John, when my unit first had problems, I contacted your North American distributor - Bluebird Music. They were singularly unhelpful with what could be the cause of my issues. The buck was quickly passed to the retailer. The retailer, took two days to figure out what the process was. Then, they had to, according to them, contact Chord to raise a "GRN" number. This took another day. Then I was instructed to send my unit to the other side of the country to an authorized repair center. I contacted these folks and they didn't even stock the batteries - said they had to get you to send them. And despite quoting a GRN number, they didn't know this was a warranty repair. After this I contacted you and your first instinct to do the right thing would have kept me a very happy customer. However, when I indicated that there was an issue with the USB by copying you on my correspondence to the repair center, you stated that I had damaged the unit and this was not a warranty issue. I indicated to you that this wasn't the case as the unit had this problem from day one. You told me to get the unit back and send it to you for battery replacement and usb fix and then lectured me about how reliable usb connectors are. I sent it off yesterday after waiting a week to get it back. All in all, I'm without a means of playing music for probably 6 weeks. I am not impressed with your expensive "distribution" network nor your retraction of an initial offer. I recently sold a small manufacturing business after 14 years. My reputation was paramount, and sometimes this involved compensating customers for issues that were not caused by my company. No matter how you define your business (ie. as a manufacturer, designer or engineer), the broader business you are in is delighting your customers no matter what you produce, be that hairpins or expensive audio equipment. As I learned this sometimes involved eating crap. After the fact, I never regretted when it cost me to do the right thing and keep someone happy as the positive online feedback caused new customers to compensate for any losses involved. I learned to view every problem as an opportunity to improve my reputation and relation with customers. Not doing the right thing the first time always bit me in the butt later. Take it or leave it as you will. I wish I could be listening to music right now and continuing to say great things about you and your company. After our e-mail exchange on this matter, you made it very clear that you didn't want to spend any more time on this issue and you created a very unhappy customer.
