Poor Customer Service

As a retired salesman, I cannot overstate the benefits of providing exemplary service to your customers. Good service with help your business grow, while poor service will slowly erode consumer confidence and eventually result in a loss of market share. I recently had an example of both.    

Good service: Oppo. Even though the disk player I had was discontinued and the company had all but gone from the business, they went over and above to resolve a problem with the player's disk tray. They responded promptly, made it easy to ship the unit and did the repair for a very reasonable price. The unit came back with the problem fixed, cleaned, updated, in a new box. Seamless and efficient.    

Horrible service: Tidal. All I wanted to do is update my credit card. Because I never had the option to talk to anyone, could never even get an email response that wasn't generated by a software program, it wasn't possible to resolve the issue and I eventually gave up and switched from a credit card to PayPal. If Qobuz was available in Canada I would have unsubscribed on the spot, but for now I am biding my time until that day.

OP, Some of the manufacturers have their own circles or groups on other websites.  These folks answer questions immediately and often get the techs involved directly.  I know James from Bryston is one example. There is a benefit to choosing a supplier of equipment that is engaged in this way.  The ones who do participate demonstrate a real concern regarding their reputation and usually it is someone at the leadership level and they want to know if employees are dropping the ball. Good Luck. 

There are definitely no supply chain issues involved when a manufacturer can't even respond to emails - ever.  Most of the bad behaviors we see today by vendors with poor customer service were the same bad actors pre-pandemic as well.  And the exemplary vendors are the same as well.  In nearly all businesses solid communications smooths all rough edges.  Engagement is key.

“When you complain about something without telling us who and what and why all it amounts to is a "waaaaa!" Everyone knows how bad customer service feels. We have all been there. This is going nowhere. Tell us who, and give us the details.”

All except when some poor guy tells the forum of the Neg service he received at the hands of Tekton and got ‘jumped All Over ’ you mean 

VTL will tell you to just upgrade to the newest model!  Shameless!!!