- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Location
- Oregon
Hi all. I recently bought a new rig and updated the speaker package as well. I went with AE A5+ speakers and their D1 24bit dac. I live in california and ae is near the east coast. When the speakers showed up by fedex, I saw no problems with the box. When I pulled them out, the left amp speaker with the metal heat fins on the back showed some apparent slight damage and the speaker itself made a clunking noise when I turned it in my hands. Further inspection, I opened the back of the speaker, showed the component board inside had broken off and 'apparent' damage turned out to be extensive. Fedex apparently dropped the box on the heavy end side where the amp speaker was packed. These idiots ship it with minimal protection and the metal fins are less than one inch from the sidewall of the box(s). So..., when you dump it on that side the weight pushed the fins through both cardboard walls and when it hit cement, or whatever, it bent and scratched the fins and the pc board actually broke off inside. I was pissed!
AE does not! answer the phone, btw, but did return emails promptly, requesting I pack it all up..., and ship it back. The only good news is that once the return was on it's way so were my replacements. Their attitude is, "we ship thousands of these a year with no problem." My attitude from having been a shipper is, whoever designed the shipping practices needs to be fired. Plus, I think they like claiming the entire carton with the shipper. I told fedex to claim half. Fedex's attitude was, we saw no problem with the box-more idiots. On close inspection you can see the holes in the sidewall.
Next issue. The D1 I connected via a toslink cable: It shows up as an unknown device. I emailed them and now they want me to ship that back too, telling me they will replace it with one that IS recognized. Return label again! Long story short, I love their stuff. It is state of the art. Their shipping dept sucks imo and having to return both items because of their mistakes is fing retarded.
Just a heads up in case you buy from them.
AE does not! answer the phone, btw, but did return emails promptly, requesting I pack it all up..., and ship it back. The only good news is that once the return was on it's way so were my replacements. Their attitude is, "we ship thousands of these a year with no problem." My attitude from having been a shipper is, whoever designed the shipping practices needs to be fired. Plus, I think they like claiming the entire carton with the shipper. I told fedex to claim half. Fedex's attitude was, we saw no problem with the box-more idiots. On close inspection you can see the holes in the sidewall.
Next issue. The D1 I connected via a toslink cable: It shows up as an unknown device. I emailed them and now they want me to ship that back too, telling me they will replace it with one that IS recognized. Return label again! Long story short, I love their stuff. It is state of the art. Their shipping dept sucks imo and having to return both items because of their mistakes is fing retarded.
Just a heads up in case you buy from them.
