Triode Electronics: heads up

[MooreCowbelle]

Hey, I just read a disturbing thread over at AX84 that you guys might be interested in:

http://ax84.com/bbs/dm2.php?id=204153

Looks like there may have been a change in management at the company, and a few folks are starting to report bad experiences with the new organization.

[twangbanger]

That is too bad. I haven't bought from them in a long time but had a good experience then. Also noticed the comment about handwound trans inc. and was totally ripped off by that f#%^ing liar! Beware of them they took me for $79.00 and never delivered the trans but kept lying about shipping them, also paypal was totally worthless in helping me recover my money.
Oh well, live and learn!
Rob

[KT77]

mojotone seriously sometimes has their heads up their @$$, too......everytime I call there, I get someone totally clueless......still waiting for parts ordered 2mo ago

BUT, this seems to be a trend in american businees culture these daze...dumbdown the help so you can lower payroll so you can pay for the yacht you just put on credit..........

i swear, the 80's biz culture is making a comeback.......

anyone seen the keys to my 'vette?

[novemberrain]

BUT, this seems to be a trend in american businees culture these daze...dumbdown the help so you can lower payroll so you can pay for the yacht you just put on credit..........

Look, I can't speak for Triode Electronics but I can speak for "American Business Culture"... the Laws of Economic Physics are such that you do in fact get what you pay for.

IF a business has to chase an ever more elusive buck the way to catch up to that buck, just for a moment, is to reduce prices. Reduce your prices ya gotta reduce your cost, reduce yer cost ya gotta reduce yer quality. QUALITY may not mean that you reduce the quality of your product if the quality of your product is more or less fixed, it may mean you have to reduce the quality of your SERVICE.

Further discussion is of course political and we don't talk politics here any more!

[dartanion]

I think you are bound to have good and bad experiences all the time regardless of who you are dealing with. With that said, there has been an ever increasing level of ineptitude infecting US businesses in the past few years.

Couple of examples:

Had DSL problems a couple of years ago. Called SBC and went through the automated calling system and supposedly made an appointment for repair 2 days later. No one showed up. Called and exhausted every menu option and got nowhere, but did schedule another appointment with the same result. I got pissed off and scheduled like 10 appointments. Still no one. Went to their website and found some troubleshooting info, however it was worthless since the phone junction box on the house was 1945 vintage and wouldn't work with the troubleshooting tests. Finally I found an email address and scheduled an appointment that way. Now a repairman shows up and replaced the j-box and the line from the street and everything worked great. Asked the guy about the phone system and he said it is always wacked and he gets notification of appointments 2 weeks after their scheduled time. He also said to not push any buttons on your phone for menu choices and the system will think you have a rotary phone a kick you to an operator. That was his suggested best method for scheduling a repair visit.


We do our banking at Wells Fargo and they had some nice interest rates for savings accounts with high balances. We switched to this new account type and the interest rate was never right. A dozen or so visits more and 2 other account switches and they still couldn't get it right. So we call the customer service number and speak to a rep. Low and behold they recommend to call them directly for any transactions like this in the future as the branch employees are not the brightest bulbs on the tree (no offense to any who works at WF).


What ever happened to the concept of quality?

[novemberrain]

What ever happened to the concept of quality?

It got sold out like every other goddam thing by dickhead CEOs with MBAs.

MBA, doncha know, stands for "Master of Black Arts"!

[dartanion]

BUT, this seems to be a trend in american businees culture these daze...dumbdown the help so you can lower payroll so you can pay for the yacht you just put on credit..........

Look, I can't speak for Triode Electronics but I can speak for "American Business Culture"... the Laws of Economic Physics are such that you do in fact get what you pay for.

IF a business has to chase an ever more elusive buck the way to catch up to that buck, just for a moment, is to reduce prices. Reduce your prices ya gotta reduce your cost, reduce yer cost ya gotta reduce yer quality. QUALITY may not mean that you reduce the quality of your product if the quality of your product is more or less fixed, it may mean you have to reduce the quality of your SERVICE.

Further discussion is of course political and we don't talk politics here any more!

I agree that businesses do have to make money, however a lot of what KT77 stated is true. I have worked for and watched from a distance businesses that are not profitable pay their top brass huge bonuses, while the worker bees get a pitance or nothing for a bonus or no raise. As well, the big move these companies usually make is to downsize to be more competitive. What jobs usually get slashed? Those at the bottom. Now the company may have solved short term cash flow, but didn't really help the business, only the bottom line. These improvements in bottom line make the brass look good, and they get more large bonuses for taking folks who are barely making a living wage and eliminating their jobs. Just once I'd like to see a CEO refuse a bonus when their company is losing money, or possibly save some jobs. Not likely to happen these days.

[KT77]

dart..I had the very same experience w/ WF.....but since our mortgage is thru them...I threaten to move it to BofA or Wash Mutual.......and always call them for transactions etc..

but back to original gripe.....I think that our culture is promoting a certain amount of laziness..uh..er...I mean 'leisure'...which is why my kids won't work for McDonald's or deliver pizzas....their response' they don't pay much and it's hard work'

Now, I'm a subscriber of the 'parenting by example' school, and I bust my @$$ at just about everything I do.....but their friends don't have part time jobs and their parent's buy them cars....and I can't compete w/ that...

so my kids put two and two together...and say, 'how come you don't buy me a car?'...meanwhile, an inept non-english speaking person is doing the things I used to do to get money to buy a car.......and they never get my order right.....i'm babbling...but I think I made my point

it's not the entire problem, but it's a big contributing factor......

ahhh, now I got to go lay off a few people...my boat payment is due......

[ur12]

Just once I'd like to see a CEO refuse a bonus when their company is losing money, or possibly save some jobs. Not likely to happen these days.

First just let me say that the present CEO of our company refused to take his 3 mil bonus for bringing our company out of bankruptcy. The union turned down a contract 3 times and told the company it would keep turning down a contract unless these bonuses stopped. I am a salaried employee and after the downsizing we have 1/2 the staff left to do the same amount of work if not more. Suffice to say our quality of service is'nt what it use to be. Our Pension plan was frozen and turned over to the PBGC. There will be a lot more to follow as long as our goverment keeps letting this happen. (Catch the news lately?)

My wife and I just closed a restaurant business we ran for 3 years. The taxes imposed are an enormous burden on small businesses.

I have only had one order with Mojo and they were great. I placed an order while a huricane was bearing down on NC and if they could have gotten the brown truck to come pick it up it would have went out the same day. I even called them back the next day just to make sure thay had survived the storm.

Some of the smaller suppliers that we deal with also have to wait on poor service and back orders from their manufacturers and suppliers. Being up front with customers about out of stock items and delays is just good business. The days of carrying hugh amounts of stock is long gone. No one can afford to do that in today's economy. I don't want to start a war, but IMHO I don't think there is any work ethic left or instilled in our younger generations and it is our fault for letting it happen. The 90s seem to have been all about the "I got mine club"

Technology is great too. The banks all install teller machines to replace people and so they can continue to keep their bankers hours. They are saving money putting these things in and then turn around and charge us for each transaction to use them. Same way with credit cards. You get charged interest and the bank charges the business up to 4 % for the privilidge of taking the cards. (Lets make money both ways) I ordered checks 2 weeks ago by phoning our bank. After 10 days and no checks I called them back to learn that our order was never placed. Now I'm in the middle of Christmas shopping and have no checks. Of course they seem to care less about MY problem.

I won't even mention the theiven bastard oil companys. $770 Billion in proffit for one quarter is rediculous and price gouging in anyone's book (Except our goverment's)

I think we have been brainwashed and everyone wants everything now. Fast food, fast service, drive through everthing, overnight shipping. Even the kids complain when it takes longer than 30 sec to heat up things in a microwave. Try firing up the oven and waiting 1/2 hour for your pot pie to be ready like the good ole days.

Of course I know I am preaching to the choir, after all, we're the guys who have to wait for our tubes to warm up.

Just my 2 cents!!

[tubetwang]

I've always had good business with Uncle Ned.
He's been good to me.

Glad to know..i was abour to order some trannies...

And yes...tax the rich companies...NOT the small start-ups...

[dartanion]

Dana,

Right on brother! Glad your company has a stand up CEO. Kudos!

I see much of what you're talking about everyday. Where I live, I think we're (wife included here) the only people who take care of our own lawn. It just amazes me. Who mows these people's lawns? Immigrant workers. When I was a kid, I had to do a laundry list of chores to get my allowance. One of these chores was mowing the lawn...4.5 acres!!! How many folks can get their kids to mow the lawn these days?

When I was old enough to get a job, I got 3 jobs. I delivered pizzas, worked at a pet store, and cleaned office buildings. My parents gave me the incentive of every $ I put away for school from my jobs, they would match it. This paid for 3 out 5 years of college. Not bad eh. It's about time today's youth show some hustle. Work the crappy jobs when you're young. It's a great learning experience and you'll make some coin while doing it.

I also remember a day when a home cooked meal was actually made from scratch. Now it's instant everything full of preservatives and whatnot, and usually devoid of any nutritional value.

[MooreCowbelle]

Just an update: looks like things have gone from bad to worse. The owner (Jim) and a key ex-employee (Ned) have been flaming away at each other on the AX84 thread!

That doesn't bode well.

[BBQLS1]

BUT, this seems to be a trend in american businees culture these daze...dumbdown the help so you can lower payroll so you can pay for the yacht you just put on credit..........

Look, I can't speak for Triode Electronics but I can speak for "American Business Culture"... the Laws of Economic Physics are such that you do in fact get what you pay for.

IF a business has to chase an ever more elusive buck the way to catch up to that buck, just for a moment, is to reduce prices. Reduce your prices ya gotta reduce your cost, reduce yer cost ya gotta reduce yer quality. QUALITY may not mean that you reduce the quality of your product if the quality of your product is more or less fixed, it may mean you have to reduce the quality of your SERVICE.

Further discussion is of course political and we don't talk politics here any more!

I agree that businesses do have to make money, however a lot of what KT77 stated is true. I have worked for and watched from a distance businesses that are not profitable pay their top brass huge bonuses, while the worker bees get a pitance or nothing for a bonus or no raise. As well, the big move these companies usually make is to downsize to be more competitive. What jobs usually get slashed? Those at the bottom. Now the company may have solved short term cash flow, but didn't really help the business, only the bottom line. These improvements in bottom line make the brass look good, and they get more large bonuses for taking folks who are barely making a living wage and eliminating their jobs. Just once I'd like to see a CEO refuse a bonus when their company is losing money, or possibly save some jobs. Not likely to happen these days.

General Motors?

[rjgtr]

And yes...tax the rich companies...NOT the small start-ups...

I say tax everyone the same percentage (15%?), no deductions. If you make more you pay more, but you don't have to deal with the twisted tax brackets that punish achievement.

[tubetwang]

I'll second that...fair enough...when should we start?

[bitsandvolts]

Bad Customer Service can be a dangerous thing...I'm living a nightmare right now...and a good bit of it is bad customer service related:

**************

Last spring, we started smelling gas around the house....in the basement and first floor. I immediately call up the gas company and they send out some guys to search for a gas leak. They tightened a few pipes here or there but largely tell me nothings wrong...I keep smelling the same thing, so I have the utility out 2 more times that spring. Same result...no joy.

The smell went away during the warmer months, so I assume the problem was resolved at the last gas co. visit.

Fast forward to this past winter. The smell comes back....this time, seemingly worse. I get the gas company in on two seperate events...and on the second visit they finally discover the problem. Turns out, I've got CO (carbon monoxide) and exhaust gases spilling from my furnace at the point of entry into the furnace flue.

What had me mildly horrified is that it took 5 visits over the course of 9 months for the gas company to determine the problem. Talk about people that don't know what they're doing!


Anyway, the story gets better:


Last spring, I had a chimney liner installed. My chimney company informed me that my clay liner was failing and I needed to get a steel liner in there. Eventually I cave, and have them install the liner. Now this liner was installed in march, during a rather warm spell...so I was never able to make the mental connection that the liner was responsible.....until 2 weeks ago, when the last gas company employee pointed out that the furnace was not venting adequately.

I get the chimney company to come back and fix the problem. They arrive, identify a problem with the original installation and fix it. It takes them 2 hours. Later that evening, the furnace kicks in and the whole house fills with the smell of exhaust. At this point, the carbon monoxide alarm on the first floor of my house start sscreaming.

Turns out, the idiot from the chimney company that came to "fix" my problem, created a far more serious one in the process......it took 2 additional gas company visits and 3 additional chimney company visit to rectify that problem.

So finally, I think everything's A-OK....they leave and I wait 4-5 hours for the chimney cement to dry....I go downstairs, fire up the furnace and stand back and wait....within 2-3 minutes, I get hit with a wave of furnace exhaust just as bad as the initial problem!!!!



So this morning, I get the chimney company back here...the owner is here this time...and he determines that the original chimney liner that was installed back in march of last year, was in fact the wrong size liner and I would have to give him another $1200 to install the correct sized liner.


Needless to say, I went postal on him. After cooling down from my thermonuclear explossion the guy aquiesed and offered to install the new liner free of charge.


So in the end, 5 gas utility employees (all trained to troubleshoot furnace problems) and 10 chimney company employees (they work in teams of 2) couldn't solve or even troubleshoot my problem.


Incompetent employees are plaguing every business in this country! In my case, my family's health was put at risk due to such incompetance.


I do agree to a certain extent that employers are not willing to pay people what they are worth....but I also feel there is another factor here that should be considered.

In the US, I feel society is declining. We were at our peek between WWII and the late 60s. Sure the 60s were good for something, but the quality of human being in this country has declined severely. My father's generation and his father's generation were thorough people. They did a job right the first time, no matter how long it took. Today, you can have someone come to you house to service something 10 times before it's fixed....largely because the kid is lazy or worse, distracted because it's close to quitting time. My friend is a professor of computer science and he often comments on the fact that the quality of student has declined in only the past 5 years he has been an instructor.

Today, to protect yourself, you really need to be well versed at everything and be prepared to do every job you can, yourself....so that you are not at the mercy of incompetance.

Since this chimney problem had started, I had desperately educated myself with as much HVAC information as I could...hopefully, I'll be able to catch any of their errors when they come in this weekend to replace my liner....

[phsyconoodler]

I am living in Canada and we have similar problems.I don't have problems getting parts as long as they are Canadian made parts.As soon as I order cross-border stuff,all bets are off.i ordered a couple of things from Weber VST and it took almost 4weeks to get here.I inquired at Weber and he gave me the shipping date.The problem was at Canadian customs.they sit on their asses and maybe they'll open a package and check to see if it's a bomb or something and take 3 weeks to look at it before finally letting it through.Are they over worked?Hardly! Every trip I make to the customs warehouse sees people standing around.
We in Canada are trying to punt the Federal Government ,who's answer to all problems is to raise our taxes.We get taxed on everything.My wage has gone up quite a bit since 10 yrs ago and my takehome pay is less.
I could only wish we had the same tax structure as the US.Compared to Canada's taxes,you guys are in heaven.We have our share of lazy youth that pass up getting paid 8-9.00 hr to work at fast food places like Dairy Queen and Mcdonalds.Our service industry is just as bad too.
This thread is why we build our own amps.Mass produced amps these days are junk.As long as you don't move it or play it too loud,it will be fine.When we get poor service from a supplier,we have every right to roast him on these forums.Maybe they'll take the hint that we aren't going to put up with it anymore.
(pretty cool how I returned to the content of the thread at the last second,huh?)

[Jeph]

This isn't amp related, or life threatening (terrible story BnV!) but at the time I went through this with Amazon.com, it was quite frustrating. It might make a good read if your bored at work

http://www.webphix.com/amazon.html

[rjgtr]

I'll second that...fair enough...when should we start?

As soon as the power hungry Washington politicians allow it - so unfortunately never. Their power is based in modifying the tax code to their own advantage.

As for customer service - it does still exist in the USA. There's a lot of large and small companies kicking butt every day providing great service. The problem is, there are also a lot of others who don't. Even in fast food it is now common to have problems. For the small companies, their demise if usually quick and not too painful. It takes a lot longer for the larger companies.

I think Harvard MBA thinking has changed many corporations from being focused on their product and customers to being focused solely on the bottom line. Every company needs to make money to survive and what's the point without a profit? But pride in work is not encouraged as much in this climate.

[ajkimba]

Take this with a grain of salt.


WE NEED A NEW GOP


Picking between the two is like shopping in a store for soda where you have either Coke or Pepsi....what's the difference....one's a little sweeter then the other.....where the hell is grape, lemon, cherry, orange.....etc ??