So why did he have the back cover off and why, in is first post even before his technician looked at it, did he know that it was a blown capacitor. Most lay-people won't know a capacitor from pacacitorificator. He says his mods are dusting and fuse checking. I have had amps and receivers for years and years and never had them apart.
After the fire we took the top off to see what damage had been done. After reading the numbers off the part that exploded and describing it to a friend, tech savvy, on the phone he told us what the part was. I also wanted to be able to describe the situation well to EQ.
Second-Why open the case. On almost every product I have ever seen it voids the warranty. Bad move. Leave it to the pros
In hindsight maybe a good idea but after the flames I was completely unclear what had happened at wanted to be able to clearly describe the issue to EQ. Flames in my house I take seriously.
Third-I always check with a manufactorer before buying used. Zissou said the seller did before the sale. AND YOU BELIEVED HIM????? Hey, I have a bridge to sell you. EQ says that on the warranty card it states "non-transferable warranty".
The warranty card is still here in the manual and on this one, from 2002 it says nothing about being non transferrable. We were unsure IF it was covered and that was part of the reason for phoning, the other being one would think a company would have interest in the fact their product failed in a way that flames came out of the top. This was also before we'd heard of the other units that this had happened to.
Second-Why open the case. On almost every product I have ever seen it voids the warranty. Bad move. Leave it to the pros
Is he sure that person never modded it? How would you know unless he knew what to look for? If I opened my amp, all I would see is wires and well... I don't know. I wouldn't have a clue if it was modded. How is Zissou sure if he doesn't even know where it was sold originally and who did what to it. It might have been sold 12 times before him for all Zissou knows.
Agreed we have no idea what the previous owner did but I did ask him as I do not believe in modding. What I do know is I HAVEN'T modded it and I also know that EQ HAD NOT SEEN THE UNIT so it was just one the excuses they came up with first it was we lived overseas, noper not us, secondly it was that the electricity is different in Canada, noper same as America. Again they just said it was modded when they'd never seen the unit.
So just by opening the case and buying used, Zissou voided his warranty. Mod or no Mod. Take some responsibility. Like an earlier thread said, we have all tried to save some cash buying used and been burned. So true. It was a chance, so take some responsibility for that also. So these are the simple facts. No transferable warranty, opened case. That is plenty for EQ to say, piss off. Simple as that.
Agreed as we found out after. I take responsibility and next time will fully research warranty policies although it is very unclear in my manual. Something like Bryston with their, now old, 20 year transferrable warranty is a good example. Many companies will however offer goodwill treatment to subsequent owners. What we didn't expect was for me AND my wife to get yelled at on the phone, abused and sent rude emails. Now to keep things real not all emails were rude especially the ones where they agreed to send a new unit and in fact asked if I wanted an EQ jacket to make up for the difficulties we'd been through. I refused as I was only concerned with the amp. I do have all these emails saved. By sending the amp it is implied culpability. As for why they canceled it I was told that their German lawyers had said they couldn't send it due to I BELIEVE showing culpability and the potential for a lawsuit. I may have this part wrong and do not want to put words in their mouths.
It went from getting a new amp and asking me to remove posts about what had happened to them canceling it, that's cool I can handle that, to calling the VP and getting yelled at from him for 15 minutes. Now this is a company yelling at a customer who'd had a fairly clealry catastrophic issue with his amp. Once he'd blown off his steam we talked for about an hour and he was waffling between sending the amp that was already at customs if I gave a CC number, which I said I;'d do then return the blown one to sending for free two modules to be replaced even though I said we didn't have the tech knowledge to do it. He said we could be talked through the process. He then, after talking to an engineer, found out there were no suitable modules available for this unit. He said this was one of 100 hand built ones and I should keep it because they were the best sounding ones. A dealer I talked to based on the date of manufacture and test told us later that this was not an early one. HOWEVER it could have just been siting at EQ before testing a shipment for quite a while so I have no reason to doubt Earthquake on this. Is it possible if this is a handbuilt one that it could have issues that a production one might never experience? Damn straight it is. We don't yet know if the others that caught fire were old or production models. We do know that the customer service they experienced was very difficult for them as well. A dealer who has his own issues with EQ and will no longer deal with them also told us to not give them credit card info.
Also, why didn't he send the amp in to Earthquake? The cost of shipping? In his eyes they had already dismissed his claim, so what more could they do? Certainly they would't keep the amp. Too many shipping records for him to prove they had it.
First yes the cost but bear in mind that a warranty replacement was in transit from Monday to Friday last week so we DIDN'T know a warranty had been declined. Had we known I would have had a tech in to fix it as we ultimately did on Saturday thereby taking EQ out of the loop and not having to deal with them. The last straw was on Friday when I wife called and was yelled at for 10 minutes straight before he hung up on her. At that point I didn't care if it was $1000 to get it fixed it was not worth the anguish of receiveing calls from them or calling them again. For peace of mind paying what we did for the repair was incredibly good feeling. Also if you'd been through all we had with them I guarantee you you'd have had second thoughts about sending them anything.
I hope Earthquake takes some lessons on PR if need be. Even if Zissou was rude, the correct thing would be to either ignore it, or to reply professionally. I am sure they are on the defensive right now and I know a lot of people, including Zissou, have stated previously how well they thought Earthquakes PR service is. Let's hope this is just a passing thing.
Couldn't agree with you more. If they'd replied in a professional way without threats then none of this would have happened. If they'd said at the beginning no warranty and we won't send a unit, no problem at all. We can afford to get things fixed. They are very much on the defensive including not taking responsibility for 3 units have had flames shoot out the top when a component had failed. I did think their service was good and wasn't even nervous the first time I called them thinking that together we could come up with a solution, that is a big reason as to why I recommended the amps to so many folks along with the fact that this is a GREAT SOUNDING AMP. But if there's an issue which even in RARE cases can cause a component to blow and flames to come out the top then it's something you'd think they'd want to look into and take seriously.
I was the first to admit that I did get angry during the first call when we talked for 20 minutes and got nowhere. That is certainly my fault as no matter what they said or did I should have kept my cool and I wrote in the first post I got angry. I tried to keep this as accurate as possible. Every phone call has been meticulpusly documented and all emails have been saved as well as the two parts that were replaced, a bridge rectifier and the capacitor. As to why they failed I haven't a clue but amps or other electronic devices can and do breakdown. This is certainly not only a problem with EQ. Flames however, while not unheard of, are rarer and possibly a little more serious. As for tracking the package when using the number they gave me I was always CLEARLY the receiver not the shipper and it's yet more Earthquakespeak and spin. I'm just glad I AM in Canada with the same electricity that Americans use. If they were finally convinced of those thruths then there's hope yet that they'll realize everything we've said is true.
There are no hard feelings or animosity with which I feel towards them. It's their company and they can run it anyway they choose. It's not how I'd do it but hey that's just me.
Yes photos are coming, I'm trying to get a better digital camera today. We have both parts that were replaced, the cap and the bridge rectifier and will take shots from all angles, and will show how the other large cap still in the unit is scorched. That one will also need to be replaced. To show how well built these damned things are though everything else is now functioning just fine. I haven't cranked it, and when we go out it's always shut off but it SEEMS okay for now. Would have been a WHOLE LOT easier to have just had a tech in instead of relying on the manufacturer. Live and learn.
