Sleek SA6 - Great Product...Great Company (customer service)

See my recent post on the issue of durability and Sleek customer service.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/4720505-post1178.html

I appreciate what everyone is saying about how great Sleek's customer service is, but am I the only person who is slightly put off by the really high number of people who have reported faults with the SA6?

I know this is a new product, and Sleek are new to the IEM market but, despite excellent reviews for the SA6 in terms of sound quality, they really seem to have a lot of problems with build quality at the moment. I've heard numerous reports of cable connection problems, driver problems, and basic cosmetic issues (the chrome bit breaking away).

I don't want to knock Sleek, and bravo for their great customer support, but for their own sake I hope they can sort out these issues quickly, as replacing all these parts by priority mail must be costing them a fortune.

Too bad I'm still waiting for my Sleek. It's been almost 2 weeks

I agree. I did hear from Jason pretty quickly when I reported this specific problem, but now, two days and no update, followup, etc. Replacements could be on the way, but I have no way of knowing. I guess maybe going to Mack via the website might be the way to go, since Jason has many other roles. But this time, seems like things are moving a little slower on their side. And I agree, if they have to keep shipping new parts, drivers, etc., it's gonna crush their bottom line eventually. While I have no way of knowing what percentage of customers have had multiple issues, when it happens to you, that stat doesn't really mean very much.

I hope to hear from them today, since I am not going to send another PM at this point (two so far without a response). I honestly, truthfully want Sleek to succeed. I am just chagrined about the durability issue. Hope they are working on it, or the X10s may become my favorite IEMs by default.

There I was worrying and then came Michael from SoundEarphones.com who PM me and offer to help me find out more about my shipment.

Excellent service!

I too aplaud Sleek Audio's customer service and deication to both their product and the customer's satisfaction! Never known a company like this. Really excellent. However, I too am a tad concerned about the amounts of repairs and repc]acements, for a variety of areas od defection, that they have having to deal with. It will be costing them a fair bit. However, before we start worrying too much, we don't know how much Sleek make per sell as mark up- if it's significant, say over 40 or 50% (I have no way or knowhow to quantify an accurate estimate of this) then it might wound sleek not nearly as much as we think to be repairing/replacing, in cost to the customer and/or parts, units etc. Then again, I imagine most expenditure in a company like this would go into research, development, testing etc, so not only would these areas of concern with their current end product need addressing in attempt to reslove them for future batches, costing money, but the development of other products that sleek are already committed to the development of will be costing them money ie the custom line and the wireless adaptor. Therefore, with these all possibly on their financial plate, not to mention plates of other variety, then maybe it could be that damaging. But ordinarily, I don't think it could be/a company would need to be under some considerable financial strain in other outgoings for it to be so.

Also, this product of a highly complicated and intricate nature, lets not forget, has been on the market, what, 9 months? It's a niche item and so has has taken a while to build up anything near a respectable consumer base, I'd imagine. Therefore, I'd guess that its about now, when the product is starting to sell more and take off commercially, that sleek are gona start getting the feedback and show ups of most common/recurring problems in manufaturung, parts, materials etc, that they will need to address. Basically, I think this might all have been forecast and part of the plan, and I don't think we should worry nearly as much as we are.

Not overly worried. But when you like a product this much, and it falters, it can cause concern. Still waiting to hear from someone at Sleek about my situation, which is not like them.

Fair enough, though my post was aimed more generally at the build up of worry or concern etc that has arisen in this and other threads re the build quality of the SA6 and it's financial impact on Sleek. It was more of an addressing that vibe that has arisen then any one particular person. I understand the root of your concern though. I've had two cable problems, both indepenedent in nature of problem and time of occurence, but both took a while- over a month each- for Sleek to eventually replace/for me to have the replcaement at my end. The communication, particulary on the recent cable failure and organisation of replacement, could be sporadic and the lack of responses frustrating, but like yourself, I coukd rationalise it and guess why thet the communication from their end wasn't as fluent as I'd like. I'm still calm and relaxed about their plight.

"tstarn06", I put through a call to Sleek an hour or so ago and got put through to Jason who was most apologetic saying he had been out of the office the last couple of days, it appears that a replacement may already be on it's way to me via USPS however he said he would get back to me by email later today to confirm this and provide some tracking info for me. Hopefully he will catch up on some of his emails at the same time and send you an update also.

Thanks, appreciate it. I have no doubts about Jason, but maybe he's just spread too thin and/or needs to delegate more (or have his Head-Fi PMs forwarded to Mack). In the past year, he's had to be out (new baby, surgery) and I know he's his ultimate best trying to keep up. But when you set the bar really high on the customer service front, if the bar gets lowered somehow (by being out of the office, for example), it will be pretty obvious.

Glad you called. I haven't done that yet and don't intend to. I'll just wait for Jason to catch up.

Again, there are no doubts in my mind about the honesty and willingness of the Sleek management team to do the right thing. But even they must be getting weary of personally having to deal with these durability issues, unless of course we (those with more than a single setback) are a minor number. Just don't have that data. Head-Fi is unusual in that it gives you a way to deal/communicate directly with some manufacturers. In this case, not a CSR, but the president of the company.

I just want my SA6s back. I miss them.

I just got my SA6's today.

Overall I'm reasonably happy with them and its good to know Sleek's rep for good CS.

At the same time though, I wish they would work out the build quality issues. The chrome bit on one of my earpieces has already broken loose and just kind of rattles back and forth now.

I am not a happy camper right now. I guess the frustration of not hearing a thing since Tuesday finally got to me. Rather than dealing with replacement parts, I'd rather be listening to music via the SA6s (instead, I am listening to the Image X10s, not bad, mind you). Again, I believe Sleek has all the best intentions, but vulc4n, a fellow Pennsylvanian, posted above that he just got his SA6s TODAY and the silver casing is loose already. Not good. What's happening at Sleek?

Rather than repeat, check out my post on the SA6 thread.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/s.../index120.html

Yeah, really disappointing. Fortunately its a primarily cosmetic problem... I just wonder what it means for the overall quality and durability of the SA6's in the long run.

I had a short in the cable on the SA6 I bought recently. I conatcted Sleek about it and they immediately sent out a replacement and also an extra cable. While the build problems are a little troubling, this new company is handling its customer service rather well.