UM Global Deal - The lucky 25 (All slots filled so please stop PM'n me to join)

[Mython]

Quote:

I think all of the people who got shafted by UM in this deal ought to be a bit more vocal and call them out on their shenanigans - the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
 

 
Whilst I'm not outright defending anyone, it is only fair to point out that UM Global made their original offer in good faith but were themselves 'shafted', as you put it, by UM UK / AmpCity, who, allegedly, were shafted, in turn, by the UK supplier of the original silver cable. Consequently, it does not seem entirely fair to lay all the blame at UM Global's door. Everyone who was part of this Group Buy is aware of the very fraught relationship UK and European customers had in their dealings with UM UK / AmpCity. AmpCity were exasperating for me, and I don't doubt for a moment that they may, in all probability, have been exasperating and stressful for UM Global to deal with, too, particularly at opposite ends of the globe.
 
I'm not saying anyone is entirely guilty or entirely innocent; I'm merely pointing out that the whole sorry situation is a great deal more convoluted than UM Global supposedly being disingenuous in relation to the original offer. I'm sure Matt and the UM Global team made the original offer entirely in good faith, and have never wished to see their customers disappointed.
 
My situation in all of this is somewhere in the middle, in so much as I did receive a cable from AmpCity but it was a very considerably cheaper one than the original promotion, and I did not receive the track top or the USB stick. To be quite honest, by the time I received the cable, it came as an unannounced surprise and I was not all that fussed by then about receiving it anyway. So yes, temporarily*, I was more lucky than others who've received nothing, but it was a lower quality cable than the promised one and I didn't let it bother me (I had given up on ever receiving one anyway).
 
Sometimes things happen beyond the control of a distributor/vendor and there will be those who feel very aggrieved about it, others who read-between-the-lines of the situation and learn to move-on without resentment, and yet others who understand that sometimes a vendor is as much a 'victim' of such a situation as their customers. I fit somewhere in between the latter 2 positions and actually have some sympathy for UM Global because it may incur them a very substantial loss to have to source and buy silver cables elsewhere. We're living in challenging financial times and every company is struggling to stay afloat - not a good time to be incurring additional substantial losses.
 
Personally, it seems to me that if the above is accurate to any degree, then perhaps a pragmatic alternative might be for UM Global to offer a moderate discount voucher towards other UM products/purchases, so both parties can settle matters without anyone feeling too aggrieved or anyone losing out too badly from an unfortunate situation which has been out of the control of both parties.
 
* Having said that, it does now appear that UM Global have set up a webpage (http://www.uniquemelody.co/procab/) specifically for the purpose of honouring their promise of a silver cable - an offer I will now not be able to avail myself of, having passed-on my 'compromise' AmpCity cable, but I don't hold that unfortunate fact against UM Global. I hope their renewed effort to fulfill the cable promise progresses smoothly, for the benefit of all concerned.
 
All I can say for sure, in terms of UM Global is that when I latterly dealt directly with Matt (during the last gasps of AmpCity's ill-fated tenure as UK distributor), regarding a re-shell, Matt's customer service was exemplary and the re-shell was dealt with efficiently, smoothly, and with excellent results. Therefore, I would have no hesitation in warmly recommending UM Global to any Head-fiers contemplating a UM purchase.
 
 
Just my 2 cents.
 
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[AnakChan]

Mython, your posts make sense but it still leaves me sitting on the fence as to how I feel about it. It's true that AmpCity UK seemed to have failed to meet expectations and UMs hands were tied.
 
I guess at this point, if anyone is truly interested to understand what happened, it's probably critical to determine who's responsible for the promo. If it's a joint UMG/AmpCity initiative then it's fair that UM has at least fulfilled his part but AmpCity then be held responsible for mis-delivering.
 
However, on the other hand if UMG is responsible for leading the initiative where AmpCity is a contributor/sponsor to the promo then UMG is responsible for the mis-delivery. e.g. if Apple fails to deliver it's iPhone on time, do we fault Apple, Foxconn or Samsung (yes, they do make components in the iPhone).
 
As customers though we can play at least two cards - the justified unhappy customer and demand what we participated and rightfully paid for, or for the sake of harmony (no pun intended ) partner up with UMG and help resolve their problems that'll make all promo participants happy.
 
Anyhow, I hope that this has been a good learning lesson for UMG - as business grows, the criticality of forming formal business relationships (and contractual agreement) grows along. Working against UMG is being based in Australia where there are very strong consumer protection laws. Failing to deliver promises in promo could potentially be liable for lawsuits.

 

[Cryok95]

I can understand where you are coming from Mython, I would just like to point out some information inconsistencies, the UK supplier did not purposely shaft out Ampcity. Ampcity offered much less to the supplier to make the cables as compared to the previously agreed amount. The supplier had no choice but to refuse, resulting in Ampcity sourcing a much lower quality cable from China. For the cable fault, i am laying the blame mostly on Ampcity for not delivering the cables and delivering a sub-standard cable.
 
However, i do blame UMG mostly for the lack of updates on the situation, which i feel is not right to leave the customers in the dark. Then again, i do believe that the guys behind UMG are good guys at heart and are doing whatever they can to make a wrong, right. It may not be obvious, but behind the scenes, they have been contacting every cable maker they can think of to try and make the cables. I believe as a company, they will learn from this mistake.
 
Purpose of me pointing out the inconsistencies is to allow you and others to make a more fair and informed judgement on this situation, nothing personal

 

[Mython]

Quote:

... the UK supplier did not purposely shaft out Ampcity.
 

 
Oh, I certainly didn't mean to imply that it was deliberate - my only point in mentioning the cable supplier was that there were lots of rumours and 'he-saids' ; 'she-saids' during the long, drawn-out debacle, hence my use of the term 'allegedly'. My use of the term 'shafting' was only in the sense of mirroring the previous poster's terminology. However, you're quite right to elaborate on the details about the interplay between the cable supplier & AmpCity, so thanks for that, and my sincere apologies if my remarks came across differently from how I actually intended them. As I did say, I am not trying to point any fingers of entire guilt or entire innocence at any of the parties involved; all I wished to point out is that getting angry at UM Global isn't a constructive or entirely fair thing to do.
 

 
Purpose of me pointing out the inconsistencies is to allow you and others to make a more fair and informed judgement on this situation, nothing personal
 

 
No offence taken; quite the opposite. Thanks for elaborating.
 
Anyway, here's hoping that the whole sorry situation will soon be put to bed, for everyone's sake.
 
 
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[Cryok95]

Quote:

 
Oh, I certainly didn't mean to imply that it was deliberate - my only point in mentioning the cable supplier was that there were lots of rumours and 'he-saids' ; 'she-saids' during the long, drawn-out debacle, hence my use of the term 'allegedly'. My use of the term 'shafting' was only in the sense of mirroring the previous poster's terminology. However, you're quite right to elaborate on the details about the interplay between the cable supplier & AmpCity, so thanks for that, and my sincere apologies if my remarks came across differently from how I actually intended them. As I did say, I am not trying to point any fingers of entire guilt or entire innocence at any of the parties involved; all I wished to point out is that getting angry at UM Global isn't a constructive or entirely fair thing to do.
 

 
 
No offence taken; quite the opposite. Thanks for elaborating.
 
Anyway, here's hoping that the whole sorry situation will soon be put to bed, for everyone's sake.

 
I see, sorry if i mistook you

 

[Takaki]

No discount coupon, no track jacket and no cable for me still.
Despite filling up the form a month or two ago.

 

[Benjamin6264]

I sent a PM to UMAustralia in case something were wrong with UMGlobal's email address. Still no reply from either. Despite normally being a very patient fellow, it bothers me not to even get an answer from them.

 

[Hero Kid]

You poor bastards. I can not believe this is still unfolding for some of you. (followed this from the start, just re-visited Head-Fi).

 

[Samehada]

considering the fact that i got no infomail what so ever ... i expect nothing to happen this year

 

[Benjamin6264]

Here's what I just got from UM Global:
 
 
"Hi Ben, 
 
We have a page on our website which will be periodically updated.  We ask that you would trust we will get these cables out to you as soon as we can.  Constantly emailing us for updates that we don't have won't yield much fruit.
 
Right now, our raw materials have arrived and our building has started churning out cables.
 
Regards
 
UM"
 
A bit ironic, considering my 3 short emails in 36 days without reply. Still, I'm glad to know that this situation is coming to an end.

 

[dannytang]

Ironically, I think my "constant emailing" is what got me my promo items in May. Granted, I was also pestering them for the non-promo Miracles which I was also waiting on at the time.

 

[UniqueMelodyAus]

As Benjamin6264 posts, cables are being built, this does take time as each cable is hand built.
 
We have been explicitly clear here http://www.uniquemelody.co/procab/ that we are aiming to get this behind us by the end of the year. We ask that you grace us with the patience to wait until this deadline has passed before stating that we have broken our promises.
 
Finally, please don't email us asking where your promo items are.  There is a form to fill in, and for those of you that have filled that in, we thank you as we now have your details and are readying your packages to be sent out once the cables arrive to us.  
 
Again, we are not holding out on information from you, we are not trying to deceive you.  There is simply no new news.  We are still on track for an end of year delivery as we have on our websites.  Any amendments to this delivery estimation will be updated on our website for you all to see.  

 

[Cryok95]

Quote:

As Benjamin6264 posts, cables are being built, this does take time as each cable is hand built.
 
We have been explicitly clear here http://www.uniquemelody.co/procab/ that we are aiming to get this behind us by the end of the year. We ask that you grace us with the patience to wait until this deadline has passed before stating that we have broken our promises.
 
Finally, please don't email us asking where your promo items are.  There is a form to fill in, and for those of you that have filled that in, we thank you as we now have your details and are readying your packages to be sent out once the cables arrive to us.  
 
Again, we are not holding out on information from you, we are not trying to deceive you.  There is simply no new news.  We are still on track for an end of year delivery as we have on our websites.  Any amendments to this delivery estimation will be updated on our website for you all to see.  

Who is building the cables?

 

[chesterljh]

it has been confirmed that PlusSound Audio will be the ones building the silver cable.
 
do check out PlusSound Audio facebook page for the announcement.

 

[Samehada]

Quote:

As Benjamin6264 posts, cables are being built, this does take time as each cable is hand built.
 
We have been explicitly clear here http://www.uniquemelody.co/procab/ that we are aiming to get this behind us by the end of the year. We ask that you grace us with the patience to wait until this deadline has passed before stating that we have broken our promises.
 
Finally, please don't email us asking where your promo items are.  There is a form to fill in, and for those of you that have filled that in, we thank you as we now have your details and are readying your packages to be sent out once the cables arrive to us.  
 
Again, we are not holding out on information from you, we are not trying to deceive you.  There is simply no new news.  We are still on track for an end of year delivery as we have on our websites.  Any amendments to this delivery estimation will be updated on our website for you all to see.  

 
So basically we are allowed to complain now ?