PSA: Be Careful Dealing With Uptone Audio


Just a cautionary note for anyone wishing to purchase anything from Uptone Audio.

 

Over the past 3 or so years I have owned an ISO Regen, two LPS 1’s and two LPS 1.2’s. When they work they are OK. However, when they do not, you cannot really count on any meaningful support from Uptone Audio – under warranty or not – and even more so if you are not in the US. One of my LPS 1’s failed during the warranty period after less than a year of use. It would not output anything. I contacted Alex Crespi of Uptone who arranged for a replacement. I shipped the faulty LPS 1 back (costly). I received a replacement in about a month. The replacement I received had dings on the case that were not there in the first place. I just chalked it up to shipping issues. Two months later, the replaced unit failed again. It would not light up. It had more than a year left under warranty. I contacted Uptone again who requested I ship it back again for replacement. However, they discouraged it and proposed a credit of US$185 towards the purchase of a new LPS 1.2 in lieu of the warranty on the unit which faltered so quickly after it was replaced. Upon further questioning and correspondence with Uptone, it came to light that they had not repaired the unit I had sent in for warranty replacement with new parts. Instead they had replaced the board with parts culled from used and returned units previously sent in for trade in or repair purposes. In short, the warranty is tantamount to having your unit replaced with a used one which may or may not have been faulty in the first place, which they claim to have “tested”. It is no surprise that the unit faltered so quickly after their supposed warranty replacement then. As such, their so-called warranty replacement is pretty much flawed. Alex got defensive and quoted some self-derived metric about the failure rates of their products being extremely low and put the cause of successive failure in my units down to my bad luck. He also said that I had electrically damaged the unit which is baffling since I had used it only with their supplied OEM Meanwell switching power supply which still works fine up till today. To date, in the last 20 or so years of being in the hi fi hobby, these Uptone products are the only ones to have malfunctioned so badly.

 

Wishing to cut my losses and to avoid having to ship the faulty unit back to the US at costly charges when the “warranty” replacement would most likely fail again shortly, I paid the remainder towards a brand new LPS 1.2. Alex made it clear that he would not assist with repair of the faulty LPS 1 and I disposed of it.

 

I received a shipment of the LPS 1.2. However, when I unpacked it, the unit had a clear rattling noise when removed from the box. Upon closer inspection, there was a slight scratch on the front chassis plate and the screws were badly stripped. It was pretty clear that Alex had shipped me a used unit or one that had escaped their seemingly lax quality control. I contacted Uptone immediately and requested that they make arrangements for their carrier to collect the unit from me for return to them and replacement of a brand new unit to me. Alex admitted to their negligence citing size slippages and disparities in their OEM case specifications which caused the misfit and rattling noise and worn out Torx screwdrivers stripping the screws. He was certainly aware of the issues affecting the unit I was shipped. However, he refused to do anything about it. He suggested that he would send me some screws and that I open up the unit myself and mount some electrical tape inside the case to stop the rattling noise. Again, he seemed to be fully aware of the issue and how to fix it. Unfortunately, I am not technically inclined nor do I own a Torx screwdriver. To render those fixes I would have to pay a technician to do so. This is rich considering that I had paid for a new and finished product and was shipped a used and/or damaged one. I wrote back to insist on a replacement unit being sent to me and that Uptone arrange to cover the return shipping costs to themselves. Again, Alex refused steadfastly and got hostile, saying that I was taking advantage of them. How exactly am I taking advantage? I paid full price for a new and finished product – that is all I expect, no more and no less. Alex also stated that he did not wish to lose any money on this sale even though Uptone offers the best customer service possible. His final offer was that I return the LPS 1.2 to them at my own cost and that he would refund me the US$250 I had paid meaning I would have to write off the US$185 credit value on the disposed LPS 1 which he is contractually obliged to repair but had refused to assist me with.

 

In this whole experience with Uptone, Alex strikes me as someone who is simply full of excuses. He pays lip service to providing good customer service but it is really just marketing talk. When it comes to the crunch, he fails to deliver but instead makes excuses and puts the blame on anyone but Uptone and himself. Outrageously, he even believes in his own self manufactured press. I recall earlier correspondence with him on why the Uptone ISO Regen would disconnect from my DAC for no reason, requiring that I unplug and replug the DC cable from the Uptone LPS 1.2 for it to work again. Not knowing that I was powering it with a LPS 1.2, he began by questioning the power supply I used. When told it was a LPS 1.2, he blamed the issue on the Silanna chip Uptone used in the ISO Regen – after all, it was an Uptone supply and he could not blame that anymore. I mean you manufactured this product, sourced and supposedly tested the parts and then sold it to the customer as a finished product for good money. The sheer lack of responsibility, ethics and professionalism!

 

As an example of Alex being purely a marketing act, you can see on the Computer Audiophile forum how he derides Sonore’s optical module and Optical Rendu, since Uptone now makes a competing product. Recall, Uptone came into existence making derivative products such as USB fixers and power supplies to be used with Sonore’s series of streamers – the hypocrisy of it all.

 

I appreciate that others may have had a good experience dealing with Uptone Audio but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case with me. Uptone strikes me as a bucket shop. There are lots of cottage industries and artisanal products in hi fi and that is fine and good, so long as they are run with honesty, integrity and professionalism and not at the expense of unsuspecting customers. Pete of Triode Wire Labs is a great example of a fine one man show company who provides great customer service. Uptone is definitely NOT - YMMV!


mikey8811
@thyname  I understand your position. I don't disagree with it. 

I've been in the same place and at about this point in time, the questions I ask myself are: Is it worth it? Is it my role? How am I letting it affect me? Etc. Etc.
I can appreciate both sides of the story.  In spike of initial good intentions expressed and demonstrated by both parties, sometimes things just don't work out.  I think that this is the case in this instance. 
After reading this somewhat troubling thread, I thought I would share my direct experiences with Alex Crespi and Uptone Audio.  I have purchased multiple products from Uptone over the last few years.  Alex has always been very responsive and professional in his emails with me.  Last fall, my LPS-1 power supply stopped working.  It was still under warranty and I contacted Uptone about a repair.  Alex indicated that they would repair it free of charge but that they were just launching a new product and probably would not be able to look at it for a few weeks.  Fair enough, so I sent the unit to Uptone right away.  After 4 weeks, I contacted Alex and he gave me the option of purchasing a new LPS-1.2 at a substantially reduced price or repair the LPS-1 as originally planned.  To save money (I am retired), I chose the repair route.  Alex readily responded that he decided to give me a brand new LPS-1.2 power supply FREE OF CHARGE!  I was not expecting this at all and received the new, updated P/S days later.  It's been functioning perfectly ever since and was an immediate audible improvement over the previous version.  Thus far, I have nothing but positive things to say about Uptone and Alex Crespi!
@david_ten Yes, I too find the sharing of email chains distasteful but clearly Alex Crespi is unprofessional enough to not.

@thyname since you condone this behaviour, please know that Alex has your personal data too and will not hesitate to use it for his marketing purposes. By the way, I have not gotten my money back. I do not think I will.

Please also be aware that this is by no means a vendetta. I couldn’t give a spoke about what happens to Alex Crespi or Uptone. They have cheated me once and never again. I do however believe in karma and that what goes around comes around.
There is no upside for me in this at all. I paid good money for an item that was clearly used and damaged. That is an incontrovertible fact. I will also not see my money back.

The purpose of this post and those on other fora was simply to make others aware of the situation so that they may avoid similar pitfalls. I stated this clearly at the outset. I also stated clearly that YMMV. It is fortunate that some of you have had good experiences dealing with Uptone but that has clearly not been the case with me.

Ditto for many others on other fora who have responded to say that their LPS 1’s and 1.2’s have broken down in a similar manner. Warranty replacements/ repairs sent back to them have also suffered the same fate as mine - faltered shortly after they received them. This is no surprise given Uptone’s practice of using used parts from returns and repairs rather than new ones to render warranty service. This is telling about the quality of their product and warranty service.

Be very cautious when purchasing from small companies, especially one-man-show’s like Uptone. I have never found myself at such a loss when dealing with larger, more reputable companies as they are professionally run and inevitably care about maintaining their reputation. Of course there are exceptions like Pete of Triode Wire Labs that I mentioned in the opening post.

The other takeaway from this is to pay by Paypal or American Express rather than any other credit card. Both these payment methods offer a greater degree of consumer protection which include the covering of costly courier fees on returns. This is important when dealing with less professional merchants/ manufacturers located in other countries. For products like those that Uptone sells - with relatively low average selling prices - courier fees on returns of under warranty items which fail repeatedly, will make the entire economic premise untenable for customers located internationally. Many respondents on Asian based fora have agreed given their own experiences with Uptone products. I presume those in Europe and other countries will find the same too.


You bought everything used and likely very cheap. And you already knew you are in Asia (obviously) that would make warranty repair shipping costs to and from to US costly. I am not sure what your expectations are, perhaps a bit too high? There is always risk when buying used stuff, especially from foreign countries (to you). And it sounds to me like Alex tried very hard to accommodate you, and spend hours (all those emails back and forth) trying to do so.

You are saying these lengthy posts of yours in all forums you are member of (I have seen at least four so far) are not vendetta. I fail to believe that.