Re: Mackis cusomer service--was: Mackies and Loopers (also used gear by Net)

[Tom Lambrecht <hideo@concentric.net>]

Trevor:

I don't specifically have an opinion about Soundcraftsman mixers,but this
thread prompts me to share a recent experience I had with Mackie . . .

bought one of the M1200 power amps over the Web for a great price--arrived
nestled in an SKB two space, both in excellent shape--plugged it in . . .

green power light and nothing else---no FAN, no CRANK  :(

contacted the seller who was mortified and assured me that it worked the
last time he had it powered up--he had FedX CODed it to me and picked up
most of the freight and I sincerely believed he wasn't pulling a fast one (
had that difficult-to-describe GOOD VIBE about this seller--who turned out
to be a fellow hobbyist user who designs custom ORGANIC MOLECULES)

. He offered to return my cashier's check and to pay for return freight for
the amp OR to pay for the freight to ship to Mackie for warranty (amp was
less than 9 months into a 3 year transferrrable warranty) I opted for the
latter--he volunteered to hold the check till all was resolved

without going into ALL the details, Mackie's customer service was among the
VERY BEST I have ever encountered ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. Someone from the
Service Department who I had called to get an RA # (and see if I could get
it serviced locally) late Friday afternoon was gone for the weekend--I left
a message in his voice mail, making a mental note to call back on Monday to
harangue-----He apparently retrieved his messages while HANGGLIDING or
whatever these NW types do and had one of his subordinates call me back
about three hours later at about 6PM PDT??!!!  FRIDAY !!!!!  
(REMEMBER--this
is about a non-revenue generating, pain in the ass, repair on a 
second-party
warranty)

I made two more calls while the amp was in the que--(word of
explanation--you ship air to the Warranty Department--your piece goes to 
hte
head of the line--turns over in two days and they NEXT DAY Air it back to
you--if you send it Ground (which I did) it goes in the que (mine took two
weeks and they Two Day Air it back to you)--both calls were returned by the
appropriate people withhin hours

Got the amp back worked perfectly, but no indication on hte invoice of what
was wrong--called warranty and left a message--guy called me back in two
hours--told me a limiter circuit component was replaced and without making 
a
big deal of it, let me knoww that they went ahead and upped the internal
fuse to 20A and upgraded another circuit to current production spec.

Brothers and Sisters--I hate to type so you can tell how this experience 
has
moved me--I'm not a "BUY USA" cheerleader-tyoe but these guys are ON THE
BALL and being a toy lover, I've had to deal with alot of companies that
were NOT--I won't name names . . .

but most recently . . .  IBM, 

                        Dell,

                         White-Westinghouse (I've been looping the noisy
                          compressor for that pleasing grungy INDUSTRIAL 
sound)

But, I digress--MIXERWISE--picked up a used 1202VLZ (while the amp was
commuting to the NW) which has blown me away with it's quiet operation,
smooth pots and GOBS of GAIN on the first four channels (it cleared up a 
low
output hum problem from an old Roland Juno 6--since when does adding more
cables and another device IMPROVE the sound ;) and extremely flexible
routing (incidentally hold out for the VLZ)

there is a reason why the BIG BOYS use these things

drone on~~~~~~~~~Tom

PS Trevor--thanks for the offer to send the scans of the manuals for the
much ballyhooed Time Machine Loopers page--I'll let you know as soon as I
figure out who can/will pprocess this stuff into the finished jewel.



At 06:03 PM 2/1/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>       On a slightly different note, does anyone have an opinion RE
>Soundcraft boards vs. Mackie?
>
>       Thanks,
>       TREVOR.
>
>> I agree...I also use this Mackie...amazing sound quality improvement 
>over
other
>> mixers...I did not realize what a difference it would make.
>
>
>
>
Tom Lambrecht  hideo@concentric.net