Ok, hold on to your hat...

Last but one order:
Was "lost" prior to leaving the where house and after contacting customer service, they point blank refused to do any thing about it until after 14 working days. At this point it was considered lost and could be reissued. This included not contacting the where house and finding out what the problem was!

Last order.
I ordered a Bass Pod Pro, a Focusrite Platinum Voice master pro and a digital converter / patch bay by a company called ST Audio (1600 dam bucks, not a small order !).
Anyway the stuff got here in record time...cool

I get it home and the bass pod and the Focusrite are tip top. However the STAudio digital patch bay is defective. SO I get on to customer service and say, “hey guys you have sent me a lemon” and they give me a return authorization number and tell me to return it. Upon receipt they will send me out an exchange, no problem.

Well 15 buck shipping later (on Sat) I get the unit sent off to Kansas and I get an email (Tues) saying they got it and they are shipping me a new one (a blatant lie). I get the “new" one which is scratched and missing a power supply as well as defective the following Friday. So, I get on the horn and say "hey any chance of sending me a power supply" as at this stage I naively presumed the unit was fully functional. Anyway later on that evening I find a suitable (alternative) power supply (thanks Billy), power the beast up and guess what, it is shagged! I, at this point resort to reading the manual and after performing a few more diagnostics ascertain that sure as little apples the unit is shagged, dead as the proverbial Norwegian blue parrot!

So, another 15 bucks shipping (following sat) and another phone call to Musicians friend (Fri) and I have another return authorization number and I have told then not to ship me the power supply as per our last conversation. I now have my doubts about STAudio (AKA Hoontech) and I’m asking Musicians friend to, instead of doing a straight exchange, send me another type of patch bay made by M-audio. And this is where the fun begins.

Last time I shipped the return to Kansas on Sat and it was there Tues with an email confirming they had it. (I also had written in big clear letters on the return slip NOT to do a direct exchange for another STAudio digipatch but to send me a cheaper M-audio model as per the phone call the previous Friday).

Well, Tues, nothing, wed nothing, Thurs, I phone then ...no they have no record of receiving it. Fri, nothing. Mon yes they have got it at their where house but they cant do anything because it is missing a power supply ! I still haven’t lost my temper at this stage, so I carefully explain that the situation and they say they will look into it. The following fri I still haven’t heard a dickey bird so I phone then up to discover they are about to send me another STAudio digipatch which I carefully explain to them is WRONG ! The people at customer service also acknowledge this is wrong, which is good !

In the meantime I have discovered that I don’t need the sample rate conversion and a 39 buck video switching box from radioshck will do the job...hoorah! So, give me a refund please and also a refund for the shipping ! OK says an embarrassed voice a week ago Friday before last, it will be in your bank account on Monday or Tuesday. Fat bloody chance ! I phoned them last Friday to find out where the money was and... No one knew… but it should be deposited next Monday or Tuesday! I wait with bated breath!

So this is not the kind of shenanigans you want do be dealing with via international phone calls !

I have had bother with other on line music stores, (zzsounds.com, Music123). My currently my favorite is 8thstreetmusic.com in Philly. They are often out of stuff but at least they behave in a reasonably intelligent fashion. If only they carried Line 6 !

I eventually got the refund for the unit (400 USD) two months late. I did not however manage to get my shipping reimbursed. I'm never having anything to do with ST Audio, Musicians friend (there is an oxymoron if ever I have heard one) or Hoontech ever again. Be-where folks they are idiots !

[Edited by Dr_simon on 10-31-2003 at 04:44 PM]