sahmen
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2014
- Posts
- 2,970
- Likes
- 2,587
I couldn't agree more with your "poor customer service". evaluation. As a brief case in point and demonstration, I had a small problem with my freshly acquired Metrum Ambre, after about 6-7 months of owning it. i reported it to Metrum, and the main person in authority with whom I had communicated several times about my Ambre and Onyx (Lets call him ADH) asked me to speak to two associates of his (SP and ME) who allegedly had the expertise and know how to help me (that was on April 27th, 2019). Three days later (April 30th) I received this question, which I am quoting word for word, from one of the said associates (SP)
1."does the computer to which the ambre is connected has internet connection". (A strange question indeed, since I had already mentioned in a previous description of the problem that my Ambre was directly fed by my router, and was in turn connected to my. Onyx DAC via the i2S module. And my router was of course connected to the internet at all times, which I explained to SP once again)
Now 13 days after this correspondence (and yes, I mean thirteen, on May 13th), I received this follow-up from SP :
2. '"Sorry for the delay. Please help me with the below details.
1) was there any recent changes made to the network setting in your computer ? Do you use a Mac or Windows?
2) could you please try a different cable to connect the computer and ambre
3) please reinstall the roon controller once.
If all the above does not work please let me know."
At this point, given the nature of the questions and the 13 day delay between the first and second e-mails, I began to get a very bad feeling about the alleged "expertise" of SP, especially since I had dealt with Cees directly, about two years before, asking about an issue with my Metrum Hex which he resolved literally in minutes. SP, on the contrary begun to strike me as a person who was way in over his head. Still, I responded very patiently to the questions he asked, after which I *never" heard back from him, (SP) again. Go figure!
So how did I solve the problem, eventually. I described it to Cees in a PM, here on head-fi (in the same month of May 2019), and he immediately figured out that it was the SD card in the Ambre which was corrupted. He then had a replacement SD card sent to me in the mail on the same day, and it arrived here in Massachusetts in less than a week, and I had my Ambre all up and running as new once again, in less than a week of having reported it to Cees, who was no longer with Metrum at that point, btw.
So why have I reproduced this account including quotes from e-mails I received from Metrum between April and May of 2019? It is to demonstrate how absolutely glad and relieved I am, as an owner of Metrum components I love, that Cees not only stayed active in the industry after parting ways with Metrum, but also, that he has the kindness and professionalism to provide continuing technical/customer assistance for products he developed while at Metrum, and to do so *for free*.
Without him, I could still be waiting today, more than one year later," for that "miracle SD card swap" to solve my Ambre problem. I would still be waiting on poor SP to provide a solution he simply did not have, and could not fathom, thinking that my Ambre was "toast." So I am sorry, but I cannot respect any type of business ethics that would protect that kind of incompetence, and fault Cees for his timely and helpful intervention in this particular case.
With all that said, I also wish Metrum well, and do hope they come back, provided they do so with the type of personnel who are properly qualified to do the job, and know what they're doing. Without that, they'll be no good to anyone, beginning with themselves, and that would be very sad indeed, especially whenever the performance of the new regime is compared with the rich pedigree of the Cees era.
Last edited:
