[Empeg-general] Re: Big trouble with my empeg unit.

[Rob Voisey]

Hi

Here's a copy of the reply I posted on MP3.com.  I'm not usually moved to post on there is it is pretty much a kiddie flame fest of a BBS, but it seemed appropriate in this case.

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I'm sorry to hear of the problems MiloDC has had with both his car mounts - definitely not acceptable. I think we deserve SOME credit for getting a replacement loom to him from the UK to arrive the very next morning. Of course that gets rather overshadowed by the fact the loom turned out to be defective.

To put this in context, we've heard of about a dozen broken looms so far. I'm VERY concerned to hear that MiloDC got two in a row, especially since the second one was checked. Of course you CAN rip out crimped connections of you pull hard enough, but in this case I'm assuming the installer didn't pull that hard.

I'll have a chat with the customer service guy who dispatched (and checked) the replacement loom. You'll appreciate that we're eight hours ahead of MiloDC, so at that time of night we don't usually have any engineers in the building. Our customer service people are highly competent but it's possible he didn't realise the nature of this problem and gave the replacement only a visual check. Worse still, perhaps he took the replacement from failed stock without realising, which could explain the second failure. This is just surmise, I'm not at work to check right now.

This kind of feedback allows us to focus our staff training and ensure that such problems don't recurr. Having read the empeg BBS, MiloDC will be aware that we have a reputation for customer service second to none.

The docking looms are made for us by a contractor - the UKs (possibly the worlds) largest manufacturer of automotive leads. They are now running around trying to find out what has gone wrong. The docking system we use isn't cheap - at over $60 a set (and $3000 for the crimp tool!) we don't expect failures of this magnitude (somewhere around 1% which is enormous in manufacturing terms, though luckily not very great in actual volume as yet).

I've sent a note over to our factory telling them to double check every docking loom before they fit it. Up until now I believe they have carried out visual checks, but until the crimp problem is resolved they must now carry out a physical test.

With regard this specific case, I assume MiloDC doesn't want another replacement loom as his installer is now effecting repairs. It should only take a few minutes to solder up the faulty crimps, and that seems the best approach to expedite the installation.

Rob
rob@empeg.com

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