Mark Levinson/Revel Support is tops

Is HSG paying you?? haha

I agree, their support and service is quick given the transition the company went through. The emails I have sent have been answered quickly and thorougly. My 390S player was sent back for service and they had it fixed within a week although it was covered under warranty. Some folks have stated the out of pocket repair costs can be pretty high.

hello
it sounded like an advertisment of mark levison..
i have negative experience instead of good, i have been long time, mark levinson fan and have owned many high end product of them,, but when i needed service and answers, nothing but trouble and kept turning around by them,,up to the repair ,, they took so long that i ended up buying other product,,bad bad bad,

I have to side here with Tidybear. Although I'm indeed happy Levinson 390S cd-player, 334 power amp and Revel Studio owner, the hell I went through when upgrading from 39 cd-player to 390S was beyond anything I have experienced. The service for 390S recently took 2 months as well. The point here is that as ML operates through distributors and dealers outside the US, we non-Americans are subjected to whatever a local distributor/dealer throws to our direction - and here in Benelux in not great.

JaPu
http://he-japu.blogspot.com/

No I don't work for Mark Levinson or HSG or any audio company. I'm a teacher with a severe audio addiction. I also went through some very frustrating times during the transition and at several points contemplated selling all my gear. I do see where this endorsment could seem like an ad, but I've read many negative comments about their service, (deserved during the transition) but I believe it has vastly improved and wanted to let other concerned buyers/owners know. If I was issuing a grade for the company in the last say 4 years, I would rate them this way:
Madrigal = A
Transition= F Failure A complete meltdown
HSG Today = B- and really trying based on comments I've read on the web and my experiences. However I believe that there service department.
It would be interesting to hear from people with other experiences.
In fact maybe a grading system for all companies as for as service and reliablity would be a great asset to Audiogon members and help clue in audio companies that could use some feedback.
I just wanted to give credit where credit was due.
It does sound like they need to look at service outside the U.S. though. I wonder if the service is the same throughout Europe.
Thanks for reading.
Sgr

Has HSG eliminated their $1000 up front cost for any work on older products (like my Proceed)? I wanted to send in my PDT3 for a check of the laser assembly and to determine if it needs to be replaced, and they said it would cost $1000 just to look at an older peice of gear like this - REGARDLESS of whether the laser assembly would have to be replaced. Any replacement part(s) would cost money on top of that!

That doesn't sound like great customer service to me.

My understanding is that ML gets your ok for the maximum it would cost to repair your piece of electronics. The $1000. is the most you would pay if the product was totally rebuilt. From what I understand, in most cases one would be charged some fraction of this amount for beyond warranty repairs. (I too have concerns about this and have talked with service at Levinson.) I also have heard that ML has reduced the orginal prices they were quoting when this new policy was first implemented, but I've not seen this data. I would contact them again about your gear.

I recommend that owners of ML equipment unhappy with this policy e-mail or call and talk with them about these issues. That way you'll get the truth and resolution to your problems.

Sgr

"The $1000. is the most you would pay if the product was totally rebuilt."

Sgr, I don't doubt what you're telling me, but at the time I spoke with them this is not what they said. I had to ask them to explain it to me three times because I could not believe what I was hearing. Perhaps I was speaking with someone who did not clearly understand the new policy; this was just after HSG took over. I'll try giving them a call back.

I have a ML 27 at HSG currently. It sat at my dealer for 2.5 months while my dealer went above and beyond to tell HSG exactly what he thought of their outrageous repair cost of 1000 just to LOOK at it. The good news is that this policy was just recently changed at HSG within the past 5 weeks or so. They agreed to repair my 27 and charge me their cost up to a maximum of $1000. I'm not sure if that's specific to my case or their new policy in general. It is my understanding from talking to my dealer that there was a lot of pressure on HSG from dealers and owners to change their policy. I hope my 27 doesn't sit there for a couple months if they now have a flood of older products to repair.

The company has done irreparable harm to it's overall image. (IMHO)
My goodness go onto audioreview.com and read the horror stories people have posted regarding the 383 integrted.
The people who have the money to spend on ML products are not going to do new business with a company that regardless of any extenuating circumstances had a bout of poor customer service.
There are too many alternative quality vendors available to even take the chance.

hello to all,
talking in depth of my experience with ML, HSG,as i mentioned, i have been long time ML fan,, back in earlier age, i had ML2 and i had a bad luck repairing it with madrigal lab, it often burned out the transistor and always happened after their warranty, after i repair, cost me lots of money with no choice, so, was my upgrade to Ml20.6, it took so long that i bought another amp,,then, my Ml35, i was simply asking that about voltage change, they kept me tuning around between the dealer and madrigal lab, at last, they want like $400 to change the voltage +shipping, (what i know that just require switching the jumper), than my PAV upgrade and remote problem, once again , i never get a solid answer from dealer and the company, by phone and email and in person, than i was thinking to get the Ml33, once again that they can not give me technical details of its,, they just keep saying that best part , and best design of both worlds...bah bah bah,,), than last, my F50, required recone service, replace service, but they dont give me a good estimate, and want me to bring.send them back to look it them first,and i told them what i need exactly and if they sell me the parts, i can do it myself, it is a big hassle for that big size of speakers to ship,bring them , i also had other ML pieces, like ML 39, 26, 6, 10,, when is nothing wrong i like them, but when i need something , i never can get simple straight and professional answer from them,,
what a disapointment since i had been long time Ml fan,,and nowaday , i condsider other brand first over them
regards
mike

Superfund, thanks for the confirming update. I will definitely give them a call to find out what they might be able to do with my PDT3 tuneup.

Here in Australia, for what it's worth, the service is atrocious too. Firstly there's only a repair facility in Sydney in the whole country, and secondly, again, they seem intent to charge whatever they want to "inspect" first.

Most manufacturers are at the mercy of the distributors in various countries. I feel they are way cheated by stupid markups that do their products no justice. Here in Oz, you can get similar prices for McIntosh. But you pay double the price for Classe, Revel, Mark, Pass, BAT, and surprise surprise, Halcro.

Gets on my nerves to no end...