2. speakers
  3. 1413330440

Quality issues with Tekton speakers....

I was reading all the buzz about these Tekton speakers and after sorting through all the reviews, decided to order a pair of the Pendragon (the big ones... $2,500 a pair).

When they arrived, I found them to be boxed well and in perfect shape, although one thing was very noticeable once I looked at the speakers. The woofers had a slightly different tone (color). The upper woofer in each tower was basically dark gray or black (like most paper woofers you might come across) and the lower woofers were slightly blue in color. After looking on the web some, I could not find a Pendragon speaker photo ANYWHERE that had this color difference. Since they did not come with speaker grilles, I knew the color difference would bother me as long as I owned the speakers.

I contacted Tekton (Eric Alexander) via e-mail and explained the issue. After almost a week of not hearing back, I sent another e-mail and his response was...

(copy and pasted right from my e-mail)... " I'm sorry. Please refresh my memory. What seems to be the problem? Thanks, Eric"

I described the issue again and he offered to exchange the speakers. I said there was no need to ship back a huge pair of 85 pound speakers and have him send me another pair and suggested maybe he just send me grilles at no charge to cover the speakers and I could live with the slight color difference in the woofers. I really feel that grilles should be included in a $2,500 price tag however.

All of these e-mails took several days to answer by the way.

He agreed and said he would get the grilles out right away... they were sent a few days later and upon arrival, I realized there was a pretty big problem. I had a normal type speaker grill with 4 pegs on the back and a speaker with no peg holes. After all the time, e-mails, no answers, etc., I was not interested in wasting any more time with the matter and asked for a partial refund through PayPal and asked a simple question... why send me grilles for a speaker that he just shipped to me with no holes to put them in? His reply was to offer to make new grilles and send "velcro dots" to affix them to the speakers with.... WOW.

The WORST part about all this: Within 30 minutes of making a PayPal claim about the issue and asking for a partial refund from him, Eric tried to call me right away... now that there was money at stake.

The really sad part of all this is that the speakers actually sound pretty damn good now that they are broken in... I just hope the quality and communication come up to the same level for the sake of Tekton as a company.
128x128audiofreak32
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,316 posts
 
" And while sound is paramount it's a company's support that keeps me coming back. "

Customer support is the biggest differentiator between companies IMHO in that there are many that offer really good sound but not all offer equally effective customer support when needed. If it does not work as it should, that defeats the whole purpose. Things break, accidents happen. CS is paramount with most everything. High end audio is not so special or unique in that regard.
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

I've followed this thread from the start, and I have no doubt about the poor communication with the manufacturer as I have read this before, however a couple of things just don't make sense to me. In the original post, the following is stated,
I described the issue again and he offered to exchange the speakers.
Then later in a comment the OP states,
Ship back? The boxes ARE HUGE!!! And weigh almost 90 pounds each. Even if he were to offer to to that, the cost would be in the hundreds of dollars.
So, what is it? Did he offer to exchange or not? If he did, the only trouble would be boxing them to be shipped. You could have requested a call tag for them to be picked up, and the manufacturer would pay the shipping.

In the original post,
I really feel that grilles should be included in a $2,500 price tag however.
and then in a comment,
Grilles should absolutely be included for $2,500 as almost EVERY manufacturer includes a grill with their speakers.
and then this comment,
I really wanted to have grilles and I asked more than twice about the grilles with no answer.
Then why didn't you get the grills with the initial order, and they would be a $2500+ pair of speakers? Is there some buyer’s remorse about not getting grills on the initial order?

As far as the system picture, the top is much darker than the bottom. Even the black cabinet at the top looks faded gray at the bottom. Identical woofers would not even come close to looking the same in that picture. Makes me wonder if the lighting in the room is causing the bottom woofer in each cabinet to show this slight difference, or was the picture staged to look this way? I don't know, I'm not there. But how is this evidence that something is wrong?

I'm sorry, but all the above causes me to question the validity of the claim, and if I am wrong, again, I'm sorry. It's just my opinion, and I’m not trying to side with the manufacturer. I just like to see things black and white, and this one just seems to be all gray. I do hope you can end this soon, and get back to enjoying the music.
mikirob
955 posts
 
I'll finally add my two cents since I have also been following this thread. I feel similar to Tls49. There is a lot of grey here. Eric did offer to exchange the speakers. The OP's reason for not doing so initially is a bit weird. The OP could have done as Tls49 suggested (get a call tag), and return the speakers. That was simply the right thing to do.

On the other hand Eric should be much, much, better with his customer service. Eric's speakers are real bargains and sound great; he is very innovative. I own several of his speakers, they all look great and play better. I have never had a problem with his service. Again, he offered to take the speakers back and to send you another pair. Why didn't you take him up on the offer?

I suspect we are not getting the complete story.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,316 posts
 
Hopefully people keep open minds and do not jump to conclusions when reading threads like this that make a vendor look bad. IT really does not matter what people think, only what the buyer thinks. One case either way means nothing, regardless of the facts. If a recurring pattern pops up over time, then maybe. I understand the desire to vent publicly and ask for opinions, but none of that really matters. Only the facts matter and all of those are not likely to come out completely in a public forum like this. Chances are both sides could have done something better. So just live and learn.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
I agree Mapman. I found the OP's original post lacking in sufficient detail to draw any conclusions. QC is very important to a manufacturer, particularly when factoring in return costs for faulty items, advertising hype aside. The most important matter is followup to problems when they arise and I don't get ANY sense that Eric didn't try to make things right, maybe not to the degree the OP would like yet it seems he tried. I wouldn't think that an e-mail(s) is necessarily going to be the best way to get an immediate response and that it should be assumed the manufacturer is nonresponsive, very busy is more like it. If I didn't hear back within a day or two after an e-mail was ignored, a call would be in order.
More to discover