Topic: PROBLEM with CHURCH AUDIO - Neutral help needed!

[Church-Audio]

I agree that the product is great and the customer service is somewhat lacking. He told me several times that it was going out "at the end of the week". Nothing shipped and there was no communication. I guess it's just what you kind of have to deal with if you cant find a used pair.

I am working very hard to get gear out but everything is hand built and everything takes time.. Sometimes I do make mistakes and sometimes I promise the impossible ( only because I think I can do it ) I like to try and please everyone but that just does not happen all the time. I apologize if you felt I mislead you. I dont have anything to hide I am working very hard to have even better customer service then I do now. Because I realize there is more to a product then just making it. I sell alot of items every year and they are all built by me one at a time. Nobody has the volume I have and builds everything by hand but I do it there are no excuses for bad service I apologize if thats what you feel you got from me.

[Jeremy Lykins]

I can't speak to this specific situation, but in my experience Church Audio's delivery times leave a lot to be desired.  That's hard to accept when you're used to receiving your internet purchases within a week, but this is a handmade product at a very low price point.  I think that Chris could help himself out if he would be a lot clearer on his eBay site about the availability of his products (as far as I know, nothing is ready to ship and everything has to be made-to-order) and communicate more with his customers.  If he would just e-mail his customers when he receives an order and tell them when to expect their products I think that it would help keep a lot of feathers from getting ruffled.  

That being said, Church Audio makes great products and I currently have another set of mics on order with them.  Hopefully this post won't delay the delivery of those mics.  

[Church-Audio]

I can't speak to this specific situation, but in my experience Church Audio's delivery times leave a lot to be desired.  That's hard to accept when you're used to receiving your internet purchases within a week, but this is a handmade product at a very low price point.  I think that Chris could help himself out if he would be a lot clearer on his eBay site about the availability of his products (as far as I know, nothing is ready to ship and everything has to be made-to-order) and communicate more with his customers.  If he would just e-mail his customers when he receives an order and tell them when to expect their products I think that it would help keep a lot of feathers from getting ruffled.  

That being said, Church Audio makes great products and I currently have another set of mics on order with them.  Hopefully this post won't delay the delivery of those mics.  

The new website will allow me to do that. I am actually working on quite a few things to improve comunication as we speak. But everything takes time and I am doing it all by my self.

Chris

[Church-Audio]

I have thought about it and I do share some fault in this, so I have decided to give a full refund including the shipping. The original paypay address is what I used to send the full refund to.



Chris

[OFOTD]

I have thought about it and I do share some fault in this, so I have decided to give a full refund including the shipping. The original paypay address is what I used to send the full refund to.



Chris

Cool!  Way to be positive about it Chris.    Some other vendors could learn something from ya with responses to problems like this as well.

[Church-Audio]

I have thought about it and I do share some fault in this, so I have decided to give a full refund including the shipping. The original paypay address is what I used to send the full refund to.



Chris

Cool!  Way to be positive about it Chris.    Some other vendors could learn something from ya with responses to problems like this as well.

Thanks Dave. I am not always right sometimes its hard to admit it... But I always do the right thing thats why people come back to me. I am proud to be a member of this community and I always try and treat my customers with respect things did go a little south on this deal thats for sure.

Chris

[Conny*]

OK, that's it. Got my money back. And Mr. Church knows, why he gives this refund.

But whatever, wish him good luck! I would have been interested in testing his products, but after all this trouble, I lost any pleasure about it.

Thank you all for your posts!!!

[Church-Audio]

OK, that's it. Got my money back. And Mr. Church knows, why he gives this refund.

But whatever, wish him good luck! I would have been interested in testing his products, but after all this trouble, I lost any pleasure about it.

Thank you all for your posts!!!

I did it because I made some mistakes. But I was not 100% at fault and I did lose money on this deal. But it was not because of this thread or because of your public postings.. Unfortunately we had a problem with communication that's too bad if we would have been able to talk like this in private the outcome would have been different. I will chalk this up to experience and I will never ever ship to any other address other then the one listed on paypal.

Chris

[Church-Audio]

Nobody has the volume I have and builds everything by hand

Sure about that? 

Ok maybe not   

[Roving Sign]

Chris Church - quik question...do you make your pres/mics in batches...or one unit at a time?

[Church-Audio]

Chris Church - quik question...do you make your pres/mics in batches...or one unit at a time?

I make them in batches sometimes like today for example I made 6x ca-14, 2x probinaural, 6x ca-11, 4x CAFS. Tomorrow over the next few days I will make 8x 9100 preamp and 2x bat box and 4x ca-9000 preamp and 4x ugly By Friday. Untop of answering over 150 emails over delivery times, customer questions, Custom order questions and last but not least sales questions. Then I have to make sure all the shipping gets processed and then build next weeks orders.

Sometimes I build in batches sometimes I dont it depends on whats being ordered and when.

[Myco]

I think in the end you will see that you will get more orders because of the way you eventually decided to handle this Chris. I understand the difficulty that you went through with this transaction and knowing this I wouldn't hesitate to use your services if the need arose. It's a pain in the a** sometimes but even when they are in the wrong, the oldage adage the customer is always right applies. Great work and I wish you much success!

[Church-Audio]

I think in the end you will see that you will get more orders because of the way you eventually decided to handle this Chris. I understand the difficulty that you went through with this transaction and knowing this I wouldn't hesitate to use your services if the need arose. It's a pain in the a** sometimes but even when they are in the wrong, the oldage adage the customer is always right applies. Great work and I wish you much success!

Thanks I wish things could have been different but sometimes you just cant please a customer no mater what you do.

Chris

[Steve__A]

I have thought about it and I do share some fault in this, so I have decided to give a full refund including the shipping...

Chris:

In reading about this incident here it seems to me that if you made any mistake it was in accepting the order under the strict conditions imposed upon it. The customer placed the order on September 1st and expected it to be *delivered* by September 18th. Assuming that everything had gone fine on your end, once the order leaves your shop it is out of your hands.

When you accepted the order I'm sure that you assumed that the payment would go through immediately and that you could start on it immediately. When that didn't happen you had to waste time trying to get everything straightened out, rather than spending your time more productively making mics and pre's. 

In any case, had I been on the jury I would have voted for you- it would have been very reasonable if you would have just sent a second set of mics to Germany once the customer confirmed the shipping address to cut your losses. Your decision to give your customer a full refund is not just the high road, but way over and beyond the call of duty. You are to be commended!

Lessons to be learned from this whole incident:

1. The customer should figure that it'll take at least a month or so to receive a quality handmade product like the ones that you offer.

2. Most eBay sellers will only ship to the address on the PayPal account and you learned that the hard way, having to eat the cost of the order which was damaged in being shipped back to you, and having to waste a lot of time dealing with this issue.

3. It was also interesting to learn that when a package is returned to the sender it is not insured as the original shipment was. You would think that the insurance would cover the shipment until it was either delivered to the customer or returned to the vendor... 

Just my opinion on things. It'll be great when you get your web site up and running since you'll be able to post explanations and disclaimers for all of this sh*t.

Steve__A

P.S. In reading the customer's post my first thought was that he or she was lucky to have not ordered a Dumble guitar amp since the lead time on them was reportedly anywhere from 6 months to several years. And in the signed agreement with Mr. Dumble, if you bother him at all while waiting for your order, you are liable to have your order canceled and the entire prepayment forfeited. "I will wait patiently without disturbing Dumble and will not in any manner interrupt and/or impede Dumble..." Geez, that sounds more like the government than a business! 

[Jhurlbs81]

Thanks I wish things could have been different but sometimes you just cant please a customer no mater what you do.

QFT.  +T for the way you handled yourself, Chris.