Drewd (Drew Dunn) (Shellbrook Audio)

[Jayman]

Hey all,

My experience with Drew and Shellbrook to this point has been a mixed bag...

I love to support "Home" based businesses. I am a huge believer in not giving any money to the big companies if I can avoid it especially when it comes to audio. When I saw Shellbrook Audio Lab I knew that I wanted to get one of his Amps.

During the first week of November I sent Drew an eMail with some questions about the Signature Maxi Head Amp. He was VERY quick to respond to them and answered all of my questions in an extremely friendly manner. I pondered over it for a bit and decided, based on his eBay feedback, that I could trust him. So I sent him one more eMail asking about lead times and making sure I could get it before November 23rd as I was leaving for a holiday. This was on November 8th or 9th (not exactly sure.) He responded, again, extremely fast and said it would not be an issue. I responded again saying that I would place my order on Friday the 11th. I called him on that Friday and we talked for a few minutes, placed the order and then even chatted about the business itself. (Like I said I always try to support the little guy and was interested in what he was doing.) Anyway, he said that he would "fast track" it and get it in the mail by the 18th so that I would have it before I left town. When the 18th came and I did not have a tracking number, I went to his web site and saw that mine was in a "testing" mode on the 16th. So I assumed everything was fine. When I still did not have a tracking number by the 21st (Monday) I got nervous and sent him an eMail looking for status. I got no response this time. I then again on the 23rd sent another eMail and called him. Again no responses. I left for my Holiday on the 24th. While away I sent him another eMail asking if everything was OK and asking for status. Again, nothing. So I waited until I returned home on December 2nd hoping to see a box waiting for me. Nope. I then checked my eMail accounts looking for a tracking number. Negative. I then checked the Shellbrook site and my status was still "November 16th - Testing” I have since, called and left 2 messages and sent 2 more emails. Still no contact from Drew.

Now I am patient and I will give him some more time to reply to me as I can see from some of the posts above that he tends to get backed up. But I will be honest. I have been kind and polite and all I have asked for was communication from Drew to fill me in on status. I understand things happen that can't be avoided. Just let me know.

I hope I will be able to follow this up with some positive news.

I will let you know how things progress.

Jay
Tampa, FL

[KimbaWLion]

Hello peoples,

I am not here to accuse, flame, or bad mouth anyone. I am also in a bit of pickle. I ordered an upgraded Maxi Moy with several cables back on April 11, 2005. Drew had answered EVERY email I had sent to him. He, at this point was answering my phone calls. I was to go away on an extended trip, in August, abroad, which is why I needed the Amp. This sets the stage.

He had several delays with materials and the amp was not able to be delivered on time. I am a particularly patient person so I said its all good but what can you do for me since I was inconvinienced a bit. He offered the A/C trickle charger for free, and blackgate capacitors at cost, added a 1/4" nutrek ( SP? ) jack and an low charge LED, he even offered a custom mod I wanted, RCA output jacks for the way I wanted to use the AMP. Even though my amp was not ready, I had my brother order one based on my word and he received his mini head with no problems and loves it. I received an email saying that a package was to be mailed but it never came to my house.

Drew then offered to make me a custom cable for my
Senn HD600s, even though I still had not received ANYTHING yet, I was placated and was willing to wait. I last spoke to Drew on the phone around 9/22/05. I have lost count of the emails and phone calls I have made since then.

I am not trying to bad mouth ANYONE!!!!! I STILL harbor hopes this can work. I am already out $200.00, I have no money for anything else at this point (being married with a sick wife and a 12 year old daughter tend to drain ones money you know ) and there are some REALLY great deals out there for the holidays too!!!
I mean since this is WELL over 45 days, PayPal could careless, and at 8 months I have to TRY and go to my bank and HOPE and PRAY they will do something.

The worst part is Drew seems like such a great guy! I bet he is, and is just having trouble keeping up. One might suspect me since this is my first post, even after being a member for 8 months. All I can tell you I am out $200.00, I have no amp and Drew has not contacted me since September. I even emailed and left messeges that he can simply PayPal me the money back and we would be square. I am not the type to flame or bad mouth anyone and I HOPE people who read this do not read that into this. If you can offer help I would appreciate but I TRULY doubt that anyone here can. I have PMed the moderators here who suggested that I say something here and you may even find quotes of my PMs to them since I REALLY do not believe in badmouthing and flaming.
After all is said and done the ONLY thing I can suggest is this, no matter how nice and well meaning Drew is, if you CHOSE to buy from Drew since it seems like he makes a great product,use PayPal or a credit card and take LESS then 45 days to file a claim if there is an issue, that way you are safe. Once you get past that 45 days PayPal could care less.

I have PMed one of the moderators and FULLY understand its not head-fi's job or responsibilty to handle my screwups. This post is made here by one of their suggestions. I hope that somebody can help etc., but I hold out little hope for that. This post is MERELY to relate my experience with Drew, no more no less. If you wish to believe that I am bad mouthing Drew or flaming him that is something you CHOOSE to believe, that is NOT my intention. Once again thank you for your patience and indulgence in this matter.

KimbaWLion

I may not be the BEST guy! But... I am not the BAD GUY!!!
Coop, from Megas XLR

[KimbaWLion]

Drew was contacted by another Head-fier here who knows how to get in touch with him. VERY shortly there after I was contacted by Drew after he was regiven my contact information.

He was very appologetic over the whole ordeal, as I stated before, Drew does not seem like a person to intentionally hurt anyone.

Several things happen to make things an issue according to Drew. The first thing being is that my email, an AOL account starting bouncing all his emails to me. I can believe that BECAUSE this is not the first time some like that has happened to me. The second thing is he says that he received none of the phone messeges I had left for him and that his cel provider was giving him grief. I can buy that for 2 reasons. One is that he had ALWAYS returned any phone call I had made until then. The second reason is I have had cellphone issues similar to his, not quite the same but close.

Drew offered to make me any of the amps I wanted as a way to make up for what had happened. I said I wanted on of his Hybrid Heads with the linear power supply. It will still be a bit before I see it and still have nothing at the moment but atleast its a start. I now have hope again. Thanks to the people at head-fi for helping out. I will keep everyone posted on what happens, as I JUST said I have nothing yet and it will be ATLEAST 3 weeks before I get anything so I will take a look and see approach.
Thanks again everyone,

KimbaWLion

[KimbaWLion]

I contacted Drew the other day to talk about some mods I wished to discuss and add the Millet Hybrid Head.

After some discussion Drew is going to add the following options:

1. An Autobiasing Switch so IF I wish to roll tubes for any of the the three recommended ones, the tubes will be automatically biased for listening.

2. Instead of BUF 534 or OPA 551 buffers he is going to intall tri-diamond ones.

3. He is also going to install a custom active crossfeed with a switch to turn it on and off for convenience.

4. He is going to make it a dual input amp with a selector switch for easy source switching.

5. He is going to add passive RCA outputs .

He says he will need 3-4 weeks to make all these mods possible. I will keep everybody posted, if everything goes right I am going to get ONE HELL of an amp. As usual the same cavates stay. It's been a long time but things are starting to work out. Contact has been no issue. I hope this works out and people can have faith in Drew, he just comes across so earnest and is trying to make amends and show he can make good products in timely basis.

[ebteeiii]

Well I've finally given up on Drew (Shellbrook Labs). I purchased a Maxi Moy Signature amp in early November. It arrived around five weeks later and I hooked it up to my computer source and I allowed it to charge overnight. I couldn't get it to work using the Shellbrook directions that I received with my unit, so I contacted Drew. He e-mailed me back that the directions were backwards and to reverse the in and out cable from my source. I was actually pleased with the sound that came through my headphones at the time, Grado 225's, however I found that the supplied two 9v rechargeable batteries only stayed charged for maybe an hour. I have e-mailed Drew six times over the last month and a half with no response. This was posted on his web site:

If you own a Mini Head Signature, please read this!

Some Mini Head Signatures shipped with AC adapters that do not produce enough voltage to fully charge the battery. If you have a Mini Head Signature and you are getting less than 12 hours of life from the battery, please contact me and I will arrange to replace the AC adapter.

Though it isn't the same amp I'm experiencing the same problem. I surrender!!! I'm moving on from this poor customer service experience and will replace this amp asap.


1/30/06 - Update
With the help of head-fi member KimbaWLion I've have made some progress. Drew contacted me via e-mail and said he has not received any of the past half dozen e-mails I have sent him due to isp problems. His e-mail included his cell phone and home phone and asked me to contact him. I finally spoke directly to Drew today and we discussed my amp problem in length. Drew was extremely pleasant and very apologetic for my communication issues and that I had received an amp with some problems. Drew then went on to say he would build me a new amp tonight and ship it out to me tomorrow along with postage so I could return the defective amp. If shellbrook labs is indeed having isp problems and my new amp is received as stated, I will retract any and all negative comments I have made in this post. I would also like to add that the amp sounds very nice when it is operating properly.

2/11/06 - Update
Still no amp. Called and left a voice mail.

2/13/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call.

2/14/06 - Update
Still no amp. Called and left another voice mail. My patience is wearing thin...again. Now I've gone and completely lost my mind and called Todd the Vinyl Junkie and ordered a new Corda Aria. Gosh...I wonder which amp will show up first?

2/16/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call.

2/18/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. Another e-mail sent.

2/20/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail.

2/22/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail.

2/23/06 - Update
My new Corda Aria arrived and I love it. Called and left another message on Drew's cell phone. Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail.

2/26/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail. Another e-mail sent.

3/1/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail. Another e-mail sent.

3/3/06 - Update
Called and left another message on Drew's cell phone. Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail.

3/14/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail. Another e-mail sent.

3/22/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail. Another e-mail sent.

4/7/06 - Update
Still no amp. No return phone call. No return e-mail. In the past two weeks, I have sent out numerous e-mails and left messages on both his cell phone and his home phone.

4/9/06 - Update
I finally contacted Drew via his ebay account and although very apologetic, he did not waste my time with excuses. He simply asked which amp I needed and then said a new one would go out on Monday. I want to believe this will happen, however I will remain skeptical until it happens. I really hope Drew gets it together, his products are good but the suspect service is well documented.

4/13/06 - Update
Well the mailman came to my door with a package in hand. I have finally received my replacement amp. It's the black Maxi Head Signature and it appears to be in working order. I finally get to close out this post.
__________________

[geeveetee]

I emailed Drew with a few questions about power-supplies, cables etc and always got a quick response.

Then I decided to ordered an Ascent and cable on 22 July 2005.

The Ascent arrived in Sydney on 29 August 2005. (But no cable). The Ascent worked for about 10 days. I emailed Drew - he instructed me to ship it back and he'd repair and resend (including the cable). On October 6 he emailed that it would ship either the next day or the day after.

I guess it's no surprise to learn that nothing has been forthcoming. And of course the 45-day paypal time period had expired.

No responses to emails, no nothing.

I only wish I'd read more feedback earlier and decided to deal with someone more reputable.

It's an expensive lesson to learn and casts so much discredit on what otherwise seems to be a community of genuine people. Hopefully others will take heed of our mistakes!

Cheers!
Geoff

[hickcity]

I purchased a MaxiMoy Signature from Shellbrook on December 21, 2005. I had not read the posts to this thread prior to my order since I was a Head-Fi newbie at the time. Once I had read through the thread, I naturally became concerned, but decided to hang back and be patient. My order was soon listed on The Shellbrook 'Order' page at their website with a project finished build date of January 9, 2006. On January 13th the website was updated to show my order status as Shipped.

After 2 weeks of anticipation I sent my first email to check status. I got a response from Drew Dunn which seemed pretty convoluted. (The server was down, he'd check with USPS, if need be his assistant would send out another, just refuse the 2nd package if it arrives.) I waited another week. I left a phone message, no response. I sent another email, got the same - 'I'll check on the shipment and get back to you later today', and then nothing. On the last day to file a PayPal dispute within the 45 day window (something I learned from this thread), I followed through with a dispute (I have not had a problem in over 200 transactions).

Then to my surprise, the USPS tracking actually showed a package in transit the following Monday. The Shellbrook shipment arrived on Wednesday February 8th. The Pitney-Bowes printed postage label stated January 12th!! I ended the dispute claim with PayPal, and sent Drew a confirming email.

During the long wait I had time to purchase (and receive) two DIY cmoy's, a PA2v2, a Little Dot Micro, Porta Corda III and a Musical Fidelity X-Can V3. With ample time to listen to each portable, and with the X-Can setting the standard, I was in a better position to assess the MaxiMoy Signature. It is well built and very musical. In the end, I probably should have done more homework before plunking down the cash, and who knows how I'll feel about all this in 3 months.

End result: I feel I'm getting decent value for the money with the MaxiMoy Signature, and it turns out that while Drew could improve his customer service approach, he had essentially told the truth.

[Pia]

I discovered this forum too late.
The facts: I bought (as a gift for my boyfriend) a Maxi Moy Signature from Shellbrook Labs on December 31, 2005. Expected shipping date was soon listed as 01/13/2006.
On 01/31/2006, I e-mailed Drew asking for the status of the amplifier. He answered: “I expect to have your amplifier finished this week”. Few days later on Shellbrook’s website the status changed from “testing” to “waiting for parts” (PCB issues as you can see on the news page of Shellbrook site where I’m still listed).
On Wednesday, 03/01/2006, I mailed Drew again, asking again for the status. The answer: “You can expect an email with the shipping details by Saturday afternoon”.
Having NOT received any shipping detail from Drew, I mailed him for the 3rd time on 03/10/2006 asking again for the status. Since then, I haven’t received any response from him, only silence (I’m sending a mail per day). Do you think 3 months isn’t enough? All this time I have been kind and comprehensive and I understand things that can't be avoided happen but my patience is wearing thin, and I’m beginning to feel frauded. The only reality, at the moment, is that I’m under of 245 USD. Excuse me for my poor english, I hope I’ve made the facts clear. I will edit and post any further updates, of course.

[DJ_JonnyV]

Yeah, I had been somewhat of a backer of Drew since I won a Maxi last September from him and it arrived promptly and had received pretty good customer service from him. However, when I ordered a Maxi Moy Sig from him at the end of November, it had been quite a struggle. Damn thing didn't work at first, so I sent it back to him. After some back and forth phone calls, it finally arrived again, but the wrong color. Figured the hell with it. Just recently, I sent him a message trying to help out a fellow Head-Fier that I sold my original Maxi to and power supply regarding the power supply not working correctly. Haven't heard back from him. You know, it looked like this cat had gotten his act together for a while after the initial outbreak of him screwing up orders, but it looks like he's fallen back into the abyss. I know on his website he posted that he was scaling back production and models, but this doesn't mean he can screw people over. I'm done with the guy.

[Mikeyx23]

I ordered a Signature Edition Maxi Moy from Drew in late January, and thankfully (after reading through the horror stories on this thread) it arrived approximately a month later after a delay due to a bad shipment Shellbrook received of PCB boards. After having it in my possession for about 15 minutes, I opened it up to take a look inside. I noticed immediately that the left and right channel op amps were OPA227s, and not the much more pricey OPA627s that are standard for the signature edition. (I'm guessing the 3rd op-amp for the 3dB bass boost is supposed to be a OPA227). I emailed him soon afterwards and received a follow up the same day:

I'm very sorry for the error! When we perform the initial power on tests on
the amplifier, we do them with the OPA227 opamps, then replace them with
OPA627s for burn in. I must have forgotten to replace them in your
amplifier. I will send a set of OPA627s to you right away.

Thank you for letting me know!

Drew

This was perfectly fine, but after a month and a half of waiting and sending two ignored e-mails to Drew, nothing ever came. I finally just bit it and ordered two OPA627s from DigiKey for $18.80 a piece. It's a shame- the Signature Maxi is incredible sounding with the hd650s, but I can't believe the amount of screwovers after reading this thread. Also, the Shellbrook website has been dead for a couple of months now. It was supposed to have opened back up on April 3rd, but it hasn't yet. This guy would have a huge business if he was more dedicated.