Poor customer service from Paradigm Electronics

[HAVIC]

Speaker companies in the mid-fi realm chances are are not going to sell you another speaker -- 1 because the buyer may keep the speakers 20 years and 2 if they go upscale they probably leave your brand anyway - so why really go the extra mile on service?

RGA will this may be true word of mouth referrals and the internet can have a great impact on your business. The amount of information and misinformation on the web can cost a company millions.

remember the febreeze disaster, it was either an email or websites that said using febreeze will kill your pets. Febreeze spent millions of dollars on an ad campaign to show you that it is safe for your pets.

The internet is a very powerful medium and ALL companies need to realize this.

A fellow not long ago here had tons of trouble with PSB and after badgering and internet postings they resolved it -- but really should it take all that?

Wow not want I want to hear because PSB is the brand I went with, but because I was able to get brand new unblemished speakers a wholesale which was 40% below MSRP so I know that the cost for replacing Brianphoto's sub would not have cost Paradigm a thing. I;m sure even at the discount I got for the PSB's, they still made money.

maybe a customer service thread/forum could be started that tracks the way companies handle customer service to help people make decisions on the products that they are looking at. Just a thought

Greg

[RGA]

Well I would not personally be put off by either paradigm or the PSB incident because even poor customer service can happen to comapnies noted as being good in this area -- maybe they have a temp employee in when the regular is on vacation and something gets screwed up -- bottom line is eventually PSB gave the guy a model up the line -- his cabinets came apart or something and like Paradigm had no replacement. basically divide a speaker by 10 that's about what it costs the manufacturer to build -- smaller makers are often lower in this regard not higher like some believe. My B&W 302 at $300.00 Cad I'd be surprised if it cost B&W more than $30.00 in parts - ditto for that speaker's competitors...and IMO it's worse in the higher models. You consider that the 302 costs roughly the same to ship to Canada that their N805 costs. The costs of physical materials and drivers even at a multiple of 10 which is unlikely would cost them $300.00 and the sepaker goes for $3k. I'm not surprised so many are turning to DIY. At least then with DIY you can buy real woods. Not that I think there is necessarily anything wrong with the speakers pricing BTW -- they are supplying the labour and "know-how" and the designing...If I had to buy all the equipment to build the DM 302 it would probably cost me more money buying the equipment -- and then without the design I may end up bulding a weaker sounding speaker -- but if these companies are not making at LEAST 50% mark-up over costs then why not sell clothes. My dealer has to have 25% to keep his doors open to cover overhead and employees and still make a buck. Bose is attractive to many because they're in the 70% range.

[Pat D]

RGA will this may be true word of mouth referrals and the internet can have a great impact on your business. The amount of information and misinformation on the web can cost a company millions.

remember the febreeze disaster, it was either an email or websites that said using febreeze will kill your pets. Febreeze spent millions of dollars on an ad campaign to show you that it is safe for your pets.

The internet is a very powerful medium and ALL companies need to realize this.



Wow not want I want to hear because PSB is the brand I went with, but because I was able to get brand new unblemished speakers a wholesale which was 40% below MSRP so I know that the cost for replacing Brianphoto's sub would not have cost Paradigm a thing. I;m sure even at the discount I got for the PSB's, they still made money.

maybe a customer service thread/forum could be started that tracks the way companies handle customer service to help people make decisions on the products that they are looking at. Just a thought

Greg

Now, now! Here we have a fellow who said he just got a subwoofer and it turns out he got it a couple of years ago and there was quite a hiatus before he notified Paradigm of the problem with the replacement. No wonder Paradigm seems rather sceptical. I wondered about his story from the beginning as it was the first version of the Paradigm Servo-15 and I couldn't figure out how he had "just" acquired it. I am still wondering if there is more he left out--in any case, he has a fully operational Servo-15, v. 1 with a minor cosmetic defect which is under the grille, for God's sake. I don't see a horror story here and so far my sympathies lie with Paradigm. From everything I've heard, Paradigm's service is very good.

As I recall, the PSB speaker had some of the veener come unglued. It was eventually replaced with a Stratus model, a line above what the customer had had. Just what the breakdown in communication was I was not sure at the time and it was pretty bad, but when Paul Barton heard about it, he sent him some Stratus Silvers.

I went ahead and got PSB Stratus Minis irrespective of the story because it really was the only story of dissatisfaction with PSB's service I had ever heard--and PSB resolved it well. After all, I had been listening to some very fine speakers by B & W, Dali, Sonus Faber, and others up to four times the price and the Stratus Minis seemed as good as they were and also had an overall balance giving a somewhat more distant perspective which I prefer for most recordings.

[corwin99]

RGA, I also have to disagree with some of your car analogy there... take for example Mercedes, who have slipped in recent years, I agree, but they have one of the best (if not the best, but it is slipping) brand loyalty in the industry. Actually, their S-Class if I recall correctly, has better Brand Loyalty than any other line. I know many many mercedes owners that just buy one Benz after another, one of these people are my dear folks, who have owned 4 consecutive Benzes, and have felt that their most recent acquisition is not as nice as it should have been... At any rate, Cars aren't necessarily always upgraded, there are lateral upgrades as well. A person may move from a S-Class Sedan to an M-Class SUV because they find the G-Class ugly, but still want a Mercedes.

The AN/K Spe I recently picked up wouldn't really be considered an upgrade from the Gershman X-1/SW-1... but of course my purchase isn't the norm, since I do have more speakers than most people.

That Tim Horton's experience is quite cool actually. That leads me to another thing.. like you said about the bad day/timing situation, that could have just as easily gone the other way had you been at a difference Timmy's Franchise. My girlfriend used to work at a Timmy's that would NEVER do that. The Owner was far too cheap. Just like you could just have dealt with a Customer Service rep that was in a bad mood... or even perhaps with companies like Lenbrook who are distributors for many companies. They don't reflect the actual companies commitment, just perhaps poor management of personnel or something.

[dave123456@mail.com]

The 99 Civic was my brothers, he bought it when it had 40,000 miles on it, and It was mine at about 90,000 miles. Not a damn thing wrong with it. The only thing I can remember them doing to it was changing the battery. I know 90k isnt awhole lot, but some companies can barelly do that. My moms S- 10 from the 80's, which was taken care of my mom drives like a farmer, crapped out at 100k at was struggling for many miles before that. My friends dads explorers transmission ( 00 Explorer) stopped working at around 90k as well. Mustangs, samething with these theyre junk. We now own 00 Monte Carlo at 60k miles that felt worse ( steering problems) than the civic at 90k. Im glad I never got the late 90's S-10 I had originally planned on buying. Im sure there are many American cars that go beyond 200k, but thats pretty rare.

[GMichael]

Well sense this has turned into a car thread, my last car was a 1992 Mazda MX3-GS. Bought it new, drover it hard, sold it with 196K miles still running like new. The Acura I have now has 145K and still going. I've had several GM's Chevy, Old, Pontiac. They were OK. Most I got out of any of them was 130K.

[Eric Z]

Very cool to hear about the positive customer service experiences. I agree that customer service has slipped dramatically in the past 5-7 years- the world is all about making the money up front! I liked the McDo example of the fries- it's pennies to McDonalds, but means tons to the customer. Same with the Tim Horton's experience- the cost of a frickin' bread bowl and chili is next to nothing.

I worked at a large department clothing store in high school and part of the training was, return anything! Even if someone brought in a noticeably worn pair of jeans- return it, or store credit without a receipt- the customers were so darn happy. Did some customers take advantage of it? Of course they did, but a pair of jeans or button down dress shirts once in a while didn't affect their profits too much!

Nice to hear the positive stories of customer service.

[JSE]

Well, hopefully all those people interested in Paradigm "SPEAKER" customer service issues will know to look in the Off-Topic forum? Oy!

JSE

[dave123456@mail.com]

I went ahead and got PSB Stratus Minis irrespective of the story because it really was the only story of dissatisfaction with PSB's service I had ever heard--and PSB resolved it well. After all, I had been listening to some very fine speakers by B & W, Dali, Sonus Faber, and others up to four times the price and the Stratus Minis seemed as good as they were and also had an overall balance giving a somewhat more distant perspective which I prefer for most recordings.

I also own the Stratus Mini's, and I also enjoy their dark midrange and mellow ( somewhat cut off) highs. My cd collection has a lot of not so good recordings, lots of pop and rock, so not having everything upfront is a good thing imo. At first I was having a lot of problems with my system, but after some placement and room acoustics changes ive realized these are pretty good speakers. I still havent gotten these speakers to sound exactly how I want them, but im guessing after more work to the room then they will become much more enjoyable.

[Pat D]

I also own the Stratus Mini's, and I also enjoy their dark midrange and mellow ( somewhat cut off) highs. My cd collection has a lot of not so good recordings, lots of pop and rock, so not having everything upfront is a good thing imo. At first I was having a lot of problems with my system, but after some placement and room acoustics changes ive realized these are pretty good speakers. I still havent gotten these speakers to sound exactly how I want them, but im guessing after more work to the room then they will become much more enjoyable.

I particularly was impressed with their smooth performance with massed upper strings, better than most speakers. They sounded very nice on all sorts of music, and still do, whether full orchestra, male and female vocals, mixed chorus, piano, harpsichord, guitar. They really are a first class speaker and seem to have no significant faults, things that one notices while listening to them.

PSB informed me that there has been a minor crossover modification since the review in Stereophile, but I doubt if it changed the highs. In any case, their measurements indicate a very flat response (for a speaker) which declines very gently. The high frequencies are certainly there, but not as prominently as with many.

http://stereophile.com/loudspeakerre...29/index4.html

Yes, the upper treble (triangles, tinkly bells, and so on are not as prominent as with many other good speakers. On some recordings, a somewhat more forward presentation is nice but with others this can sound colored or unnatural. My Quad preamp has its Tilt control rather than conventional bass and treble controls, but I suspect a little touch to the treble control would bring up the extreme highs, if desired for some recordings. Had I wanted a somewhat more forward balance, I could have gotten the B & W 705 (they work well with a subwoofer) or the Paradigm Signature S2 (and might have had I been able to get one in for a direct comparison).

My speakers are placed about 20 inches from the rear wall, which is where the balance with male voices seems best, and about 3 feet from the side walls. The speakers are about 7 feet apart and the center listening position is a bout 9.5 feet from the speakers. They re toed in some but I can still see the "inside" side of the speakers from the center listening position (much as the owners manual suggests!), which seems to give me the smoothest presentation of the massed strings on some recordings. The room set up is a bit peculiar and can't much be helped. The equipment cabinet (open, no glass doors) is on the left side wall but all there is on the right is a large overstuffed chair. A room friendly speaker with a wide and even dispersion, like the Stratus Mini, can take this in stride.

[Eric Z]

i know this isn't the "share your personal car story" section of an automobile forum, but thought i'd share because it goes with what some have talk about before- basic can be better.

my wife's family bought a ford festiva in the mid-80s so all their kids (6 of them) can learn a manual trans and just take short drives to and from work (they paid about $5K for it). it finally died with 280K miles- about 15 years old. the only major repair was the clutch.

talk about getting your money's worth!