Customer service goes a long way

Seeker of Rock

The One and Only
I just spoke with a PMI rep, though I didn't catch his name. Customer service is important and I received great service as always. For what it's worth, my questions were about Joemeek JM47 that I currently own and the Studio Projects C3. Without a/b'ing, just curious as to what the guys who direct these companies think. Excellent information, friendly, and not afraid to be subjective in his responses comparing the two. I know the reps frequent this and other forums, and I think that should go a long way for anyone looking into mics, pres, compression, etc. Not that a decision should be based soley on customer service, but if the product is good and you have guys ready to talk to you about those products without pushing a sale, that is definitely a major positive for me. :)
 
The first time I called I talked to Brent Casey. I was blown away that someone as renowned as Brent Casey would answer my tech support prob. Oh, and they shipped out the part I needed no questions asked for free.

Pete
 
+1 here!

the mount for my B1 started to get stripped, so Alan shipped me out a new one free of charge.

now, "free stuff" doesn't exactly equal "what defines good customer service" to me, but the fact that they stand behind their products and are willing to support them like that REALLY says a lot to me.

i'm eagerly awaiting their "E" series (assembled in the USA), assuming it's still coming.


cheers,
wade
 
It seems kind of backwards how the smaller companies always seem to have the best customer / technical support. You'd think it would be the other way around.

At one time, companies like M-Audio and DigiDesign used to have guys at the other end of the phone who would answer your questions right away. But I wouldn't be surprized if they eventually went the way of call centers in India the way things are going.

That said, I'm still very imressed with the level of attention you get from companies like Shure, Audio Technica, and Blue. PMI has been great in my limited dealings with them. I've been almost shocked over my dealings with Echo Audio. Not only are their audio interfaces top-notch, but any time I've had a question about drivers or instalation, I get a live person on the phone in less than a minute, and he's friendly and very helpful and knowlegable.
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I'm not sure why this would be a surprise. If you have a local family owned store they are usually far more friendly and knowledgable than people you'll meet at the big warehouse stores like Costco or Walmart. It's a total myth that large stores or companies will have better customer service in my opinion. Most of the time the small places will be the best in that regard, although some larger companies will be an exception and have good service.

On the other hand, large retailers can usually offer better prices and far larger selection, and there are some products that are so complicated and developmental-intensive that only a large corporation could pull it off.

And not all small companies have good customer service obviously. But I know that I prefer to deal with smaller companies whenever possible.
 
crazydoc said:
I agree. If you're looking to catch some shit, post this in the mic forum. :)

Too late. Some little puss sent this to me...
"Good morning, Seeker of Cock. Good to see you again, fucker."
If I really wanted to know, I could probably look to see who's on here now and search the one who has a thing against PMI Audio. I think Easychair and DJL did, didn't they?
I got a rise out of it anyway. Thanks anonymous person. :) :)

Oh well, no matter where you find it, I value good customer service and it is nice to get it from a company whose products I use. On another note, the guy was explaining to me that my JM-47 was probably better than the SP C3. Haven't heard one, but the Meek mic can overly sensitive and pick up a lot of sounds not directly in the mic path, and he told me this was typical of all large condensers. That maybe so, or perhaps it is as someone said and this is an inherent flaw of the JM47, but I think I will do a comparison to see sometime. :)
 
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chessrock said:
I've been almost shocked over my dealings with Echo Audio. Not only are their audio interfaces top-notch, but any time I've had a question about drivers or instalation, I get a live person on the phone in less than a minute, and he's friendly and very helpful and knowlegable.
.

With maybe a bit of a German accent...

War
 
chessrock said:
But I wouldn't be surprized if they eventually went the way of call centers in India the way things are going..

Exactly. When the 3 year warranty on my former Dell computer was up, about 6 months later it had some problems. Called Dell cs, and got people that literally had to spell out some words for me, obviously making this a long and frustating process to do a system restore, which unfortunately did not work. In the end, I sold it at a friend of mine's yard sale as is. Dell cs was good to me before that, but my foreign language attempt to fix was bad experience enough. I really don't like to play games in regards to things that don't work right. Straight answers and good service, is that such a difficult concept?
 
chessrock said:
And here I thought Marcel was a Sicilian name. :D
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I can't remember the guy's name...but when I called a couple of times he sounded German. Maybe there's a special line just for us with Germans on it? :p

War
 
Seeker of Rock said:
Oh well, no matter where you find it, I value good customer service and it is nice to get it from a company whose products I use. On another note, the guy was explaining to me that my JM-47 was probably better than the SP C3. Haven't heard one, but the Meek mic can overly sensitive and pick up a lot of sounds not directly in the mic path, and he told me this was typical of all large condensers. That maybe so, or perhaps it is as someone said and this is an inherent flaw of the JM47, but I think I will do a comparison to see sometime. :)

The JM47 we have sold in the last 16 months is a very different type of mic than the C3. The JM47 has a transformer output, so it is darker in its sound and has a airy top end. The C3 is more bright with uncolored midrange and a good low end. Each mic has it advantages on different applications. What works for you is what you like.

Having said that, there is a new JM47a that will start to ship in 45 days. This is a whole new design by Brent Casey. Same body, different capsule mount and all new electronic circuit design.

The old JM47 is very sensitive to surrounding sounds.
 
If the JM47a is a whole new design wouldn't you want to give it a new name to avoid confusion? To me, adding the suffix "a" indicates a modification of the JM47, not a new design.
 
SonicAlbert said:
If the JM47a is a whole new design wouldn't you want to give it a new name to avoid confusion? To me, adding the suffix "a" indicates a modification of the JM47, not a new design.

Well since it is the same body it was decided to add the suffix like AKG does. This is what we did, so it is not changable. Sorry!
 
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