Be Aware of Shell Brook Lab - Page 4  

Everything you say has validity but it's still not the point many are trying to make. While people are obviously frustrated that their amp is late in delivery it's the lack of response and seemingly less than truthful information he has given people. How about an update for people? How about a simple reply? If he's coming on here and makes his way to the amp forum for a read, then he obviously has the time to reply to PM's and emails with information for his customers. I just don't understand, these are his customers. Again, as I have said, I think people would rather hear him say that their amp is going to take another month than be ignored or told it had already shipped when it hadn't. The fact he tells a customer he has shipped something when he hasn't, an outright lie, is defining of his character and it boggles me as to why people seemingly defend him. Who says DIYer's should be held to a higher standard you ask? I don't think they are thinking he should be held to a higher standard at all. Dealing with corporations over a refund for a DVD player is a matter of dealing with policies and bureaucracy. There usually aren't people lying to you or outright ignoring you in those cases.

Point Taken

Sean,
Point taken. I just think the actual number of folks with a complaint is far outweighed by the number of orders taken without. How many times have we been in a line and been amazed at the outrageuos crass attitude and expectations of another person in line? As an employee of a huge bureaucracy I am well aware that most of the "policies" and "Bureaucracy" is designed to cover up those lies and delays businesses/hospitals refuse to admit to. (PM me confidentially to know where NOT to get healthcare you'd be suprised -hope my boss doesn't find me here ) I am just trying to say we are working with folks dealing with real-life and doing this on the side. Even bureaucracies have people working a "steady" 9-5 or 24hrs/day to keep folks at bay.
Maybe an option would be to submit partial payment at order and full payment just before shipping. I have suggested this with a few DIY'ers for my first interaction and it has ALWAYS been accepted. That way some of the "traditional business" model is deferred and both sides can feel like a good faith effort has been made. There is no excuse for NO response but I have the feeling there is a bit more going on here. A really nice computer tracking program and home UPN scanner to scan items as you walk them to the mailbox might help and is not too cost prohibitive to keep a business going.
This is fun and all but we can't all be getting the greatest sound from our computers. Maybe we should just listen to our own systems and be happy we've got tunes.

-RyBread

BS

RyBread 5 of your 7 posts praise Shellbrook Lab.

Read the thread there’s a lot more going on than a few minor oversights.

“A really nice computer tracking program and home UPN scanner to scan items as you walk them to the mailbox might help”

Yeah right read this satified customer:

“My frustration with him was that on three different occassions he replied that the refund was on its way to me. Each time giving me the Day and Time it was mailed out. In each case it hadn't actually been mailed even though Drew stated it had.”


It’s nice you’re happy with the service but there are a lot of others that are not. It’s not a few simple oversights.


Mitch

The Great Deceiver

It seems to me that the shellbrook apologists are missing the point. No one is complaining that their amp is taking a long time to get just right, or that one must wait for quality. The frequent complaint is the lying, the misleading statments and the intentional deception. To put it simply Drew is taking advantage of his customers. Shellbrook Labs is taking funds, puting it in it's account and watching it accrue interest while waiting to (one hopes) eventually produce and send out an amp.

Shellbrook Labs is very efficient had taking funds out of a person's account, and very efficient at making up excuses and lies (in hat-in-hand tones), but not so efficient at actually making something and putting it in a box and mailing it.

Note the difference in the two following statements:

"I've been real busy lately, i'm behind schedule, i'll contact you when it's built, i don't have an exact time table yet."

That's annoying, but understandable and in good faith. Then there's the Shellbrook Labs way.

"I sent it last thursday." When in fact the amp is no where close to materializing in this plane of existence. How can a person be that blatent in their deception toward the customer?

The additional problem is that Shellbrook Labs has shown that it will apparently lie for money, what other aspects are the Labs lying about, the components, the manufacturing process. One half expects to open up one of the amps and find it chock full of pennies and foil gum wrappers. God forbid you should have to send and amp back to be repaired, you might has well put it in a bottle and chuck it into the nearest ocean/landfill/wormhole.

Being slow and having crappy customer service is one thing, from what i hear Allesandro has made it an art, but blatently lying to the customer while spending the customer's money is another. Xin seems to have no problem making amps and keeping the customer truthfully informed as to its progress, Headsave seems to have been unable to deal with the order load, but able to treat the customer with respect and honesty.

There are ramblings about holding DIYers to too high of a level of standards. That's rediculous. There's nothing wrong with simply asking to be told the truth and not lied to while. These are standards which all companies, no matter how large, should be held to.

At the point where multiple month have passed and no amp has appeared, but a string of lies has materialized, i say it's time to get the credit card companies involved, get your money back and move on to a company which actually makes amps and is willing and eager to tell the customer the truth about the amp's construction status.

For $100-$140 more you can buy a superior amp from Xin (or others) and actually receive the amp that you paid for. Do the math $100 for the promise of an amp which will play no music vs. $240 for an amp that exists in the material world. Which is the better deal?

i suppose you can do a charge back on his paypal account credit card and then it will get shut down if it happens a couple times? just a thought.

I posted a fairly lengthy (detailed) account of my experience with Shellbrook Audio Labs/Drew Dunn here in the amplification forum back on February 5. The thread elicited several responses and eventually, a moderator locked it and moved it into the feedback forum. If you'd like to read the original post, it's now located here.

As a final followup to my previous post, I did finally receive a Maxi Moy amp and interconnect cable. Unfortunately, the aluminum finish of the amp's housing had a moderate amount of scratching/blemishes on the top, bottom and one side. When I picked the amp up, it was obvious that one or more internal components had come loose inside the case. To be fair, this could have occured during shipping, I suppose. In addition, the A/C adapter that I ordered was not included the package.

I contacted Drew via e-mail the same day that I received the package and informed him that I would be returning the amp for a refund (per his refund policy). Drew responsed to my e-mail by saying that there had been a shipping mistake and I'd actually received someone else's order. He offered to send me the "correct" order or issue a refund. Needless to say, after all I'd gone through with this order, I just wanted a refund and to be done with Shellbrook Audio Labs.

The next day, I shipped the amp back to Drew via FedEx (insured and traceable). A few days later, I received confirmation that the amp had been delivered and I sent Drew another e-mail to 1) confirm that he had received the amp and 2) inquire as to when I could expect to receive my refund. Drew responded (the same day) telling me that he would issue the refund right away (through PayPal). A day or two later, I received an e-mail from PayPal stating that I had a refund pending. This was followed up by another e-mail from Drew (about 2 minutes after the e-mail from PayPal) in which he informed me there was a slight "issue" with my refund. According to this e-mail, instead of refunding my purchase directly from Shellbrook Audio Lab's credit account to my credit card, PayPal had somehow managed to screw up the processing of the refund and the transaction was processed as an e-Check (meaning there would be ~ 5 business day wait for the funds to clear before I would actually receive my refund).

A few days later, I received another notification from PayPal that the refund transaction had been completed. This concluded my experience with Shellbrook Audio Labs. In retrospect, I'd say the most frustrating thing about this experience was the eventual feeling that I had been lied to. One problem after another occured with my order and every time, there was an excuse. Ultimately, I felt like it became harder and harder to seperate fact from fiction. Is it really possible that everything I was told was entirely true? Can an order really have this many problems?!? Sadly, I'll never know for sure.

SL

I resent my email to both drews shellbrook labs / fluidlight addresses - still no response. Given the number of complaints here the proportion of disatisifed customers is much greater than 10%. 10% of his customers are complaining here... but many customers may not go through head-fi at all, or may use headfi but be silent, still hoping the issue would be resolved as I was for the first two months. About 20 or so people seem to be complaining accross all the threads so the proportion is probably much more like 20% even before we start to consider the other two factors. In short 10% is wildly optimistic. I would not be surprised if the true figure was many times higher.

Thanks for the warning. Now instead of a group buy I think someone should organize a class action instead against the fraudaulent activities of shellbrook..lol.

I think Drew needs to come out and explain himself to customers who have felt he has not been helpful to say the least. If not through this post but via PM or Email.

I think for customers who have been let down for any reason they should post their feedback on the feedback forums.

What's really sad about this is that first-time amp buyers who went to shellbrook labs may have had their faith in DIY completely destroyed, and would never buy anything from anyone who makes his/her own amps again. This is very unfortunate, considering that some DIYers like Xin from fixup.net are exemplary in both product quality and customer service.

Notify the credit card companies.

That may be a bit extreme, and probably a joke, but a more practical solution would be for every one who has been lied to, and hasn't received their product, to contact their credit card company and report it. Let the credit card company waste their time and fight the battle, that's what they're charging all of that interest and fees for.

It's clear that Shellbrook has no intention of treating its customers with respect so let the credit card company deal with the deceptive business practices.

Shellbrook lab already has our money, what do they care. But once the credit card companies freeze the funds or withdraw them from the account, Shellbrook may not be quite as amused.

Additionally one should contact Pay Pal and report the fraudulent sales.

Let the credit card companies and Pay Pal act as the consumer's advocates.

Its a shame, with all these complaints, I wouldnt doubt that drew goes way of headsave, if there financial investigations and multple disputes, I seriously doubt it be worth it for drew to keep shellbrook open.

I can see it now, if drew quits, people will miss shellbrook
I personally like the super mini moy I received from them. they are one of the few DIYers that offer an aesthetically pleasing amp at an affordable price.

I like the slick aluminum look with the engraving on the face plate, more then the typical hammond case with no customization.

xin offers one but their bar bones costs almost triple the super mini moy. and with other upgrades it easily soars to $400.

alas, I may have to look else where for an aesthetically pleasing portable amp upgrade in the future?

Shellbrook Audio Reputation

I've bought a Pimeta, mini to mini, interconnects and a mini to 1/4 inch adapter. I waited some time, but Drew came through with what he promised. We've all had frustrations with different retailers, manufacturers or vendors. It is extremely frustrating, no body likes it.

Everyone repeating their gripes in this thread does not change what needs to be done. Others among this group seem to be taking up the frustration and un-necessarily increasing the anger, frustration and mood of the few here who are experiencing the delays. If you aren't part of the problem, then keep your comments to yourself.

Drew explained what's been happening. He admitted to scheduling being overwhelmed. If you are one of the people who are waiting for your amp or cables then contact Drew directly by phone or email. We each need to take responsibility for our own actions and handle our own problems no matter who the seller is. Call and tell Drew, don't continue to tell each other here.

Drew is an honest man and an honest on-line retailer. He's normally very responsive, and accomodating. He freely gives advice on what he thinks is best for his customers, based on what their needs are.

I'm sorry but I had to stand up for Drew and for the intelligent people on Head-fi.

Let's let those who have the customer service issues take them up with Drew directly. The rest of us need to put on your headphones and enjoy the music.

Peace to all

Well, apparently he's lied in several instances about whether amps had been shipped. Unless you can confirm that this isn't so, your statement doesn't hold water.