Don't support Western Electric: shameless warranty runarounds

Discussion in 'Tales from the Bully Pulpit' started by purr1n, Mar 27, 2023.

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Should Marv make his first official SBAF YouTube video on this experience?

  1. Hell ya

    91.2%
  2. Na, let them slide

    8.8%
  1. WoodyLuvr

    WoodyLuvr Friend

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    Don't see the anger in any of his responses... he simply disagreed with what you posted and pointed out as to why (I agree with him). Maybe not be so sensitive and remember that not all acts of helpfulness and kindness deserve appreciation and thanks. The tone of your second post does not come across as helpful as you might have intended. And your third post was simply digging the hole deeper and was a complete emotional train wreck. Your reward may now be a well deserved "f**k off!".
     
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  2. mk801

    mk801 Almost "Made"

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    Anyways, even the spokeswoman from the FTC implies that proper notice should be given to the consumer with respect to limited warranty situations. In such situations, I don't know whether instructions to turn in a warranty card that are tucked away in a non-descript envelope would constitute proper notice of the envelope's contents. IANYL.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    What @WoodyLuvr said.
     
  4. JayC

    JayC Resident Crash Test Dummy

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    With all the respect in the world, I disagree with the vibe in this thread. Forget about it being not allowed or illegal, not reading a manual or the warranty card clearly provided in a box is your fault. It’s similar (in some ways) to not reading terms and clicking accept.

    Having said that, it’s shite that the window is so small and they could definitely say something about it, make it 90 days (at minimum) or allow some flexibility. Perhaps history made them this way, perhaps they’re just dicks, I don’t know. The CS rep definitely needs to be kicked.
    I had a similar situation with Dynaudio (register within the first year and you get an extra 3 years on top of the 5 year warranty) but they were kind enough to be flexible when I was a day over the 12 month period
     
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    Last edited: Mar 29, 2023
  5. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    He accused me of being an employee of WE. I am acting more as a lawyer help rather than an emotional support and jumping in on the bashing. I am sorry it is not more "help" because of the law. So calling me a WE employee or advocate is not very friendly either. And I ended my post by basically saying I am on his side. Most of the second post was a direct quote from the FTC website anyway.

    Anyway, good luck. Sorry this happened. I'll stay out of it from here.
     
  6. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    I think you missed the part where there was no indication that it was a warranty card at all, nor did the website indicate that any such card submission was required.

    A consumer shouldn't be required to carefully pour over every sheet of paper included in the box to ensure they aren't missing some vital but not clearly signposted piece of literature
     
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  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Not when the terms are not put forward in a clear and conspicuous manner and the marketing department goes rampant on their "five-year warranty" on Wired, Steve Guttenberg's reviews, their product page on their own website.

    They wouldn't have changed their webpage, removing the blanket "five year warranty" statement unless they knew they were doing something wrong. I bet this shit has already happened to other people. The way this works is that they put up roadblocks, and only those persistent get proper service. You would be surprised how many people would just give up.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 29, 2023
  8. Philimon

    Philimon Friend

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    I totally agree with @JayC





    Not really
     
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  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Oh god. Give it a rest. Walk away from the keyboard. Like walk away NOW.
    I did not "accuse" you of anything because it's so obvious that you don't for WE.
     
  10. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    Satire my friend. That's how i read it.
     
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  11. Greg121986

    Greg121986 Almost "Made"

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    I give the company no slack on this one and consider them to be dicks. They are covered in the media like that Wired article which is going to influence public opinion in their favor as they advertise that they are basically the second coming of Jesus in vacuum tube form. The title of the article "One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube" is pretty colorful bullshit. Marketing materials and other media coverage highlighting a 5 year warranty with no caveats, painting a picture that they can be trusted and you should throw money at them. Photos of a modern production facility and people with finger condoms. Can you hear me rolling my eyes?

    This type of policy means they do not care about quality, and they may care less about their customers. If they cared about quality they would receive warranty claims and study them to understand how they can identify and reduce failures to eliminate warranty claims altogether. This "warranty card" policy is a shield creating an easy excuse to avoid the cost of dealing with warranty claims. Blatant anti-consumer, maximize profits bullshit. It exudes a level of arrogance that makes commerce exploitative which is my number 1 rage inducing gripe with consumerism.

    MAYBE they have already implemented all of the most advanced and reliable quality control methods such that they don't feel they will actually receive any warranty claims because they know they have perfected the manufacturing process? Somehow I doubt it. This warranty method reeks of arrogance and I don't find any thread of me that wants to cut them a break.
     
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  12. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    I pretty much go into spending money with any business or institution with the idea that I'm getting fucked somehow unless I carry a lawyer in my pocket. I would probably spend a lot more if that wasn't the case.
     
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  13. mk801

    mk801 Almost "Made"

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    [​IMG]
     
  14. Wilewarer

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    The irony is that the WE website has some nice old-school quality control statistics manuals on it in a library section. If they're really a throwback to that era, then there wouldn't be any need to f**k with people's warranties.

    Anyway, maybe their CS policy is actually to honor this sort of thing if the customer's a bit persistent. But, like, I imagine most people spending thousands of dollars on this stuff are going to be a bit persistent, so if it's like that they still end up replacing most of the bad tubes, but ALSO end up with angry customer stories circulating...
     
  15. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    Hell yeah go for it. “Western Electric” should not stop being pieces of shit with a markup higher than former communist factories binning crappy communist tubes to mark them up 1000% or more. I highly doubt they make the same volume as the guitar tube makers in old communist factories to bin them like that. The Chinese communist tubes were even better in some higher gain guitar and distortion applications than vintage western tubes. More distortion and hiding crappy recordings!

    “Western Electric” were dumb to even have a warranty longer than 30 days in the first place. Tubes don’t stay stereo matched for frequency and distortion over all reasonable or extreme gains. They had to be replaced all the time in old clean gear and now even in stereo gear that’s meant to be a shitbox but nobody wants stereo drift. They were replaced by transistors for a reason.
     
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  16. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Did Shuguang ever reopen? They had a fire in 2019 at their 1960s factory and lost their land when their main investor LG decided against rebuilding. The tube apocalypse started before covid and the Ukraine war. Guitarists were and are the main buyers of tubes, not audiophiles and vanity project studio owners trying to keep vintage equipment and distorted “tube revival” gear. Yes almost all of it is distorted (including Manley) unlike Craig and Ojan’s designs.
     
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  17. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    NO No No!

    They sold it with the warranty advertised. They can't put Not really, unless you send in this card INSIDE THE BOX.

    Might as well replace the tube with a condom and have a chip playing HA HA HA HA HA as the box is opened.
     
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  18. JayC

    JayC Resident Crash Test Dummy

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    Yeah you've got a point. I didnt know the whole story, and I accept that my earlier opinion doesnt apply in this case.

    I also realized that my comment is linked to an experience (not the Dynaudio one) I'm in the middle of with another company in the Netherlands. Not yet the time to say anything about it, but I intend to eventually.
     
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  19. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    It sucks there's a more than negligible number of folks around here that've had issues with the WE tubes. The warranty shenanigans are not becoming of a company charging as much as they do for these tubes.

    My own anecdotal experience is just this: I filled out and sent the old fashioned warranty card back to WE before I even plugged the tubes into my Elekit. Call me paranoid, call me a dipshit; these were an expensive stretch for me and I was placing A LOT of faith in both the few reviews (at the time, early 2021) and the ability/willingness of a relatively new company/iteration of a company to uphold it's warranty.

    My tubes have, by my estimation on the low-side about 8,000 hours, and on the high-side closer to 10k hours. I'd be really interested to see how they measure now. They sound about the same relative to the other 300Bs I keep around. In fact, to my biased ears they still sound great; no noise, no hum, no buzz.

    So, all I'd like to say is I'm sorry folks are having issues and I make no claim to know anything of the legality or liability given the seemingly shifting onus on a customer seeking replacement for failed tubes. I do feel a bit responsible since I shared a good bit of my personal experience with the sound of these tubes on this forum, and do still feel that the quality of contruction is a bit better than the other new production 300Bs.
     
  20. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    No.

    Customers are not required to do anything but enjoy the product they've spent their hard money on. Literally that's all. Unless it fails, in which case the warranty the company ADVERTISED during point of sale is supposed to be upheld.

    EDIT: Posted before I saw your walkback.
     

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