2. misc-audio
  3. 1438352004

Bad experience with PurePower of Canada

This is my first post here in a long time, and I seriously considered not writing it, but the situation I'm about to relate to you has reached a crisis point, and I feel like I have little choice now but to call a manufacturer out in public for shockingly substandard customer service.

The company in question is Canadian firm PurePower, maker of an acclaimed line of AC power regenerators. I've owned their APS 1050 for several years now, and until recently it functioned flawlessly and made a decent improvement to my system's sonics. However, at the very beginning of June, a power surge blew out the input side of the unit and made it nonfunctional. (Interestingly, my other regenerator, a Chinese-made Dussun, escaped unscathed.)

I called PurePower and spoke to a gentleman named Damian. He gave me a repair quote over the phone and told me to send the unit in. It arrived at PP's Niagara Falls facility on 6/11/15. Damian said it would be a quick repair and would be back to me within a week.

Real long story short, by the middle of July, I had yet to receive my unit back. PP stopped answering my phone calls and emails and repeated requests for a tracking number. Damian's story had changed any number of times over the month PP had my 1050. First he said, "It's going out tomorrow" (that was around the 16th-17th of June), then "It has gone out" (he told me that a couple of times), and then "It's at UPS" (his penultimate lie). Having finally exhausted my patience, I threatened to take this whole thing public and consider legal action if I didn't get a straight answer. Only then, less than half an hour before my deadline to him, did Damian return my call. He said that the company had been on vacation for the past two weeks (though this wasn't reflected on their answering machine or their email, and he even admitted he had been in the office several times during the break). He said the unit was fixed and would go out Tuesday, July 21. Again, he promised me a tracking number.

As of today, July 31, I still have not received my 1050, and the company again is not returning emails. In fact, even more disturbing, their phone number is now out of service. What bothers me most of all, they cashed my check three weeks ago, and I have NOTHING to show for my expenditure. I'll stop short of calling it outright theft, but it sure feels like it.

I am now afraid that I won't see my unit again anytime soon, if ever. It's hard for me to tell if this whole saga is the result of PurePower's utter incompetence or something more malevolent. But, whatever it is, I feel seriously taken advantage of. As I've said, it wouldn't be quite as much of an issue had they not already cashed my check, but the fact that I did my part and paid them and they've completely reneged on theirs--and now refuse to answer inquiries . . . well, that pisses me off. And it won't stand. That's why I've taken to forums like this one to warn fellow audiophiles about PurePower's antics. After doing some research online, it seems that I'm hardly the only one to complain about their customer service in the last few years.

I hate to resort to a post like this, but the audiophile public deserves to know when a manufacturer clearly doesn't do right by its customers. And this, to me, is a case in point. With any luck, this situation will be resolved in my favor and I'll get my 1050 back, but until then, I'm damn well going to let my voice be heard. By its shoddy behavior, PurePower has forced my hand.

P.S. If anyone can suggest any consumer-rights organizations I can contact, I'd appreciate it. I've already reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, but have yet to hear back from them.
hooper
clin36's avatar
clin36
34 posts
 
New Jersey state business license record for PurePower Partners LLC
Richard and Damian Janzen names are nowhere inside that doc.
https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/shady/messages/6903.html
It's a defunct store, on Main Street of Hackensack, NJ.   Owner was some Korean guy, selling audio/visual (TV, stereo, CDs, Records)
falconquest's avatar
falconquest
480 posts
 
I would go knock on their door.....

Canadian Production & Sales Office

Audiophile APS Inc.
24 Hume St.
Plattsville, ON
N0J 1S0

Phone: (226) 240-0336


clin36's avatar
clin36
34 posts
 
@falconquest the two addresses advertised on their purepoweraps.com are probably bogus addresses. One lawyer told me that Niagara Falls address is a UPS location.

Their real address might be here (but then again, they may not actually have any office at all)
http://canada411.yellowpages.ca/bus/Ontario/Cambridge/Audiophile-APS-Inc/6986565.html?what=519624973...
100 Sheldon Dr, Cambridge, ON N1R 7S7

This site is also illuminating:http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/d26bmXlJQ
clin36's avatar
clin36
34 posts
 
Here are just a few examples of PurePower constant delay in shipping me a ’fixed’ unit
June 23, 2017, which is 2.5 months after I sent back their units due to buzzing noise.
On Jun 23, 2017, at 2:14 PM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote:

Hi Charles,

Sorry i missed your call.

We did resolve the noise problem.

We built a new unit with our silent capacitor solution - but there was a small amount of residual coil noise.

We think it is very quiet overall - - but in your case we were gun shy.

So we sent it to one of our audiophile dealers who listened critically and just called to tell us he was fully satisfied.

Therefore we are building a new unit for you with the same super quiet cap and it will ship next week from New York.


On November 14, 2017, still nothing from PurePower, except this, now from Damian Janzen.
On Nov 14, 2017, at 10:49 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote:

Hello Charles,

This is Damian here. Your unit is shipping with tomorrow’s pickups. It has been ready to go, but I held it back twice to apply the most recent changes and tweeks.

I wil forward tracking on pickup.

Thanks,
Damian Janzen.



Quoting Charles:

Hi Richard,

What is going on? I have not heard back from you regarding my unit that you said was pretty much ready to ship …


On April 1, 2018, still nothing from PurePower
On Apr 1, 2018, at 11:47 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote:

You Lithium Batteries have been shipped from our supplier - Should be installed in your unit, tested and shipped to you April 6.

If they arrive late shipdate will be April 9.


Quoting Charles:

Hi Richard, Can you please let me know what is the status of my unit? When will you REALLY be shipping it to me??

clin36's avatar
clin36
34 posts
 
Richard, your attempt at blaming your unit’s buzzing noise on solar inverter is probably b.s. Google shows this:
Your solar system will turn off at night as there is not enough sunlight to sustain operation. Once the solar radiation is high enough the inverter will start to operate automatically again each morning – it will start off with a self test before feeding the grid with electricity.

But that’s really besides the point.
Your statement about ’making demand .. ’ is ridiculous too:
Why did you make demands on the manufacturer that tried its very best to fix a problem we didn’t create?

I made no demand on you other than going out of my way repeatedly, wasting my time testing this and that for you, thinking that I am helping a small company to solve a problem affecting their equipment, so that they can survive in this highly competitive hi-end audio gear market. That, of course, was when I was still foolish to believe in that PurePower was a legit business.


My correspondence to you on May 11, 2018 made it very clear to readers around the world that I made no blames nor demand anything from you, other than helping you and giving you multiple chances to fix the buzzing noise.

Quoting Charles:

Hi Richard, By now you must have received the 3000 Gold that I shipped to you 2+ weeks ago. But I have not received any refund yet. Please refund me as soon as possible as I need the money to help pay for the PS Audio purchase. Thank you Charles

Begin forwarded message:
From: Charles

Subject: Don’t think it is going to work out for us

Date: May 11, 2018 at 1:17:48 AM PDT
To: richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com>Cc: Purepower <damian@purepoweraps.com>

Hi Richard, I am sorry but it looks like ARC and PurePower just don’t work well together. I think it’s probably time to consider a refund of my money. I’ll call you in morning so we can talk in person first. Regards, Charles

And finally, your outrageous claim OUT OF THE BLUE, that you would have to ’sell MY unit’ in order to refund me my money, and that b.s about unable to refund through PayPal, credit card, etc, and about sending me a check.

On Jun 19, 2018, at 6:59 AM, Richard Janzen <richard@purepoweraps.com> wrote:

Hi Charles,

I’ll call this afternoon.

I am having a problem with your refund, not of your making, that makes it necessary to resell your unit to generate your refund. I would normaly simply make the payment out of general revenue but we had a large and critical cash problem in May because a payment from a middle east customer failed as a result of Trump’s rejection of the nuclear agreement and the sanctioning of some Middle East banks. We didn’t expect to be victims of the US administration - but it seems there are unexpected conequences to politics. The amount was large enough to upset our finances - but I expect it to be overcome by the end of June.

I though I had a customer in San Diego all lined up for your unit - but he delayed an so did another sale in Boston. I should have it resolved soon. I have two other pending sales for 3000s. I’m just trying to upgrade them to Lithium and Furutech options.

We do not have a credit card facility so I have no way to create a credit on you credit card. The original charge was made on a PayPal account of another company who ran occasional charges on our behalf as a favour. As a manufacturer we do not normally offer a credit card payment option.

So I am sending a cheque.


More to discover