Two examples of amazing support, one not so great...

ragingben

I haven't been having much luck with pedal purchases working out well at the moment, but thankfully I've been the receiving end of two shining examples of support, and one not so great that I wanted to share.

A few months back I bought a Subdecay Super Spring Theory from this forum, all great for a while and then it developed a fault where it sounded out of tune. I emailed Brian Marshall from Subdecay on the off chance he could shed some light on how to fix the issue - it was second hand and we'll outside the warranty period so I didn't expect much. How wrong I was - Brian was incredible. He requested I send it back so be could take a look, and he sent me a BRAND NEW one. He even offered to pay the return postage to the US. Unbelievable. He was exceptional in how he dealt with the problem and the massive amount of follow up information he has provided since. As a result I will be seriously considering more Subdecay in the future, it's amazing to know you are taken care of like this. Incredible.

The second problem is where things get a bit more interesting. I purchased a brand new Zvex Sonar from Reverb.com, seller Pedal Outlet Store who are essentially Haar Guitars from the Netherlands. They don't advertise themselves as such, but that is who my PayPal payment went to so that's who I'm going to hold responsible. The pedal was a fantastic price, they had 5 in stock aswell as a whole heap of other pedals at discounted prices, it arrived very quickly in great condition, and the communication from Haar was good.

The pedal was brand new, but had a fault where between 2 and 4 o'clock the speed knob would override the tap tempo setting, as if the knob had been moved. Probably just a noisey pot or something like that. So I emailed the seller who informed me they would try and repair the Sonar, if they couldn't they would exchange (still 4 in stock) but a refund was out the question. So I agreed to an exchange, and posted the pedal back, which cost about £12 to the Netherlands. To cut a long story short the next 3 weeks were filled with constant chasing, being told that all the Sonars do the same (unlikely if you ask me), being assured an engineer was going to take a look blah blah blah (how hard can it be exchange or refund, job done). Eventually an engineer takes a look says it's a feature and is by design, just put the speed knob in a different position and live with it. Not really what you want from a brand new £160 purchase!

During this time I had a few chats with Reverb.com staff over the chat feature who were also exceptionally helpful. Can't fault them at all.

After getting a bit shitty with the seller they did offer a refund if we couldn't reach any other agreement. After they tried to fob the fault off as a feature I emailed the video I'd taken of the pedal to Zvex support. Within an hour Zvex had confirmed the fault and told me they were going to send a replacement set of electronics I could change myself, for free. How amazing.

So I just told Haar  to send back the pedal I'd repair it myself, which is what happened. Totally unacceptable on behalf of Haar, but incredible support from Zvex. Switching the guts of the Sonar was dead easy, a little bit of care was needed to route the wires correctly but not rocket science. 

Sorry for the massively long post, to sum it all up:

Subdecay - amazing. 
Zvex - amazing. 
Reverb.com - amazing. 
Pedal Outlet Store/Haar - polite messages and good original service but I would strongly advise using just in case you get a problem. They really do not value or respect you as a customer.

Moe_Zambeek

I forgot to update you on this didn’t I! Anyway I tried my Sonar and it doesn’t do it. As we now know from Zvex, it’s not a design feature! Glad you got it sorted.

ragingben

No problem, thanks for checking. I knew it wasn't right, just a seller that is either clueless or full of shit! 

octatonic

I had problems with Haar years ago when he was selling Fryette/VHT stuff.
I'll never do business with him again.

Dave_Mc

Glad to hear you eventually got it sorted- but you shouldn't have had such problems and runarounds. I don't think that's the first bad thing I've heard about Haar, either, it does seem to be a bit of a pattern unfortunately.

Also good to hear about the people who treated you exceptionally well.

skunkwerx

I dont know if our laws still apply to purchases from Europe, but I was sure under DSR you’re entitled to a refund. 

Glad its sorted now though.  Nothing worse than dealing with clueless asshats!

Dave_Mc

^ Should do until we're actually out, but I could be wrong.

ragingben

You're right, I looked into it and under distance selling regulations I was. The issue comes when the seller dicks about you have to open a dispute and it all drags and on. If nothing else it takes the fun out of your new purchase.

Dave_Mc

^ Definitely.

Teetonetal

Yup Haar are useless. Great service from subdecay and zvex though!