Not pleased with Zed's (Stephen Mantz') service

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:18 pm

I sent him 3 amps: MS2125, 475 and an M100 for repair. All three amps were in near perfect condition.

And Here is what I got back....

2125
Bent end plate, broken power/speaker terminals and power bars.

475
Dinged up sink and broken power terminal. This sink was brand new from 4everpg!

M100
Case scuffed up, missing original speaker terminal screws, and some case screws, shorted something against the case causing a "arc" mark and LED not aligned with the case properly.

Thats it for Zed

from now on its either Doc or Cecil. this guy is way too careless with my stuff. I kept these amps in flawless condition for years, im even hesitate to use them because I'm afraid of scuffing them.

My email to Stephen (which he didnt even reply yet)

Hello Stephen,

I received the amps today, thank you for taking care of them so soon.

However, for future reference (and im not trying to tell you to to conduct your business) these amps must be packed better. All 3 amps has damage on their cases.

The 2125 has one speaker terminal, a broken power connector, and a bent end plate.

the 4 ch amp has a broken power plug as well, however, this amp has an area where it appears that it was dropped.

The M100 appears to be messing all of its screws underneath the amp, the LED appears to be hiding under the cover and there are several other scuffs on the case.

These amps are sent you in good faith that they are taken care of and the condition of these amps are simply not acceptable to me.

You have to keep in mind that these amps are discontinued a long time ago and parts are scarce. Phoenix Gold has sold most of their stock and many of these parts are pretty much history.

Thank you for your time, Vin

I haven't been this pissed about something in a while. I packed the amps perfectly, wrapped in layers of bubble wrap and bagged. He returns the amps in literally tossed in a big box with some newspaper and styrofoam, not even wrapped. I'm not posting this with any intent to defame or attempt to ruin the Zed same in any way.

I know this should not be said since its pretty obvious, but if anyone here choses to have Stephen Mantz repair their amp, I would suggest packing it well, better yet use the PG OE packaging if available and make sure that Stephen packs the shipping box equally well.

GX3 · Post by **GX3** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:38 pm

O my god WHAT THE FU*K ................ There is no excuse for some one how hold himself in such a hi esteem to short cut on some thing so FUCKIN* simple as packing........ If i come across any thing to help with parts i will let you know

Shawn

Post by **mr tibbs** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:40 pm

Vin,

That's flat out fucked up.

I hope he takes care of the problem. I would be fumming!!

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:41 pm

Package insured ?

Maybe file a claim ?

That sucks on the highest level......

Post by **Jacampb2** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:18 pm

Holy fuck. That is ridiculous. What is worse, is this guy should definitely know better then to throw a bunch of amps in a box. If he doesn't recognize collectors pieces, and treat them with respect, well, he is a idiot.

My guess is it is going to come out that the return shipping was the responsibility of some "lackey" and they were asleep on the job. Hopefully he will make good-- as good as can be made since some of the stuff is basically irreplaceable now. This sucks Vin, I really feel for you. If I can help out, let me know. I have have decent condition power blocks on a few ZX amps and IIRC they are the same as the MS ones. If you need them, let me know, I will trade them for your broken ones.

Good luck,
Jason

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:21 pm

Yeah, I was pretty pissed. It was like "fuck it, selling all of them" mad.

Zed finally responded, he said that he insured the package for $700. I guess i'll make a claim tomorrow.

Shawn, thanks but that's OK man. Im at the point where I dont want to even look at the amp. That thing was basically new, there's no point in trying to fix the problem.

Anyone have an 2125 speaker terminal? I know its a bit far fetched tho

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:26 pm

Jason, thankfully I have a few power blocks sitting around (more like: luckily the witch didnt trash those

). So it doesn't appear I need those.

Im really only looking to put the MS amps back together since Im actually using those. I M is going to storage and im adapting that "out of sight out of mind" mentality.

The thing is that he packing is pure shit! I wonder if UPS will grant a claim if they see the bad pack job.

Zed is only about 1.5 hrs from me and it caused this much damage

I wonder if there would be a package left if It went cross country

oldskoolmseriesfan · Post by **oldskoolmseriesfan** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:30 pm

Drive the 1.5 hrs and give him a heatsink tatty to the face

Post by **joerg** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:48 pm

vin78 wrote: Anyone have an 2125 speaker terminal? I know its a bit far fetched tho

As long as u can´t proof the box he shipped the amps in was damaged at the outside u won´t get nothing!

I have one grey speaker terminal left from the MPS2500 i bought! But it is back home in austria! And i´m pretty sure Nico has a white one left!

andy600rr · Post by **andy600rr** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:46 pm

Bad packaging makes baby jesus cry

Sorry to hear about this Vin.

Post by **Wakeup** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:53 pm

OMG OMG OMG....This sux...I dont know what to say...other than OMG....that is a Friggin Tradgedy...worse than when your significant other made you toss some stuff....(cuz SHE doesn't know the value....)

ZED....should have known better. Thats just disgusting....I'd be extremely mad...he better HELP make sure you get your insurance claim. ZOMG.....
grrr....

Good luck...if there's anything here that we can do....let us know.
That pisses me off and it wasn't even mine.

Post by **ttocs** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:05 pm

give him a link to this, make sure he knows he will not get any more phorum buz.....

dako · Post by **dako** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:07 am

that is bullshit. i would be beyond livid and demanding a reason for all the damage. even though you can file a claim, and if it was through UPS, that can be a dicey two way street. i used to work for a company where part of my job was dealing in UPS claims. you'd be surprised (or not) how dickish UPS can be sometimes when it comes to protecting their own interests.

Me-262 · Post by **Me-262** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:28 am

Ugh, well there's always the option of filing a lawsuit against him. Someone who repairs amps for a living should know better.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Fri May 01, 2009 4:47 am

I'm speechless, how can that guy live with himself. looks like he caused the damage at his shop and a combination of shoddy packing. he would have known you were gonna be upset.
Thats so tragic.i feel for you brother.

Post by **mhyde71** » Fri May 01, 2009 4:56 am

yeah geese - i dunno what to say... but that's fucked... he should know better - no doubt about it... thats BS!

i second that... give him the thread link and have he see what kinda stirr this has caused amoungst us about him...

Post by **Eric D** » Fri May 01, 2009 5:30 am

About 6 months ago I repaired an amp for Ben Vollmer. A SOFAS. The shop which was doing his install shipped it to my place of work. When I got it, the amp was in a huge box with about one cup full of packing peanuts in it. It was packed terminal side down on one end. Well, needless to say both ends of the amp were annihilated. All the terminals were shattered and the end plates were all bent up.

This guy also shipped a MS2125 and MS2250 together in one box with no packing material between them. You can only imagine what happened to these.

These old amps require a lot of love to make it on their journey. Most people just don't care…

denim · Post by **denim** » Fri May 01, 2009 6:55 am

Wow, this is totally not normal for ZED.

Post by **stipud** » Fri May 01, 2009 7:34 am

That is just sad. I hope for his sake the insurance claim goes through. Also, he should be the one pursuing the claim, not you.

vin78 · Post by **vin78** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:23 am

YEah, Im pretty sure that I wont be granted the claim. The box that the amps were shipped looked perfect. however, the inside of box was filled with some packing peanuts and newspaper - thats it. I think UPS will say that the shipper did not use sufficient packing materials.

In all honesty, I think it b/c of Zed's poor packing not UPS.

This is his method of packing from bottom to top: styrofoam sheets > amp > cardboard sheet > amp > cardboard sheet > amp. He filled the sides newspaper and packing peanuts. The amps were not even wrapped in bubble wrap or even a plastic bag.

I'll give UPS a call latter this afternoon.

tristan20 · Post by **tristan20** » Fri May 01, 2009 8:46 am

yeah you will be wasting time with UPS

First they will want to take the amps for "inspection"
Then if they find nothing wrong they will send it back and you will waste time, not to mention risk getting the amps damaged again.

They will fight you tooth and nail and never want to pay you a dime.

Trust me doing a claim via ups is almost worthless, prevention is always better than cure. Those amps should have been carefully packed in the first place. You cant blame UPS for kicking it around, everyone knows they would, so why pack it like shit in the first place?

Sorry to hear man, those PG amps always suffer from busted ends as they are very very fragile.

Post by **stipud** » Fri May 01, 2009 9:29 am

I did get a UPS claim refunded... once. They rejected it, but the company I bought from was fortunately renegotiating their shipping contract. So the owner talked to the UPS sales guy about it, and asked why he would renew if this is how they treated their insurance claims. It took the guy 5 minutes to get it approved after that

Seriously though, UPS is scum. Most couriers suck in fact. USPS and Canada Post are the only ones that have treated me well.

DHL cashed a cheque I sent for brokerage fees, and then they sent a collections agency after me. I sent them a printout from my bank of the cheque that was cashed for the exact amount they were asking, but they didn't care! They sent me tons of notices, called me relentlessly, etc. I finally just had to pay them to get them to fuck off.

FedEx has been the best courier... I haven't had a problem with them until just this month. I bought a DIYMA sub and asked the guy to ship it with FedEx ground, since that has always been the cheapest/fastest method for big heavy items. However, they rejected the package because of the magnet! He brought it into a bunch of shops, called them, and finally got them to ship it... but they returned the package to him!! WTF.

Don't get me started on UPS though. Their brokerage fees are downright extortion... they have fucked up so many shipments, and they have been such a pain in the ass to deal with on every front. They even charged me a $150 brokerage fee on the exhaust they had to replace (the claim I told you about), after I had already paid that fee the first time. Their call center said "well we offered you the service twice"... yeah but you FUCKED UP the first time, so why should I pay $300 brokerage for an exhaust system, just because you fucking broke the first one??? I had to argue my way up the supervisor chain until I finally got the charge reversed as a "one time gratuity" on their part. Assholes.

mmmadog · Post by **mmmadog** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:44 am

Damn Thats not right at all. Besides the damage theres screws missing and not tightened down? What kind of hack shop is he running? I had just emailed him about fixing a sofas I just picked up. I know I wont be sending it to him. Dont think I will be doing any buisness with zed audio either.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Fri May 01, 2009 10:53 am

This is so bizarre to me. I was certainly under the impression that ZED stood for quality and this is clearly not a quality job, even though shipping appears to be the major source of damage.

freshkryp69 · Post by **freshkryp69** » Fri May 01, 2009 2:02 pm

it might come down to ...who ever was in the shipping dept. that day?? Steve himself might have not had anything to do with this and probably didnt even know?? this doesnt fit is rep at all..
has he responded to you and the pic's of the damage?? he should send you a free amp for this BS!