Not too good at using the quote feature, haha, so this is a reply to jude's post.
>>>You seem to both be very comfortable with Todd (as well you should be, as he is one of the most honorable people I've met in this community), so why don't you ask him if I signed off on the cups, or if there was even anything at all I could have done to fix those cups.
I don't know Todd at all to really be vouching for him, but out of the 3 parties involved in this, he seems to be the only one who has been negatively effected by the screw up, with you actually benefiting from it and Grado, well, just doing as Grado always does, ignoring customer complaints...You may be completely telling the truth in not being able to change anything; however this is your site, these were made especially for your site pending your approval, you announced them, and when a lot of people got very annoyed at the problem the remedy was to give you more money, so I have to have a feeling that you have a bit more say in these than you are letting on, at the very least I have to assume you could have said said to take $10 off the headphone price instead of giving it to you. Also I don't know why it took back to back posts like mine and the one I quoted for you to even speak out about the situation, there were plenty of people posting looking for your input, but it was nowhere to be found.
>>>Ask Todd if the HF1 or the HF2--and the way the deals were structured with Head-Fi--was my idea. Neither was. Both times I was surprised (and, yes, excited). Now tell me you would have said no, had you been in my shoes, to either the HF1 or HF2.
I don't know whose idea it is, but it is a pretty smart/brilliant idea. Grado has a sound that many of the sites members including myself seem to like, so to come out with a limited edition headphone for this community (one with a ridiculous amount of brand loyalty) is a great idea and business move. I have 0 problems at all with you making money on it, you built this site (which IMO is a business) from the ground up therefore you certainly deserve to be compensated for these headphones. Do I think you were overcompensated, maybe, but hey I would've taken the $40 per headphone also, not many sites are able to accomplish stuff like this one, so you never heard a complaint from me there and still wont. My only problem is the additional $10.
>>The F1 misprint was not within my power to fix. Do you think I could have demanded that Grado or TTVJ re-do all the cups? It wasn't an option--and it certainly wasn't my option--and
why it wasn't an option, or possible/practical to re-do them all, has been explained by Todd.
Now here is where we differ, when the problem arose, if I were you, as leader of this community, I would have posted about it and tried to smooth things over with the membership and the powers that be (You/Todd/John, whoever else), I do remember reading quite a few posts where people were looking for your input but it was nowhere to be found. Also If I were you, I most definitely would have recommended that the extra $5000 goes back into the hands of the consumer (you are still probably able to do this should you choose), while this still wouldn't have been the greatest way to apologize, it is certainly better than the nothing we received, at the very least you could give some people donor status or something. An extra donation to you from Grado, while it is nice that they are somewhat admitting fault, it just does nothing for me as the receiver of this faulty product.
>>>So, Aimless1 and Toad, please return your HF2's to Todd, so that I can buy one or both of them--I want another HF2 anyway, and then you can take comfort in the fact that none of your money will come anywhere near me, and I can take comfort in the knowledge that you guys don't own them. (I'll pay for your return shipping, should you choose to.)[/QUOTE]
I love the way they sound so far, even though I haven't had much time for them, so I don't think I will be returning them, though I will keep my eye on the 30 day mark to be sure. Also, I never had any problem with you making $20,000, all the more power to you, if I could start a site as great as this one with loyal membership like this I certainly would, and for the ability to come out with a great sounding product of your own that almost everyone who has heard it loves and on top of that pull in an extra few bucks for yourself, my hat goes off to you. I would have followed in your footsteps if possible every step of the way so far...My only problem is the extra 5000 on top, that just isn't fair and IMO is a smack in the face to ALL the members (whether you care about the error or not) of this extremely loyal community.
So to sum up my post...The headphones sound great, I definitely think you deserve the $40/pair as you are the one who built up the head-fi/f1 brand name, you just do not deserve the extra $10 on top, we the consumers deserve that at the very least. I feel John Grado personally owes this community an apology for how poorly this was handled as well as how cheap and careless it makes his brand look, but I think I'm setting my expectations a bit too high with that...Also, just because a remedy was come up with doesn't mean you cant amend it, there is still always time to make right where you went wrong, and I do believe you guys went wrong with how you handled the situation...Now sorry if this post sounded personal at times Jude, but to use one of the most over quoted lines "It's nothing personal, strictly business." I have great respect for you (Jude), your site, and Todd, and I really do appreciate you guys putting this together for us, even though I believe it was setup more profit oriented than to be nice to the community, but who cares about reasons (especially ones that may not even be true and could just be figments of my wild imagination), it is the end product that counts and with the exception of the 1, they IMO are perfect headphones. It is just such a shame Grado with their poor quality control and customer care had to go and ruin what could have truly been perfect.
AAAAAnnnnnnnnnd I'm done.
