Introducing myself
Posted by: Charlie Henderson on 23 November 2018
Good morning everyone!
I wanted to introduce myself to you all.
My name is Charlie Henderson, and I have just taken on one of the most exciting roles of my life, and a role that I feel privileged to hold, as the new Managing Director of Naim Audio.
I've been an admirer of Naim Audio since my teenage years (which is too many years ago now to think about!) and hold our obsession for producing the very finest in audio quality very close to my heart.
In a world where too many companies are busying themselves with dumbing down sound quality and compromising at every step, we continue to hold true to the values of our founder Julian Vereker all those years ago... that music should be heard as the artist intended. Not compromised, not fast tracked through like it is audio wallpaper, but appreciated like the joy that it is, a moment to stop, to reflect, to consider, to immerse yourself in the sheer delight of sound.
I've been with the team in Salisbury for the last couple of weeks, learning my way around, getting to meet the experts who make everything happen, and being able to see how the most stunning of audio equipment is produced, by hand and with absolute love, by the team here.
I look forward to getting to know, and to meet, many of you over the coming weeks, months and years.
Cheers
Charlie
As you mentioned, Charlie, that the NAIM support desk was a priority for you, I just thought I’d mention that the two calls I made for help (1 yesterday and the other today) got me excellent customer service. I was happy to get a quick solution to my problem in the first instance, and a clear explanation after a forensically focused conversation in the second.
I’ll save the names of your two staff for the email feedback, but I guess you must have hit the ground running...
Hi Charlie and congratulations on your new job.
I am glad that the Naim service department is a priority because quite simply it's not good enough. I've had my Unitiserve, 30 months old, languishing in the Naim repair loop for the last eight weeks, unfortunately my dealer hasn't been as fortunate as Mike1951 and has had no luck contacting them over the last few days let alone get an update.
I'm sure you will agree room for improvement.
Emailed customer support 8 days ago with a problem l was having with a 3week old bit of equipment,still no reply back,does the new MD rearlly think this is how to keep present and future customers happy?.
Hi Mike, thank you for your positive feedback!
Hi Glasnaim and Bob, thank you for flagging your issues. I've taken these and shared with the team so we can hopefully resolve quickly.
As I've said on here before this is an absolute priority for me and the team are working hard to improve customer service. Thanks to everyone for continuing to flag areas of concern
Charlie
Thankyou Charlie!.
Hi Charlie, it’s great to know a bit more about the new boss. You seems like a normal bloke (as normal as can be around here anyway)
Worked bloody hard for my expensive Naim system, please always bear that in mind
Charlie Henderson posted:Hi Mike, thank you for your positive feedback!
Hi Glasnaim and Bob, thank you for flagging your issues. I've taken these and shared with the team so we can hopefully resolve quickly.
As I've said on here before this is an absolute priority for me and the team are working hard to improve customer service. Thanks to everyone for continuing to flag areas of concern
Charlie
Thats good to hear. My dealer now has had a call from customer support, which is progress, thankyou. Unfortunately the first conversation was we have no record of this repair. Now this Unitiserve had been sitting in my dealer, at Naims request due to backlog/limited space, for a month from October 15th, sent as agreed to Naim 15th November. It was only after they searched around the factory they found it !
I think you have a big task to turn this around, it's a shambles. All I know the is cost for repair, which is unspecified, is £340, under warranty. My dealer expects it back next week. That has amounted to two months to do nothing, why?
Currently I have two Naim systems but unlike others on the forum I perhaps have less brand loyalty and any more experiences like this I'm off.
Malcolm.
Hi Charlie, still no reply to my email,now two & half weeks now,do you think that’s good enough ?.bob.
Hi Bob,
I've just checked with the team, are you able to share more details so they can isolate your case?
Thanks, Charlie
Hi again Charlie,unfortunately l deleated the number on there return email to say they have received my email,it was a query l had about my three week old ND555 loosening sound but the Naim radio is still on the screen lthink have to power down then power back up install the Naim app again then it seems okay,l have had to do this three times since l purchased the555,l mentioned it to my dealer he said keep an eye on it and he would be speaking to you about it.regards ,bob.
Charlie - A belated welcome from me too. I hope you have a nice break after what must have been a busy period for you.
I've just had cause to speak to Naim about a service history enquiry on a recently acquired XPS DR and had excellent service from Henry, the approach and attitude was typically what I would expect from Naim, he couldn't have been more helpful.
I would say that things do seem a bit stretched in that area though as I sent my enquiry by email and the reply took over 2 weeks which isn't as timely as I would like, but the quality of the assistance was spot on, as I have always found.
Hi Charlie
My final feedback on my Naim repair. After nearly 10 weeks the Unti Serve has made it back to my dealer, thank you for your intervention it has helped to "speed" things along.
The repair for £340 ? replacing a battery. You certainly have a lot of scope for improvement Charlie
Hi Glasnaim
Happy to hear that we managed to sort out your issue at last, and we are certainly looking at the way things are managed very closely now, so agreed, lots of room for improvement, and hopefully some baby steps already taking shape.
Charlie
Charlie Henderson posted:Hi Glasnaim
Happy to hear that we managed to sort out your issue at last, and we are certainly looking at the way things are managed very closely now, so agreed, lots of room for improvement, and hopefully some baby steps already taking shape.
Charlie
I hope you don't lose too many customers along the way Charlie who think that perhaps £340 is a bit steep for replacing a battery, I for one think that.
Malcolm.
Unbelieverble,that would make me never want to buy Naim ever again,what a liberty!.
Bob green posted:Unbelieverble,that would make me never want to buy Naim ever again,what a liberty!.
It has certainly got me thinking Bob, the Unitiserve certainly won't be coming home and will be traded, as for the rest of my Naim kit I think perhaps time for a change, expensive yes, but nobody likes to be done over.
Without wanting to look like I'm making excuses, to replace the battery on your unit involves a full disassembly and reassembly of the UnitiServe, as well as a full test before we return the unit. Sadly it's not an easy job to disassemble etc, hence the time involved. I can totally appreciate how it looks like a lot of £ for a new battery otherwise....
Charlie Henderson posted:Without wanting to look like I'm making excuses, to replace the battery on your unit involves a full disassembly and reassembly of the UnitiServe, as well as a full test before we return the unit. Sadly it's not an easy job to disassemble etc, hence the time involved. I can totally appreciate how it looks like a lot of £ for a new battery otherwise....
Charlie
Mark Bonner, your new Head of Technical Support, has had a bash at convincing me regarding the complexities of the repair, forgive me if I'm not convinced, the time logged against the repair I believe was 1 hour 15 minutes, so hardly brain surgery.
Malcolm.
Am I alone in thinking that Naim has never been about doing things to a price and having accountant's running the show. Rather it's about quality and accepting that this comes at a price. I'm not sure Glasnaim has quite got his head around this?
Sure the time taken isn't acceptable but the cost isn't that unreasonable - I'm assuming shipping and insurance were partly to blame.
What happened to the 5 year warranty?.
Svetty posted:Am I alone in thinking that Naim has never been about doing things to a price and having accountant's running the show. Rather it's about quality and accepting that this comes at a price. I'm not sure Glasnaim has quite got his head around this?
Sure the time taken isn't acceptable but the cost isn't that unreasonable - I'm assuming shipping and insurance were partly to blame.
Is quality taking nearly 10 weeks for a repair, I don't think so. I'm not quite sure what I'm meant to get my head around, quality comes at a price, no quality involved in this transaction.
Shipping and insurance was include but to provide a live example, yesterday I shipped two guitars worth eight times of the Unitiserve, the cost via my dealer, £30 !
Bob green posted:What happened to the 5 year warranty?.
If you read the small print it isn't really a 5 year warranty. The first two years is a normal warranty the remaining three years entitle you to repairs at a fixed cost, yes £340 irregardless of the fault.
I wonder how many people had not known this ,l didn’t,you have opened a can of worms here l’m thinking.l must admit this is not very good PR.done there rep more harm than good.
glasnaim posted:Bob green posted:What happened to the 5 year warranty?.
If you read the small print it isn't really a 5 year warranty. The first two years is a normal warranty the remaining three years entitle you to repairs at a fixed cost, yes £340 irregardless of the fault.
You have my sympathy Malcolm. I had what I think was the same issue when my US was just less than 2 years old. It took them almost a month to replace the bios battery on the motherboard, a task which most handymen can perform on a computer pretty easily. Fortunately it cost me nothing, other than the carriage. I’m now facing the same £340 charge, plus £20 carriage, for the replacement of the cd transport, despite the unit still being less than 5 years old! Not impressed, I don’t believe this bodes well for the future.
Don’t they Advertise there equipment supplied with a five year warranty?.if they do then it is not a five year warranty,if I’m wrong please correct me.