Magnepan Service HORRIBLE???

As I said in one of my earlier posts-I place some of the blame for the damage squarely on Magnepan's shoulders. I mentioned this in my letter to Steve Winey that Magnepan should provide a wood crate for shipping for the 3.7's and 20.7's and increase the price accordingly. We paid through the nose at $ 371 to have the crate built. I can't imagine it would cost much more than $ 200 each if these were made on a routine basis?

Everything is great with Magnepan if you don't have a shipping damage problem. If you have to interact with them on a repair you are screwed based on the way they communicate. Why they do not at least set up hotmail or gmail accounts for those few employees makes no sense to me. They operate the business like it is 1950. Not surprising how fast things moved when I got an email address at Magnepan. Maybe some good will come out of this for future Magnepan customers. They have lost me for good.

Emrritt,

As it turns out, Magnepan does have a system of crating -- but they've found that customers won't pay even a little bit more for it. It seems that they know that Magnepan and the freight company will deal with a problem if it occurs, so they have no incentive to pay more. Whereas we both bought our speakers used and so had to deal with the original seller and freight company.

Wendell Diller points out that they do in fact warn of just that on their web site:

"However, we have a word of caution. Magneplanars are very sturdy, but, they sometimes lose in a 'conflict' with a forklift driver or careless freight handler. If this happens with a new pair of speakers, Magnepan and your dealer will handle the hassle with the freight company. If the freight company wants to fight the claim, it isn't your problem.

"The safest way to buy a used Maggie is with a warranty from your nearest Magneplanar dealer. The next best option is to personally check out the speakers before buying. The worst option is a 'great deal' on the Internet. To our thinking, if it is such a great deal, why wouldn't someone locally snap it up?"

One other word about how they interact with customers. While I was visiting, they got a call from a guy in India. His distributor had given him foot screws of different lengths, and he couldn't figure out which to put where. In short order, engineering and the factory became involved, and the decision made to send him a new set of screws of the right length. Later, as I understand it, he spoke to Wendell. The amount of attention, both direct and behind the scenes, was extraordinary, and hardly cheap, given the cost of labor.

I don't know what happened in your case, and I don't know why they don't put their email addresses on the web, but I've spent enough time making futile attempts to contact various "customer be damned" companies and talking to people with impenetrable foreign accents after an hour on hold to appreciate this old-fashioned aspect of the way they do business, and the fact that they're so accessible -- or at least have been when I called them.

Mrschret, I'm not sure what the situation was, or why communication wasn't better. From what I've seen, when people have called and asked about time frames, they've been happy to oblige.

Based on my own experience as a customer over the years, good communication is vitally important -- it may be disappointing to learn that your repair will take two months, but I think most people will accept that. It's not hearing anything or being able to get through that drives you to distraction.

When I mentioned my broken Tympani to the beleaguered head of the repair department, she said, "Good God, don't send them now." :-)

I'm anxious to hear what member "Mrschret" has to say after he visits Magnepan tomorrow. Maybe he can shed even more light on this topic?

Emrritt,

As it turns out, Magnepan does have a system of crating -- but they've found that customers won't pay even a little bit more for it. It seems that they know that Magnepan and the freight company will deal with a problem if it occurs, so they have no incentive to pay more. Whereas we both bought our speakers used and so had to deal with the original seller and freight company.

Wendell Diller points out that they do in fact warn of just that on their web site:

"However, we have a word of caution. Magneplanars are very sturdy, but, they sometimes lose in a 'conflict' with a forklift driver or careless freight handler. If this happens with a new pair of speakers, Magnepan and your dealer will handle the hassle with the freight company. If the freight company wants to fight the claim, it isn't your problem.

"The safest way to buy a used Maggie is with a warranty from your nearest Magneplanar dealer. The next best option is to personally check out the speakers before buying. The worst option is a 'great deal' on the Internet. To our thinking, if it is such a great deal, why wouldn't someone locally snap it up?"

One other word about how they interact with customers. While I was visiting, they got a call from a guy in India. His distributor had given him foot screws of different lengths, and he couldn't figure out which to put where. In short order, engineering and the factory became involved, and the decision made to send him a new set of screws of the right length. Later, as I understand it, he spoke to Wendell. The amount of attention, both direct and behind the scenes, was extraordinary, and hardly cheap, given the cost of labor.

I don't know what happened in your case, and I don't know why they don't put their email addresses on the web, but I've spent enough time making futile attempts to contact various "customer be damned" companies and talking to people with impenetrable foreign accents after an hour on hold to appreciate this old-fashioned aspect of the way they do business, and the fact that they're so accessible -- or at least have been when I called them.

Mrschret, I'm not sure what the situation was, or why communication wasn't better. From what I've seen, when people have called and asked about time frames, they've been happy to oblige.

Based on my own experience as a customer over the years, good communication is vitally important -- it may be disappointing to learn that your repair will take two months, but I think most people will accept that. It's not hearing anything or being able to get through that drives you to distraction.

When I mentioned my broken Tympani to the beleaguered head of the repair department, she said, "Good God, don't send them now." :-)

Thanks for correcting me Josh358. I actually thought about that while driving to work today and realized there is no way they repair speakers based on production, since they repair old speakers and there is no production line for those!

Etmerritt33, those boxes they ship the 3.7's in seem quite sufficient. I do know UPS quoted me only about $150 to ship them across country when I thought I had to. I also think Magnepan sells replacement boxes for their speakers for like $50 or something. I could be wrong there, but thought I read that somewhere they did. Maybe not. No need to crate them, but that's just my opinion. If UPS/Fedex damaged something then I might disagree too. Seems they'd have to really drop or smash the speakers to actually damage them. They must have done a doozy on yours!