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UPDATE!! Really disappointed with Creek Audio service guys and Creek in general. Plus, I'm £150... - Page 2

post #16 of 24
10/2/10 at 7:19am

Wow. What a chain of events. So much for the correct attitude of 'making sure the customer is satisfied'. 

 

What does a company have if not happy customers? 

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post #17 of 24
10/2/10 at 8:08am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cn11 View Post

Wow. What a chain of events. So much for the correct attitude of 'making sure the customer is satisfied'. 

 

What does a company have if not happy customers?

 

To be fair, I know there are people who take advantage of warranties even though they caused the damage themselves. But I'm not one of them. I wouldn't be able to stand the stress of waiting to see if they found out I'd lied about it. It's just not worth it.

 

Think about it. If I knew I'd spilled something in it, and if I was trying to take advantage of a free fix, wouldn't I have had the sense to clean off the 'obvious' stain before I sent it back? Why would I leave a big stain on the case that they'd be able to see? And if I knew I'd spilled something, that would have given me a clue as to why the amp broke down - and I didn't have a clue. It wasn't in my interest to hide anything from Creek. I just wanted the fault diagnosed and fixed.

 

 

dynobot -  I've had a washing machine, dvd recorder and fridge that all broke down within the last month of warranty. And I was never blamed for causing the damage myself. It's not that uncommon for electrical products to fail within the last part of warranty. I guess I just didn't expect the Creek to go the same way, when no other amps have failed on me.

 

 

dura - I read your post, but have to say that in defence of the Creek, I really love(d) the combination with my Quad and speakers. I tried the Cambridge Audio 840A and Arcam FMJ A32 with my set up at the same time as the Creek. And the Creek just sounded so nice. I only demo stuff at home, because I can't predict what it will sound like unless it's playing with the rest of my gear. But I had no regrets about choosing the Creek over the others, because it really bought the rest of my system alive. Great synergy, not so great CS.

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post #18 of 24
10/3/10 at 2:52am
Thread Starter 

 

As I suspected, the £8 fee you referred to is just a bog-standard 'starting from' price. For a parcel weighing 10KG, the cheapest option (with insurance cover of 'up to £1000' + VAT) is still almost £40.

 

I don't think you took into account any insurance? All the quotes have standard cover of only £50. So if my amp got damaged in transit, my claim would be restricted to £50. Were you assuming I would send an £1100 amp back with only £50 cover? Plus, £1000 seems to be the maximum insurance you can take out on that site.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LukeCreek View Post

 

I'm very surprised that you paid so much in shipping cost as any member of the public can use a service such as 'Parcel Machine' to name but one, for a next day delivery for only £8.

Edited by soozieq - 10/3/10 at 2:57am
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post #19 of 24
10/4/10 at 3:31pm

Soozie said Mike Creek told Giles at Creek Audio that he noticed a funny smell coming from inside the amp, so I read up on leaky electrolytic capacitors.

 

Not only do they stink when they leak, they also lave behind a lot of gunk on the PCB, even more if they have burst. That would explain the mess / corrosion which was found inside and the smell, and would have nothing to do with an external spill.

 

That would be a totally valid reason for the breakdown, and seems like it would be a much more likely scenario than the one Creek is painting. It's very disturbing to think about how they have dealt with this. Refusing to warranty the repair seems completely unjust.

 

Soozie also said in the first post that she'd told Mike about the speaker buzzing and cutting out when the amp first went into protection mode, and he said that was a sign of an amp problem. Seems like speaker buzz can be one of the symptoms of a bad power-supply electrolytic capacitor. So it's looking worse for Creek's story all the time. 

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post #20 of 24
10/5/10 at 5:22am

what i still dont get is the how did it get okayed by the tech staff?  ive seen burst capacitors before and its not really the sort of thing that you arent going notice.  i mean did they actually open it or send back the wrong one or something?

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post #21 of 24
10/9/10 at 4:44am
Thread Starter 

Here is the latest.

 

The good news:

 
1. Creek's marketing department has today refunded my costs.
 
2. Good old Stone Audio has arranged for Creek to provide a full 12-month warranty on the repair.
 
 
The bad news:
 
I think my amp is still faulty. Yesterday, on start up - my speaker crackled loudly and the amp cut out. There was no music playing, the Quad was switched off. I checked my speaker cables were secure (they were) so I swapped speaker cables at the amp end, turned the system on again and it was fine. I switched the cables back to where they were, and it's still working fine.
 
So now I have to try and replicate the fault again to make sure it wasn't a one-off issue, but why would it be? I guess I'm looking on the negative side because of the first non-repair. Anyway, I'll update this when I've done some more troubleshooting. I called Stone Audio a few times today (they're open 10 till 5) but there's no answer.
 
Oh, and the standby light seems much brighter than it used to be. Maybe I accidentally got an 'upgraded' bulb during the first repair and not an upgraded capacitor?
 
 
EDIT: I just spoke to Stone Audio and they think the crackle could be a one-off problem possibly caused by a loose speaker connection (although the cables didn't seem loose at all). They said if an amp fails, it stays dead - it doesn't normally start working again - but then it did the last time, because the fault was intermittent and it turned out it was the amp's fault. It would work for a while and then shut down, or it would shut off as soon as it was switched on. Mike Creek managed to replicate the fault when he had it in the second time.

 

Anyway, I'm going to keep a close eye on it over the next few days.

 

EDIT 2:  I forgot to say that Creek confirmed there were no photographs taken of the stain on the case. They only took one of the board, not the 'stain'. I asked them to produce a photo as proof, because I knew that they wouldn't be able to. If anyone had the slightest doubt that my story was all true (and I admit it did seem like a crazy story) then that should seal it. I knew they couldn't produce a photo, and if there really was a stain, I would hardly deny it publicly and ask for a photo if I wasn't 100% sure they couldn't produce one.

 

Thanks to everyone who posted here. This thread appears to be the only reason Creek contacted me to resolve matters. Before it, I had got nowhere very fast, blanked by Mike Creek with no warranty in place, no apology, no nothing. So, many many thanks to you all

 

Lesson learned. Take plenty of photos of anything you send in for repair. You never know when you might have to prove that you didn't sling liquid in your amp.


Edited by soozieq - 10/9/10 at 7:14am
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post #22 of 24
10/11/10 at 1:29am

Good to hear you managed to get a warranty out of it. Hopefully you won't need it!

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post #23 of 24
10/11/10 at 3:41pm

Very entertaining soozie - Thanks!!!

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post #24 of 24
10/14/10 at 11:44pm

Creek Audio's handling of a genuine warranty claim from a customer, who also happens to be a respected Head-Fier is lamentable. The customer is not always right but clearly soozieq was on this occasion. Creek Audio has not only failed her but added insult to injury by choosing to debate the issue in this forum thread, rather than quietly make things right with an aggrieved customer who was so frustrated and disappointed with this company's lack of customer service, that she felt compelled to air it here. 


Edited by MrSpenkelink - 10/14/10 at 11:50pm
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Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Dedicated Source Components › UPDATE!! Really disappointed with Creek Audio service guys and Creek in general. Plus, I'm £150 out of pocket thanks to them :(