online purchase

[tuna]

it's hard to get high-end gears at the place where I live and I always purchase my gears on line, never had a problem till now and it's a long and frustration story.

episode 1:
recently I finally have the budget to buy my long await Manley Dual, I checked at Sweetwaters and the sales person told me they can send the Manley for $2160 + free shipping, I thought it's a good deal so I placed my order on 2/17, before I place the order they can receive and reply my every email without problems, but after that strange things start to occur, few weeks without any information, I send several email to them but no reply, I use their website to contact them, and then their sales person reply an email telling me that I have to wait for a few days because BLAH BLAH BLAH and they didn't receive my email. until "FEW DAYS LATER", at 3/12 they told me they ship my order by DHL, later I ask them for a tracking number because I still not contacted by DHL and at 3/25 they tell me that the Manley is actually send by Fedex and it is already here since 3/14 and I have to pick them up myself before the unit is returned to US or I'll have to pay for the shippment fee, what an bullshit! with anger I send a very unpolite email because they still not giving me the tracking number and I can't retrieve the shipment myself, when give me the tracking number at 3/28 it's already too late, the unit is being send back and Fedex told me that Sweetwaters gave them wrong address and wrong phone numbers so they can't contact me properly.

episode 2:
Sweetwaters's sales manager send me a apology email and told me they will send the Manley again at 4/2, I told them to recheck my shipping information but still they gave Fedex the wrong information again, after all the hassle I finally get my Manley at 4/14, with excitement I read the manual and connect everything, turn on the switch, plug in my microphone............................. my god! it's a defective unit, channel A has a very low and distort output, try switch tubes but not helping, I just lose all patience and anticipate for this whole event. at 4/18 I send back the manley for a replacement.

episode 3:
I never return anything before so I didn't tell the customs that I'm return for a replacement, and the result......... I have to pay the tax again for the replacement unit, two times tax total $480 in USD, I take it as a charges for tuition. I recieved the replacement today, open the carton, first thing I notice is a missing power cable, and I check the Manley, there are few scratch on the side, and some strange white material at the back looks like it's being repair before.


this is just like a never ending nightmare, after spending $2640 for it and waiting over two months, I still can't get a proper unit, with all those big ads on the mags I never thought Sweetwaters could behave like this, and the question is I just purchase the stuff shouldn't they send me a whole new replacement?

can anyone give me some advice what should I do with this?

andrew

[zimv20]

that's a shame. fwiw, i've received nothing but excellent service from both sweetwater and manley.

the unit you got back from manley -- was it the same one you sent them? if not, are they saying the one you have now is brand new?

if it were me, i'd probably send eve anna an email (her address is on the manley site). i bet she'll want to make this right for you.

good luck.

[eberrong]

Wow that is a nightmare story!

I too have ordered many things from Sweetwater and received nothing but excellent service. They even call me to confirm my Web orders. I have been lucky and never had to return anything to them.

[EveAnna Manley]

Well, here's what I know:

Andrew, you bought a GREY MARKET unit. Your decision to NOT purchase from your local Taiwanese importer was your first mistake. All our international importers are listed on our website, linkable from every gear page. I preach about "buying from your local dealer" all the time, and this case should serve as an example to others that when you try to save a coupla bucks up front by subverting the proper sales channels, you'll lose more than that when everything goes wrong, as it apparently did in your case, for various reasons, which I am not going to get into as I was not a part of any of that mess.

What we were part of was that on 4/26 we received your original unit back from Sweetwater (unannounced with no RA#) and for the last four days we have been pounding on it and trying to make it break on the test bench and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Working perfectly. Really. It is being shipped back to them tomorrow completely as new.

My message to everyone is:

Customers: Buy from your local dealer.
Dealers: Sell to your local market.

Andrew, if the unit that you have now is working fine, get on with it and get recording. If there is some stuff on the chassis, clean it with Windex or something, touch up the scratches with a black Sharpie pen, rack it up and forget about it. There is white heatsink goop under the regulator that sometimes finds its way onto other surfaces. Just wipe it off wherever it doesn't belong and don't worry about it. What's important is you have a good working unit.

That's what I would do.

[tuna]

thanks for the replys.

why don't I buy from our importer?
well, there's not much high end gear market here and they don't import everything, most of the stuff I use can't find in the stores or have to wait 1~6 months to get it, sometime they don't want to sale something because they are trying to force you buy another product they import, another big problem is you can't get a proper support from the importer.... once I had to send a digitech rack effect to fix for three times, paid three times, and breaks down within a month three time, at last I throw it away. I have a mesa boogie head send back for fix and come back never sound the same, we got a control24 in our studio for a year and half constantly have some strange problem that the importer can't solve but they never want to give us a replacement......

EveAnna, the replacement Manley dual works fine, I don't know why you can't find any problem on the first one, I got an Avalon 737 and a TLA eq-2 in my home for three years, the Manley dual is too easy to operate compares to 737 and I don't think that channel A's problem is cause by power or any connect error or channel B should behave like it as well, I test it for two days with no luck, so all I can say is good luck to the next guy who purchase that unit.

not trying to defame anyone here, Sweetwaters's service is fine, they send the Manley to me three time, but they make so many careless mistakes and cause me alot of troubles, it's not a good business to them and it's no fun to me either!

[StuartMac]

EveAnna, the problem (for me at least, and I'm sure a few other UK buyers) is that there is a HUGE discrepancy in prices between the UK and the US, even after you take shipping and taxes into account. With the $ currently so weak against the pound and the euro this should not be the case, but the savings seem not to be getting passed on the the customer over here.

For example, I could get a Massive Passive from Mercenary for around £2950 after taxes and shipping, or buy one for £3350 inc VAT here. I know I'll get excellent service from Mercenary into the bargain, and pay £400 LESS in the process! I can even get one from GERMANY for less than I can here, which makes no sense either.

I know this is not your problem at all. It's not just a couple of bucks though, and in the face of that kind of price discrepancy, PARTICULARLY since the service from Mercenary is so good, it's hard to justify spending £400 extra (as per this example) in order to buy through the right channels.