Topic: Potential Service Issues with Soundfield - Problem Resolved!

[Brian Skalinder]

I'm going back to Schoeps.

I have some CMC6s and KC5s in the YS at what I think are nice prices. 

Great to hear the loaner worked out, sucks to hear corporate support won't deliver.  Any chance the US retailer is willing to swap units and send the bad one back to corporate for good, or otherwise intervene on your behalf?

[boojum]

Vegas went 100% with no issues on the loaner gear.  Perfectly both nights.  So I haven't made a complete recording in two consecutive nights with my unit since March, and with a loaner I made two back to back.

Soundfield is stickinh by their claim the unit is in perfect working order.  To add to the issue with me, they're now asking me to pay 90GBP to have the unit returned from the UK to me.  Have you ever had a situation where the retailer asked for return shipping on an item sent in to be fixed?  I asked for a certificate validating the product is in 100% working order and will be selling it on ebay.  I'm going back to Schoeps.

This is the worst customer service I've eve experienced, starting with the manufacturer.  Enough to warrant me not supporting their business.

To the TS.com community, consider yourself warned ever dealing with SoundField.  They are not a company I'd recommend working with.  They don't value their customers and have been nothing short of a pain in the ass to get this resolved.  Outside of the US retailer who's been great.  SoundField as a company has lost this customer forever.

F - sorry to see this unfold as it has.  You seem to have been sold a piece of faulty equipment by a manufacturer who will not make the deal right by exchanging a new setup for your old one.  You could be like them and just keep the loaner and tell them you will call it square.  Regardless, SF has handled this poorly.  The US distributor is trying to make it right but getting no support form the factory.  Maybe Lucas owns SoundField?   Good luck.    

[F0CKER]

Great to hear the loaner worked out, sucks to hear corporate support won't deliver.  Any chance the US retailer is willing to swap units and send the bad one back to corporate for good, or otherwise intervene on your behalf?

I asked him that, and he said he'd have to ask.  

The bottom line is Soundfield does not seem to care what my experience has been.  And then to know I'm unsatisfied and come in asking for return shipping is ludicrous.  

At this point I'll consider trades for the Soundfield for Schoeps.  But I'll need a whole rig to do it.  Otherwise I'll go to ebay...

[F0CKER]

boojum, at this point I want nothing to do with Soundfield and will take every opportunity I can to make people aware of how they treat their customers.

They should be ashamed of themselves. 

[illconditioned]

Vegas went 100% with no issues on the loaner gear.  Perfectly both nights.  So I haven't made a complete recording in two consecutive nights with my unit since March, and with a loaner I made two back to back.

Soundfield is stickinh by their claim the unit is in perfect working order.  To add to the issue with me, they're now asking me to pay 90GBP to have the unit returned from the UK to me.  Have you ever had a situation where the retailer asked for return shipping on an item sent in to be fixed?  I asked for a certificate validating the product is in 100% working order and will be selling it on ebay.  I'm going back to Schoeps.

This is the worst customer service I've eve experienced, starting with the manufacturer.  Enough to warrant me not supporting their business.

To the TS.com community, consider yourself warned ever dealing with Soundfield.  They are not a company I'd recommend working with.  They don't value their customers and have been nothing short of a pain in the ass to get this resolved.  Outside of the US retailer who's been great.  Soundfield as a company has lost this customer forever.

Call them on it.  If they *claim* your unit is working perfectly, ask them just to keep the loaner!

  Richard

[F0CKER]

I did.  But I had to return the loaner to Las Vegas audio as I left.  I made the suggestion, waiting to hear the response.  I think it's a fair suggestion, but again, Soundfield has made it perfectly clear to me that they have no intentions of making me happy as a customer. 

Without a doubt, they're the worst company I've ever dealt with. It's as if they think I'm lying and want a new unit.  For Christ's sake, my unit ios 6 months old and has been fucked up for 3 of them. 

Do the rigth thing, or don't do the right thing.

I told them if they send it back to me to have it clearly detailed out the unit has been factory tested and certified. 

The US retailer should make good on the trade, my unit for their demo.  It's the least they could do. 


Honestly, the fact they're asking me to pay for shipping back at 90GBP has me more fucking angry.

[T.J.]

Honestly, the fact they're asking me to pay for shipping back at 90GBP has me more fucking angry.

yeah, that's some BS! glad to hear you came home with the goods from vegas though.

come back to the darkside, the weather's fine 

[F0CKER]

Honestly, the fact they're asking me to pay for shipping back at 90GBP has me more fucking angry.

yeah, that's some BS! glad to hear you came home with the goods from vegas though.

come back to the darkside, the weather's fine 

No question I'm selling this unit if they don't agree to replace it with the loaner.  But now I'm in a spot where I'm selling something I believe to be faulty but will have to sell it with a factory certified tag that says the opposite.  I can try to run it a few times to see if it recurs, but at this point, I'd rather not use a product from a company like Soundfiled based on how they treat their customers.  I just have to find a buyer.

I probably won't need a 4 channel either so most likely my 744T will be up for sale too.

[Tim]

Vegas went 100% with no issues on the loaner gear.  Perfectly both nights.  So I haven't made a complete recording in two consecutive nights with my unit since March, and with a loaner I made two back to back.

Soundfield is stickinh by their claim the unit is in perfect working order.  To add to the issue with me, they're now asking me to pay 90GBP to have the unit returned from the UK to me.  Have you ever had a situation where the retailer asked for return shipping on an item sent in to be fixed?  I asked for a certificate validating the product is in 100% working order and will be selling it on ebay.  I'm going back to Schoeps.

This is the worst customer service I've eve experienced, starting with the manufacturer.  Enough to warrant me not supporting their business.

To the TS.com community, consider yourself warned ever dealing with Soundfield.  They are not a company I'd recommend working with.  They don't value their customers and have been nothing short of a pain in the ass to get this resolved.  Outside of the US retailer who's been great.  Soundfield as a company has lost this customer forever.

Duly noted. I'm sort of shocked that they are taking that stand, you'd think they'd do everything they could to make this right 

I remember a guy when I was growing up who drove around town with a giant lemon on the roof of his car and a sign on the side naming the dealership that sold it to him.

Soundfield's logo would look pretty good on this jpeg, no?

[mmedley.]

Focker, glad to hear you did not have a single problem over the weekend. I am sad to hear that they continue to treat you this way. Poorest of the poor in customer service if you ask me. It would take them all of 30 seconds to swap the unit (even if they feel it is in 100% working order and give you the benefit of the doubt). Keep holding onto the bears ass for a little while longer. I have faith everything will be resolved. Charging you for return shipping is ludicrous. I *might* understand if the unit was well out of the warranty period, but for something that is 6 months old? Gimme a break! I have really enjoyed the recordings you made with it regardless. I do not blame you for ditching it, but I am really hoping all this mess gets resolved and you can make some more recordings with it. 

I will trade you my rig straight up.

[F0CKER]

Well I raised a bit more hell, this time with the US wholesaler president.  I explained my case and they keep going back to the same old argument, the unit is 100% fine.  We'll send it back to you and you can test it again, and if it fails call us back and we can figuire out the next xtep.  The problem is they never define what the next step is going to be.  From my persectpve it means, send it back to be  tested again, and I get to pay $300 roundtrip shipping just for them to say we can't replicate it, sorry we'll send it back to you.  The owner of the whoelsaler wants me to wait 2 weeks until the owner of Soundfield comes back from vacation and he said he'll talk directly to them.  What they keep missing is they think the unit failed ionce and I sent it back.  I continue to reiterate that it's been happening consistently since March.  Then they said it must be a power issue, to which I said fine, I use your proprietary battery system.  The whole unit is Sound Field, top to bottom.   

What really cracked me up was the US Wholesaler kept trying to defend SF's lack of communication by saying they're a small company and they don't communicate well.  Tough...then they'll lose customers.  Customer Service is EVERYTHING.  Then he tried to convince me SF is selling this unit at a $10k loss just to get the name out there.  No joking.  He made the claim it's a $20k mic they sell well below cost just to promote the name.  How dumb do I sound.  I laughed at him and told him he had to be kidding if he thought I believed that.

I told him I've dealt with schoeps, neumann, AKG, Grace, Oade among others and all have paid return shipping and all have been more supportive top to bottom.  Again he went back to the fact that it's a small company and they don't have servie departments like the big ones do.  Again, not my fault. 

I agreed to let them hold the unit for two more weeks at which time the owner of the US Wholesaler will talk to the Owner of Soundfield and see what our options are.  I told him I want a clearly documented and outlined plan for the next steps if it fails and what they need from me to evidence it..picutres, videos of the meters locking.

The sad part is the mic sounds great and I want to keep it badly. But I feel lik a second rate citizen right now.....and only because of the way SF communicate, not necessarily because of what they have or have not done. 

If you stand by your product and are saying this one is good, then do the right thing, swap mine out and use mine as a re-certfied demo unit you can send to another retailer. 

Just make right by me.

I'll keep you all posted as things transpire.

To date, SF has had my mic since May 22.  And I've received five emails from them, here they are word for word.

5/23

Just received your ST350…
 
At first glance nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. I’ll get a dialog going with SoundDevices and see if we can somehow replicate the fault here. As this is not your ordinary repair I will be dealing with it personally, unfortunately I’ll be out of the country for the next two weeks, so please bear with me.
 
Thanks,
 
Pieter
 

6/18

 
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you…
 
We have been checking over your ST350 thoroughly and have not managed to find anything wrong. We have also been testing it with our 744T (both on batteries and mains) and it keeps on running/recording perfectly.
 
The only difference in our setup I can think of are the battery system/batteries you use, maybe the power is somehow glitching which is freezing the recorder.
 
Apologies for not being more conclusive… I presume the best thing to do is for us to send the ST350 back to you.
 
Thanks,
 
Pieter

6/19
I appreciate that you are getting frustrated but the majority of ST350 users use it in conjunction with a 744T and no one has ever reported this or any related issue. We are doing what we can to find out what is going wrong but so far have not managed to find anything untoward at all. I assure you that we will do everything we can to get you up and running.
 
I have been recording in one hour stints… I’ll try longer records today.
 
Our 744T runs Software Version 2.40, Sample Rate 48K – 24bit, recording to Poly Wav file, 1.8Gb split file size.
 
I am running the ST350 using your battery adaptor and the 744T on the internal battery.
 
I’ll keep you posted.
 
Thanks,
 
Pieter

6/24
We are still continuously testing your system in conjunction with the 744T we have here… I have tried absolutely everything and can not re-create the fault you describe.
 
I believe there is one of two things happening with your set-up, either a power or a heat issue:
 
1.   I have been running the ST350 with the power adapter that came back from you (as supplied by us) – I have also been monitoring the output of the power adapter for any signs of power glitches - but have not found anything.
 
2.   You mentioned that you keep both the ST350 and the 744T in your camera bag and that the combo gets rather hot. We have re-created this situation here and had the ST350 + 744T for two days straight in a non-ventilated bag in the sun and had no problems.
 
As you do not have this problem when using other microphones the heat problem seems most likely as the ST350 can get rather hot which will heat up the 744T in turn.  
 
This may not be what you want to hear but your ST350 is in perfect working condition…
 
I just spoke to Richard at Transamerica and he informed you will be using their demo ST350 later this week. I would be interested to find out if you can recreate the fault with the units in a well ventilated condition and or running mains power.
 
Let’s wait and see how you get on with the demo ST350 system before deciding how to proceed.
 
Thanks,
 
Pieter


6/30
Hi Chris,

The shipping cost to return your ST350 to the US is 90.00 GBP - this 
would by via Fed-Ex.

If you would like to proceed please forward your payment details (we 
can accept credit cards) and I will make the necessary arrangements.

[easy jim]

This really sucks.  Sorry to read about your troubles.

[boojum]

That kind of service and they will be a smaller company.  Howe long is the warranty?  It has to be at least a year.  These guys are jerking you around and driving away potential customers. I would never buy anything from a company who takes a position like this.  And the distributor/wholesaler should be going to bat for you, not the company.  It is a shame you bought the damned thing from them.

FWIW the Schoeps Double Mid Side (DMS) use of a pair of Mk4's and an Mk8 will give you just about the same results, but no height perception, I believe.  I am not sure if SF does.  Schoeps has a free software decoder for the rig, too.  Someone on the board has tried it.  I have but not gotten it to work.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong.  When I get a chance I will go back to it.

Anyway, good luck with those boneheads in England.  You might want to send them a link to this thread so they can see just how they are perceived on this board.  Post it to gearslutz.com, too.  ;o)

[F0CKER]

Wanted to follow up again on what seems to be an amicable resolution to my issue.

The owner of Soundfield has gotten involved.  He thoroughly explained the testing done on the unit and why they feel it is 100% in good order.  He also explained their shipping policy.  Given they couldn't identify an issue the normal process would be to put the return shipping back on the owner.  In this case, because I had no issues with the demo unit I used in Las VEgas he agreed to swap out the mic and preamp cpontroller box with the demo unit for me.  He's going to send my unit to the US with a normal shipment to the US distributor, therefore no shipping costs for me, they in turn will send me the demo replacements.

Granted I've only used the demo unit twice but it performed perfectly both times, whereas the other unit had the issues multiple times.  Hopefully when I get the replacement and use it a few times I can report back it's working as expected consistently.

This is what I was expecting so Soundfield has regained my trust.


Now I can change my avatar back.

 

[F0CKER]

For the record, here was Soundfields response from Ken Giles, the owner.

Hello Chris,
 
Our policy, like most other manufacturers on warranty repairs is that the customer pays to get the goods here and we pay the return shipping – the difference was that on this occasion we could find no fault with your ST350 system. Our tests were very thorough and involved us obtaining a Sound Devices 744 and running it in conjunction with your system on long term soak re-charging and replacing the batteries as and when required – no 744 ‘meter freeze’ was encountered and the system performed to specification. Your ST350 was then given a full calibration in our anechoic chamber. A multi-layer bubble wrap ‘thermal blanket’ was then wrapped around both the 744 and ST350 on the basis that if you were using them both in some kind of carry bag there may be a heat related problem which would cause the 744 meters to ‘freeze’ when it reached a certain temperature. Even though the units were almost too hot to touch they both still functioned correctly. After that the wiring of your 12 way microphone cable was checked over and then your B-Format output cable which has been modified to connect directly to the 744 – all was in order. The systems were then put back on soak together on the slim chance there may be some sort of intermittent fault and checked periodically. All in all many hours spent some of which involved two technical persons – an investment of many hundreds of dollars on my part.
 
My proposal is that we exchange your microphone and control unit for those that you borrowed from Transaudio – you were very happy with their performance. We will return your cables and packaging in the next SoundField/Drawmer Transaudio shipment – which ship from here regularly.
 
The above route will save you all shipping charges and leave you with an exchange system which would appear to cover the concerns you express in your email.