[Gman]

I've sent an order to Michael by email 4 times in the last week and have gotten no reply. Does anyone know if he's out of town or is he running that far behind? Thanks.

 

[jarthel]

He emailed me thrice/4 times last week regarding a qoute.

Jayel

 

[sil0nt]

I emailed him two times in two weeks and called him on the phone regarding my emails.

Zero response.


What great customer service.

Needless to say, I have moved on and I will not be patronizing his business in the future.

 

[aos]

He probably concentrates on frequent customers and/or high value orders... Others get to wait. Trouble is he is the only supplier of Black Gate and Vishay bulk foil resistors I know of. Parts Connexion maybe, if they are on their feet now, did anyone order from them since they re-opened?

 

[sil0nt]

Ya, I can understand concentrating on frequent customers and high value customers, but I think he should have at least acknowledged me as a new customer. My order was for 140 dollars worth of parts, so I feel I was owed at least a simple email saying 'I will get back to you in two weeks'. He would have kept me as a customer for this order and future orders.

I think the thing that really irritates me is that he leads you on to believe that if you email him you will get through to him. His webpage clearly states (paraphrased): 'email me and I will get back to you quicker'. So what happens? I email him.. but no response. Then, I call him, and he says 'email me and I will get back to you this weekend.' Two weeks later, no response. I even went through the trouble of creating my own invoice including shipping, paypal fees, etc, and just asked him to verify it and then I would follow up with the money. Not a peep.

I just really, really dislike being treated poorly. From a small business perspective, he is failing. You need to keep first time customers so that they become frequent customers. If you are overselling your business, its time to expand. Hire someone to help out. There are very few small businesses actually growing these days, he should welcome the potential and take advantage of it.

I am fairly new to the online hifi community, and I have been overwhelmed at how helpful, nice, responsive, and easy going most people are. I found it to be shocking how terribly Michael Percy treats his customers. I've done some reading, and I am not the first person who has had trouble with him.

Hehe, sorry for the rant. Maybe I am cranky. It is past my bedtime.

 

[andrzejpw]

can't you get vishay/dale resistors at mouser? Only 16 cents each! Or am I stupid, and is this something else?

 

[aos]

Vishays I talk about are VSH-J or similar bulk foil series that sell anywhere from $3.5 to over $10 a pop. Quite a BIT more than plain Vishay-Dales. They look like capacitors, in square boxes with 5mm grid and have ultralow noise, ultrahigh stability and ultrahigh price. Partsconnexion sells some of them but not the VSH-J series which are half price and only differ in not being encased in epoxy - not necessary for most DIY anyway which will sit in a room away from the elements.

The problem is if he is a sole dealer of some types - like Vishay - in the US market, by some arrangement. Given his terrible round-trip times (I've ordered from him twice), he'd basically have a monopoly and nobody could compete with him and drive either his prices down (which are very high!) or at least improve the to-ship time.

On the other hand, if he hires help, it might eliminate most of his profits, and create whole new set of problems and liabilities. There's a major difference in being in business alone and having employee(s). If you ask any of the guys here who were in his position, I bet they'll agree.

All that said, he DOES eventually get to your order, and he DOES ship to non-US destination and even marks the value down so you pay less tax. I don't think he's a bad guy, just a guy who is afraid to commit to expanding and quitting his day job to do this. If you look at today cost of living, he'd have to sell many, many packages each month just to pay the rent / mortgage. And the business is declining too. It wouldn't be a very wise decision.

 

[sil0nt]

My point is that he hasn't yet gotten to my order. I am not going to harass the man and send him an email once every 12 hours and call him twice a week. He is an adult and should not need to be reminded to handle his customers.

I leave it up to him to get back in touch with me. The last email I sent to him was dated 7/19. If he ever responds, I will reply to this thread stating that he did in fact contact me. I am not trying to slander his name or business. My only reason for posting my comments are to explain the kind of service I have recieved.

 

[Jupiter]

Quote:

Originally posted by aos He probably concentrates on frequent customers and/or high value orders... Others get to wait. Trouble is he is the only supplier of Black Gate and Vishay bulk foil resistors I know of. Parts Connexion maybe, if they are on their feet now, did anyone order from them since they re-opened?

I've ordered from Parts Connexion recently. They do have Black Gate caps. I think they list most of their inventory on their web site: http://www.partsconnexion.com

I think you'll find the best prices for Black Gate caps from Reference Audio Mods: http://www.referenceaudiomods.com

By the way, when I ordered from Percy recently, my order was shipped the same day. (Parts for ~$200.)

 

[sil0nt]

I did finally get a response from Mr. Percy, but I didn't order anything from him.

His loss.