Quad ESL service, Electrostatic Solutions or Quads Unlimited ?

Unfortunately I have the similar experience as f456gt and mikeyaya with Wayne Picquet (PK) and Quads Unlimited business practices.

I live in Europe and made (I thought) a thorough investigation of possible refurbers in the UK, Germany, US and Canada during the fall of 2018.

Given the raving reviews in Stereophile, even David Chesky uses his rebuilds, supertestimonials in lots of forum threads, testing by Gary Jacobson on his great website quadesl.org, etc., it seemed that the "true ESL57 refurb guru" on this planet was PK. I was a bit suspicious that there were no testimonials after 2015 on his web page, but finally decided to trust PK with 12 panels (planned stacked 57s) and USD 3,300 paid in advance (sigh).

This was October 2018 and the estimate was "20-24 days of work". Before I shipped the panels to him, his turn-around time on email was around 24 hours, but once he got my money and panels there was almost radio silence. I gave him extra time and demanded a status report in Dec 2018 and got the brief answer "7-10 days".
Christmas and New year passed and finally on Feb 2, 2019 I finally got an answer, where he was complaining about heart surgery having wiped out a lot of money for him, that 9 customers were screaming at him (understandable) and he was just a single but determined builder.
Good news was my panels should be ready in 2 days!!

That was 6 weeks ago and now total radio silence.

Obviously wondering about his thinking and lack of ethics. Is he running a Ponzi scheme, where he is selling panels to (older) customers and letting newcomers become the losers or what? Or just collecting money with no intent to deliver back? It seems clear that at some point in time he has been doing great stuff, but he has a prove a lot to regain any kind of trust from me. There *may* be real health problems involved, but that does NOT mean that outright lies are OK.

I start to lose hope about ever getting my panels and money back, but if this thread entry helps one or more ESL57 lovers to not end up in my situation it would be worth it. Not living in the US, legal action seems like a big hassle, but if PK continues like this he is bound for class action soon or finding himself out of business (whichever is first). 

(If someone thinks this is just unfair slander and fake news, I can privately send a complete audit trail on emails and payment)

Although I have had no direct experience with either of these shops I was told to stay away from Wayne as his current practices are a shadow of what put him on the map years ago. I have a pair of 63s in need of a rebuild and I plan on sending them to Kent at Electrostatic Solutions when it is time. I have heard only positives about Kent.

@esl57addict so very sorry to hear of your troubles...

i wonder how many people in the USA, the great again USA are just one serious health issue away from lies, fraud or worse to soldier thru a medical financial crisis....

counting my blessings....

Hey thanks for letting us know what you think of the U.S. and its health care system. Tourist or participant? 

Oh and to answer your question: not many.

A sorry saga of Quad ESL57 refurbishment: I live in the UK and in December 2017 I sent Wayne Picquet of Quads Unlimited in Florida a full set of ESL57 panels (2 treble, 4 bass) to restore - and paid him upfront c. $2000 via PayPal. The panels I sent him were OK - no damage - but I wanted the best. He must have turned them around in his workshop in less than two days. When I received them back, their outward appearance was superb. All the attention to small detail he was famous for. Cosmetically there were in a different league to one of the restorers I have used here in the UK.

Wired them in, they sounded good too, except for one bass panel making noises (tearing/cracking sounds) when asked to deal with moderate amounts of low bass. During the next few months, two more of the bass panels developed the same fault. Please rest assured, I am no headbanger!
I sent him a video which demonstrated the problem and his reply was that he couldn't successfully play the video because he "didn't do PC stuff". Alarm bells should have rung at that point, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. There is something disarming about Wayne.
Dozens of emails were exchanged during this time, with Wayne making suggestions - and me trying them out.
All to no avail.
There were also developing issues with the treble panels: the front dustcovers attaching themselves to parts of the front stators. Re tensioning them made no difference.
In August 2018 I then made - looking back - a dumb decision. I sent all 6 panels back to him for repair under warranty. It was dumb because this was 8 months after I had received them from him in the first place, and PayPal buyer protection ceases after 6 months.
There was no acknowledgement that he had received them back. After a month or so, I emailed him, he acknowledged receipt, and promised a replacement set of world-beating restorations within two to three weeks. He blows his own trumpet hard, and then some. It may have been justified once, but not anymore. This promise was repeated every time I emailed him for a progress report. Which was about once a month. Half the time, my emails were ignored. By the end of 2018, if I got any kind of reply/update at all, it would usually cite health issues, cash flow problems and issues with Gary Jacobson as a cause for the delay.
At the start of 2019, I offered to pay for the panels' carriage back here to the UK, hoping this would kick start the non-progress of the repair work. It didn't. And since June the only emails and texts I have received from Quads Unlimited have been from his brother Richard - about Wayne needing downtime. I now believe those emails were sent by Wayne himself.
Re Gary Jacobson (http://www.quadesl.org/), I emailed him to point out that his website's ringing endorsement of Wayne Picquet's work - the sole reason I went to Quads Unlimited in the first place - needed an update of some kind. Never got a reply.
And, as of December 2019, I am still without the panels. In other words, 2 years have passed, I am over $2000 poorer, and with nothing to show for it, not even my original panels (the ones I sent Wayne Picquet to restore in the first place). If there is any progress - any good news - I will let you know.