Supplier issues

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virtue

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Supplier issues
« on: 25 Nov 2009, 06:56 am »
I visited the warehouse today and everything seems in order.  A few disappointments worth noting...

- Separate chrome and black buttons were not delivered, so today you can't order a silver unit with black buttons, or a black one with silver buttons.  Sorry.  In the future, you'll be able to buy a chrome or black button kit and make the changes yourself if you have a unit already - not hard.

- You know that cool process we created to mount natural stone slabs in the rails.  The process we documented to patent and worked for many months with our vendor in China to perfect?  The units were not assembled that way - they just glued the tiles to the rails without first suspending them.  Thus, an ugly 1-3mm gap between the top of the sides and the granite slab.  Due to shipping breakage we lost many granite tops, and from those that did finally make it here, we threw out all of them today - a real heart-breaker for me. 

So as they say in show-biz... wood it is!  You'll be able to buy stone tops on the website when we muster up the energy to make them again - could be a while, thanks for understanding.

Seth

dvenardos

Supplier issues
« Reply #1 on: 25 Nov 2009, 08:22 am »
 :banghead: Not like they need the business in China right now or anything. :duh:

- You know that cool process we created to mount natural stone slabs in the rails.  The process we documented to patent and worked for many months with our vendor in China to perfect?  The units were not assembled that way - they just glued the tiles to the rails without first suspending them.  Thus, an ugly 1-3mm gap between the top of the sides and the granite slab.  Due to shipping breakage we lost many granite tops, and from those that did finally make it here, we threw out all of them today - a real heart-breaker for me. 

droht

Supplier issues
« Reply #2 on: 25 Nov 2009, 01:42 pm »
... You know that cool process we created to mount natural stone slabs in the rails.  The process we documented to patent and worked for many months with our vendor in China to perfect?  The units were not assembled that way - they just glued the tiles to the rails without first suspending them.  Thus, an ugly 1-3mm gap between the top of the sides and the granite slab.  Due to shipping breakage we lost many granite tops, and from those that did finally make it here, we threw out all of them today - a real heart-breaker for me. ...

Seth, when something like this happens are you totally covered financially from the Chinese manufacturer, are do they just walk away from your relationship rather than making you whole?  I hear more and more stuff like this and I can't help but wonder how comparable these relationships with Chinese vendors are to what we would traditionally find in the US. 

I will understand if you'd rather not get into these details, but I am curious.

JohnR

Supplier issues
« Reply #3 on: 25 Nov 2009, 02:22 pm »
Other than the issues with the granite tops, initial impressions of build quality are very very positive. This is a surprising solid and weighty little unit. Sonic impressions are promising but it's only been on an hour and it's late here. Thanks Seth :thumb:

virtue

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Supplier issues
« Reply #4 on: 25 Nov 2009, 04:09 pm »
Vis a vis the China situation, vendors are not all equal.  We have some who stand by their mistakes and go well out of their way to help us.  Others who fight and posture and tell us that it's our fault for not managing them better.  Those are on notice, make no mistake about it. 

Just remember that small companies like ours actually have more leverage than you would think in dealing with bad vendors because Google indexes everything, including this website, and the community of audio companies is quite tight-knit.  When working through a 20,000 mile internet connection, trust matters.    Our "western" sensibilities of fairness and quality are shared by many thousands of vendors like us who comprise their customers.  No company doing business today can ignore legitimate customer complaints and at no time in the history of the world, have companies been so focussed on customer satisfaction.  We are.

Materially, we name most of our vendors on our "About Us" page and already know that they've received more business by association.  Others prefer to be un-named.   Virtue could not produce items that you would consider "a bargain" without them.  No sources in the US could match their prices and quality (both); Virtue would not exist without them.

virtue

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Supplier issues
« Reply #5 on: 25 Nov 2009, 04:55 pm »
Hey John,
There are some electrolytics in there that need a bunch of time to break in...  Leave her on for a while if possible on "repeat."
FYI, we just sent a bunch of Pianos and ICEBlocks out to John @ COEM in Australia.  Air freight is mu$$der!  Next time we'll make these things with rice-paper enclosures so they ship cheaper ;-)
Seth