Is Soundsmith that hard to reach??

[JaS]

I have two carts in need of service. One of them is a time-sensitive issue because of having been purchased used online, and providing timely info about the cart's condition to the seller.

He's probably just too busy to reply to every query he gets? This isn't so unusual with small businesses that have more potential customers than they can deal with. The Website is pretty clear about the long lead times for the service so if you need a retip fast you might be better off going elsewhere?

And before I get accused of being a cult member - I've never used the company, I just took a quick look at their order page and pretty much everything you need to know is there?

It is slower, but you can also Call or Email us....PLEASE Remember - this is MUCH MUCH SLOWER than using our ON-LINE service.

Lead times have unfortunately grown longer than I would like them to be - I am working hard to bring them back down to where they were, in the 4-6 week range, but recent demands on my time to develop new products have grown the lead time to much longer.

Regards,
JaS

[Ldg]

And before I get accused of being a cult member -

Yes, I'm probably just off on one. My bad.

[Eoin]

I hear a similar tale from many businesses that are 'craftsmen' at work. They can easily spend the entire day talking with people who have various queries about this and that, who only want to talk maybe. Some may even eventually pay for work..

They all have different ways of coping with this and understandably (very understandably in my opinion) some restrict communication to emails or 'I'll phone you'. Perhaps it feels like a slant to the individual, but try to remember there's only one craftsman and hundreds and hundreds of customers like you. I'd think most would laugh out loud at the thought that's its some master plan to create a cult following.

Seen it in a few cases. There's one guy I can think of in the race and performance engine building world who is far to free with his time, and spends considerable time on the phone advising people of what spec to build an engine, what parts to get, what went wrong etc etc. And this is to people who will probably not engage him to build the engine ultimately. he's too nice and his business suffers.

[Alec124c41]

I think Peter restricts phone time to about an hour in the evening.

Cheers,
Alec

[Etnier]

I've been away from this discussion since shortly after my initial post. It certainly is busy!

Peter did finally call tonight- we discussed my questions (which really are not worth enumerating here). He was very informative and helpful.

I think a lot of the problem is the opacity (complexity) of the SS web site and voicmail tree. It's all overthought and byzantine, the product of trying to forestall various common customer errors by writing or announcing complicated superspecific instructions. (The outgoing announcement for leaving messages goes on for quite a while with many instructions, and says you have to say your phone number 3 times.)

What happened to me: on http://www.sound-smith.com/retip/ the three retip options are laid out with explanations of the 3 options and large individual "PAYPAL Click here to pay" buttons for each, so I clicked to pay for the option I wanted. This meant there was no way for me to enumerate the specific issues with my carts except a hundred or so characters in the Paypal payment form. I did the best I could.

LATER ON, when I wasn't getting responses to my calls, I happened to scroll further down the page and found the whole online registration/RA# thing. UNDER all that previous "PAYPAL Click here to pay" stuff I'd responded to.

Oh well: 'nuff said. I did get a call back, and I really appreciate Mr. Ledermann's time, patience and courtesy once we finally did get in touch.

[duficity]

If this was really a cult, then Soundsmith would charge way more for its product than it does. Clearly they have more work than they can handle, but Peter is just not that type of businessman. There is an old saying, you can get it cheap, fast or good, pick any two. Peter goes for the first and last. cheap and good, but not fast. Others may be fast and good, but not cheap. Try getting a quote from Koetsu on what it cost to replace a stylus. Way more than what Peter charges. No cult here, just a lack of viable options.

[gg383]

Peter sounds like a very busy person, he probably would like a few students to teach his craft to. There will be fewer people to reach out to as we all get older, 'cuz nobody wants to take the time to do precision work anymore unless they're assured they'll make a really great living at it, the new world economy offers cheap knock-offs which are sometimes the only choice 'cuz the Manufacturers abandon their own products. The knockoffs are useful as a way to test your cartridge B4 spending the big cash!! The numbers of people looking for quality stuff are far fewer then 35 years ago, but increasing. As far as sending in a stylus for a query after buying them online, you are buying the CARTRIDGE only no matter what they say about the stylus you should assume it's junk unless it comes in separate original packaging that hasn't been re glued. I've seen people selling empty cartridge boxes on e-bay for 10 bucks, someone else puts their worn unit in there and sells it for 200 bucks, estate sale find, seems to be new!!!!! NO RETURNS!!! DUH!!! this kind of crap is what is driving up the cost of cartridge bodies, everyone wants a new 40 year old unit with OE stylus, but almost no-one is getting real new old ones. I've also contacted some e-bay sellers about selling cartridges with aftermarket stylus on them without mentioning it on their ads. Consider the worth of the body alone when buying and figure you will have to replace the stylus anyway and you will probably save some cash!!! There is no reason to pay 200 bucks for a V15 III IV or V to a guy that has only knick nacks on the rest of his e-bay site. Chances are that guy knows knick nacks better than cartridges. The cartridge body is about 10 or 20 % of the worth of the whole unit. Look harder to find a deal & spend your cash where it counts. Glenn.

[Etnier]

An interesting post, as many here have been.

There are knockoff cartridges??

[duficity]

there are cartridges made by large OEM that are rebranded and sold at a higher price. Clearaudio is one manufacturer that does so with their cartridge, using an audio technica stylus assembly usually. In fact, even though Clearaudio says you cant change out the stylus on their Aurum Beta, an AT stylus replacement works just fine. Not quite a knock off, but the price of a Clearaudio is a lot more than the similar AT.

[Ldg]

If this was really a cult, then Soundsmith would charge way more for its product than it does. Clearly they have more work than they can handle, but Peter is just not that type of businessman. There is an old saying, you can get it cheap, fast or good, pick any two. Peter goes for the first and last. cheap and good, but not fast. Others may be fast and good, but not cheap. Try getting a quote from Koetsu on what it cost to replace a stylus. Way more than what Peter charges. No cult here, just a lack of viable options.

Need to make one point clear : even if Soundsmith has a certain iconic status within its fan/customer base here, I'm certainly in no way suggesting that is intentional on Soundsmith's part, nor has any commercial influence, nor even encouraged or recognised. If it happens at all, IMO it's an anthropological thing that surrounds it, the OP prompted the point, and as I posted I could well simply be off on one, you can make your own mind up

Peter sounds like a very busy person, he probably would like a few students to teach his craft to. There will be fewer people to reach out to as we all get older, 'cuz nobody wants to take the time to do precision work anymore

If you check the following part of the webpage, i think you can see there seems some such structure in place. You can also see names and accountabilities of about a dozen people within the organisation, who might make good contacts in the event of necessity.

http://www.sound-smith.com/history.htm

And hey, busy is good. Not only for the Company, but vinyl playback in general. Testimonies here about the products and outcomes are overwhelmingly positive, and as already posted I wish them every success. Our interest needs such things !

[youngdand]

I'm beginning to worry I've failed some test which has put me below their contempt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtco

Superb.

[johnny q]

Hi Everyone:

I feel compelled to reply. I used the Soundsmith extensively back in the mid/late 1990s to service my Nakamichi tape decks and even a few DAT decks as well. The service and level of expertise is simply unmatched. I recall having no problem at all getting in touch with Peter who would oftentimes call me back personally and answer all my questions. On a few occasions, he made special arrangements to be at the shop on Saturdays to meet me, purely to accomodate my schedule.

However...I too have recently experienced the same difficulties as the OP i.e. messages left/no return calls, emails sent with no response etc. If I didn't have so many positive experiences with Peter and the Soundsmith I would probably be here bashing him based on the OP's frustrating experience. So I guess the moral of this story is....don't be put off, as frustrating as it may be...be patient, it will be worth the wait. I would hazard a guess that they are just super busy and are having a hard time keeping up with the inquiries.

JQ


JQ

[garpt]

Sorry to revive an older thread.
But although I'm sure SoundSmith does excellent work at decent prices, I agree the communications- whether it be by email, website, or phone- is archaic, slow, unnecessarily complex, and prone to mis-communication. On top of this, Peter swears he never had anyone complain about any of this. As he is so busy, how about an automated email response system, or hire someone for $8.00/ hr to give information to customers regarding when their product is completed, log tracking numbers, answer basic customer questions by email, etc.
It cost me an upgrade when we had discussed changing my original basic upgrade to the ruby version. After 9 weeks, they read my ORIGINAL email instead of remembering the conversation we had regarding an upgrade. The order was never changed, and I got the basic upgrade. On top of that, the cartridge sat, completed, without my knowledge for 9 days. I guess we put up with the eccentricities for the price/ value relationship we perceive. I just look at it from a businessman's point of view, I guess, 'cause that's what I've done all my life- run businesses....,.

[avole]

Obvious question: why didn't you send an email to confirm? You say you are in business. Busy people do forget conversations, as you should know