[Fred[_12_]]

"charles rollo" wrote in message ...

Rachel @ Grant Fidelity;915784 Wrote:
Some background information:

Where is Charles's Cyber 211 from? - according to Charles, it was
purchased from Opera in China by Charles' cousin (some important
businessman with great relationship with Chinese government. He was
treated like royalty at Opera - as per Charles) about 3-4 years ago. It
was not purchased in USA. Opera even paid for shipping for Charles'
cousin to send amp to USA. To date, I have never seen a sales receipt
from Charles yet. I asked Opera if they recall such a sale -
unfortunately they don't. There are many expats in Beijing who purchase
high end audio from Opera throughout years - one important businessman
with great relationship with Chinese government didn't get registered
with Opera significantly.

Here are some correspondence and dealings between Charles and Grant
Fidelity:

Oct 20, 2009 - Phone call from Charles - "I urgently need a pair of TJ
211 for my coming audio society meeting because my other 211's failed.
Please send it by UPS 3-day arrival."

Oct 28, 2009 - email from Charles - "thank you for your prompt
shipping... I want to change my Cyber 211 's cap from Auri to V-cap,
need to know the direction"

Oct 30, 2009 - email from Charles - "love the 211's... I need technical
advice on installation of caps for my Cyber 211" (note the sequence here
- tubes were used on the amp first, then the amp was modified)

Oct 30, 2009 - Grant Fidelity provided technical support by contacting
Opera Consonance.

May 18, 2010 - Note this is about 7 months after the Oct 2009 tube
purchase, email from Charles: "I don't see TJ mesh plate 211 on your
website, why?" (note: Charles is referring the Carbon plate TJ 211 tubes
as mesh plate here). Grant Fidelity responded: shipping damage for these
large tubes are too costly for us and due to high factory cost, we had
to discontinue them.

May 19th, 2010: email from Charles: "Hard to believe actually... their
other tubes seem to ship well. The tube has been pulled from the manfs'
web site." - Grant Fidelity responded with the TJ Full Music website
link - TJ Full Music 211 tube was listed there all the time.

Charles further comments "an extra charge for a one year guarantee tells
me something was up. At $500 a pair this should not be." - (my comments:
- Does Charles shop at Best Buy at all? Extra charge for extended
warranty is abnormal??? Plus which tube vendor is providing one year
warranty for free??

Charles further said "Now for me it could have been the tube that
caiused the trannie meltdown."

May 26th, 2010: email from Charles: "What I need to know is how much
money does Consonance want for two power trannies and two output
trannies. Then I can make an economic decision. It has already cost me
money to repair the power caps that blew up previously.... The tube did
not short or fail. It played in the other amp for 5 minutes with zero
problem. Rachel, lets keep this simple.The price will determine my final
reaction. Actually I feel there should be no charge for the trannies,
just shipping. However I do not want to dispute anything at this time.
So if the price is fair [ OEM or less] we will have zero issues.

May 27th, 2010: Grant Fidelity provided quote for transformers to
Charles.

May 29th, 2010: email from Charles - "price (for transformers) are fair
and appreciated. please proceed with order" but no payment received.

May 31, 2010: email from Charles - "I didn't get the same Cyber 211 amp
as what was reviewed by enjoythemusic.com in 2005 - the factory was
misleading" - Grant Fidelity explained Chinese manufacturers reserve the
right to make changes on certain parts based on availability etc or
design change without notice. This is common on many North American or
European brands too. (note: the amp was bought in China not by Charles
himself. We don't know how the transaction was done and what
communication was carried out about what type of parts or version was
purchased. Typically Chinese manufacturers use less expensive parts for
products sold in China. Plus, it appears that Charles would like to file
a claim with Opera after 3-4 years of his indirect purchase with Opera -
strange and too late)

June 1st - June 4th: various phone calls from Charles - "I know lots of
people in the industry in North America. I can make your business fail
if I want... Opera should provide the transformers free of charge.."
Grant Fidelity comment - "the transaction was done in China without our
involvement. We cannot make decision on behalf of Opera but will let
them know your demand"

June 5th: email from Charles: "So your telling me that since I did not
buy it from you but from the company you represent I must must deal
directly with them. Is that not why you came into the picture? - (my
comment: Grant Fidelity didn't come into the picture - it's Charles
after sending emails making probably unreasonable demand but receive no
answer from Opera, came to us to ask for help and we offered to help.
Grant Fidelity is not liable for anything Charles have about his
indirect purchase in China at least 3 years ago bypassing then USA
distributor).

June 5th, 2010: Grant Fidelity - discussed with Opera on the issue and
suggested Opera and Charles split the cost of the two sets of
transformers (note: it's not just for one monoblock, it's for both
channel. Charles' communication with Grant Fidelity has led us to
believe both channel were blown and melted.

June 19th, 2010: Opera agreed to provide all transformers at 1/2 price
as an one time exception to help out with the situation. It's not their
warranty but they will help out due to high repair cost claimed by
Charles.

July 15th, 2010: Grant Fidelity advised Charles that all replacement
transformers were sent out from China by FedEx to Charles. same day
email from Charles: "The only creveat may be the TJ 211. It appears the
tube was the culprit. Too much voltage and a short. I had about 150
hours on the tube . I will know the outcome when the repair is complete"
(my comments: it appears very convenient to start attack TJ Full Music
now when Opera has bent backwards to provide the transformers for next
to nothing.)

July 23rd, 2010: email from Charles: "No way I will put the TJ back
until I know the condition. It worked for less than a month with low
hours on it. Not happy for $425/ pair. Secondly the cause for the
trannie failures. I know I purchased them a while ago when the amp was
down due to a power cap explosion." (note: Grant Fidelity received email
from Charles one week after his purchase confirming the tubes work
great.)

July 23rd, 2010: Grant Fidelity: our tube warranty is clearly stated on
the website and you didn't raise disagreement at your time of purchase.
It's 30 days from the purchase, not based on reported hours from
customer. Our warranty is backed by manufacturer's policy and we cannot
offer longer than manufacturer's warranty. Plus the sale was 9 months
ago.

July 26th, 2010: email from Charles: "Please rethink your position as a
Distributor NOT retailer. You have a lot to loose or gain." (note:
threat starts here....)

July 26th, 2010: Grant Fidelity replies: we are TJ Full Music tubes as
resellers and we don't sign up dealers for them in North America. TJ
Full Music distribute themselves worldwide. We worked free of charge to
help you out with the transformers (total 59 emails back and forth), our
goodwill has to stop now since you don't appreciate our efforts at all.
We also cannot refund your purchase after 9 months of time (original
purchase Oct 20th, 2009).

(to be continued in next post)

At least get your facts straight. The amp was purchased by my cousin
at the Opera showroom in Bejing. Period. opera did NOT pay for shipping.
My cousins shipping company decided not to charge him. The amp was
purchased for $1900 US in cash. Are you calling me a liar now ?
The reason I got the help from Opera is because they area stand up
company. Grant Fidelitys help was wonderfull as I posted on numerous
forums.
The tubes another issue. The tube no matter how long it sat on the
shelf before use should be a good tube. Yes, no ? The fact that it
shorted is the issue for me NOT the time frame of use.
Anyway this is now a dealer dispute with Amex. I will abide by their
decision. BTW Full Muusic does not respond to my emails after they
directed me to contact Grant fidelity. The ring around continues. Buyer
beware.
Threats no way just pointing out the obvious. Its called a small
world, word gets around .You be the judge. Never again. OH BTW Vintage
Tube Service offers a full money back guarantee on all NOS tubes sold.
If you are resellers than why do you state "Distributor " on your web
page ? I would think that any Manf. or distributor would want to help a
customer who had their amp burn up from using said product. Guess I'm
wrong. This is an unusual circumstance because of the time frame issue.

The amps were not modded therewas exact part swaps with better
resistors and caps. Kiwame, takman resistors and V-caps. All the same
values were used. No circuit mods at all. Just parts replacement. Geez.

charles




--
charles rollo


I've been in the audio business for around 40 years, Charles. I deal with
customers like you by showing them the door. You took some risks to save
money and when that backfired, you tried to make it someone else's problem.

If I was Grant and you hadn't bought your amp from us, about all the help I'd
have given you would have been to give you Opera's phone number in China.
That's if I didn't hang up on you first. Grant owes you exactly nothing there.

As far as the tubes go, you accepted the terms of their warranty when you
bought the tubes, you refused to pay for an extended warranty, and now you
want to make that their fault. Not happening, Charles. You got exactly what
you paid for.

Do you know why Chinese power tubes and tube amps have such a poor
reputation? Because they earned it. But you thought you were special
so none of that applied to you. You thought wrong.

You got stung because you asked for it, Charles. Time to grow up and
stop asking others to cover your bad bets.

Fred