Thiel Customer Service - New ownership is terrible!!! - WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COMPANY ?

Just sticking my nose in because I know something about all the things in this thread. Having spent years in PE, I will first confirm that you are right about a lot of PE buys. But when PE firms buy a company, they always have some sort of plan to grow the business. It may not be sound or it may rely on a key person who later elects not to be a part of it but I guarantee it's about growing the business. You're right that old customers may not be the priority but in the PE world, if you don't buy a product at least once a year, you're an OWNER, not a CUSTOMER. Customers come back and spend more money, owners don't spend money but do cost money with pesky things like repairs and such. Note that I'm not defending the situation with Thiel, just offering perspective on how they think.

We try to offer personal service but it's time consuming and expensive but we think it's worth it in the end. But this is a tough business and the cost/price pressures are enormous at a time when most customers prefer to buy from discounters which a) devalues our work and b) deprives us of the revenue we need to deliver the demanded services.

There's no doubt that it's an expensive hobby but remember that a lot of people share some responsibility for the decline in service a lot of companies were known for. We're all mostly lucky because we have a baseline set of knowledge that allows us to make informed choices about gear. But our company hears from lots of interested consumers with little or no background in audio that the dealers are dead or worthless and the forums just mock them for their stupid questions. We take extra time and patience to help them because we believe it makes lifelong devotees of our gear.

I read a lot of comments in a lot of forums and groups that amount to: "Everything sucks except my gear in my room." Good for you but frankly you're not helping.

My wife likes to say that Complaining about today doesn't make tomorrow better.

Ask yourself what you are doing to change the situation for the better. If you aren't, then make different choices or frankly, shut up and go away. If you're helping improve the situation then that's awesome and keep it up.

Re: Thiel, you're basically screwed. Support the aftermarket repair guys and keep them in business. But Thiel's gone. At least the one you used to do business with...

As for the rest of the manufacturers, support us! Whether it's us or our competitors over at PS Audio, we're going to bust a gut trying to help you because it's in our interests to!

Wrong?

I'm the boss. By definition I'm never wrong!

Discounters deprive manufacturers of revenue by demanding lower prices. That discount comes from somewhere and believe me, it ain't their own pocket!

Also, to clarify, I didn't say the "I" expect someone to buy something annually, I was trying to explain the PE perspective. PE firms care about recurring revenue from existing customers. That's one of the reasons why PE doesn't typically work with audio companies. We know that we typically get one chance to land a customer. If we're really good, maybe they'll come back for more as we build new products. But we're not dumb enough to assume that's the case.

And I dispute your assertion that " For almost 100% of people price is a factor." If you care about innovation and quality then you need to be prepared to pay the price that that costs, else it won't occur. If all you care about is price, then by all means buy cheap stuff or used stuff. But as you do that and put companies out of business, its kind of disingenuous to complain that they either aren't providing service or went out of business leaving you no options!

Ah! See you used the word "value" and that's what we try to strike a balance for: Performance at a price point. We spent a lot of money researching the audio market and engineering hardware, firmware and mechanicals that let's us achieve performance that's consistently rated 4X-10X above it's price point in reviews. We worked really hard to deliver that performance at a price that is reasonable in the context of the industry. That may not mean that it's affordable for everybody but it's reasonable in the market. (And we recently quit selling to discounters all around the world. Discounters are killing the industry. If there are no dealers, then new customers don't have anyone to guide them through the process of entering into the hobby!) You'll have to trust me when I say I understand that the realities of life make it hard to afford the hobby! I get it, I really do. )

I'm really not looking to start an argument or perpetuate one. If someone starts out with a Dragonfly and eventually moves up-market, I think that's great. At least they're not listening to MP3s any more.

But buying decisions need to be based on Price V Performance. If it's just about Price, go buy a Beats Pill and be done with it! Amiright?