A positive customer service experience

[CedarSound]

Hey guys,
I just wanted to give credit where it is due. I have a couple API 512Cs in a lunch box, and one of them was on kick drum duties a couple of weeks ago when it started having a really nasty distortion issue. I tried moving it to different slots in the lunchbox, but same problem.

So, I emailed Mercenary audio, where I purchased it back in 2007. One of their guys, Sean, wrote me back and said he would get an RA number for me from API. I brought the pre with me to my work, (which has a shipping department) and emailed again, to ask about getting the info. After I gave them the serial number, I got a message from Alex, in their repair department. He asked me to send it straight to him. He said he would check it out to see if it's something he could fix, and if not, he would then send it to API for me. So, I shipped it out that same day..Thursday, going ground, to Boston. This was last weekend, when hurricane Irene made it's way up the east coast. I hadn't even thought of that when I sent it to them.

So, the preamp went there over the weekend and arrived on Monday. I got an email from Alex on Tuesday morning.. I copied and pasted the following from his email...

Hey Jon,
> We received your 512 at the shop yesterday, unfortunately, the entire
> town lost power due to the storm this past weekend. I brought home the
> 512 with a 500 rack to test. I didn't get any strong distortion, I was
> getting some faint hiss and crackling. I swapped out the 2520 op amp
> and no more hiss or crackle. You shouldn't have any other problems
> with the 512. I'll ship this out today, it will ship to your provided
> work address.
>
> Alex


I got the preamp on Wednesday. Brought it home and plugged it in and all is well. I even compared it to the other one and they sound identical. My band recorded horns for a new EP that we are trying to finish in the coming week, and those tracks came out amazing.

Anyway, as someone who has worked in plenty of customer support and service jobs over the years, I really appreciate when a company goes above and beyond like that... it's nice that there are people who you can actually talk to in our field.. I have had contact with other cool people just through questions about gear. So, thanks Alex.. and thanks Mercenary.

Jon

[joelpatterson]

Those people operate on a whole different level than the rest of the universe.

[trodden]

Wow! That is great! I had an op amp so the exact same thing in my 3124, however that cost me $80 for a replacement from API, I was no longer covered by warantee. Still API had a quick turn around.