[compuryan]

[mod edit]This situation was resolved - http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/496544/twisted-pear-audio
 
 

Hello fellow head-fiers,
I have a problem that I'd like to get your input on. I am not sure what next step I should take.
 
 
On May 23, 2009 I placed an order with Twisted Pear Audio for a Buffalo32S DAC, volumite, and power supply. I received the kit and assembled it, however, the DAC was not working. I emailed Brian Donegan and he offered to help figure out what was not working. He said that I mistakingly cut the wrong traces so he fixed them as well as a couple other things. I got the DAC back, and only one channel of the DAC worked. The volumite was not functioning at all, providing no attenuation as it should have. I told all this to Brian and he apologized saying that he didn't get a chance to test anything before he sent it back, and offered to work on it again. He verified that he received it (for the second time) on August 19, 2009.
 
I tried emailing him about it and he only responded when I tried contacting him from my secondary email address. This was on November 24, 2009. He responded saying that he had been busy and hadn't looked at it. He said he would probably have time over the thanksgiving holiday to work on it. I offered numerous times to pay him whatever necessary costs, labor, shipping, or other misc costs that might come from fixing my DAC.
 
I let some time pass, hoping Brian would have time to work on my DAC. I emailed him again on April 24, 2010 and again on May 28, 2010. Earlier in May I emailed Russ White as well as PM'd both Russ and Brian on the TPA support forum and haven't received any response whatsoever.
 
From what I know, the DAC may have been faulty before I received it. It never worked properly at any time in my ownership of it. I do not know what I could have done to damage it. I work carefully, using gloves and grounding myself and my iron whenever I am working with sensitive electronics. I have full confidence in my abilities with the Buffalo32S particularly because months prior to ordering my own Buffalo32S, I successfully built one (without issues) for another forum member here at Head-Fi.
 
I understand that Brian and Russ are busy, but now it seems that they ignoring me. I have been without my DAC for a total of nine months and have not received any response from TPA in six months.
 
 
Thank you for reading, any and all responses are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Ryan
​

 

[apatN]

Sad to hear this. Not to sound cheeky but I have never had problems with my Buffalo and whenever I had questions I would turn to the TPA forums and the mods were both friendly and replied super fast. With that in mind it's strange that they are ignoring you.
 
Try the forums as well. Perhaps there is something wrong with your e-mail account (i.e. the e-mails are blocked because of a junk filter). You already said that you got a reply from your other e-mail.

 

[swt61]

Let's keep in mind that we have one side of a story ATM. I'm not accusing compuryan of anything, but this sounds totally out of character for the TPA guys. I'm just saying let's give them a chance to respond before jumping to conclusions.

 

[n_maher]

I'm going to point Brian to this thread and in the mean time it will be closed.  No good is going to come from a bunch of unfounded assumptions.  TP has an excellent reputation and I expect this circumstance will turn out to be little more than an unfortunate oversight.  Should it prove otherwise you can count on me to not let it pass.

 

[n_maher]

I spoke with Brian this morning and he is going to contact the OP. 

 

[n_maher]

I was going to wait to add more information to this thread until a final resolution was reached but I just re-read the first post and believe that it is unfair to Twisted Pear to have the "facts" laid out as they currently appear to be in Ryan's post.  What needs clarifying is that at no point has Twisted Pear sent Ryan damaged or malfunctioning goods.  Ryan damaged his dac during the build (see his own note about cutting the wrong traces) and further damaged it after getting instructions from Twisted Pear on how to properly fix it (burned up an opamp and other components while trying to fix the traces).  Despite having no responsibility to do so Brian of Twisted Pear agreed to attempt to repair the DAC.  He attempted a repair, tested it (which Ryan incorrectly stated) and sent it back to Ryan.  Ryan then found other issues, which again, are not Twisted Pear's responsibility to fix.  However, Brian agreed to once again (at no charge to Ryan) look at the DAC.  The public (Head-Fi) needs to understand that TP does not offer a paid repair service and Brian offered to help as a favor. 
 
I have seen pictures of the DAC in question so please understand that I am not simply taking Brian or Russ's word on this, even though I have dealt with both of them over the years and certainly found them to be trustworthy enough that I could take their word.  I feel bad for Ryan that he damaged his DAC but if fault lies at the hand of Twisted Pear is it for not simply refusing to work on the DAC after it was damaged by the user and for letting this much time elapse after Ryan sent back the DAC the second time. 
 
If Ryan believes that I have stated anything in error in this post he can PM me about it.  For now the thread stays closed until a final resolution is decided by Brian and Ryan.  At that point they both can leave feedback for each other in the appropriate thread in the Feedback forum.
 
And members like slowpogo should think twice before rushing to judgment about situations like this and realize that there are almost always two sides to a story.