My player quit working recently so I contacted David to get it repaired. After three attempts to fax me, the problem was on my end, it got through. I was so surprised that I didnt have to pay 1 cent for shipping not one. Everything was covered by them. I sent the player out Monday about 2 and by Wednesday my player was diagnosed with a dead HDD. Thursday my player is on my way back to the states FedEx Priority International. I wish all customer service could be like this.

I totally agree. David looked at my blinking display issue and when he couldn't find the problem, replaced the whole VFD. They seriously rock across the pond!

I have never had to send anything to him, but he has always responded immediately to my emails, and has sent parts for me to do my own repairs, (hard drive cables, sleds without the lip, etc.)
VERY IMPRESSIVE!!

I have to second (third ? ...) that.

A few weeks ago my power connector broke.
I posted here (after two years you don't expect warranty) and david contacted me and sent me a new connector ... for free.

Keep it up!

Ok, so my story is not so exciting, but I needed a new knob and wanted to know about the I2C bus inside for my thermostat controlled fan... no problem. He's very responsive in email. They do Rock.

I've been having massive incompetency problems with Hewlett Packard lately. They've officially reached "dumber than the phone company" status. I'm still debating whether I should put the experience in writing on my web site.

So, as far as Empeg, it's refreshing to talk to a company where the people are intelligent and thoughtful.


-Ben

They've officially reached "dumber than the phone company" status.

Naah. We had a problem with our phone recently and the hoops we had to go through to get a service call in was ridiculous. There was no tech service number on any of the bills, and the number listed on the web site wasn't a valid number. So we called the billing number (ever noticed how quickly those calls get answered??), explained the situation and asked to be forwarded. The first time they forwarded us to Pizza Hut. So we called back and tried again. This time we got forwarded to directory enquiries. At this point we give up with the phone and go back to the horrendous web site. After hunting through way too many levels to find the tech support page, we enter a problem report. Sure enough, a few minutes later an email arrives. Automated response..."this is your ticket number ### blah blah. We'll try to read your report within 4 business days". Aaarrgh! So we go back to the phone, using the same method as before - via billing. Complained about being forwarded to Pizza Hut and Directory Enquiries before and asked to be put through to the real tech support number this time. The girl explained that although Pizza Hut had been a mistake, the Directory Enquiries hadn't. Apparantly the tech support system is set up to forward calls there when they are overly busy. WTF?!

Anyway, eventually we got though to tech support, and the phone got fixed 2 days later. It still took the best part of a week for anyone to read that online problem report though.

Now I could understand this if I was talking about some small hick-town phone company. But this was Verizon.

Yeah its friday noon not even 4 days later and I have a working player in my hands.

You think your phone company story is impressive? Try working with a useless ISP to get a useless pac-bell rep to come out and fix your DSL line. I was without a DSL line for a month because I needed a new modem and they had no way of diagnosing anything other than getting TCP/IP settings strait and seeing if there's a sync light. It took four truck rolls to get my dsl working. I would have switched to cable if it had been available...

Matthew

In reply to:

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I've been having massive incompetency problems with Hewlett Packard lately

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We've got a multi-function fax machine at work that started picking up 20 sheets of paper at a time and jamming the mechanism. The boss's fix was to leave it empty and put in a single sheet when required (!)

I spent a while searching the 'net and eventually found a fix-kit from HP which was completely free. It was a lump of cardboard which puts a new piece of rubber onto the paper feed thing when you push it into the paper slot. I was impressed that although it was obviously a manufactuing fault they didn't try and charge you for postage or if it was out of warrantly.

Then someone mentioned it on slashdot and linked to an HP page which explained that the kit was free due to a class-action lawsuit settlement

Gareth

I'm going through the pacbell thing right now. I just moved, and i was one of their earliest SF customers... so i've been with them for over 3 years or so i believe. I was insistent that they grandfather me for my move so i could keep static IP and the same plan. It took about 10 phone calls, but i finally got to the Senior Manager for DSL provisioning, Danny Lam, who is actually an asset to that company. I'm definitely going to talk him up to his superiors, because he gave me his direct number, actually calls me back, and is going out of his way to make sure i get what i want after dealing with all the BS i went through. I'll find out today if they have any static IP's to give. You should see my phone log... it's 3 pages long so far.

Yeah, I'd had my DSL about that long when my dsl bridge ("modem") died, or pac bell screwed up their VC id's. It took them a month to figure this out, because old DSL installations are wired on the other pair in the jack, and their VC id's are different. Either way, I now feel confident that I know more than the tech support staff at either my ISP or pac bell.

When dealing with tech support in general, the ques you have to get into are the don't-call-us-we'll-call-you ques. They're the only people that actually know what they're doing.

Matthew

Not that it avoids the phone company entirely, but check out SpeakEasy for DSL service. They provide static IPs (multiple, if you want), are geek-friendly, and have gotten good word-of-mouth all around.

respect David and thx for super support!!!