Class D Audio Brand does not honor warranty---AVOID!!


About a year and a half ago, I purchased a budget two channel class d amp from the internet company with the same name, "Class D Audio", and wanted to warn others of my bad experience. 

After about year of using the amp, I started to get static and other nasty sounds coming from my speakers. After checking and confirming that is was the amp and not any other components, I sent it back for repair under warranty. The owner, Tom, was my contact person, as well as the person that checked it out.

Tom said he found nothing wrong with it after thoroughly looking it over and assured me it was fine. After about three weeks he returned it, but it wasn't fixed. In fact, it was probably worse. After again checking all my equipment out, I was certain that the amp was defective.

I contacted Tom about the problem, asking for some guidance about what to do next, but he initially didn't return my emails. After over two weeks he finally emailed me and again insisted that the amp checked out fine. 
I said that I wanted to send it back, but Tom again took a long time to get back. In fact I had to send him several emails. When he did, he said he had a family problem, and that he was having a difficult time returning emails. I told Tom I was sorry for his troubles and to take a LITTLE TIME if he needed it, but emphasized that I needed this fixed asap. (It had been months now since it was fully functional.)

That was the last I heard from Tom. I emailed him a couple of times, with no response, so I've given up. He stated that the warranty is three years, but he he avoids customers like the plague if they have any problems.

His website is still up, so I don't think he's out of business.
Anyone have any idea what's going on,or had a similar experience?
This guy is a deadbeat as far as I'm concerned.


jonasandezekiel
I have owned his SDS 470C amp for at least 3 years - it has been superb. It sounds as good as my JC-1s.

About a year ago I returned it for repair of the right channel (low volume).  He repaired and upgrade it without charge. It has been superb since. No issues.

He is a bit slow in responding to emails, which is not unusual for a small business. But, that’s part of the compromise when you buy a product from a small vendor that would otherwise cost you 10x more from a brand name vendor.

There is no rational reason he would not repair the amp if it has a problem - the parts are not that expensive and he could likely repair it in an hour. And I’m sure he would not risk ruining his reputation.

If he’s unresponsive, most likely it’s because he’s had some personal issues - since it seems inconsistent with his past behavior.

If I were you I would take the amp to your local electronics repair shop and have them test it, before proceeding with other action. That’s the only way you can verify whether it has an issue, or not.

If you can confirm it has an issue, I’d be surprised if he won’t repair it without charge.




Islandmandan.....I thought about exactly your point, that he's a small company and probably slow to get back, but it just became ridiculous.
I'm as reasonable a guy as there is, and I felt I gave him ample time to return my emails. I also felt I was genuinely sympathetic to his issues, but I started to feel that he was taking advantage of me. 
The clincher was when my good friend who was a business owner, told me that it should be no problem for him to take just a little time out of his day to write me an email or call me. (I left him my number and he said he would call...but he didn't.) All he had to do was to literally take 10 minutes to help solve my problem. I hadn't had my amp functioning properly for MONTHS, and I was just plain pissed.
Bassdude....ditto to your points. The last thing I wanted to do was to slam a small business guy just trying to compete with the big guys, but I really felt like he was disrespecting me. And you're right, I really liked the amp. It was more than pretty darn good.
Mapman....It's a three year warranty. Like I said, it's a good sounding amp and frankly, it mated really well with the speakers I have, but as my buddy said, it should have been no trouble for one call.