Is good customer service about dead?

Check out Audiokinesis speakers or Daedalus

I don't agree. I have received great customer service from these companies:

1. Revel speakers.
2. ATI amplifiers. Outstanding in this case.
3. Benchmark Media.
4. Emotiva.
5. Velodyne.
6. Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
7. Blue Jeans Cables. Another outstanding one.
8. Parts Express.
9. LL Bean. If every retail worked like these guys do...

I could keep going and going. Yes, some companies need an enema. Mark Levinson certainly did not impress me last time I needed service. Some companies are very slow on email; I usually pick up the phone and call.

I've had very positive customer service experiences with all of the the following:

Vandersteen, Clearaudio, Rogue. and Eastern Electric.

Day1, it sounds like you had a couple of negative experiences and a couple of positive ones. Given 50% of the four experiences you've related were positive, how is good customer service dead?

BTW, email can be flaky. Pick up the phone, call the speaker manufacturer and ask. Vandersteen is notoriously poor about handling email, but they always pick up the phone. Everyone is different.

"I wanted to audition a rather expensive pair of speakers that were not available in my area. I contacted the manufacturer (from his own website) to ask where I could go to audition and purchase these--but no response."

Dat1...Moving to a smaller house will necessitate selling my Dunlavy SC-4 speakers and going for something scaled down as well. Just the other day, like you, I e-mailed a very well known manufacturer who makes one of the handful of speakers I'm interested in. I also asked him if he knew of anyone close to my area where I might be able to audition. His reply was, "I can make you a pair for a good price." I wrote back, respectfully indicating I wanted first to hear his speakers and find out if they gave me the kind of sound that satisfied me. I got no other reply from him. I'm certainly not using this single episode as a means of indicting customer service in general. It's just that based on the very positive comments from other Audiogoners about this manufacturer, I expected a more helpful response. My shortlist is now a bit shorter.

I terms of speaker manufacturers, I have had exceptional service from both John Devore and Albert Von Schweikert, who both have set-up exceptional shops that support their customers but will also personally jump in and make sure that the customer is being taken care of.