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

@oddiofyl

"Pegged it, took out both midrange drivers and damaged a tweeter diafram in my Heresy."

As an old audio dealer, our rule of thumb was to replace blown drivers "under warranty", no questions asked for the first occurance. Accompanied by a bit of "education" on what makes drivers fail. When we had customers with a history of blowing stuff up, we’d move them to Klipsch because they needed "a speaker that could hurt them before they could hurt it." I can count on one hand the number of "warranty" replacements we made with Klipsch.

Related to the graduation party, nothing says "Party’s over, time to go home" better than the abrupt exit of over 50% of the musical bandwidth as a result of blown drivers. Of course with some modern music, the participants may not have noticed the diference. Unchained Melody, however, would have been a different story.

I've had many interactions with customer service in the audio industry, some good, some not so good. The Klipsch customer service in particular  seemed to be relatively non-existent. Had a stripped binding post connection on a Forte IV, sent several emails, a couple of phone calls, no response. Pretty amazing considering how competitive the audio industry is, can only assume they don't care. Sold the Forte's and moved on.

With there being so many job openings in the tech area and some parts issues, service in a lot repair shops has slowed to a crawl. 

Deltronics in Woodridge, IL has been excellent at fixing several different components for me over the years.  They always get it done right.  They also tell me whether it's worth doing and discourage me from having it repaired if it isn't.

Modwright has been over the top great in repairing or replacing my CD player, even if I didn't buy their player originally from them.  Dan always want the customer to be happy in the end.

Paradigm speakers has also been very good to replace blown drivers at no charge other than shipping one way.

Once upon a time, you received a warranty on an item of various sorts that spelled out reasonably well what one could expect if said item misfunctioned under conditions noted to varying levels or degrees....

CS and Repair/Replace generally went just fine.  Conditions above, beyond, or just totally FUBAR went where that sort of conflicts lead to....

When we started getting queried upon purchase about 'purchasing an extended warranty of X or Y length' (Y typically longer for more $), I began scrutinizing the object and it's ilk with greater care....

The 'net has made this possible....and makes one a better and informed consumer, less likely to invoke regrets and future frustration..

'Duty Now For The Future!' as per Devo:

Y'all are a great source overall. *S*  Thank you. 👍😃

Current response to extended warranty queries...if the point is 'pushed' =

"If I can break it or it breaks in my hands, using it for what it's 'supposed to do'...

I've already made plans for that.....which is why I'm buying it here, for as little as possible...." *S* ;), and out the door...

Pragmatic beyond your wildest explanations......

Happy Laborious Daze, J