[Theogenes]

I think it would be a worthwhile endeavor to re-read this thread without the posts of the two obviously oblivious apologists. I am inclined to believe Mr. Samuels, and I would feel immensely better seeing the OP's issue fully resolved to his satisfaction. Frankly, I find Ray's products to be highly lust-worthy, and look forward to being able to feel that I can trust him in a business transaction. 
 
To those defending Ray's company: what you're doing is the opposite of help. Let him speak for himself-- from the looks of it, if he needed your help, he'd be in vastly worse shape. 

 

[paradoxper]

Isn't the problem as easy as why the hell was Ray's son responding to technical inquiries?
 
That in of itself seems highly unprofessional (though forgivable), it's good to see the miscommunication handled
and hopefully Ray will see that this sort of emailing fiasco never happens again.

 

[CorvetteGarage]

Quote:

 
Ok, now that's just stretching it too much.  You're both biased.  You had horrible customer service experience with RSA once, while ianmedium received good customer service from RSA through many interactions.  You have every right to post on head-fi to warn other potential customers.  However, to say you aren't biased is just out right lying to yourself and anyone else in this thread. 

Im biased how?  Im lying to myself and everyone else in this thread?  What are you talking about? 
Have I said, Im selling the amp and never owning another one of his products?  His amp sounds like crap because of the service?  Nope, nothing like that.  In fact, 2 seperate email to Ray in between Tuesday and Friday before I posted here, was to comment how much I liked the amp!  Another one was to give him credit, the amp sounded great!
 
Biased?  Hardly!  
 
My post was not to warn other head-fi'ers, only to voice my disappointment and shock in his service and attitude. 

 

[hiyu64]

Quote:

Im biased how?  Im lying to myself and everyone else in this thread?  What are you talking about? 
Have I said, Im selling the amp and never owning another one of his products?  His amp sounds like crap because of the service?  Nope, nothing like that.  In fact, 2 seperate email to Ray in between Tuesday and Friday before I posted here, was to comment how much I liked the amp!  Another one was to give him credit, the amp sounded great!
 
Biased?  Hardly!  
 
My post was not to warn other head-fi'ers, only to voice my disappointment and shock in his service and attitude. 

Huh? obviously you can't see your own bias, so you need someone else to point that out for you. 
 
The title of this thread is "Ray Samuel Audio Does Not Warranty Finish and Offers No Replacement Parts on 1 Year Old DarkStar"
Selling headphone amps/source/etc is a niche market and head-fi is one of the biggest forums where people in this niche market hang out. RSA caters to the same people as head-fi.  Voicing your disappointment on head-fi is pretty much warning his potential customers directly.

 

[zeinharis]

What do we learn from this thread in general?

1. Good customer service is very needed, it is going represents the company, doesn't matter how amazing the product is and how big the company is, when the customer service sucks, well.. no one will ever buy it's products i guess

2. Either fanboy or haters, don't let that clouding things and make sudden judgement, awaits for some explanation, don't make things worst

3. Don't jumps on to people

Once again just saying.. Hope this can be solved ASAP

 

[Parall3l]

Quote:

Huh? obviously you can't see your own bias, so you need someone else to point that out for you. 
 
The title of this thread is "Ray Samuel Audio Does Not Warranty Finish and Offers No Replacement Parts on 1 Year Old DarkStar"
If that doesn't ring people's warning bells, I don't know what will. Selling headphone amps/source/etc is a niche market and head-fi is one of the biggest forums where people in this niche market hang out. RSA caters to the same people as head-fi.  Voicing your disappointment on head-fi is pretty much warning his potential customers directly.

 
When the title was written, it was true that the OP did not get a warranty on his finish and did not get a replacement part on his 1 year old DarkStar. I'm not sure why this is considered biased. If the feedback that OP gives is bad news for RSA, it would not be a sign of OP's bias. 
 
In the first post, the OP quoted everything in the conversation, and separated his own opinons to what is actually said, I'd call that unbiased if you ask me.
 
::

 

[purrin]

Quote:

His reply-
quote "  That is normal with all of them. Cheers. " end quote.
 
Im thinking to myself- Really?  I have owned a ton of black anodized equipment over the last 30 years, and have only seen a few pieces with the purple anodized look (15-20 year old equipment), but not fading with the finish coming off.   
 
His reply-
quote " The cost of DarkStar chassis is $1200.00 complete. we do not sell parts. Cheers." end quote.
 
Hmm ok, RSA does not sell parts, but he will sell me a complete chassis for 1200.00?  Wow, that is insulting.

 
Obviously, the CSR @ RSA must really hate his boss.

 

[Ray Samuels]

Quote:

Im biased how?  Im lying to myself and everyone else in this thread?  What are you talking about? 
Have I said, Im selling the amp and never owning another one of his products?  His amp sounds like crap because of the service?  Nope, nothing like that.  In fact, 2 seperate email to Ray in between Tuesday and Friday before I posted here, was to comment how much I liked the amp!  Another one was to give him credit, the amp sounded great!
 
Biased?  Hardly!  
 
My post was not to warn other head-fi'ers, only to voice my disappointment and shock in his service and attitude. 

 
Hi Nate...
I am really sorry for how your e-mails were handled by my son.
He is very good in what he does as he balances all my check books & pay the bills when ever he is in town. He knows all the amps & can answer all questions 
regarding the amps & phones as to what goes with what.
Going over the last e-mails I found that he was wrongly trying as a son to protect the spending or
giving away parts or not sure as to how to handle the problem.
He was not ready for this.
I do feel very bad, as I know you have the right to have those knobs taken care off.
If you still have them I will be more than happy to replace them for you.
You can ship them to my address on my web site. I will send you two new ones.
If you have shipped them to your anodizer please send me the receipts & I will refund the money to you right away.
Again I found out that you do really like the sound of the DarkStar, I hope that this will be the very first & very last incident in the history of my company.
I will stand behind your amp until the last breath in me.
Enjoy your DarkStar.
Ray Samuels
 
I did send you this same e-mail to your regular-mail.
Ray

 

[estreeter]

Unlike most here, I have some understanding of the kind of customer that CorvetteGarage would be dealing with in his business each day. Picture the most anally-retentive audiophile you know of, multiply that by 10, and you have a classic car fanatic. These are the guys who photograph the dabs of paint on the undercarriage of their cars (basically factory 'placeholders') so they can 'reinstall' them after repainting the chassis. If I can put it in amp terms, you simply cant tell these guys that a replacement tube is sonically identical to their Russian Sovteks or whatever - they will inevitably have a friend/rival who has a '100 point original' in his garage. Add the iconic status of the 'Vette to the mix and I have little doubt that he has to deal with uber-perfectionists each and every day. 
 
For a guy like that with no prior knowledge of Ray's preference for phone contact over emails (refer my post several pages back where I indicated that Ray had the same problem in a previous stoush with a disgruntled customer), should we be surprised that CorvetteGarage has reacted the way he has ? I'm not thrilled with the thread title either, but some of ianmedium's responses have smacked of the same righteous indignation - keyboard warriors at 3 paces, and dont we love that. I take zero notice of the 'I wont be buying anything from RSA' knee-jerk brigade, most of whom are back in the basements looking at **** by now, but hopefully we have arrived at the point where both sides can walk away a little wiser.
 
Ray, you've been down this road before - I know I can find the thread(s) if I start digging - might be time to setup an email autoreply on your RSA email address advising customers to call you between certain hours, even if it means those of us who live outside the CONUS have to wait till midnight to call - at considerable expense - but if that's what it takes, better that than to have irate amp owners starting threads like this. As you say, you have gone above and beyond to help customers in the past, but it only takes one or two to plant a seed in people's minds.  
 
As always, just my two cents worth. 

 

[audionewbi]

Nice, a happy ending

 

[devgru]

Quote:

And I don't buy the son-answering-emails. He works for his dad and never know his generous dad shipped tons of replacement parts for free in the past?

+1
 
I sent Ray an email about an SR-71 years ago and recall the terse one-liner response ending with "cheers". Incredibly shady to blame your kid. Didn't someone mention, "Man-up" on this thread?