Warren Audio's broken hd800 cables - Page 2

On or about April 16, 2011, I purchased 4 cables from Warren Audio at a cost of nearly $2,100. I then exchanged many e-mails with Rick Warren. In general, he promised to build and promptly ship the cables to be followed with a tracking number and notice of shipment. Without exception, after each promise of shipment, etc., I then received an excuse ranging from breaking for dinner to technical problems with the cables to customs problems and so forth. At about the point after which I received several successive promises of shipment, I became a member of this forum. When Rick's last promise of a tracking number fell through (again), I decided to do a Google search for "Warren Audio Complaints" and found one of the strings on this forum detailing the horrors other forum members experienced with this man and his "company". I also discovered that Rick Warren has been "banned" from this forum. At that point, I filed a PayPal dispute. As soon as I filed the dispute, I received an e-mail from Warren Audio informing me that my order status had changed to "refunded". I checked my PayPal account and found no refund. I informed Rick Warren that I would elevate the dispute to a claim at PayPal if he didn't issue the refund immediately. When I received no refund, I elevated the dispute to a claim and informed Rick Warren of my actions by e-mail, again demanding a full and immediate refund. Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail from Rick Warren that, lo and behold, he just shipped my cables. I informed him that I no longer believed anything he said and that if he shipped, I would refuse delivery and if he didn't ship, he should just issue the refund and save the shipping charges. His last e-mail to me was a gloating, personally insulting tirade in which he told me the shipment is on it's way, tracking number to follow within the hour (nothing received so far several hours later) and he didn't care to whom I complained because he has a return policy and intends to use it against me. I'm brand new to this forum and, I regret to say, my first post winds up being like this. I'm going to do what I can with PayPal, as I filed within the 45 day time period. We'll see the outcome. Be careful. Be very, very careful doing business with people you don't know, particularly if the main reason is because the price seemed very good.

He was canonized “scumbag” on the very first ballot. Just recently he was hawking his pitiful crap on EBay under headphone cables.

Sorry to hear that. If you paid via credit card, be sure to contact your issuer.

That aside, do you like headphones?

If you do, why don't you stick around and join the conversation? You'll find a lot of honest businesses here and plenty of people who love the same things you do.

I have some headphones. Sennheiser HD800 balanced, Beyer Tesla T1 balanced, Denon AH-D7000 balanced, Audeze LCD2 balanced, HiFiMan HE6 balanced, AKG701 balanced and some that are still dynamic though I'm hoping to have most of them recabled too. These are Ultrasone Edition 10 and Edition 8, Grado PS1000, Audio-Technica ATH-W5000 and AKG702, which I'll always keep dynamic for when I don't have access to a balanced amp and because they're identical to the AKG701 except for not being balanced. I have on order from Woo Audio their WES electrostatic amp with all the upgrades to power a Stax SR-009 I also have on order. Things in Japan are pretty awful right now so I'll probably have to wait until late this month or even June to see the Stax and the upgraded WES (as I told Jack Wu, there's no point sending the amp until they can provide the SR-009 too). The other headphones mentioned above are powered by HeadRoom Balanced Ultra Desktop Amp, Ultra Desktop DAC, and the upgraded Desktop Power Supply. When I travel around I use the HeadRoom Ultra Portable Desktop Amp or, if space is at a real premium, the HeadRoom Portable Micro Amp with DAC. For traveling purposes, I use a JH Audio 16 IEM for music pleasure and a Bose QuietComfort 15 to shut out airplane noise and blather. Finally, when I can't sleep but want to watch TV without disturbing my wife, I use a wireless Sennheiser 180 with an optical connection and a DAC. So yes, I really like headphones.

Wow.

So why aren't you a regular member around here? We need more people like you.

Good god, that's a lot of premium headphones. I have heard of Warren cables damaging drivers so I would definitely reject the shipment (that is probably not coming anyway).

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments. It's not easy making a post that, essentially, admits I wasn't intelligent enough to do some basic homework before sending my money. I hope that I have at least enough intelligence to recover from this stupid error. I wanted to share this experience because, after reading the other posts on this forum about Rick Warren and his "company", I felt my experience needed a public airing so those who, unlike myself in this particular case, research before they send money. I hope that I laid out the facts so starkly that anyone contemplating doing business with someone not known to them or otherwise publicly known, will think and think again before taking action.

Regardless of the outcome for me, and that remains to be seen, if my post helps just one person, publicly acknowledging my error was worth the embarrassment. I should mention that Rick Warren has still not sent the tracking number he said was coming in "one hour" yesterday. The phony promises were just like his prior e-mails, minus the personal abusive comments he saw fit to hurl at me when he knew I "found him out". I don't really expect either the cables or a tracking number but, from a person like that, I do expect a trick of some kind. Regardless, if anything arrives, I'm rejecting it. Whether the outcome turns out good or bad for me, I'll post it so others can benefit by learning from my mistakes and also from those things I did right to correct my mistakes.

Regarding the last post, I have assembled, and to a degree continue to acquire, some "high end" headphones and headphone amps, dacs, and also assembled a decent 11.2 audio system, etc. A nasty chronic inflammatory bowel disease forced me to change from going downtown every day to work to purely working from home. I was truly blessed to have had an understanding employer in this regard as the alternative was a medical retirement which, at 51, was not something for which I was ready. I have found that continuing to work, even from home, and returning to the love of my youth, music, has given me much joy and peace. Also, playing with the audio equipment and discovering the different tonal natures of every headphone, amp, etc., has been great fun for me.

Discovering a friendly place to chat with others who share some of my interests can only add to my enjoyment in trying to make the best of a bad health situation. Being able to do these things from my own home, given the debilitating nature of my disease, is truly one of the wonders of the modern era.

...period!

 

Best regards.
 

 

^Are you referring to Crohn's disease

When I was diagnosed 10 years ago by colonoscopy with multiple biopsies, the doctors at Georgetown in Washington, DC, said "severe pan-ulcerative colitis". This was after a 45-minute screaming session in the men's room at work. When I emerged, I staggered the 20 or so feet to my office and collapsed in a pool of blood assembling around my slacks. Over the years, the doctors were unable to do much for me and, on several occasion, I was advised to have a total colectomy (bag). Each time, at the very verge of surrender to the doctors' advice, I recovered from the flare up and put off surgery. About 5 years ago, I had a flare up start that only quieted down about 1 year ago. This last flare up was different than all the ones before. Rectal tears developed that caused me to, and I don't exaggerate, howl like a dog whenever I went to the bathroom. During these flares that was about 10-12 times daily. The pain was excruciating beyond description for anyone who has never had what I have, advanced cancer or something like it. Also, the pain would last at least half a day. It was like dying of cancer, something I watched my father do 28 years ago. The pain was really that bad. Something else happened this time, though. I developed a peri-anal fissure, which is normally seen with Crohn's not ulcerative colitis. I have a whole team of doctors now at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Following multiple colonoscopies, sigmoidoscopies, biopsies, etc., they now say I have components of both diseases so they call it "Crohn's versus Colitis". They injected Botox rectally to control the spasms. Pain management with powerful narcotics was employed (morphine, fentanyl, dilaudid, oxycontin, methadone - am I missing anything?). After so many years of rectal tears, it turned out that the loss of bowel control from all that damage (and a failed surgical effort to fix things - not at Hopkins - I won't mention the hospital) was the event that forced me to work exclusively from home. Next colonoscopy in a year. I'm just waiting for them to tell me they found displasia (pre-cancer) and it's on with the bag. Bags are no fun but I don't think I can manage another 4 year flare up at my age. I'm sorry but I can't really think of how to relate this to headphones, etc. but, perhaps, a mind more clever than my own might find a way to relate my experiences with bowel disease to the underlying subject matter of this thread.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You performed your end of the deal and acted in good faith.

For some interesting reading, go find the Singlepower threads. Depressing, but you'll also find a lot of really wonderful manufacturers. Guys who show up at meets and have personal friendships with their customers.

Speaking of which, it would be great if you were able to make it to a meet. If you haven't been to the meet forum, go take a look, especially at the CanJams. The gear is great but the people are better. There's an unexpected consistency with members. Shared interests are frighteningly common and you'll have a great time.

Just for clarification, I should have said "peri-anal fistula" not "fissure".

I'll take a look at the meets and related threads. Thanks for the advice. Personally, I'd rather be asked about my equipment, etc., but if someone wants to know about a health problem I myself mentioned, I presume they have a good use for the information and am happy to share.

I reviewed the Singlepower threads. I think there's a common pattern to the Singlepowers and Warrens of the world. First, they tend to be run by very nice, personable people. After all, if they were abrasive, difficult people, they wouldn't gain the confidence of their intended victims. Second, they rely on the fact that most, not all, people are basically honest, fair-minded people who wouldn't deliberately cheat anybody. The trick with being a decent person is that their natural assumption is others are the same. The crooks and cheats depend on this basic fact of human nature and prey on it. Finally, most people, despite plentiful evidence to the contrary, deny bad facts and substitute unrealistic hopes that things will turn out better than the obvious facts indicate they will turn out. Again, crooks and cheats know this about human nature and manipulate it to buy themselves time through the natural human desire to avoid and deny bad news, even if the victim has to create an alternative universe of unrealistic, even delusional, expectations of good outcomes. I believe these are the basic playbook rules by which all successful con men operate.

I wonder if it would make sense to have a permanent forum for the early reporting of facts indicative of problems developing with people, companies, etc. on a basis repeated enough to suggestva dangerous and suspicious pattern. I recognize that it would have to be carefully monitored to prevent the postings of opinions, rumors, etc., but the facts of the Singlepowers and Warren Audios of the world are sufficiently damming and useful without resort to opinions and rumors. The trick would be in the timing of when there's enough "evidence" to support an assumption that greater care needs to be exercised by anyone dealing with the people and companies exhibing these suspicious behaviors. Extra care would have to be taken to avoid any potentially slanderous or libelous postings. But, this could be hugely useful to members. It would be the first place I'd check before doing business with anyone not known to me or generally known in the industry as honest and reliable. I'd be willing to bet that many others would feel the same if a way could be found to do what was done with Singlepower sooner and more consistently and to expose the Warrens of the world sooner too.

Thanks also for the tip on Can Jams. From what I found it doesn't look like there's anything in 2011. Maybe there will be something in New York City in 2012. Whether I can attend these events will depend entirely on how I'm feeling at the time but I really appreciate your suggestions. I would also like the thank the gentleman who echoed your remark about using more people like me at Head-Fi.org. I think both your comment and his emphasizing it are very humbling to me and I hope my participation will prove useful to all of us and be fun too. Really, I'm very encouraged by the warm and welcoming responses I have received. Very impressive; yes, very.