Geek Pulse: Geek desktop DAC/AMP by Light Harmonics

[PacoTaco]

I honestly can't figure out why people got so worked up about the transferrable warranty. Do many other audio DAC/amp/cable companies offer such a thing, because until this thread, I had no idea such a thing was possible? >.>

It was more of "they said they were, but then they changed their minds without telling us except for when someone asked a question and they answered it non-nonchalantly like that. Then they decided to sell the transferable warranty as a perk."
 
Same thing with the refund thing, the "oh, we meant we were only doing the first batch of Geek Pulses by this time frame, not all of them" and the rest of the crap we've been hearing.
 
I'm not speaking from a hater standpoint, just a frustrated customer. I was told 2-3 weeks ago that I'd be getting my survey in a couple days, but it has yet to come. Among other things. I personally had to deal with trying to get them to acknowledge that I made the full payment. I was being sent monthly payment invoices, and it took me about four weeks to get them to acknowledge that I paid and for them to remove the invoice. Yet, no receipt other than "we put you on the paid list, you'll get your survey in a couple days."
 
I'll put it this way. A lot of people have a reason to be pissed off. Maybe not to the insulting degree they have been, but I understand why they're there. A lot of us have been yanked around and misinformed too many times to count, and it's mostly passed around as our fault. I keep seeing more and more comments about the Geek Pulse's not functioning correctly on Reddit and here, and, while some of it is exaggerated, you can't NOT be concerned that maybe your unit might end up faulty. And guess what? If it is, you can't get your money back. People who bought perks, like the LPS4, that misunderstood the posting due to weird wording won't have any remedy for it. That sort of thing.

 

[DiscoSmoke]

I just checked my invoices and I paid LH labs corporation

Lhlabs@lightharmonics.com


thanks I was just about to do that I went into my paypal account this ought to make things a lot easier to present my case to the attorney general's office

Only after the campaigns went into forever funding.

 

[vnmslsrbms]

The non transferrable thing for me was that even though the product hadn't been even made or delivered yet, I can't transfer it to someone else.  That's not very fair for pre order products, and since we can't return, we are stuck.  The reason given by Gavin was they they didn't want to handle the record keeping.  Anyway, I've come to accept it and will just patiently wait.  

 

[Currawong]

On that note: I've seen a couple of people try and "sell" their as-yet undelivered Geek Pulse in the classifieds. I'm not comfortable with the idea of people doing that for a whole host of reasons so I'm not going to allow the sale of anything but units that are physically in peoples' hands.

 

[DiscoSmoke]

  I understand. I  am glad it worked out for you. I hope the pulse is a great unit - all versions. I wanted to be a customer/backer. I ordered it thinking it would be fantastic and maybe it is but I also ordered it with the following understanding
a) I was paying more by having waited till forever funding but since plain pulses were shipping the risk was less as that was what I wanted
b) LH has a clear refund policy on their website  that says  I could return it in new condition for a full refund (minus shipping costs I assume)
c) At that time warranties were supposedly transferable
I really  really wanted a pulse and I wanted it to be great but at a minimum I knew it was better than my other SS option my AVR but didn't expect the headphone part to outshine my tube amp as I like tubes but with pre-outs that was no problem and with  both headphone and pre-outs active at that the same time I was really happy as 2 of us could listen at the same time (1 set of cans -my guest could use a headphone of their choice and the pulse and I could run the signal simultaneously to my tube amp and all would be well. After being in this thread though and at LH forums for some time I just really don't want anything to do with LH at this point for a number of reasons  and though I never thought it would come to this I am at the point I wish to avail myself of their refund/return policy they have posted on their website b) from above. As mentioned elsewhere I think I have a pretty strong case so I hope to be able to return it but if I can't then when it comes I will enjoy it but still loathe LH . What I don't get is that since LH has obviously lost me as a customer indefinitely why would they (over $400) want to give me an axe to grind toward them when they could simply honor the stated terms and honor a return/refund as posted and then I say to myself all I am out is essentially a few minutes of my time and minimal aggravation and I go on to somebody else I am happy with and never give them another thought.and am never heard from again [ I would go through the charade of them shipping it and me shipping it back but why not avoid such foolishness and then they already have one more on hand to fill orders]
 
Edit: I do not think LH is a ponzi scheme though (at this moment)

But then you couldn't create your thousand word tsunamis and ride them for all they're worth. 

 

[DiscoSmoke]

  It was more of "they said they were, but then they changed their minds without telling us except for when someone asked a question and they answered it non-nonchalantly like that. Then they decided to sell the transferable warranty as a perk."
 
Same thing with the refund thing, the "oh, we meant we were only doing the first batch of Geek Pulses by this time frame, not all of them" and the rest of the crap we've been hearing.
 
I'm not speaking from a hater standpoint, just a frustrated customer. I was told 2-3 weeks ago that I'd be getting my survey in a couple days, but it has yet to come. Among other things. I personally had to deal with trying to get them to acknowledge that I made the full payment. I was being sent monthly payment invoices, and it took me about four weeks to get them to acknowledge that I paid and for them to remove the invoice. Yet, no receipt other than "we put you on the paid list, you'll get your survey in a couple days."
 
I'll put it this way. A lot of people have a reason to be pissed off. Maybe not to the insulting degree they have been, but I understand why they're there. A lot of us have been yanked around and misinformed too many times to count, and it's mostly passed around as our fault. I keep seeing more and more comments about the Geek Pulse's not functioning correctly on Reddit and here, and, while some of it is exaggerated, you can't NOT be concerned that maybe your unit might end up faulty. And guess what? If it is, you can't get your money back. People who bought perks, like the LPS4, that misunderstood the posting due to weird wording won't have any remedy for it. That sort of thing.

How could someone mistakenly buy an LPS4?

 

[Lifemovingforwa]

Hi everyone I am new to the world of Head-Fi so please bear with me as I talk about my newest product my Geek Pulse. I was worried about buying such a new product at a price that for me was a lot of money and if it turned out to be a piece of crap I could not afford to replace it. However I went ahead because the product had all the features I wanted at a price point I could afford so I went ahead and purchased it.
 
I could not be happier with the product. My Pulse has a sound that is incredible for the price I payed and while I am no expert I hear thing in the music I have never heard before. There is no noise and I mean no audible noise and I am running the headphone amp at 90% or more of it's output specs. The DAC allows separation and a sound stage like I have never heard before. Highs are detailed without harshness, mids are clear and concise, Lows are deep and wonderful with out missing the smallest detail. I am enjoying the hell out of this DAC/AMP my only issue of any kind is as follows:
 
The volume knob has to have a lot of turns to get to my listen level and then back to a place where you might want to leave it when no one is using it. The increments are very small and the knob is small as well. A larger knob would most likely make this better just a suggestion.
 
I guess I would like to see the transferable warranty for reasons that will become evident in just a short time.
 
I have been reading this forum for the last few days and I heard a lot of criticism. Of the product and the company well as I have had no dealing with the company all I can say is how many of these high end audio company presidents and head designers get on these forums and try to answer question posed by their customers. I bet there are almost none if not none then very few. Here you guys are getting responses directly from the president on customer service issues and getting to talk to the head designer and influence the end product with you input. I would like to thank both of them for taking time out of what I am sure is a busy schedule to hear us the end user. Thank you Gavin and Larry!
 
The review from youtube let it go and test the new product. As a customer I want to hear about the working product how it sound in relation to other products and what your thoughts are about it in a fair manner. Companies are filled with humans and as a result produce X amount of defective products it does not matter how big or small they are or how high end they are. In startup companies numbers of these products are always a little higher that is life. Please try your replacement and give us a review of the product performance no ticket numbers included please.
 
I am pleased with my decision to purchase my Geek Pulse and the product sounds so dang good that I am not ashamed to admit that I am the second owner of this product. The first owner is also a member here.
 
Just My Two Cents!

 

[nudd]

Unless you accidentally update with the wrong firmware and then you are stuffed.

Although if you have only 1 geek product u may be less likely to do that I guess.

The firmware updates are publicly available and are not tied to warranty, you will be fine there.

The HPA will not have a DAC in it, so you will still need to purchase a DAC if you do not currently have one. Something to keep in mind.

Jody

 

[Black sound]

When will the perks from the last campain be updated on our tracking page?

 

[BobJS]

God, I just love reading this thread.  It will be the foundation of some MBA case study undoubtedly.
 
 

 

[musicheaven]

It's truly entertaining, beats reality TV too bad there is no on stage version of that with all the shouting, pulling hair, throwing shoes at each other. It's almost live entertainment. I am about to keep a score board to see who's winning on the heated debate.

 

[jaywillin]

   
I really want to be clear on this: in the 1 month my ticket was open, I did not simply just sit there for a month biding my time. There was back and forth on the support ticket. I was given no indication in any way that I was being treated anything differently from a regular customer or that the ticket had been escalated to Casey or Gavin to personally look into. I was passed from Jody to Manny to Tami to Michael. Each time after a few days of silence I updated the ticket to ask what was going on. This went on for a month.
 
It seems to me despite Gavin's statements of having seen my ticket, Gavin did not actually really know the details of the issue, nor did LH know I had opened a ticket and it was sitting in the system - since of course, I'm sure the RMA would have been arranged instantly if they did.
 
Again, I wanted to report on what the ordinary customer experience was when dealing with LH support. Not talking to damage control from company's public facing side in reaction to a Youtube video - but the standard procedure for any support issue. What is standard procedure? I opened a ticket and posted on the LH forum.
 
 
You have to understand, I am a reviewer. I don't want to give my viewers a false impression that a company treats has a very effective support system if in fact I just happened to get a good experience because I posted a Youtube video. It is true that Casey reached out to contact me directly. I think it's also true that if I had not posted any video at all, my ticket would have still stayed open for a month. Keep in mind my post in the LH forum also went completely unanswered by anyone from support.
 
You must realise that many of you are enthusiasts and have been posting in this Head-Fi thread and possibly in the LH forums for a while. You know who Casey is, you know you who Gavin is. I am someone who backed this project in 2013 and didn't really keep up with anything except email updates. I am sure many other customers would be similar. They would not know to message Gavin or Casey about this issue, and all over the LH Forums they repeatedly encourage people to open tickets.
 
You might think it is absurd to kick up such a fuss because I was given a faster solution to my problems but I didn't take it. But what I am upset about is a repeated refusal to acknowledge that in my case the support ticket system just didn't work and that the 20 hour resolution number in their system points to all being well. 
 
Anyway, the point has been laboured to death and I don't really want to keep complaining about it. I think we'll just have to agree to disagree about whether or not I was acting like a normal customer in this situation, or if I was treated like a normal customer in this situation.
 
But I'd just like you to imagine, if I had not posted the video - if I had just done what any other customer was told to do, which is to open a ticket and post on the forum - how frustrating would it be to have a dead headphone and a 1 month open ticket with no resolution?
 
Edit: Anyway, any more bellyaching from me is not going to change anything, so I'll stop. The RMA is on its way and hopefully it will all be smooth sailing from here.

1-then why keep laboring the point and complaining ?
2- true , and hopefully
i think your point has been made,(several times) , and i agree at this point, as jexby suggested, it could be that no solution would be satisfactory for you now, i don't know this for a fact though.
 
at the beginning i did not realize you were a youtube reviewer with responsibilities to your followers, and you are reporting your findings and passing that info. that's cool
at some point, don't really remember exactly when, i checked your profile here just because i was curious, from your profile :
 
 

Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):	I like to accumulate useless knowledge with which to delight or annoy my friends.
What I do for a living:	I make very little productive contribution to society.

 
kinda puts things in better perspective for me
 
i'm not a "reviewer" i have no followers i feel i must inform, but i would like to pass along my experience as an "ordinary customer" (and neither you nor i are indeed ordinary customers, we are "backers/investors) , my experience with this process, as i've stated several times , overall has been pleasant, and i'm happy with the outcome, the pulse sounds great, hasn't flickered, blown up, damaged anything, as i said, overall i'm pleased
and as i've also said before, there are appropriate channels, ways to express displeasure with an entity , and since you seem to think lhlabs conduct conflict resolution in public , or you should disclose how they handle conflict resolution to the public, because they are "are a business"  or "member of the trade", it seems fair to me you are held to the same standard.
all this i've said, i haven't said to defend lhlabs, they're big boys, they don't need my help, i'm sure they'll be just fine
i just felt the need to get that off my chest, this may be a "personal attack" i'll be called to task on by the moderators, if so, i'll accept responsibility
and while i may or may not "unsub" (it is pretty entertaining) i'll try refrain from making any personal,pointed, direct comments that could be construed as confrontational 

 

[gyx11]

This might be an absurdly stupid question, but does anyone know how to re-open a closed ticket? I'm trying to clarify some additional issues but my previous ticket was automatically marked as resolved.

The tickets section at the support page has this 'Open or Pending' option which looks as if there'll be a drop down menu option to select another option, but I can't seem to do it in either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

 

[AxelCloris]

  This might be an absurdly stupid question, but does anyone know how to re-open a closed ticket? I'm trying to clarify some additional issues but my previous ticket was automatically marked as resolved.

The tickets section at the support page has this 'Open or Pending' option which looks as if there'll be a drop down menu option to select another option, but I can't seem to do it in either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

 
You'll have to open a new ticket and reference the old ticket number. I have to do the same today as my ticket was auto-closed due to, they claimed, no response from me within 48 hours. I responded about 26 hours before it auto-closed. Back of the line for me it seems.

 

[gyx11]

thanks @AxelCloris 
 
just gotta wait i guess!