VPI service problems

I have had a bunch of emails from people out there about how bad their experience has been with service issues with VPI as well, really surprises me that a company that gets such good reviews from the audio magazines and has been around as long as they have has such little regard for the customer. Come guys help me out here, any thoughts on how to solve this problem?

OK, here is the latest update. I initially emailed VPI on June 28th and have yet to have an adequate response, I mean 19 days later and seems that it is WAY too much trouble to even bother to answer their customers emails! I have sent several follow up emails over the last couple of weeks to Mike's attention in their service department but they have been ignored as well. Just can't seem to break thru the barrier that Sheila puts up to get to anyone who can or wants to help.

Just when I thought that I was totally on my own, a couple of the forum members have come forward to try and help (isn't it great when the Internet works like it is supposed to). Thanks to some combined efforts we have discovered that VPI sources their vacuum motors from WW Grainger and after a couple of calls to them (thanks to JR in the Grainger customer service department) I found that the vacuum motor VPI uses in the HW-27 Typhoon is an Ametek Lamb model 116757-13, Grainger found one locally for me and I was able to pick it up on one days notice. But the best part is that they charged me only $72.61 for the exact motor that VPI charged me $240 for last time! Don't you think that a 250% mark up is a little steep? What a rip-off. Now if I could just find who sources the foam gasket that goes between the motor and the catch basin I will be good to go. Anybody have any ideas on where to get one?

Let me clarify a few things for everyone. All my statements are factual and accurate descriptions of what has happened. Harry and a couple of his buddies on AudioAsylum are now trying desperately to spin this any way they can to try and cover up his lack of/poor service. I have never met Harry , spoken to him or had any direct contact with him. Not ever, not once. It is certainly not because of a lack of effort on my part. In the course of two service problems I have sent more than a dozen emails and left countless phone messages for him and not had one response, not one. When the HW-27 failed five months ago there was no mention of free warranty repair at all. In fact I was told that I would have to pay for any parts or pay to have it shipped back to them and then pay for any repairs that they performed , so I opted to buy the part needed and do it myself. Now that part has failed again.Never has any free warranty repair work been mentioned. After once again ignoring numerous emails and phone calls, Sheila only responded 18 days afterwords with the following terse email "Use RA # 21236 and enclose a copy of this email with machine. The machine will be thoroughly checked before it is returned to you.Sheila" First you can see that the message is from Sheila not Harry as he claims, second there is no mention of any free warranty coverage being offered. I had to pay last time why would I think that I wouldn't be charged this time? And this response ignored everything that I asked for which was simply to obtain the proper replacement part. After three more emails in three days and numerous more phone calls (all of which went unanswered and unreturned) I finally in desperation turned to the audio websites seeking help from the members. Only when this went public did Harry respond and then not to me directly but by posting on the forum that "he had gone fishing, had brown outs,etc" as a reason for not responding to me initially and saying that "we stand behind everything we make long after the warrantee is done and gone." Well that hasn't been my experience, as I said earlier, Harry wouldn't repair it free last time and you can see by Sheila's only email response to me that there is no mention of any free warranty repair. I think that Harry is being disingenuous in his post. The explanation for not responding in a timely fashion smacks of "my dog ate my homework" I mean come on, fishing trips and brown outs accounting for more that two weeks without a response? (remember that it took him more than a month to respond and send me the part last time, I guess Harry must do a lot of fishing) Offering a free repair only after you have been called out in a public forum? But I think that the most telling part of this whole sordid tale is the simplest one. If Harry was really serious about customer service or actually gave a damn anywhere other than on the public forums he would just pick up the phone and actually call me, himself directly. Or email me, himself directly. I am sure that this could all have been easily solved with just a little communication. But he has chosen not to. Harry could still get in touch with me, I am easy to reach and easy to get along with. I don't want anything for free. I am not out to smear anyone. I have tried endlessly to reach Harry all to no avail. Instead of posting on line he could have just picked up the phone at any time or sent a quick email and fixed this in probably two seconds and I would have been the first to write what a great guy he is and how wonderful his products are. That's what I would have done. I think it's what any good small business owner would have done. I still would love to be able to write that post.
The good news is that with the help of several members the HW-27 is up and running again and it only took me one day to get the part and put it in myself. Kinda neat when the forum actually works and people get together to solve problems instead of bashing each other. I hope Harry reads this and takes the time to actually call me. I would still love to be able write that positive post about VPI.

As I have watched this thread develop for the last couple of weeks I have been amazed at the reactions both pro and con to my original posting.
So many accusations and so much invective has been hurled back and forth (especially on the AudioAsylum website) that I thought it was time to try and clear up a few things.
First I am glad to hear that so many people have had such good experiences with VPI both from a sales and service perspective. It somehow makes me feel better that I did buy
the right product after all. Clearly Harry and VPI have their strong advocates and loyal fans. Unfortunately he also seems to have some strong detractors. I don't count myself in either camp. As I have said I have never had any contact with Harry in any way shape or form. (I'm
surprised that in spite of all of these postings that is still the case).
Secondly, All I can do is relate my own personal experiences with VPI and allow other members to glean what they will from it.
I have however had a lot of emails asking about the warranty situation with VPI. It seems to be unclear to many of the members. Now my HW-27 Typhoon would have
been out of warranty when the first vacuum motor failed as it was just past the two year mark from being purchased. When after a month of waiting and emailing trying to make arrangements to get it fixed I finally got thru to VPI, I queried them about the warranty as I was unsure at the time what it was. I was told in no uncertain terms that the HW-27
came with a 90 day warranty. When I stated that I thought that it had a longer warranty than that I was told to look at my owners manual and there in the back, on the last page, lo and behold it says quite clearly that the warranty is only 90 days. Now if you go to VPI's website and look at the advertisement touting the HW-27 and scroll to
the bottom it states it comes with two years of warranty coverage but if you click on the HW-27 owners manual word document and go to the bottom you will see the
warranty coverage as being 90 days. here is the link http://www.vpiindustries.com/clean_typhoon.htm
Now I know that people are going to start right in with "Oh no that's wrong" and "They have always repaired my XXX model for free even when it was long out of warranty" Well, all I can say is that this is what they have listed on their own site and this is exactly what I was told my
warranty coverage was. If the coverage is something different depending on if you are buying or in need of repair than that needs to be pointed out up front not after the fact. If the warranty is somehow different as
I am sure that VPI will claim then one would think that they could get it accurate on their own site. It seems like a chance to play fast and loose with the warranty coverage depending on who you are or what the circumstances are. When I called because my second vacuum motor had
failed after only five months my only question was if that replacement part had a warranty at all and if so was it more that 90 days. I still haven't gotten any response to that question. That is what led to my original post asking for help from the members. Boy oh boy, if I had
only known what I was letting myself in for by asking that simple question. (As a complete aside, with the help of several members I did find a replacement motor from Ametek for $72 dollars instead of the $240 listed on VPI's website, but when all of this warranty stuff came up I went the extra mile and managed to locate the engineer at Amtek who
designed the motor who kindly let me pick his brain and having never heard of VPI asked me a bunch of questions and asked me to send him pictures of the inside of the HW-27. He made a couple of suggestions and is going to send me a different motor to try out that may be better suited for this application. But he did point out that all of these
Amtek motors come with a two year warranty from the manufacturer and asked for me to send the defective motor back to him to look at which I will do at some point in the future. But I digress)
So I guess the answer to everyone's questions about warranty
coverage is that I don't know exactly what it is. I suppose that I will have to go with what it says on VPI's own site in black and white and say that it is 90 days parts and labor warranty at VPI's sole discretion. I don't know if that clears things up or makes them more cloudy but this seems to be the current state of affairs.