Experiences of a Naim newcomer

Hi Barry -

Sorry to hear about your US!  I do not own one, but the members here that do seem to really love them.  IMO, it is not surprising to see the occasional hard disk player/server (or network player) experience a problem early on in its life cycle.  That's because these types of audio components strongly resemble computers, and as such, the pattern in which they have problems also resembles that of computers.

A majority of failures occur soon after the component is put into service. But if a failure does not occur within the first month or so of running, the component will generally tend to remain trouble-free over its operating lifetime. Then, once it reaches a certain age, it will begin to wear out, and the failure rate will increase. In the computer world, this is called a "bathtub curve", with the right-hand portion of the curve having a more gradual slope (because wearing out takes time).

The only way to reduce the number of early life failures that customers see is for manufacturers to burn in components for longer periods of time before shipping them.

ATB.

Hook

PS - I hope you won't mind a couple of comments on your specific situation.  Now that Naim is aware of your expectations, I am sure your US will be replaced as quickly as possible. Anything is possible, and Naim may have dropped the ball. But if that is what happened here, it would be a very rare occurrence! Naim's reputation for service excellence is well-deserved, and you can read countless instances of them going above and beyond the call by searching the forum archives. 

Instead, given the apparent lack of communication from your dealer back to you, doesn't it make you question how well your dealer communicated with Naim?  It is your dealer's responsibility to represent your interests back to Naim, and to make sure your problems get fixed quickly.  I too would have been extremely disappointed if I had not heard anything from my dealer in ten days!  Minimally, I would have expected a call within a day or so, explaining how long the replacement would take.  I think you were right to bypass your dealer and call Naim directly, otherwise, who knows how long you would have continued to wait.  You may never hear the full story, but if it were me, I would tell your dealer he is on probation, and I would remind him that he not the only purchasing option you have.

Hi Barry,

As a matter of interest, I assume you did try the manual eject mechanism, accessed  through the pinhole on the front of the unitiserve.

I bought a Unitiserve soon after its launch, and had to return it to Salisbury when a CD got stuck inside. It turned out that the CD had a paper insert stuck to the top of the CD, something I always checked for afterwards. When Naim returned the Unitiserve to me (within 10 days) , they upgraded the unitiserve to incorporate the manual eject facility.

I assumed that this would solve any future problem. 

Incidentally I have ripped just under 3000 CD's and this was the only occasion that I had this problem.

Gerry

Barry, I'd say that yes it was unfortunate that you got a 'rogue' of a Serve.  Mine has been flawless, but I hesitate to draw sweeping conclusions from either of our experiences in isolation.

I'm in the States, and our dealers do not have a direct relationship with Naim, but rather with the in-country exclusive distributor.  But the distributor has a good reputation, and for service we are blessed to have some ex-pat. Brits running a little business, in the middle of the country, that is fully endorsed by both the distributor and Naim UK

The saga of my Unitiserve continues. I contacted Naim today to find out when I could expect to receive my replacement. They informed me that it would be with the dealer tomorrow although I had expressly asked for it to be couriered to me direct. I now have a 60 mile round trip to collect it and my dealer has been next to useless during this whole episode. I am pleased that others seem to have had far better service from Naim but I am now one totally hacked off customer.

Maybe time for a new dealer?

I have had some ups and downs with Naim service, the UPs tended to be with one dealer and the DOWNs tended to be with another.

A good dealer interfacing between you and the factory is essential. I would feel that the dealer should bring the replacement to you.

Naim tend to be hands off where dealers are concerned and let (expect) them to do a certain amount. Although I understand why you don't buy a dog and bark yourself I do think Naim could be a little bit more proactive.

SJB

Barry 

I would be very disappointed too if I experienced what you described. I once had a non-Naim radio that stopped working and felt really annoyed as the manufacturer appeared to do nothing - turned out the dealer I used at the time had forgotten to tell them and as soon as they found out they sprung in to action and sent me a replacement.

If Naim didn't know then they could not help you. However, I'm unsure why the dealer didn't loan you at least a CD transport to play through your SuperUniti while the US was away. The dealer I use now would have definitely offered to help. Whilst I can understand Naim sending it to you through the dealer I have no idea why the dealer could not arrange to courier it on to you. 

My thoughts are you have had a very bad experience with your dealer. I'd avoid chains and go to a specialist dealer. 

My hope is when your US is back it has all your music on it and sounds wonderful through your SuperUniti ... I feed a UQ from a Vortexbox and that sounds great ... so your set-up should sound even better. 

All the best, Guy 

Barry,

Sorry to hear of your problems. I believe it is Naim's policy not to send direct to customers but, as Guy mentioned above, one would have expected your dealer to send it, or deliver it to you. My dealer lives about 50miles away but thinks nothing of driving any new kit directly to my door and installing it. Similarly if I have a problem he is always available. IMO it is important to establish a close relationship with a dealer. Naim expect a high level of service from their dealers to the customer but, as in other aspects of life, some are considerably better than others. What part of the country do you live?

ATB

Steve 

Barry,

Sometime stuff happens, which is forgivable. Failing to hop-to-it is adress such happings is less so. It seems to me that there may be an issue with your dealer, rather than Naim. Naim won't know the kit is faulty unless the dealer tells them.

The city I live in has neither Naim nor Linn dealer. (It does have two Premier League teams though). My Naim dealer travels miles to facilitate home demos for me and to make sure everything works correctly. On the one occassion there was an issue with a new box (which was not to the dealers satisfaction, I thought it was OK) it did not make it into my system. A substitue was provided until all was sorted out by Naim. This took 5 days in total. I was not inconvenienced other than having two visits in a week.

Similarly, my Linn dealer travels long distances to set up/work on my LP12. When the on/off/33/45 switch for my Radikal failed after one week, he turned up with a new, fully boxed Radikal. The switches were changed, the motor was changed and the Radikal itself was swapped (despite the problem being the switch on the top plate). This all took hours and involved major surgery. The original kit all went back to Linn. 

In short, I would be very reluctant to make the kind of "investments" in my kit that I have made if I had no confidence in the dealer. At times I am almost embarrassed at the level of service provided by my dealers, as a matter of course. I don't ask for this level of service; this is what they provide. This is also one of the reasons I don't begrudge the ticket price of the kit; I am sure that there will be a rapid and effective kit should something go wrong.

I would expect that your dealer would deliver, install and do the mother-of-all-idiot-checks to your U/S in the light of your experience. Anything less and he should realise that you, the high value coustomer, are almost guaranteed to take your business elsewhere. Failing to even lend you a CD player is a faux pas of the highest order. 

Good point osprey.

Might be worth a letter of complaint to naim head office about the poor service received from one of their authorised agents.

How else will naim know how their agents are performing?

Remember this is only in the UK (and perhaps a few other countries).  Here in the States, as in some other countries, dealers have a direct business relationship with the exclusive in-country distributor who selects dealers, not Naim themselves. 

In the end it IS a problem for Naim, but if we go back up the chain and one employee of the dealership "dropped the ball" and did not communicate with Naim quickly enough, or in the right way, I would have a hard time faulting Naim.  All of us in business are responsible for whatever havoc our employees cause while we are away and letting them mind the shop.  Not an excuse -- just a reality of life   Hopefully my customers know when it's truly my fault and when it's not.

Good point Bart.

For somejust son I just assumed Barry was uk based?

I can't disagree either.  It's a tough business sometimes!

The first naim dealer I went to for a demo of the 200/202 combo was at the shop, it went ok but it seemed to me that they did not seem that interested and left me to it, on the basis of this trial I was impressed but asked for a home demo, that was fine they said, took my address and finalised a date for delivery. A couple of days before the home demo I got a call from the dealer, telling me that the units will arrive by courier and that it will cost me £50, I said no way and we came to a compromise of £25 each, I still thought this odd but went with it any way. The home demo went well and I purchased the units, I also needed a phono stage and having not much money left, purchased a nad pp2 from the same dealer, he said that it will all be with me within a week. 2 weeks later and nothing so I phoned the dealer who again seemed disinterested, said that the naim kit will arrive this next week, I asked about the nad pp2, That will be later he said and gave some lame excuse, at this point he had all the money and I had nothing in return so I told him to effing cancel the order and that i was sick of his arrogant attitude, to which his demeanor changed and he begged me not to cancel, it made me sick the way he was squirming on the phone so I kept the order and got the amps within 2 days. The whole affair left a bad taste in my mouth for ages and I swore never to go back there again. I have since found a dealer nearer to me who will bend over backwards to help, I have purchased a CDX2 from there and have regular contact with them. I am absolutely delighted with the service they give and with the CDX2.

This forum is full of evidence that Naim dealers vary widely from excellent to rubbish. The problem is that they all charge the same price and you often don't know who is poor until it is too late. 

The point made above that Naim should be as picky with selecting dealers as they are with components is spot on. The trouble is that Naim don't seem to care.

I complained face to face with a Naim employee at the Bristol Show about a particular dealer's inability to provide basic support and this was clearly not news to him but he showed no sign of doing anything about it apart from offering to help me out direct himself. That's very kind of him but doesn't really solve the underlying problem and I believe is a policy that is doing Naim real damage as the OP's experience demonstrates.

Pev, I've no doubt you're right, but it's hardly difficult to look at this forum and elsewhere and find out the names of a number of dealers who are universally found to provide excellent service. If you go elsewhere and the initial contact is not encouraging, then caveat emptor must surely apply...

For any manufacturer of pretty much anything requiring a dealer network, the quality of individual dealers will vary. A complicating factor here in the US is that it is hard to fire an underperforming dealer.  The contracts almost always say that they can be terminated at will, but state laws protect small business people, who may have a very large percentage of their entire trade tied up with one brand.

Have seen this happen a few times in the IT world, where a so-called Value Added Reseller didn't (add value that is).  From initial warning to final termination of contracts took over two years.  If it had gone to arbitration, or to the courts, the timeframe would have at least doubled.

IMHO, the best we can do is to post our positive experiences, and hope that new buyers are influenced by them.

Hook

I find very educating to read the kind of impressive service some dealers are able to provide, in the UK notably.

I used to have a good dealer who had hired a good salesman/technician. Yet, home demo were only rare exceptions, and the dealer would certainely not bring and install the gear himself for such a demo (but would, of course, for newly bought equipment). Both people were of the Naim/Linn school of thought, what I would call the "engineers" generation.

Sadly the dealer passed away, and his colleague retired. The new shop manager is of the "businessmen" generation, and let's just say I'm not delighted. Where you had an open shop where you could pass by to say hello and lend an ear to new products (not that I did that frequently) or chat about jazz or sailing, you now have a reception desk with no access to the rest of the shop and demos are "strictly by appointment" [sic]. Honestly, I'm not even positive the guy loves music...

I wandered around a bit to get to know the other dealers (there are very few here), and was, to say the least, not impressed. One had his flagship demo system set up in a very peculiar way: the 250.2 would lie directly over the 282, and he managed to make this CDS3/555PS-fronted system sound absolutely terrible (a whole lot worse than my CD5-fronted own, in any case).

He is...

Phil

I finally got my replacement Unitiserve today - nearly 3 weeks after taking the original back to my dealer. It is, grow ever, interesting to see all the dealer's progress reports as on this occasion I think the faults, problems and delays lay largely at Naim' s door. Sorry to disappoint all you Naim enthusiasts. So while I think my dealer could have communicated more effectively with me and done more to chase Naim, it is clear to me that they gave very explicit instructions to Naim regarding replacement of my server while Naim were going down a repair route for reasons best known to them. I have picked up vibes suggesting that Naim is not currently living up to its reputation for excellent quality service not least because of changes to key personnel. I am also disappointed that they totally ignored my explicit request for the replacement to be sent direct to me without informing me it was being sent to the retailer. On the plus side the true placement server has all my music transferred from the original Unitiserve and seems to be working ok. I am, however, nervously waiting for every disc I rip to safely eject! Just waiting for another to jam. Think I'll be a nervous wreck by the time I have ripped all my CDs.

Barry I am pleased you now have your music back and I am really sorry the experience has really let you down, I will look into this ASAP to see what happened and what we might learn from this, as for your suggestion about changes in key staff apart from our fabulous Sheila retiring sometime ago we have a very experienced team with many years of service .