VictrolaGuy - Walt wrote:
Sean,
You need to deal with your vendor(s) because it is THEY who took your money, not Expert. It is not reasonable for Expert to have to exchange your products at their expense while your vendor pockets your money after having refused to help you. Perhaps your vendors are genuinely ignorant of the problems and are unable to see the science of the thing, but if they are able to take your money and keep it, then they are at the mercy of taking you at your word and trusting your report (and I know personally that your word is good). Call your vendor and tell them you are sending the parts back to them for a refund. Don't ask them if you can. Tell them that you are doing so. Then send the defects back using delivery confirmation and require a signature of a specific individual. Then call your credit card issuer and contest the charge. Fax them the original receipt and the mailing certificate with the [vendor's] signature. If you didn't use a credit card then it gets complicated but there is still recourse.
Vendors are 100% accountable for these defects as if they had caused them, and as such they need to be held accountable.
You're entirely correct, Walt.
The biggest problem here is that this was well over two years ago and I wasn't nearly as persistent as I probably should have been, I try not to be one to cause anyone trouble. To be honest, I became so disgusted that I gave up on my two Edisons altogether until I picked up a C-200 this Summer that had a super original stylus in it which kick started my interest in my other two machines again. After all this time has passed, it's basically moot and really at this point I have no recourse other than to invest in three more diamonds, something I really don't want to do until I know for certain there are quality products available again. I have the means to play my DDs electrically here and while it's a perfectly nice way to listen, I still want to be able to play them on original equipment feeling secure that my $500 dealer stock Eva Taylor electric isn't going to wind up being destroyed, ya know?
Gone are the days when you could buy replacement styli for $22 each like I can remember doing in 1987 that came from Expert and they were great. I wish I had bought more of them then and hung onto them, but alas....
For the time being, I'll have to be satisfied with what I can use, but even so, I'm leery of laying anything decent with the two I'd call "decent enough". Hopefully soon, we'll get some news that there really are good replacement styli available again and I'll replace mine when I can.
Anyway, I find this topic interesting only because I know I'm not the only one that this has happened to. I still believe Expert could have admitted to the fault and agreed to allow vendors to return the faulty styli, which I was told at the time, they refused to do.
Sean