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