Is good customer service about dead?

The best customer service in high that I have received in high end audio has come from Manley Labs and Zu Audio. When I had an issue that concerned my Manley 300b amps Eve Anna Manley herself contacted me directly, answered my questions, solved my problem and joked with me in her peculiarly jovial manner. When I purchased a pair of Zu Audio cables--on Ebay at great discount, mind you--Gerrit from Zu Audio made sure that the spade terminations were the precise size for my amps and speakers. He contacted me immediately and made me measure the posts on my amplifiers to be certain of the proper size. His actions made it clear to me, especially since mine was a bargain basement sale, that customer service was a matter of manufacturer pride for him and Zu Audio.

My Best is Keith Herron of Herron Audio. He responds to e-mails quickly, has done upgrades at a reasonable dollar value and helped me with some trades. It doesn't get any better.

I sent in a twenty year old Tara IC and they fixed it for free including shipping. Also Rogue replaced a (damaged in shipping) amplifier with a new one at their expense.

pretty impressive imo...

Not when provided by your brick and mortar dealer. The dealer is key, in that he is a 'multi customer' of the manufacturer so the latter will always respond to their requests, if they want to stay in business. It is called leverage the relationship.

I started with Zu Definition 1.5s then upgraded to Def 2s, and now to Def 4s. Zu customer service is unbelievably good - especially if you pick up the phone and call. (Sean personally delivered my Def 4s at 7a one October morning and spent a couple of hours on set-up, including the controls of the inboard plate amplifier.) Anyone at Zu who answers the phone is over-the-top helpful. At the worst, emails sometimes take a few days to be answered. Most importantly, Zu is proactive in making sure that customers are happy; I get emails to check the progress of speaker break-in, etc.

My second positive experience is with Ancient Audio in Krakow, Poland. I bought a CDP and eventually an amplifier after being picked up at the airport and spending an afternoon listening to music in the principle designer's living room. Recently, Jarek has helped me to negotiate purchase of a specific pair of low-current 300b tubes from the Takatsuki distributor in Japan.

My third positive experience is with Sophia Electric in the DC area. My initial pair of Royal Princess 300b were not compatible with my amplifier. Susan and Richard opened their office on Sunday to test the pair of 300b that I had been using successfully to identify a two Royal Princess with the same parameters.