PSA: Be Careful Dealing With Uptone Audio


Just a cautionary note for anyone wishing to purchase anything from Uptone Audio.

 

Over the past 3 or so years I have owned an ISO Regen, two LPS 1’s and two LPS 1.2’s. When they work they are OK. However, when they do not, you cannot really count on any meaningful support from Uptone Audio – under warranty or not – and even more so if you are not in the US. One of my LPS 1’s failed during the warranty period after less than a year of use. It would not output anything. I contacted Alex Crespi of Uptone who arranged for a replacement. I shipped the faulty LPS 1 back (costly). I received a replacement in about a month. The replacement I received had dings on the case that were not there in the first place. I just chalked it up to shipping issues. Two months later, the replaced unit failed again. It would not light up. It had more than a year left under warranty. I contacted Uptone again who requested I ship it back again for replacement. However, they discouraged it and proposed a credit of US$185 towards the purchase of a new LPS 1.2 in lieu of the warranty on the unit which faltered so quickly after it was replaced. Upon further questioning and correspondence with Uptone, it came to light that they had not repaired the unit I had sent in for warranty replacement with new parts. Instead they had replaced the board with parts culled from used and returned units previously sent in for trade in or repair purposes. In short, the warranty is tantamount to having your unit replaced with a used one which may or may not have been faulty in the first place, which they claim to have “tested”. It is no surprise that the unit faltered so quickly after their supposed warranty replacement then. As such, their so-called warranty replacement is pretty much flawed. Alex got defensive and quoted some self-derived metric about the failure rates of their products being extremely low and put the cause of successive failure in my units down to my bad luck. He also said that I had electrically damaged the unit which is baffling since I had used it only with their supplied OEM Meanwell switching power supply which still works fine up till today. To date, in the last 20 or so years of being in the hi fi hobby, these Uptone products are the only ones to have malfunctioned so badly.

 

Wishing to cut my losses and to avoid having to ship the faulty unit back to the US at costly charges when the “warranty” replacement would most likely fail again shortly, I paid the remainder towards a brand new LPS 1.2. Alex made it clear that he would not assist with repair of the faulty LPS 1 and I disposed of it.

 

I received a shipment of the LPS 1.2. However, when I unpacked it, the unit had a clear rattling noise when removed from the box. Upon closer inspection, there was a slight scratch on the front chassis plate and the screws were badly stripped. It was pretty clear that Alex had shipped me a used unit or one that had escaped their seemingly lax quality control. I contacted Uptone immediately and requested that they make arrangements for their carrier to collect the unit from me for return to them and replacement of a brand new unit to me. Alex admitted to their negligence citing size slippages and disparities in their OEM case specifications which caused the misfit and rattling noise and worn out Torx screwdrivers stripping the screws. He was certainly aware of the issues affecting the unit I was shipped. However, he refused to do anything about it. He suggested that he would send me some screws and that I open up the unit myself and mount some electrical tape inside the case to stop the rattling noise. Again, he seemed to be fully aware of the issue and how to fix it. Unfortunately, I am not technically inclined nor do I own a Torx screwdriver. To render those fixes I would have to pay a technician to do so. This is rich considering that I had paid for a new and finished product and was shipped a used and/or damaged one. I wrote back to insist on a replacement unit being sent to me and that Uptone arrange to cover the return shipping costs to themselves. Again, Alex refused steadfastly and got hostile, saying that I was taking advantage of them. How exactly am I taking advantage? I paid full price for a new and finished product – that is all I expect, no more and no less. Alex also stated that he did not wish to lose any money on this sale even though Uptone offers the best customer service possible. His final offer was that I return the LPS 1.2 to them at my own cost and that he would refund me the US$250 I had paid meaning I would have to write off the US$185 credit value on the disposed LPS 1 which he is contractually obliged to repair but had refused to assist me with.

 

In this whole experience with Uptone, Alex strikes me as someone who is simply full of excuses. He pays lip service to providing good customer service but it is really just marketing talk. When it comes to the crunch, he fails to deliver but instead makes excuses and puts the blame on anyone but Uptone and himself. Outrageously, he even believes in his own self manufactured press. I recall earlier correspondence with him on why the Uptone ISO Regen would disconnect from my DAC for no reason, requiring that I unplug and replug the DC cable from the Uptone LPS 1.2 for it to work again. Not knowing that I was powering it with a LPS 1.2, he began by questioning the power supply I used. When told it was a LPS 1.2, he blamed the issue on the Silanna chip Uptone used in the ISO Regen – after all, it was an Uptone supply and he could not blame that anymore. I mean you manufactured this product, sourced and supposedly tested the parts and then sold it to the customer as a finished product for good money. The sheer lack of responsibility, ethics and professionalism!

 

As an example of Alex being purely a marketing act, you can see on the Computer Audiophile forum how he derides Sonore’s optical module and Optical Rendu, since Uptone now makes a competing product. Recall, Uptone came into existence making derivative products such as USB fixers and power supplies to be used with Sonore’s series of streamers – the hypocrisy of it all.

 

I appreciate that others may have had a good experience dealing with Uptone Audio but unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case with me. Uptone strikes me as a bucket shop. There are lots of cottage industries and artisanal products in hi fi and that is fine and good, so long as they are run with honesty, integrity and professionalism and not at the expense of unsuspecting customers. Pete of Triode Wire Labs is a great example of a fine one man show company who provides great customer service. Uptone is definitely NOT - YMMV!


mikey8811
I read the entire email chain on the What's Best Forum. From January 2019. It was painful. I would personally would have hated if dealt with you, honestly.

Here is the gist:

1 - You bought a previous generation 2017 LPS-1 used from someone in US. Which failed. It was originally purchased without the power supply.

2 - Your replacement LPS-1 also failed. Maybe a coincidence ? Maybe...

3 - He offered you a LPS-1.2 (current generation) for $250 all in to you (shipped to Malaysia) in lieu of any repair on your LPS-1. This condition was clear on your communication.

4 - When you did not like the LPS-1.2 you received, he offered to refund you all the money if you ship it back to him. Not sure why this pissed you off. It sounds totally fair to me.


@thyname the feeling is mutual - it would be painful for me to deal with you too. I am glad we never have to.
1. I purchased a used LPS 1 - it was current generation then and had another 2 years left to the fully transferable warranty offered by Uptone.

So is it a crime to purchase used? If Alex is averse to honouring his own transferable warranty, he shouldn’t have specified it that way. But likewise, with NO resale value on used LPS units, there will be a lower demand for new units. You cannot have your business model cake and eat it too.

While I am unsure of its provenance, it was sold to me with the OEM Meanwell power supply that Uptone provides. Whether the original purchaser bought that at the same time, I do not know. Why the fuss? He subsequently says I overdrove it but not at the time and I have been using the same Meanwell all the while. That Meanwell still works so I do not think it is the issue but just a scapegoat.

I used the LPS 1 with said Meanwell power supply that meets Uptone specifications. That is a fact.

2. It failed and I sent it in for a repair.

Uptone sent me back a replacement repaired with a used board culled from a return and NOT a new one. This is in the correspondence you cite unless Alex decided to leave it out selectively as he is wont to do when it doesn’t suit his version of events.
That replacement LPS 1 failed after 2 months of use most likely because it was repaired with used parts.
Other posters on other fora have concurred that their repaired LPS 1’s also failed very soon after. That is a fact too.
This is no coincidence - it is a pattern very likely due to Uptone’s warranty repair practices.
3. Like @jc4659 , I initially considered just having it returned for repair to save money but decided against it given the costly courier fees and the unreliability of the warranty repair given my experience with the previous one and Alex’s admission that he employed used parts.

4. Unlike @jc4659 ’s case however, Alex offered me a trade in value of $185 in settlement of the remaining 1 year of warranty on the LPS 1. As such, I paid a total of $435 being $250 in cash and the $185 in credit to absolve him of the warranty. This is the price for a brand new LPS 1.2 - no more, no less.

As I would not be receiving any further assistance with the soon-after-replacement-now-faulty LPS 1, I disposed of it.

Do NOT think for one moment that Alex did me any favours or went out of his way.
5. I did not just NOT like the LPS 1.2. As you can see from the posts on Computer Audiophile and WBF, the LPS 1.2 I was shipped was clearly used and/or damaged.
6. I had paid a total of $435 for a brand new LPS 1.2 but clearly did not receive one. I contacted Alex straightaway and requested that he arrange for a carrier of his choice to collect the LPS 1.2 and resend me a brand new one I had paid for.
7. Alex refused and offered me a refund of the $250 if I sent the LPS 1.2 back to him at my own expense. This would put me out of pocket for the $185 in credit (for the LPS 1) plus the courier fees.
In what alternate universe does this work out as an equitable offer to me?
All I requested for was to be sent a brand new LPS 1.2 for which I had paid a total of $435 - no more, no less.
All this is patently clear in my original post and the email correspondence that Alex posted albeit somewhat unprofessionally.
These are all irrevocable facts.

That you have chosen to read it with your own slant favouring Alex and Uptone is your prerogative. But do NOT presume to judge the situation through your biased view.
As I have said all along this is my experience dealing with Alex and Uptone. Others like @jc4659 obviously received better treatment.

As such, from my experience, Alex is all marketing talk with no delivery.
There is no point in furthering the discussion with you since you are biased. We will just have to disagree.
Again...

(1) you agreed on paying $250 all in for a new LPS-1.2 in exchange for voiding any warranty claims / work on your your broken LPS-1. No?

(2) Yet, when you were offered a full refund for your LPS-1.2 (you were to only pay shipping back to him), this is what you asked:

-----
On Oct 28, 2019, at 8:37 AM, Yeong Aun Cheah wrote:
Dear Alex

You have shown yourself and Uptone to be a manufacturer who produces shoddy product who further refuses to be responsible for said product it has shipped.

Please make arrangements for FedEx to collect the UltraCap LPS 1.2 from me for return back to you at your expense.

I will gladly return it.

Also, in lieu of the warranty value you have imputed to the faulty UltraCap 1 which is still under warranty, please make payment of US$185 to me.

Sincerely
------
So you instead of just shipping the LPS-1.2 back for full refund, you want him to "make arrangements for FedEx to collect the LPS-1.2"? Then, you still ask for the $185 money for the LPS-1, to which you already agreed to void any warranty claims before?

Finally, come on... I understand "gaming the system" stuff, but this goes way too far. Let's be real
You are the one that needs to be real.
I am NOT gaming anything.
Do the math yourself - I did not pay just $250. I paid $435 for a brand new LPS 1.2 with the $185 being an imputed credit to void the warranty if I were to have received a brand new LPS 1.2.
The total consideration is $435 and NOT $250 for a brand new LPS 1.2.
So since Uptone reneged on the contract by shipping me a used LPS 1.2, they will need to refund me a total of $435, since the warranty on the LPS 1 is no longer void but reinstated with the value of $185 that Alex quoted himself.

It is basic contract law.
Based on your terminology, it is Alex who is gaming the system to get out of a warranty he doesn’t wish to honour.
All I expected was what was promised to me - a brand new LPS 1.2 and that was certainly NOT delivered.
Case closed

So we offered to refund his $250 if he would send it back. Instead he chose to open a dispute with his credit card company. So now we have lost another $250
So, you still feel abused, despite getting the unit essentially for free.

Thanks for posting, I have great respect for UPtone now.
Bob