Hello,

I'm having problems with Empeg Support.
In the end of December my brother's tuner module stoped functioning in FM Band, but still works well with AM band.
On January 14th of 2003 I sent an e-mail to support@empeg.com as I did in other ocasions and David Moss (dmoss@sonicblue.com) was a very kind guy as usual. He told me 2 days later that It sounds like an faulty opamp, or a dry solder joint on one, and he needs to bring It in to service.
He also told me that Car support has passed to Rob Schofield and he'll contact me to arrange a repair. Note that the unit was under one year warranty until February.

I didn't recive any kind of contact from Rob and send another e-mail to David on 01/24/2003 asking about this issue. He answered me 2 days later and apologised for the delay with support and said to me: "Rob has been having some problems and is still catching up". I still didn't recive any response from Rob and on February 19th I sent another e-mail to David asking him how could I send the tuner to repair. As I didn't recive any response from David or Rob, I resent the e-mail on march 7th.

Finally I got a response from Rob on March 18th asking me some things about the problem and telling me that he recived 25 players for repair in just six weeks and that is the origin of the delay.
I saw the message and answered It on 26/03/03 with the information he asked me and told Rob about David's conclusion (I need to send the unit to repair). He answered me in 04/03/2003 and he agreed with David's opinions. Definitelly I'll need to send the tuner to repair.
On 04/07/2003 I answered Rob's questions about when I got the unit and etc. After all that I don't have any kind of response
from Rob or Empeg Support until now and I resent the e-mail a
couple times more.

Last week I had another problem: my main unit faded out half of It's display and I think I need to substitute the VFD. I sent another e-mail to Rob asking about the tuner problem and my player VFD problem, but If the stuffs continues like that, I don't think I'll recive any answer from Rob or Empeg support.

Are anyone having similar problems with Empeg Support? Until December 2002 I did'nt have any problems with them and I always heard great things about Empeg Support.

Could anyone help me?

Thanks,

Marcelo Gomes

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.

Rob WILL get to you. I'd guess the tuner will be covered by the warranty as you reported it within the year. Car Support is just very busy just now, and I also think Rob was away for a while. I know its hard waiting, but we all are!

Just FYI, I officially left SonicBlue in the first week of Janurary - I continued answering odd emails and helping Rob for a few weeks, which is why you had responses from me until my email account was cancelled.

Yea im predicting it'll take a while, I had to glue my handle, although I dont carry it/pull it with the handle

Philip,

Thank you for your supoport and hope you are right.
You can imagine how anxious I'm about this issue. Especially now when I read about the end of support activities in May 31th and I still didnd't recieve any response from Rob in more than a month. (Remember I started my contact with support almost four months ago).
I'll wait Rob contact me with further information about my problems with the tuner and player display.
If I could change the display by myself I think It'll be a better option than send It to England to repair.

I know he is very busy but I'm waiting for several months now and I'm afraid to loose the last opotunit to repair my tuner and player display.

Thank you,

Marcelo Gomes.
Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

David,

I only wants to say thank you. As I wrote in my first message you were always very kind and helped me with my problems in several occasions. (You sent me new IDE cables to two of my units when we detected " the loose cable problem". I also have a problem with the remote cover and you sent me a new one.)
I always think about the empeg support as the best one I have ever seen. Because of that I'm so confused now with all of these problems.

I understand your position and I like to say thank you again for your efforts.

Best Regards,

Marcelo Gomes
Riode Janeiro - Brazil.

Its very much a transitional time for support I think. With official car support being stopped, its my guess that Rob will take it over completely. Once the backlog is cleared I imagine it'll be back to being smooth sailing.

Because of that I'm so confused now with all of these problems

It's not so confusing really. David resigned and we had to throw together some kind of alternative which proved to be in a different country where none of our shipping and billing systems worked, and on a contract basis. Clearly SB had no real interest in this as they were in the process of going bankrupt and we did the best we could in the circumstances.

Rob is contracted by SB to fulfill outstanding warranty repairs. After that there is expected to be a private source of support which will be announced in due course.

Note that I (nor anyone else on this BBS except for Rob) no longer work for SONICblue so this information is given in good faith but is not at all official.

Rob

I just want a new handle. Mine has been broken for weeks now.

Rob,

Sorry I can't answer your message before.


>>Because of that I'm so confused now with all of these problems.

It's not so confusing really. David resigned and we had to throw together some kind of alternative which proved to be in a different country where none of our shipping and billing systems worked, and on a contract basis. Clearly SB had no real interest in this as they were in the process of going bankrupt and we did the best we could in the circumstances.

Nice to hear that you have reinforcement of David now.
I know SB are in a delicate situation, but I didn't have problems with support until now. David sent me drive cables, a remote and some screws without problems until December 2002.

I don't know about the basis of the contract but I have an international credit card and I think this could solve the problems with billing.
Shipping won't be a problem as we have Mail, Fedex, UPS, DHL and all of the major courier services covering Brazil. In past David always sent me the stuff by air mail and I recived It without any kind of problem.
The greatest problem now is the support will be discontinued in the end of the month and I'm trying to send the tuner unit to repair at almost four months now. I also have a player unit to repair and I don't know what to do with It.

In reply to:

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Rob is contracted by SB to fulfill outstanding warranty repairs. After that there is expected to be a private source of support which will be announced in due course.

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My tuner module was under Warranty when I communicated the problem to Empeg Support and I think It remains under It as I can't recived the instructions to send It to repair until now. If I think I could repair it by myself, I really would try to do It, but David told me the problem is with an SMD component and It's beyond my capabilities.

The problem with VFD display is a very different issue as the palyer was out of Warrant time and I think It is possible to repairiIt by myself just replacing the VFD.
Do you think the problem is really the VFD and I could replace It by myself? Where could I bought a new VDF display?

In reply to:

---

Note that I (nor anyone else on this BBS except for Rob) no longer work for SONICblue so this information is given in good faith but is not at all official.

Rob

---

I understand and I like to thank you for your efforts with Empeg support and especially with the answer about some of my questions. I hope we can solve all of this mess in a short time.

Thank you,

Marcelo Gomes.

I know SB are in a delicate situation, but I didn't have problems with support until now

SB didn't go bankrupt until now

I don't know about the basis of the contract but I have...
Shipping won't be a problem as we have...

No, the problems have been logistical (mainly related to accounting) at this end (and with our suppliers). It has taken months to resolve them all, and now we're shutting it down - how annoying is that!

My tuner module was under Warranty when I communicated the problem to Empeg Support

So it's covered and will get fixed..

The problem with VFD display is a very different issue as the palyer was out of Warranty

Rob will quote you for the repair and should be able to provide information on what would be involved doing it yourself, although all of that info can be found on the BBS anyway.

Regards

Rob

Hello there,

SB didn't go bankrupt until now

I know that!

No, the problems have been logistical (mainly related to accounting) at this end (and with our suppliers). It has taken months to resolve them all, and now we're shutting it down - how annoying is that!

I understand your problems and I'm happy you guys are solving them. But I'm sad I'm bringing to you more problems than you already have.
I just want to know when you could repair my tunner module because I want know when and where I'll need to send It.
Another question is about my display. I'm not sure if the problem is with the VFD itself or if I could have some other parts involved.If the problem is only the VFD you could send It to me with instructions on replace It?

So it's covered and will get fixed..

When?
Look I'm not trying to put you under pressure, but I think if you could give me a prevision It'll be fine.

Rob will quote you for the repair and should be able to provide information on what would be involved doing it yourself, although all of that info can be found on the BBS anyway.

I'll be pleased if you could give some directions.
I looked for this information in the FAQ but I can't find anything similar to my problem. I think the closest information is in the section "My display is blank!". But as told you my display has only the left half blank. I also used the search engine in the BBS but couldn't find anything like my problem again. But I saw some recent messages saying that support (Rob?) can get dislpays and PCBs if someone needs.
If I could repair It by myself It'll be much easier for me.

The last question:
Did you guys recive my last message to supoort@empeg.com ? I'm still waiting for a reply and It'll take two weeks now.

Thank You,

Marcelo Gomes.

In reply to:

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Did you guys recive my last message to support@empeg.com ? I'm still waiting for a reply and It'll take two weeks now.

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On this subject, I'm still waiting a reply, and have been for a month now. I've got a duff hard disk cable, which has been temporarily fixed with blu-tack, but I'd still like to get a proper replacement for this.

Sent my first message on the 26th April, and resent on the 10th May in case it got lost. I've had nothing back yet

Yeah, this backed up support thing sorta sucks. I've learned from my own quasi support position that people are almost always willing to wait as long as you keep them updated. It takes a minute to send a quick batch email to everyone in the support queue saying "i got your email, i'm a bit backed up, i'll get to it asap", and keep updating every week. But when people are in the dark they get ancy and pissed real quick. I have no clue what Rob S is going through and what is the situation with transfering support, so take all that as just a suggestion. I know i'd be progressively upset if my empeg was out of commision for a month despite being told that support would be given up to May 31st, which hasn't arrived yet.

I sent a request for the cost of replacing my rotary controller since it's flake city these days, and am eagerly waiting a response too.

Hi, So I just dropped my player today. This means there is no support? It's summer time and I dont have a direct back up. I only have a Mark I, which I guess could be installed, but I obviously love my mark IIa.

What's the time frame for repairs? Because I can solder, and other stuff, and i have replaced a blown screen, but it looks like i did a little doozy on it this time. it wont power on at all now.

sigh. help!

Have you cracked the case to see what might be wrong? It usualy takes a lot to get a player to not turn on at all. By "not turn on" do you mean you've hooked it up and looked for a boot log?

Matthew

Hey! you were right.

I played around with it a bit. seems the display cable pulled off the motherboard from the fall. That extra stuff i put on the fill nipple when i replaced my display maybe saved it! It was acting funky for a second, but the connections are all back in place. However. The handle on the empeg is completely destroyed.

How am I going to get a new handle? I use the handle ALOT.
Economy being what it is, I cant shell out $600 on replacement handle.
any suggestions?

Rob Schofield has some handles to sell, and probably some fascias as well.

Rob

think the closest information is in the section "My display is blank!". But as told you my display has only the left half blank.

Ah. That is definitely a problem that can only be solved with a new display, and requires the intervention of support.

It's not in the FAQ because you're the only other person I've heard of (besides myself) who's ever had the problem.