Hey guys...
Sorry from being away from this thread. I have been at my Son's baseball game for most of the later part of the day. If anyone is a Little League fan, he won!
Well, its interesting to see how all of this came about. Here are some facts that might help with all of this. What I'm saying has been said before, while some might be new. I don't know. But its for sure that the damages have been already done to what was a great sounding cable that everyone enjoyed and still enjoy. I have received many emails in supporting what Whiplash produces and of course, many very very hateful emails echoing some of the points in this thread.
I receive wire that I purchased as being "x". This comes in several spools of wire, and usually a rather large amount since you cant buy good wire or most wire in small amount unless you want to pay a fortune. In this case, a certain order size is required. I receive the wire, cut the wire to the proper length, perform whatever is necessary for the wire to be sent to the over molder. This process can take up to 10 days since there are many steps. In this process, many other companies with certain "facts' are involved. If I were to verify every fact, it would take me 10-20x longer for prep and the cost of this verification would have to passed to the final price. So, in the case of v1, I relied on CryoParts to provide me with data. I only copied and paste the information provided to me. CryoParts did the same thing as well. He was provided data form the manufacturer and thats how numbers are generated.
Usually a "batch" of wire can last for about 2-3 months MAX. So testing every single batch which includes several spools of wire, would be costly and time consuming. This understanding can be applied to many other products including connectors, solder, headphones, caps in equipment, etc.
Since the cost of buying wire, having employees, renting space and shipping has gone up significantly, my margins have disappeared since I only passed a some portion of the increased cost to the current price.
My reputation is on the line here since I sell the cable to the end user. I have not slept since this has happened. I can say the same thing for Lee as well. Both of our businesses has suffered permanent irreversible damages and we are working hard to fix what has been done. On my side, offering to replace cables that were made 1-2 + years ago seems to be fair since they will be receiving a cable that cost approximately 30-40% more since my cost have gone up that much. Also they are receiving the newest cable which has cost Lee a small fortune to develop and cost me a small fortune to buy and stay exclusive with.
Here is how my business works. I need current sales in order to pay employees, wire, parts etc. In order to replace v1 cables, I have to take current stock and use it to replace cables that were made years back. This means I have nothing to sell. In addition, sales have stopped. So the fate of whiplash being responsible or honest is not my biggest issue since I have already proven to THOUSANDS of customers that I back up my product and I care for each and everyone that works with me on placing an order. My biggest problem is being able to continue providing great products and paying the people who provide them; my employees. Also there is rent and other expenses that go into making a product.
So if you need to put me on a Guillotine, then please go ahead and do it. Since this thread is about how bad I am and others around me, I guess not much can be said more on how people want to treat the folks that try to make better music. All we can do is try. So this is what I'm doing and I have said this MANY MANY times.
I will replace any v1 cable through my RMA process. I need order information first since I have receive cables that were not made by whiplash.
So the customer needs to send me the v1 product and I will replace it with v2. Right now I have a VERY limited amount of clear wire for replacement (accept headphone cables). Most of my stock is Eclipse which is the black color version of Twag v2. Turn around times will vary based on volume of orders and replacement cables being made also projects that I'm currently working on.
If this is not good enough, than I apologize again. It seems people have decided to move on to other options for new cables so the backlash of this has been felt. What other public whipping do folks what to see? In my mind, the damages have already been done. I can't change it. Of course I wish I could.
Also thanks to those have been trying to support me. I truly appreciate it!!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I will be unavailable personally from June 10-18th. You can email custserv@whiplashaudio.com if you need assistance. I will be checking my emails during this time, however not on a regular basis. We will be open during this time and photos of the Jazz Festival will be posted.
Thanks!
Craig