How is Quality and Customer Service defined in the 21st Century?

Post Covid customer service is pretty horrible everywhere.   Can't really speak to quality other than my last few purchases were high quality , great sounding pieces that knock on wood are still running fine.

I was really surprised last month.   I bought a new Cyrus integrated amp and it wasn't DOA but I could not update it via PC and the enter button (Push Volume) wasn't working.   Cyrus' response time was amazing.   I contacted them Sunday night and had a response a few hours later.    They actually got back to me before TMR who also got back quickly. 

Turned out to be a simple problem ... but their support was greatly appreciated 

I am tired of poor service / support and I do my best to spend my money wisely.   Every day I read about some of these companies' horrible support and I cross them of my list of people to business with.  

Without naming names I read a thread where a small company was taking forever to do a repair and told the customer he would have to wait because he was too busy building new phono preamps. Rude and ridiculous.  

He was already waiting months. a repair especially warranty should be carried out in weeks , not months .   No way am I going to do biz with someone so cocky to pretty much tell that guy "too bad" on a public forum.  

Many others I won't deal with because of the horror stories here and other forums.  

Quality and customer service are two different things.

Customer service is what it always was - responsiveness and the golden rule (i.e., treating your customers as you would want to be treated yourself).  Some of the companies I have worked with on purchases were actually excellent, and others not so much.

Quality might be considered a combination of performance, appearance, and reliability.  In the case of your CD example,  "the sound quality is/was excellent," but the reliability (and warranty protection) were poor.  You didn't discuss how the brands handled customer service - were the companies responsive, and did they try to resolve your issues (i.e., "make it right") in some way, regardless of the absence of warranty protection?

An example of unparalleled custom service is still out there.For example’

(1) my REGA ISIS VALVE cdp/ DAC has two matched serial number laser units reserved for you at REGA.

“ … Those worried about the viability of the CD format and getting your player serviced in the future, fear not. Inside the owner’s manual, there is a signature from the technician that assembled your ISIS, another tech that QC’d the electrical and mechanical systems and the tech that tested and archived not one, but two spare laser units. I think it’s safe to say that the ISIS will last longer than most of its owners and I appreciate this attention to detail, with CD transport mechanisms getting scarcer all the time….”

(2) SIMAUDIO’s MOON 280D MKII MIND2 streamer has an unparalleled pair of features that convinced me to buy it

(A) limited warranty can be replaced with an extended warranty that goes up to 10 years free upon proper new unit registration

(B) Upon proper new unit registration, SIMAUDIO offers another unparalleled upgrade option for higher model upgrades and trade-in of your purchased unit

- WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR OF PURCHASE: 100% trade-in credit on your original purchase

- WITHIN THE secind YEAR OF PURCHASE: 75 % trade-in credit on your original purchase

I had to call my cable company about continued interrupted service. The hold time was 1 hour! And the service rep was in Jamica! He was actually useless for my issue.

ozzy