What is happening with some makers?

[hone_u2]

Hi Hone_u2,

Our policy with regards the appoitment of International Distributors is especially thorough.

After initial approach we would convene a meet where all aspects of the potential distributors business would be thoroughly analysed. We would expect a detailed and structured business plan including proposed dealers, products, promotional materials and planning, in territory training etc etc.

We would never appoint an International Distribuor unless they and their team had visited Rega Research for them to see the company, meet the people at every level and absolutely understand and support the companies ethos, direction and culture. We would also ensure that they are all trained in every aspect of Rega from a product, servicing and support level. This would be repeated every year or so and for every new member of their personnel.

We consider our distributors as key partners in all that we do, the majority of them have been with us for upto 40 years and without being soppy or sentimental are very much part of the Rega family.

I hope that this goes some way to answer what was a complex question !!

Paul Darwin

Rega Research

Paul, if that's exactly what is done... Honestly, hats off to rega and their network! :clap: :cheers:

I am yet to purchase a Rega product (except I own the Exact cartridge) but this tells me that I will be well looked after!

Really really appreciate you coming out and giving an insight into all this!

 

[kmlav]

Morning Respe,

I would like to apologise unreservedly, to you and anybody else if my comments were mis-interpreted and deemed either offensive or ill-considered, that was certainly not the intention. I was merely trying, albeit perhaps clumsily, to encourage the use of dealers and manufacturers to sort out any problems or issues that may happen rather than posting on forums as the first point of call.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our dealers and the levels of support that they, and we as a manufacturer, offer and provide as a matter of course, and would therefore seek the opportunity to show that on the odd occasion that problems may occur.

I note and thank you for your comments about Regas customer support being above what could be expected or normal, we constantly strive to better serve our customers and I am happy that most of the time we suceed.

Paul Darwin

Rega Research

im with Paul on this . I always use the same shop for all my kit and over the years I have developed a great relationship with them. If something goes wrong I don't want any stress with the detail just to drop the item into the store , have a cup of tea and a chat , then return a few days later with everything sorted out , have another cup of tea then come home and enjoy. I am both the brands and the shops customer but my relationship is with the shop and I expect them to deal with all these issues on my behalf.

.

 

[AlbaBrown]

With a lot of manufacturers relying more heavily on outsourcing components, it is an issue of trying to enforce QC on the outside suppliers (who maybe more mass volume suppliers -be it Chinese or wherever).

With Rega it is probably more of a case that QC has slipped due to trying to produce products on a scale to compete with the big boys and they don't have the depth of talent nor capacity to fully cope (sadly!)

Can't comment on the Arcam situation, but again the chinese influence might be playing a part, but I do know with Naim that the CDPs that use the Sanyo mech (instead of their favoured Philips) that initial batches of laser units from Sanyo were not performing as expected. Initially they though it might have been the (Naim-written) software causing the issue of mistracking/no disc errors, but it turned out that tiny amounts of swarf from the manufacturing process at Sanyo was causing focus relating issues.

As far as I'm aware Sanyo were made aware of that and rectified it, but there may still be the odd machine or two in dealers stock rooms (pre xmas) that have an original batch mech fitted.

As for build quality in general, as consumers we have a choice. We either pay more for great build quality and high spec (because unlike microchips produced by the millions, hifi chassis production is tiny and the raw materials to make them are more expensive now than 20 years ago), or we pay less and get a great spec but with build quality, and component quality, compromised to meet a demanded price point.

But admist all of this we have to remember that the internet is great place for a select few to moan about an unfortunate faulty purchase and it then takes on biblical proportions with Chinese-whisper hysterics. Onkyo AVRs alledgedly running hot and catching fire ring a bell?

 

[the record spot]

Well, I won't pretend to understand fully all the issues raised here, but I must say I'm very impressed that a 'rep' from Rega takes the time to post on here and tries to put his/Rega's side. I might even change my considerations when I set up my new Hi-Fi

Can we get a Denon rep on here? My CDP went kaput after little over a year of ownership....

Good luck with that. But if you are in the UK you have upto 6 years to claim for faulty products but you will have togo through the retailer as thats who your contract is with. So contact your dealer and see what he says.

Six years in England and Wales, but five years in Scotland. Whilst we're still part of the UK anyway. And with good sense, still will be after September...anyway, thread drift aside, do carry on!

 

[namefail]

Well, I won't pretend to understand fully all the issues raised here, but I must say I'm very impressed that a 'rep' from Rega takes the time to post on here and tries to put his/Rega's side. I might even change my considerations when I set up my new Hi-Fi

Can we get a Denon rep on here? My CDP went kaput after little over a year of ownership....

Good luck with that. But if you are in the UK you have upto 6 years to claim for faulty products but you will have togo through the retailer as thats who your contract is with. So contact your dealer and see what he says.

Six years in England and Wales, but five years in Scotland. Whilst we're still part of the UK anyway. And with good sense, still will be after September...anyway, thread drift aside, do carry on!

Aye, if that chinless wonder gets in I’ll eat ma sporran and move abroad. And props to Rega, I’ve a old Planar 2 that’s never put a foot wrong.

 

[chebby]

Well, I won't pretend to understand fully all the issues raised here, but I must say I'm very impressed that a 'rep' from Rega takes the time to post on here and tries to put his/Rega's side. I might even change my considerations when I set up my new Hi-Fi

Can we get a Denon rep on here? My CDP went kaput after little over a year of ownership....

Good luck with that. But if you are in the UK you have upto 6 years to claim for faulty products but you will have togo through the retailer as thats who your contract is with. So contact your dealer and see what he says.

Six years in England and Wales, but five years in Scotland. Whilst we're still part of the UK anyway. And with good sense, still will be after September...anyway, thread drift aside, do carry on!

Aye, if that chinless wonder gets in I’ll eat ma sporran and move abroad....

No need to move. After September you will be 'abroad'.

 

[hone_u2]

I am all for forums posting about problems, as long as it is balanced by reports of good service. For example, Naim had huge problems with their displays on the n-Vi and it seems every one has been replaced by a new, better and more reliable display. This was all done free of charge, Good for Naim. They currently have a problem with the unitiLite playing cd-rs, which they refuse to do anything about. bad for Naim. Either way, we the general public need to know.

I personally think Naim's problem is just sheer arrogance...

People on this forum (maybe mostly European or mostly UK) really have quite a lot of faith in naim's service, which honestly IS JUSTIFIED if they've been well looked after!

However, outside the UK and (Europe maybe), in places like America, India and some other asian countries, Naim really have a pathetic communication network with their distributors.

There have been several cases as people have also complained on Naim's forums, that they are really poor at communication... and often what the dealers say and Naim HQ say is very different! It is really hard to believe that what Paul from Rega has said about how they appoint their international dealers is true for naim...

I had the worst consumer experience ever with naim last year, and Paul from naim wasn't even close to addressing the problem the way Paul from Rega has addressed Steve's problem... The incident didn't only leave me frustrated but I realized how poor a team the naim distributors and naim were atleast in NZ...

Even if Rega has had a few problems, atleast they've had the decency and attitude to fix things! Kudos to Rega for that! :cheers:

 

[Native_bon]

After reading through this, I have some sympathy with Rega here.

Steve says in an early post that he has nothing to gain from post this thread.

I think he has everything to gain, It assures the attention of the manufacurer and dealer to try and deal with the problem asap,and if I remember correctly not for the first time.

Why not contact the dealer first and try to get the sorted first, and then if he has no joy post on here.............

[/quote

The whole issue is not about Rega not proving a good service, of course they do.... As at this piont in time they may have had some quality control issues.So do many other companies.. Rega is not the first or the last to have these issues.

Rega is a good company produces very good products and gives good value for money than most.

 

[Freddy58]

Some thoughts...

Once one has decided on a purchase, the biggest issue is reliability. It's all very well being able to take it back and get it sorted, but what about all the hassle? Having to disconnect everything, maybe having to put it in the post (additional cost), having to wait until the unit is returned, then having to connect it all up again. I remember a time (gonna show my age now!) when, if the tv broke down, the bloke from the shop from where it was bought, would send a 'man' out to try and fix it. Failing that, he would take it away and fix it, and wire it all up again upon it's return.

Sign of the times, I suppose...

 

[Jota180]

Your evidence of an alleged increase in problems with HIFI gear is a handful of posts on a forum which you then use to cynically slight manufacturers? "so-called great manufacturers"?

Where is your empirical evidence that HIFI separates were more reliable 20 or 30 years ago? The real difference back then was no WWW for people up and down the country and abroad to post their thoughts so any problems they had would be dealt with by dealers and not broadcast to the nation.

For all you know reliablity could have increased in the last generation it's just that with the internet you now have access to a far greater number of people and their experiences than you did 20 or 30 years ago.

Some folk need to engage their brain before posting.

5 posts hey? Would you walk into a room full of strangers and come out with comments like that? You'd probably get a well deserved smack in the mouth if you did. But then you're anonymous at home aren't you.

I would and have come out with a comment like that if I felt it deserved it. The response of those who prefer knuckles to logic or reasoning doesn't deter me one bit.

I see you jump straight to the violence stage, bypassing the points raised completely indicating you have no answer nor evidence to back the OP's claims.

Until you provide the evidence that backs up the OP, I'll treat it as hot air.

 

[Al ears]

Some thoughts...

Once one has decided on a purchase, the biggest issue is reliability. It's all very well being able to take it back and get it sorted, but what about all the hassle? Having to disconnect everything, maybe having to put it in the post (additional cost), having to wait until the unit is returned, then having to connect it all up again. I remember a time (gonna show my age now!) when, if the tv broke down, the bloke from the shop from where it was bought, would send a 'man' out to try and fix it. Failing that, he would take it away and fix it, and wire it all up again upon it's return.

Sign of the times, I suppose...

I remember those days. Unfortunately now most people buy kit over the internet and the 'shop' and 'man' have long gone.

 

[CJSF]

Some thoughts...

Once one has decided on a purchase, the biggest issue is reliability. It's all very well being able to take it back and get it sorted, but what about all the hassle? Having to disconnect everything, maybe having to put it in the post (additional cost), having to wait until the unit is returned, then having to connect it all up again. I remember a time (gonna show my age now!) when, if the tv broke down, the bloke from the shop from where it was bought, would send a 'man' out to try and fix it. Failing that, he would take it away and fix it, and wire it all up again upon it's return.

Sign of the times, I suppose...

I remember those days. Unfortunately now most people buy kit over the internet and the 'shop' and 'man' have long gone.

Me to, they used to leave a replacement TV too if yours had to go back to the shop, banged about a bit but it was part of the 'service' . . . Lets be honest, very rare a TV goes on the blink these days before its time it was replaced anyway, that my experience anyway.

My basic hifi has been reliable too . . . British made gear since 1980, Michell, Townsend, EAR, Rogers, PMC, Rega, Croft, my current amp, an Icon ST40, is a departure, made in china, designed and serviced in the UK. Just out of the 12 months grantee, I wonder how long it will last? Seen inside, looks very simple, all direct point to point wired, not a PCB, transistor or chip in sight, a work of art in its neatens and layout. The CDP had a problem that was dealt with very satisfactorily, there just happens to be an Apollo name plate on the front . . . CJSF

 

[marou]

This seems to fit the Triple Constraint paradigm - products will meet 2 of these criteria: affordability, quality, reliability but not all three.

 

[chebby]

Some thoughts...

Once one has decided on a purchase, the biggest issue is reliability. It's all very well being able to take it back and get it sorted, but what about all the hassle? Having to disconnect everything, maybe having to put it in the post (additional cost), having to wait until the unit is returned, then having to connect it all up again. I remember a time (gonna show my age now!) when, if the tv broke down, the bloke from the shop from where it was bought, would send a 'man' out to try and fix it. Failing that, he would take it away and fix it, and wire it all up again upon it's return.

Sign of the times, I suppose...

I remember those days. Unfortunately now most people buy kit over the internet and the 'shop' and 'man' have long gone.

Me to, they used to leave a replacement TV too if yours had to go back to the shop, banged about a bit but it was part of the 'service' . . . Lets be honest, very rare a TV goes on the blink these days before its time it was replaced anyway, that my experience anyway. My basic hifi has been reliable too . . . British made gear since 1980, EAR, Rogers, PMC, Rega, Croft, my current amp, an Icon ST40, is a departure, made in china, designed and serviced in the UK. Just out of the 12 months grantee, I wonder how long it will last? Seen inside, looks very simple, all direct point to point wired, not a PCB, transistor or chip in sight, a work of art in its neatens and layout. The CDP had a problem that was dealt with very satisfactorily, there just happens to be an Apollo name plate on the front . . . CJSF CJSF

A few years ago I had to get a Samsung LED TV repaired. John Lewis arranged - under the terms of their free 5-year guarantee - to have a local repairer collect my TV (at a mutually convenient time) and leave a spare.

A couple of weeks later (an entire Freeview / Freesat / analogue tuner board had to be back-ordered from Samsung) it was returned - again at a mutually convenient time - fully repaired and tested.

It seemed that the signal was so strong that the Samsung's tuner couldn't attenuate it enough. So it had been slowly burning out. He had made some adjustments/tweaks to ensure this wouldn't occur again with the new board. It didn't. The elderly couple next-door are still getting good service out of it. (I can see it from our conservatory so I know it's ok.)

I do remember the 'bad old days' (when I was a kid) when colour TVs were so expensive, and so unreliable, that everyone rented.

The TV repair vans were a common sight (Rediffusion, Rent-A-Set, Radio Rentals etc.) and visits were frequent. I remember the cases full of little valve boxes they had to carry around with them.

Something of those days stuck with me when I later bought my own first television, a Sony 14" Trinitron that lasted us, then our eldest daughter, and then the mother-in-law a total of 18 years before it got donated, still working fine, to a charity sale (complete with 'My Little Pony' stickers). So it might even, possibly, still be in use somewhere. (I'd like to think so.)

It's been Japanese all the way since then. Even when Britain still made TVs, I wouldn't have touched one with a barge-pole. One (free) repair in over three decades of TVs isn't bad. Back in the early 1970s - with those rented British sets - that would probably have been one repair every three months (if you were lucky).