Buying PSB? Read This!

[dkord]

Falling apart, or just a defective component? Big difference there. If this is true, then Energy very well might have a problem.



Good gawd, where do you get this information? Is this something that the factory told you? I doubt it, since materials costs and value added breakdowns are typically proprietary information.

And you totally neglected the labor costs, which is really what would go into a repair job on a defective cabinet (assuming that a replacement unit is unavailable). And in any industry economic model I've ever done, the labor costs almost always make up the majority of the output value of a manufactured commodity. Material costs vary depending on whether the input is raw commodity or a value added component.



A lot of fuzzy math going on here, and just because you worked in a Canadian office doesn't mean that you know anything about how customer service is handled by PSB or what their costs are. Heck, you don't even know if that service call ultimately gets routed overseas to some foreign call center. Even if your final tally of $400 is true (again, this seems like a number fished out of thin air, based more on assumptions and wishful thinking than hard facts), it's still way below your assertion of "thousands of dollars in wwasted workforce time". Your point may be valid, but don't waste it on needless exaggerating and made up nonsense.



Now, you're REALLY stretching things, and just bringing all kinds of other tangents in. Is this fuzzy computation of future value a part of your "thousands of dollars in wwasted workforce time" or is it just more spinning of the subject?



And that's exactly why I asked whether or not he considered returning the speakers to the dealer and letting them deal with the warranty issues. People I know who've worked in audio stores handle warranty orders as part of their customer service. Depending on the type of problem, a lot of dealers can either do the repairs in-house or send it to a local repair center, and at least troubleshoot it and make the initial diagnosis. The dealer's supposed to deal directly with the manufacturer, and handle the warranty fulfillment on behalf of the customer. That's part of the reason why these specialty audio manufacturers hand pick their authorized dealer networks, because they have good track records at handling aftersales support. With this arrangement, a customer should not ever have to deal with the factory while a unit is under warranty. If there are any hiccups in the warranty fulfillment, the dealer should be the one to break the logjam. I know if any issues ever arose with my Paradigms, my dealer would handle it, and Paradigm's website and warranty say that any support issues should first be directed to the dealer. I have a very hard time believing that PSB would setup their customer service any differently, and suggest that customers address all warranty issues directly with the factory rather than first going through the dealer.

When I had a defective driver on a Boston speaker, I took it back to the dealer. They did all the initial testing, paperwork, and coordination with the repair center, and handled the transport and notifications for me. If there were any problems along the way, they were not my issues to deal with. Two weeks later, my speakers were returned as good as new.

When one of my PSB Stratus Mini's developed a bad woofer, I called PSB for warranty service since the dealer was quite a drive away. They told me that they would take care of the problem but through that dealer which they did do in a reasonable amount of time. Paradigm requires warranty service from the dealer as well but my experience with their turn around repair time is that they are not very good.

As far as speaker companies go, Wharfedale seems to have service that's a cut above. They overnighted a replacement speaker, and several grilles at no cost to me for shipping or otherwise. Other posters I've seen also have attested to IAG's/Wharfedale's great customer care. Thus saying, I am much more likely to make another Wharfedale purchase from a company which sets such importance on buyer satisfaction.

[MikeyBC]

I own a pair of PSB Stratus Silver's, one of the kids got curious and wrinkled the tweeter dome pretty bad. I called PSB direct in Pickering ON. I gave them a credit card # over the phone and within 4 days I had my new tweeters installed, though they were not covered by warranty and were just over 5 years old. But the service was very effecient.

[Audio Girl]

First, let me say that I haven't had the time to read all of this thread. Having that in mind....

Glad it worked out for you. I used to be a long-time PSB supporter (3 separate "upgrades" over prior purchased PSB speakers). After comparison to a number of speakers, I find the PSBs very dark, the sonics compromised, and poor quality craftsmanship. There are a number of speakers on the market for equivalent dollars which are superior (at least in my system), and customer support is much better from the get go.

Ag

[jrflanne]

Well, that is a long and sad story, with a happy ending. I hope. I have PSB Bronze's, Image 2B's, and Image 9C, and never had any trouble. I hope your tale is something of an anomaly. I really like the Bronze sound and think PSB makes a good product. Yeah, there are better speakers out there but I do believe they provide good quality for the money.