Hi All,

I'd like to thank Dominic and SonicBlue for making things right in my case. My tuner has been shipped - thanks to SonicBlue fixing the incredibly poor Digital River experience.

It's nice to see Dominic from Sonicblue stand up and take responsibility for all the mistakes which relate to support/customer services. But all should remember: this is an unofficial empeg BBS as stated before. If you, as a customer, keep on ranting about mistakes and taking on a very nasty tone with your posts, realize that you, yourself, are also taking part in deteriorating the SB-customer relationship. After all, as far as I can tell, the overall picture is that support has been good. If it would be bad, Sonicblue's attitude would be of "you have a problem, so have others, we don't care anymore". Luckily this is not the case!

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 # 080000263 (queue 1232) 6+20Gb blue/red

Good point, Edwin.

I've seen what you're talking about actually happen: Bad comments on a BBS causing the customer relationship to deteriorate.

I participate in a forum called the "Home Theater Spot" where the primary discussions are about Mitsubishi wide-screen projection television sets. The problem is that whenever something goes wrong with someone's set, they complain about it on the BBS and ask for help.

As a result, the BBS seems to be full of nothing but complaints. This scares away potential customers doing web research prior to purchase. The truth is that Mits makes great televisions, and the only problem is that Mits doesn't participate on the BBS to answer specific queries.

At this BBS, on the other hand, we have the developers of the product directly discussing any problems with us. That makes this BBS a selling point rather than a source of dissent. Mits would do well to learn a lesson from this BBS.

Unfortunately, they don't understand the power of web forums yet. As a result, they have threatened Home Theater Spot because they think it has been damaging them rather than helping them. The Spot has been posting information on how to repair and service the sets, as well as how to correct known defects in the sets, because Mits service centers have been generally poor in dealing with those particular problems. Mits feels that this information is proprietary, dangerous, and should not be revealed to the wrong persons. They have even gone so far as to "lock out" the adjustments of some of these features in their newer model sets. It is completely the wrong attitude.

All I'm saying is: be cautious about how you bash SonicBlue in this forum. That sort of thing can turn sour pretty fast. I've seen it happen.

___________
Tony Fabris

Sorry to hear about these Mitsubishi-forum related problems...

As far as I am participating in this BBS, I can reveal it really improves the user experience of the product(s)!!! Since the empeg BBS is the first I've ever joined and it has pleased me to a far extent, I've tried to get into other BBSs... So far, all attempts to get a really quick and adequate reply from them have failed. 3x hurray for the (unofficial) empeg BBS!!!! Every day I cannot read the new content is a day not lived (whooooo, that's heavy stuff for the mind)

Edwin de Vaan
mk2 rev.7 # 080000263 (queue 1232) 6+20Gb blue/red

Sorry to hear about these Mitsubishi-forum related problems... As far as I am participating in this BBS, I can reveal it really improves the user experience of the product(s)!

The truth is that the Mitsubishi forum also improves the user experience of the products. But you have to wade through the Mits-bashing to get to the nuggets of gold.

If it weren't for the information in that forum, I would have been terribly unhappy with my TV set, because I discovered (only after I purchased it) that I was outside the range of any in-home service technicians. And I don't have a car big enough to cart the set back to a service center.

So as a result, I've had to perform any repairs and calibrations on the set myself, even if they would have been covered under warranty. Fortunately, the forum gave me details on how to do all of the necessary work, and I'm happy with my home theater. If it weren't for that forum, I would have been a very unhappy customer.

___________
Tony Fabris

Tony, Between this BBS and the Mits one, how do you get any work done???





Murray
I made a conscious descision in a semi-conscious state

... and how many other BBS do you pop up on that we haven't heard about yet?

(list 6284, Mk1 S/N 00299 4GB blue [for sale]. Mk2 S/N 080000094 26GB blue)