[rustneversleeps]

Frank,

As popular as your product may be, I am sure you get a few returns every now and then.

Can you tell us what do you do with them? If the people who returned them are careless and put a few minor dings or scratches on the exterior of the amps, or preamps, or worse yet, they opened the cover and messed with the parts and boards of the amp, and I am sure you salvage the parts, fixing them up, and resell the returned product, how do you prevent the next customer from getting an amp with a few minor dings and scratches.

I am very meticulous of what I am buying, every time I take a piece of audio gear out of the box, I look and see if the piece is perfect, I mean perfect. I can tell normal tool marks that were put on during production from dings and scratches put on by idiots.

[BrianM]

I would think this would be a matter of making sure there weren't any dings and scratches on something you were selling new. Just a guess.

[Wayner]

All 5 of my AVA pieces arrived first rate! No dings or scratches, just simply perfect. I'm sure if someone sent back a piece of equipment with a "ding" or "scratch" in it, Frank would replace the offending part(s). 

W

[zybar]

Regardless of the condition the product was in upon return, shouldn't the vendor tell the next buyer that the product isn't new?

I would think that you can't resell something without doing that.

George

[mark funk]

I think Frank has the used equipment list on his web site

[rustneversleeps]

You may say that I worry too much, but I am not.

I bought a CD player during a close out sale, the CD player itself appears to be brand new, but the remote was all scratched up, and the owner's manual was all wrinkled up, looked to be handled by someone with greasy hands from holding a cheesburger. Of course, it wasn't worth the hassle to return it.

I bought a turntable that was made in the Cech Republic, the workmanship was terrible, small cracks by the RCA jack due to overtightening, dustover had all sorts of micro scratches from overpolishing or polished with the wrong stuff. Cueing didn't work due to maybe the wrong silicone. The platter was wobbling all over the place.
I was told by the dealer that there's no guarantee that the next one will be any better, so I was stuck.

I am just wondering how close Frank will inspect the returned product for resell, that's all. Maybe Frank doesn't get enough return to worry about issue like this, which is good news for buyers.

[avahifi]

First of all, returns are very rare and few and far between.

If a product is returned immediately, within a few days of shipment (the normal case - - those that want to return stuff almost always never even bother to give more than a  very short term listen to it - I don't know why) and the unit comes back in perfect condition, then we inspect it thoroughly, bench test it again, and recycle it as new.  Any minor cosmetic issues are fixed with new parts.  We have such a long waiting list that the client is of course happy to get a unit sooner rather than later. This is occasionally a way to provide a customer with more than he paid for.  For example we will fill an order for a preamp without remote control with a perfect return with remote control at no extra charge, because maintaining an inventory of all the option iterations is costly for us.

If the unit has been out there for nearly a month or more, then the inspection process is more vigorous and the unit will be put on our web site as a demo unit at a reduced price.  Again with any cosmetic defects repaired and always with our new 30 day satisfaction guarantee and three year parts and labor warranty.

Older units are of course listed and sold as used units, the factory warranty provided depending upon the age and price of the unit.

Certainly no older stuff or equipment with lots of hours on it is sold as new (nor stuff that came back from a smoke filled room).  Cat hair, well darn it I have two loving cats and although we try and ship cathair free (allergies abound out there) well once in a while a hair from Stanley or Oliver might come along with the shipment.

Our position is a bit different than a retailer as we are the originator of the warranty and of the testing and service of our equipment and can ship a unit twice without taking anything away from the quality of the product or its service life or reliability.  If we had to discount any satisfaction guarantee return, then that would simply raise our cost of doing business and eventually raise all the prices for everyone.

If you are unhappy about our policy, then you may of course specify that when you order, but you will miss out on the possibility of free upgrades.

Frank Van Alstine