HEGEL - Is it really made in Norway ?

Having been insulted (unprovoked) by top people at Hegel Headquarters, after paying full price for their product, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that there is something very strange going on at Hegel. I think the underlying problem with is one that we also see elsewhere from time to time. Hegel simply cannot bring themselves to say ... we made a mistake here ... sorry ... this needs to be corrected. If they were able to do this they would immediately gain respect and credibility. Instead, they act reflexively, trying to save face.

We can also see this happening with the labeling of their products. There is something strange in their corporate culture that impels them to do the opposite of what one would reasonably expect of a mature company. It is as if, after shooting themselves in the left foot they are ready to reload and repeat the exercise using the right foot. They fail to examine the way they present themselves in certain problematic instances -- being incapable of rectifying problems that are actually quite simple to solve. Their behavior is all the more odd because those I have spoken to at Hegel seemed to be otherwise quite intelligent people. How can we explain this kind of corporate behavior?

This thread makes no sense but it seems like Sabai has it out for Hegel. For all I know, Sabai could work for a competitor and Hegel is kicking there ass in SQ. I have owned multiple Hegel products, still do, and they sound excellent. There are so many great companies that their products are designed in 1 country and built in China, has anybody heard of Apple? IMO it is good business to do this. When you buy an American car, it can have 70% of its parts made overseas. Does Chrysler say made in America when you know the majority of their parts are made elsewhere. Actually, years ago, Mazda had more of its car parts in certain cars made in America than chevy and ford.
i personally don't think this is a bad practice unless a company lies that states "made in XXXXX" but in reality it's made somewhere els, which Hegel hasn't done.

rbstehno,

Full disclosure. I have no connection whatsoever with any audio company except as a customer. The only points I have been trying to make are that Hegel has unnecessarily mislead their customers and prospective customers -- and that being abusive with customers is a strange way of doing business when presented with the problem of defective products.

sabai, you probably mentioned it earlier, but can you remind us what they did that makes you feel "abused".

jetter,

I was calmly relating the details of a defective Hegel amplifier to a top Hegel executive over the phone -- asking that they look into the matter for me. He became explosively angry yelling "that’s bulls**t" and then hung up on me. That’s what I call not only highly unprofessional but also abusive.

Hegel executives continued to stonewall me and offered not an ounce of satisfaction. After being told that I had to dismantle my entire system I was finally given two choices -- sell the Hegel amplifier on the used market or sell it back to the dealer at a multi-thousand $$ loss. I chose the latter.

I have never seen anything like this in all the years I have been dealing with high end audio companies. I remember another audiophile reporting that he had a literally smoking Hegel product and was also stonewalled by the company. Has anyone out there ever seen an audio company that refused to back their own products?