Is good customer service about dead?

"I wanted to audition a rather expensive pair of speakers that were not available in my area. I contacted the manufacturer (from his own website) to ask where I could go to audition and purchase these--but no response."

Dat1...Moving to a smaller house will necessitate selling my Dunlavy SC-4 speakers and going for something scaled down as well. Just the other day, like you, I e-mailed a very well known manufacturer who makes one of the handful of speakers I'm interested in. I also asked him if he knew of anyone close to my area where I might be able to audition. His reply was, "I can make you a pair for a good price." I wrote back, respectfully indicating I wanted first to hear his speakers and find out if they gave me the kind of sound that satisfied me. I got no other reply from him. I'm certainly not using this single episode as a means of indicting customer service in general. It's just that based on the very positive comments from other Audiogoners about this manufacturer, I expected a more helpful response. My shortlist is now a bit shorter.

I terms of speaker manufacturers, I have had exceptional service from both John Devore and Albert Von Schweikert, who both have set-up exceptional shops that support their customers but will also personally jump in and make sure that the customer is being taken care of.

There still are some companies who truly understand great customer service. Unfortunately, there are also those who don't care. Then again, perhaps they're following the trends of most consumers (not us here for the most part) - buy as cheaply as possible, regardless of who's selling it.

A lot of the manufacturers on Audio Circle are in tune with customer service and will bend over backwards to ensure their customers are happy. I owned Bryston before I started looking at Audio Circle, but James Tanner has really helped his customers over there. People have posted about buying new gear and are all excited about it, James will ask which dealer it was sold by, and he'll personally double check the order and try his best to fast track it. He's also caught a few dealer order mistakes. I've called the Canada service department a few times, and Mike Pickett has always been great and easy to understand.

Bryston isn't the only one like this.

I own Audio Physic speakers. I've had nothing but bad experiences with their distributor - not responding to emails, giving me the run around on the phone, not giving me a complete list of dealers in my area, etc. but I love my speakers and will never let them go.

I hear Vandersteen, DeVore, and Shahinian have great customer service, among a few others. Never owned either of them, nor tried to contact them. One of these days when/if I need new speakers, I'll be sure to give them a shot.

The best customer service in high that I have received in high end audio has come from Manley Labs and Zu Audio. When I had an issue that concerned my Manley 300b amps Eve Anna Manley herself contacted me directly, answered my questions, solved my problem and joked with me in her peculiarly jovial manner. When I purchased a pair of Zu Audio cables--on Ebay at great discount, mind you--Gerrit from Zu Audio made sure that the spade terminations were the precise size for my amps and speakers. He contacted me immediately and made me measure the posts on my amplifiers to be certain of the proper size. His actions made it clear to me, especially since mine was a bargain basement sale, that customer service was a matter of manufacturer pride for him and Zu Audio.

My Best is Keith Herron of Herron Audio. He responds to e-mails quickly, has done upgrades at a reasonable dollar value and helped me with some trades. It doesn't get any better.