Adiós, Audio Advisor

[John Gallup]

Just want to warn everybody about the behavior of these folks. They're really irritating me. Here's an email I sent them, which received no answer.

Quote

Dear [customer service rep],

I must say that I am entirely dissatisfied with my experience in the purchase described below. Here's why:

1. I ordered (955370) more than $500 worth of merchandise from you. For some reason you chose to ship the two items in separate boxes via separate carriers. One box arrived thoroughly punctured, fortunately without damage to the contents. The other (the Rega Neo TT-PSU, a $395 item) arrived packaged only in the manufacturer's original box. It died after two days of service. I thought everyone knew that delicate items should be double-boxed.

2. When you returned my call about the second problem, your offer was to mail me a shipping label, make me repackage and return the damaged merchandise, and wait for you to ship a replacement at your convenience. This deprives me of both my $395 and my use of my turntable for an indeterminate period of time.

3. What Audio Advisor could have done, had you/they wished to proved high-quality customer service, is immediately shipped me a replacement unit, preferably overnight, and included a shipping label for the return of the failed unit.

4. Or you could have at least emailed me the return label to print out and stick to the inadequate box you originally supplied the unit in.

I could have just disputed the charge with my credit card company and ordered another unit from, say, Amazon, who would have it gotten to me much sooner than what you're proposing here. In fact I could have just bought the same item from Amazon in the first place and gotten it sooner. But I chose to deal with someone I thought was in the audio business. You certainly were charging full price.

I've bought a number of things from you over the last five or six years. But when this deal is complete, I won't be back for more. If you want to try and do better, I could stay. As it is, I'll have to warn people on Audiogon, Audiophile Style and other on-line hi-fi forums I frequent.

Regards,
John_G

 

 

 

[ctsooner]

That's really sad.  I don't fully understand though.  Didn't they offer to email you the label?  I've dealt with lot's of returns of goods over the years and they always want to get it in house before crediting you.  Typically it will take three days at the worst for them to get it in house. (blenders, ice cream maker, automatic tea kettle among other items).  

If they said they would only MAIL (snail mail) you the label, then that's totally different and strange since they are a mail order place and have special prices in place to get returns back quickly and electronically if you would.  

As for shipping in original packaging, ..... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????  What they heck are they thinking?????  That's just stupid on their part.  I understand that many don't live close to a shop and want to use Amazon or an online store, but this is far from the worst story I've heard about some of these companies.  In the future, if you need gear, maybe you could look up the closest Vandy dealer to you and purchase from them as they will ship as long as you aren't in someone else's territory for what you are looking for.  80% of the Vandy dealers sell Rega.  Just another option if you have any issues going forward or just want to give a brick and mortar shop the business.  

Just sorry to hear what happened.  Hope you get it straightened out quickly and can get back to music.

 

[John Gallup]

Happy to say that Audio Advisor has made this right. Here's email I just received.

 

Quote

 

Good Afternoon,

 I do apologize for any inconvenience and I have sent you another Rega Neo Turntable FedEx overnight.  Please return the defective unit at your convenience and thank you for shopping at Audio Advisor.

 Sincerely,

[Customer Service rep]

 

Social media are powerful.

[ctsooner]

Yes it is!  Congrats.   I am so glad to hear that they made it right.  Can't wait to hear how it sounds.  Please share ... 

[Steve Edwards]

That's good to hear John.  I am currently in a situation with them as well.  Attempting to order an additional tube and tube holder for my VPI Cyclone, I received both items, but incorrect models. They have been very cooperative with me; albeit taking a fairly long time too receive the correct parts from VPI.  But, it's not like my record cleaning machine was inoperable during the wait.

[John Gallup]

2 minutes ago, Steve Edwards said:

That's good to hear John.  I am currently in a situation with them as well.  Attempting to order an additional tube and tube holder for my VPI Cyclone, I received both items, but incorrect models. They have been very cooperative with me; albeit taking a fairly long time too receive the correct parts from VPI.  But, it's not like my record cleaning machine was inoperable during the wait.

All's well that ends well. The replacement unit arrived Friday, double-boxed. The Rega box inside had never been opened, unlike the previous one. The packing slip asked me to mail the defective piece back Fedex overnight. "At my expense?" I thought. Then yesterday the Fedex label arrived in an envelope, and I dropped the whole thing off at Fedex that afternoon.

Yes they could have put the label in the box....But I'm a happy camper now. The new TT-PSU let me tweak the turntable speed to exactly 33.3 RPM as measured by a phone app, and in truth some records that exhibited a bit of wow and flutter seem better now.

 

Over the past few months of upgrading my system I've learned that USAudiomart.com and Audiophilestyle.com (previously ComputerAudiophile.com) are free to hobbyist users and super-effective in moving out surplus bits and pieces. Way better than eBay.com with all its fees. I did find an AudioQuest Niagara 3000 on Audiogon.com and had a good buying experience there.

[ctsooner]

I use Audiomart exclusively at this point and have found some very good buyers.  I'm actually looking at the Niagara 3000 to replace my 1000.  I am running Richards M5's into the dedicated outlet (AQ Edison) rather than the Niagara as it only has one plug for high current.  

glad they made things right for you.

[Boom Boom]

Thanks for posting your experience with this etailer. A later upgrade for me will be my DAC. I have other projects with higher priority.

I try to support my local high end saloon here in Seattle. But some brands I want to pursue they don't carry. I have sourced some gear I've acquired from Music Direct in Chicago with good results. I am considering perhaps acquiring a Bryston piece and Audio Advisor is an authorized dealer. They show the product I am interested in.

One of the reasons I enjoy these forums is I become aware of products and dealers to have fun looking into.

[ctsooner]

I buy stuff from retailers I know from around the country.  I rarely go to the internet folks as I want to help the brick and mortar guys.  I can promise you that any of Richards dealers would love to do business with you guys if you dont' live close to local shop or one that doesn't carry what you want.  Between all of Richards retailers (many of whom are on this forum, but won't post unless asked to) you can find most any product you want.  I know that Rutan has Bryston as do a few others I know.  I can promise you that each one I've dealt with has FULLY supported their products and I've NEVER had anything shipped that wasn't double boxed and that includes cables or less sensitive items.  

 

[Boom Boom]

On 5/13/2021 at 3:45 AM, ctsooner said:

I buy stuff from retailers I know from around the country.  I rarely go to the internet folks as I want to help the brick and mortar guys.  I can promise you that any of Richards dealers would love to do business with you guys if you dont' live close to local shop or one that doesn't carry what you want.  Between all of Richards retailers (many of whom are on this forum, but won't post unless asked to) you can find most any product you want.  I know that Rutan has Bryston as do a few others I know.  I can promise you that each one I've dealt with has FULLY supported their products and I've NEVER had anything shipped that wasn't double boxed and that includes cables or less sensitive items.  

 

Thanks for the mention. I checked out Audio Connection and he can't sell Bryston on-line. He's on the other side of the country from me. The local dealer here recommended I try taking a BDP3 home to to audition Bryston's DAC. I was unfamiliar with the model so I went to the Bryston website and discovered this is a player only and needs a DAC to work. I saved myself some time and gas by realizing this was a bad idea. I decided not to have confidence in the local dealer. So far many Vandersteen owners here own the PS Audio DirectStream DAC. I can get retail trade in from PSA for my NuWave DSD. This helps equalize the price differential between the BDA3 and the DirectStream . So that's where the Vandersteen forum is leading me.

[ctsooner]

What is your price range?  Where do you live?  

[Boom Boom]

5 hours ago, ctsooner said:

What is your price range?  Where do you live?  

Hi I'm in Seattle.  I'm looking to upgrade the DAC for $4k-$6k. I intend to leave some $ behind to spend on power cord and digital cable upgrades, and maybe vibration control devices. I really like the HRS nimbus products for this. 

The Vandersteen dealer here is the Definitive Audio Group. They are Simaudio and Linn dealers as well. They've suggested the Linn Selekt DSM with the Katalyst upgrade. I've also looked into the Moon 390 D which I find interesting. My reservations with these are they are  DAC preamps with a phono section and non-digital inputs. I'd rather not spend my money on these features. I do well with the phono section in my Classe preamp. They also carry Ayre which is a brand I like. The QX-8 might be in the running price wise, but I can't stand the aesthetics. The other stuff they have is too rich for my blood. I've had the pleasure of listening to the dCS and the ARC at the Music Matters events (along with other brands that give me sticker shock) and my goodness the sound is astonishing! Luv that the technology trickles down to products I can eventually afford.

For now I've decided I'm not interested in streaming. I've rather not use my ISP to access my music files on my external hard drives. I'd rather spend the money for a good USB cable. I have amassed a lot of FLAC, AIF, DSF, and DFF files. Roon and Quobuz is popular. I'm not interested in those services for now. I'm not ready to go down the rabbit hole to upgrade CAT 5+ cables, switches, etc. That stuff just adds up, although it probably sounds better. It's just not my time for that. I'm happy with my Transparent Premium USB cable. If I end up with a DirectStream DAC I'll likely look into upgrading to a WireWorld TOSLink cable. They're supposed to have a good one. If I end up with the Bryston, I'll likely look into getting the latest generation AudioQuest HDMI cables.

[TomicTime]

i am justSouth of Seattle. stop by if you want to hear what Aesthetix Pandora is capable of. Ayre makes a great sounding DAC also.

You should talk to Victor at Advanced in Tacoma and Eric at Gig Harbor Audio.

enjoy the search

jim

[ctsooner]

I have to say that the Ayre is a great DAC for the price.  It outhits most under 14k DAC's to my ears.  I owned one and may even get another one as the server I'm using won't feature a DAC once I upgrade to the new cabinet etc...  Linn makes nice DAC's too.