I said nothing about the Energy sound - I did say that Energy sent Hi FI CHoice speakers that were falling apart - NOT DUE to shipping. A thread at AA was talkling about the same thing and poor customer service by replacing a broken tweeter with a NON current tweeter with its own set of problems.

The cheapest part of the business is the product materials. A $300.00 B&W costs them ~$30.00 to manufacture. Basically it would be around 1/10 what it ends up being retailed for with everyone taking their cut along the way. Which is why I say even if Energy spent a whole $700.00 in parts on their top of the line $4000.00 speakers - doubtful - it would be cheaper for them to replace it.

Since I live in Canada and worked in an office here as an accounts payable clerk I get a general sense of the costs for similar jobs. This person phones how many people. Custopmer service emplyee probably makes $13.00-$18.00 per hour(and that is JUST the cost of payroll add in medical and all that BS and it's probably closer to $22.00), and that is the cheap employee. His or her time running around asking people who probably make 50% more money an hour plus the phone calls - did the company pay the long distance? Was it long distance? There easily in the $400.00 range and we have not gotten in to the shipping charges and the fact that this issue STILL isn't resolved.

Then there is the incalcuable fact that this person probably won't make his next speaker a PSB or Energy like the other thread. Good service increases your chance of future sales. Theoretically, his next speaker might have been a $7k version 10 years from now...next time maybe B&W or some other will get that sale. Theoretically, PSB and Energy are in the hole $7k or whatever the upgrade speaker would have been. This is all hypothetical lost sales but even people in this thread who are bouncing two or three products may just as soon drop them from consideration maybe won't buy a $300.00 Aphap B or $4k Veritas.

Another poster mentions it could be an isolated instance then again it may not be. I'm not talking about the quality control here either. Every company no matter how good or how expensive or how careful are going to put something out that fails in some way before expected. IT HAPPENS.

What does not always happen is the gross issues provided by this poster. The company is showing a high level of incompetance in dealing with customers - so why should anyone trust them in any other endeavor? Part of buying new is to get service when you need it - otherwise you may as well buy used. Certainly if you want a better sounding product your money goes further sonically...but you risk it with no warranty. In this case the warranty is almost more of a pain in the ass than anything else.