[Bas82]

Recently I bought a pair of Audio Technica CM7 SV. Since they are not imported to my country (Argentina), I asked a friend who was travelling to USA to buy the CM7 for me. He bought me the pair a week later, and they did sound excellent. The packaging was first hand, and they seem built like a tank. However, I noted a detail on them. On every picture I saw on the net -Audio Technica site, the pictures here in this forum, etc.- the nut that attached the cable to the aluminum pole in the earphones was black, and mines were plated. Hence, I started to suspect that perhaps I had a pair of fake CM7. Even the fact that a friend of mine bought them on a shop, it could be that they were fake.

I took a couple of pictures of my CM7s and sent them to Audio Technica UK customer service, with an extensive email explaining them that my earphones did sound great -they surpasss my Panasonic full size headphones, there was a detail that I didn't hear before this earphones, that is, Paul Tortelier's breathing when executing Bach's cello suites-. Ryan Thomas of Audio Technica Sales Department UK kindly sent me an answer, which I'm quoting:

-----------------------
Dear Sebastian,

The headphones that you have sent me a picture of, do look like the genuine article. Also if they sound very good then it would be safe to say that you do have a genuine Audio Technica product.

I have seen a number of fake Audio Technica earphones and there are a few obvious signs to look out for.

1, Build Quality. They always feel cheap and poorly put together
2, Packaging. The box and accessories are again of a very poor quality
3, Sound. They always sound very nasty.
-------------------------

It's pretty rare, considering the customer attention idiosincracy of my country, to see this kind of attention. I didn't even bought the earphones from an european location, but they took the time to look at the pictures, read my email -which was far from short-, and write me a kind answer even with tips to where to look for in the case of a suspect fake earphone.

Since I'm pretty new in this, probably for you this was well known, but for me it's an undescriptable joy to see this customer care. My congrats to Audio Technica!

Cheers,
Sebastian.

 

[Elephas]

I don't consider this to be exemplary customer service. Any company should be concerned with possible fakes of their products on the market and be responsive to customer feedback. In our increasingly global economy, it shouldn't matter which dept. a customer contacts, other than language issues.

Anyway, thanks for the post.

 

[penguindude]

I dont get it, how is this excellent customer service?

 

[Bas82]

As I said in the post, I think it's pretty good considering first:

a) The culture of cutomer attention in my country. I know in USA and in general in Europe too, customer attention tends to be good. But here in South America, and in specifically in Argentina, this kind of attention is not common. For me, it is pretty good that a sales officer takes the time to answer an email asking if a pair of earphones do look like fakes or not.

and second:

b) The answer from Audio Technica was, beside kind, very informative. I understand that a company should take care of fake products in the market, however, I also know that this is pretty difficult. Saying that good customer service would be taking care of picking up every fake product on the market is like saying that the company should have a Gestapo team of infiltrated officers in the black market... which is by all means impossible. At least having the patience to look at a picture and see at the details in the close up pictures trying to see if it could be a fake or not, and answering an email with some pointers to check if it's genuine or not, I think it's as close as it can be from taking care of fake products on the market.

I am surprised that this, "Any company should be concerned with possible fakes of their products on the market and be responsive to customer feedback" was never mentioned in all the threads when someone asked advice for a product on eBay which could be a fake product.

Anyway, thanks for the input. At least from my point of view and my experience with customer service in Argentina, this is by all means good customer care.

Cheers,
Sebastian.