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Frustrated McIntosh Owner

I’ve been a satisfied McIntosh separates owner for quite awhile. Two months ago, I got the bug to upgrade, so I decided to trade-in my MC462 stereo amp for MC611 monoblock amps. I reached out to my local authorized dealer that I’ve done business with for years, we worked out a deal and placed my order. He told me he expected he would have the monoblocks from McIntosh in about a month.  I called my dealer yesterday asking for an update and he’s now telling me that McIntosh won’t tell him when my order is shipping, let alone if they have been manufactured yet.  He even went so far as to inquire with his McIntosh regional rep.  I trust my dealer and know that Covid has stressed a lot of manufacturers, but the lack of communication from McIntosh to their dealers has got me concerned. Basically what I’m getting is, they will ship when they ship- it could be in 8 days or 8 more weeks, possibly longer.  Have any of you experienced any issues like this with McIntosh lately?  Is this a sign of any bigger issues with them?
gelfdaddy
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,250 posts
 
I ordered a chest freezer from my local appliance store in the beginning of February.  I received it mid-August due to factories shutting down from Covid-19.  Patience is a virtue.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
"I ordered a chest freezer from my local appliance store in the beginning of February. I received it mid-August..."

Good timing, weather-wise.
spencem
24 posts
 
I have owned McIntosh amps, CD players, server, oscilloscope, preamps, and AV controllers, all without trouble, so I had not had an opportunity to "test" their service department. However, I had a much better recent experience with McIntosh. I purchased a MR-78 from our kids pediatrician when he retired and decided I wanted the Modafferi modification from Audio Classics. Having had terrible experiences shipping antique radios with UPS (Oops?) and FedEx when they did the packaging, I called McIntosh to order a shipping carton from them designed for the tuner. The very nice lady said they would have to make one, but it would probably be 8 weeks or more before they could get around to it. It arrived a week later, labeled for MR-78, and even included 4 feet to keep the unit located in the double-boxed shipping carton in case my unit came out of the wooden case and lacked feet (it did).
hgeifman
2,110 posts
 
@gelfdaddy, Today is Monday, September 28th.  Please call McIntosh Labs and ask them about the delivery status of your MC611 mono-block amplifiers. 
gelfdaddy OP
20 posts
 
Follow up to my original post.

As suggested by some of you, especially @hgeifman, I called McIntosh today. I was connected to Chuck, presumably the production manager.  He couldn't have been more helpful. Within 3 minutes he told me exactly where my order stood and when it should be shipping (within 2 weeks). Not sure why my local dealer has been giving me the run-around when it was so easy for me to get this info?  Also, I learned from Chuck that McIntosh produces 50 pieces of most line items in their catalog every month.  Most are already sold by the time they are produced.  Again, thank you all for your advice.  Cheers!
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