I am often asked what amplifier I would buy, if I were to buy a new one in today's marketplace. The answer is I honestly don't know, as for me most manufacturers seem to have lost the plot, trying to get more and more out of an amplifier all the time, when a simple basic amp is really all that is required. Most will do one thing well and that's about it. But I can tell you that Marshall or Laney spares are easy to obtain, and they won't cost you an arm and a leg.
16th June 2010. I Just had to put this at the top of the list as it is my latest encounter for spare parts. After weeks trying to source some very basic and one would think relatively inexpensive parts for an Ampeg B-2 Bass Combo. I was referred to Panic Music Services of Swavesey Cambridge for the spares. When I rang I was asked by a lady on the switch to email my request to Danny ~~~ which I did. He promptly replied asking for the serial number, which I provide by return the very same day. A week or so later I realised I had heard nothing more from him, so rang again, asking for Danny, who wasn't there so I spoke to someone else about it. (Adam I think) I was somewhat rattled but he was having none of it. He quoted me an astronomical figure for the parts, which meant I could not proceed with the order without first consulting my customer.
The parts I wanted were 5 control Knobs, not pots as well just the knobs for which I was quoted £6.48 each X 5 = £32.40 The other items I wanted were just 3 X 100k 20mm slider pots for the graphic equaliser. if they were £2 each I would have considered them expensive, but how about £6.26 each ? £18.78 for the three. That amounts to £59.18p Then the postage! To ship all that weight, must be all of a few grams from Cambridge to Devon, a whopping £8. Then of course there's the bit to help rectify Gordon Brown's deficit, we can't do much about that £10.35 bringing the bill for a few measly parts to £69.54p.
I had spent quite a few hours trying to source these parts, but no way have I the nerve to add any mark up to them, to boost my profits. Eh what profits? More ear bashing from my accountant. But then he's no musician and he knows bugger all about amplifiers either!
Ok my replacement Copicat knobs cost more than these do but they are individually hand made one at a time. Cast in a mould, drilled for the spindle, drilled and tapped for the grub screw, screw fitted, the brass and chrome inserts punched out with a hand tool, then glued to the knob, all by hand. Not turned out in a knob factory by the thousands, like the Ampeg ones are. I wonder what it would cost if it really went wrong?
Think about it before you decide to Buy an AMPEG if you do then don't bash it on any doorways when you carry it in or out of venues.
Below is a copy of the actual invoice from Panic Music Services. I'll leave it to you to decide who is making the money out of this repair!
Probably won't do my credibility much good, but I don't give a toss, I'm retiring soon!
Left. Exactly what £69.54 buys you in Ampeg spares, as purchased from Panic Music Services, placed on the card that paid for them. The card and £1 coin are indicators of the size of the components purchased.
Right. Underlined, an example of what a similar slider will cost from R.S. Components. Note The RS part is not a direct replacement for the Ampeg part and is probably of different manufacture, but gives an indication of what these things actually cost. I have found the correct part retailing from the US at $3.50 At the time of checking 3.5 USD = £ 2.33 GBP
There are many things about PayPal that I (no doubt everyone else) am unhappy about. Why do they charge you for withdrawing your own money for sums below fifty quid???? If someone pays you fifty quid via PayPal, they will automatically take 3,4% of it in commission, leaving you with about £48.30. If you then wish to transfer those funds to your bank account, because it is less than £50 they will charge you yet again for handling the same money. Now if that's not bad enough, if you want the money transferred quickly to your bank account, they will charge you another £5 for doing a normal online banking transaction. The other option is what they call the normal one of 2 - 3 business days for which they charge nothing other than what they have already charged plus the under 50 quid charge if the transferred amount falls in that category. Here is a way around that problem.
PayPal balance £48.00 pay £2.00 in to your PayPal account (instant transaction) from your bank account. New PayPal balance £50 transfer to your bank account (not instant) no charge !!!!
Which brings me to my next beef, for which I have previously made an official complaint about. A bit like pissing in the ocean of course but I received an apology, saying it was a mistake and that it wouldn't happen again. Which it does every time you and I transfer money from a PayPal account to our bank accounts, money PayPal don't want to part with. They seem to be able to calculate huge amounts of money, very accurately, but when it comes to calculating dates up to only 3 working days they somehow come up with 7 or more days. Fair enough if the coming weekend is in the way, or a bank holiday. But I fail to see how, if I transfer funds on Monday 8th of March 2010 that 2 - 3 business days can possibly equate to the 15th of March. In my book the money should be in my account by Thursday the 11th March at the latest. What is my money doing during the four missing days, it should have been in my bank account?
Below is exactly what was written on the email acknowledgement I received from PayPal for the transaction related to the above transfer.
Dear John Beer,
You asked us on 8 Mar 2010 to transfer 240.00 GBP from your PayPal account to
your bank account. We are processing your request.
The transfer normally takes 2-3 business days.
The money should be in your bank account by 15 Mar 2010.
We will email you if any problems occur with your request.
Do you want to receive and withdraw larger amounts? Log in to your PayPal
account to find out how. Click View Limits on your Account
Overview page.
Yours sincerely,
PayPal
There you have it straight from the pen of PayPal. How they hold on to your money and my money for as long as they possibly think they can get away with. As far as I know PayPal is not regulated by any financial body. There must be another reliable way to accept online payments without our being conned by the likes of PayPal .
The next PayPal con is the "eCheque", I need another page to tell you about that!
"SOUNDCRAFT" charge for service information. In the unlikely event I repair any more Soundcraft equipment, the minimum charge of about £15 + vat will be passed to the customer before any work is carried out. You have to purchase a full hard copy service manual containing the schematics and many pages of nothing but part numbers. This manual is unlikely to be in stock, and will take several weeks to arrive. Under pressure they will supply the manual in a PDF format after paying the full manual price. But you still have to purchase the hard copy.
STANTON DJ Mixers etc !!! I hope you never need spares for any of their stuff, this is the most unhelpful company I have ever come across.
Technics keyboards, impossible to obtain any spares for these.
"RANDALL" after several weeks I have had to return a Randall amplifier to its owner in an un-repaired state. It has a burnt out power transformer. Sound tech are the UK agents, I have had no response from Sound tech. I decided to go direct to the US for the part. I was told is available at a very reasonable $36, but Randall / Samson Tech do not ship single items overseas !! They expect you to buy the amplifier, but won't supply spares when it goes wrong.. Who told me that ? Ryan Struck US Music Customer Service 444 E Courtland St. Mundelein, Il6006 phone: 1-800-877-6863
CORNFORD, I recently had a Cornford MK50H amplifier in for repair on two separate occasions, during these two occasions of a few weeks apart, I tried to contact the company for some advice. During those periods I tried phoning them six or eight times, every time I phoned I got an answering service, requesting contact details that they could phone me back, of course they never did. I also sent two emails to the published email address, requesting information, but again no reply. I might expect this from a large company, but I would have thought a small boutique producer would have been more helpful. I am pleased to say I was able to repair the amplifier without their assistance, after all it's only an amplifier, but a little after sales support would have been nice, it also would have avoided them appearing here. I wonder what would have happened had I left a message looking to buy a Cornford amplifier! By the way the build quality is nowhere near that of another British boutique builder who's name begins with a C. The owner of the amp did manage to speak with them, and said they were helpful and would be happy to speak to me the following day. I rang ##### 280000 and again was confronted by the flaming answering service.
On the bright side, a word about POTENTIOMETERS / POTS and I dare not name this company as they will be inundated with requests from you lot! Several months ago I had a well known early 90's British amplifier in for repair, it needed a full set of pots, of pcb mount type with mounting brackets attached. After much searching it was impossible to find suitable replacements of the correct type and values. The pot brackets were the main support for the pcb. I contacted the company who made the original pots, first with little luck. After a little pressure I was able to speak to the MD to whom I explained the situation, and the fact that no British electronic spares suppliers hold stocks of log pots of the correct values used in guitar amplifiers etc. They seem to hold a reasonable range of linear pots, but Log pots go from 10k straight to 1 Meg. The man listened to what I was saying, took my details, and within a few days a full set of the exact original pots, plus one extra of each value was sent to me free of charge. This was more than I could possibly have expected, and I am truly very grateful to him. I wish I could name that company and sing it's praises, but I don't think that would be a good idea, as everyone with a special pot request would be phoning the company. As a manufacturer they only supply large quantities, to equipment manufacturers, and wholesale stockists. But it shows that some of these guys are ok people. Thanks very much for all your help.
I AM SICK TO DEATH OF BEING RIPPED OFF BY THE COURIER PARCELFORCE.
The number of times I have been let down by Parcelforce I have lost count of. I recently paid extra money to have a parcel delivered on a Saturday, form London. Not a million miles from Devon, it arrived the following Monday in the afternoon. When I told the delivery guy it should have been here on the Saturday, he shrugged his shoulders and said "we don't work on a Saturday" !
On another occasion a few years back I was a joint owner in a light aircraft, I had ordered an urgent spare part for it so I could fly to a rally in France, at the weekend. The part, a shock absorber, was sent by the supplier via Parcelforce for guaranteed next day delivery. This weighs about 3kgs and is about 18" in length x 2.5" in diameter, packed in a box, they managed to loose it!! The part never arrived, I was unable to go to the rally. I was never compensated for the lost item.
Have you ever tried making a claim against UK postal services? Brick wall syndrome!
Now I have an issue with handling charges for imported parts customs & excise clearance. I buy certain spares from the USA shipped by UPS for UK delivery by Parcelforce! I have no control over this there is nothing I can do about it. I pay a shipping fee for the parts at the time of ordering, when they arrive in the UK for delivery by Parcelforce, they are frequently held for customs clearance for nine or ten days while Customs decide how big a bite of the cherry they want. Parcelforce then add an extra £8 to the bill which they call a clearance fee, on top of what they have already been paid for the handling of the package here in the UK. Therefore they are likely to be paid twice for every thing imported into the UK. They will not deliver the package until the fee has been paid. They then have the audacity to print on the accompanying invoice the following statement. " Parcels awaiting payment will be held at the above depot for 20 days. After this time, unpaid items will be returned to the sender" I wonder who has to pay for that ?
I received such a letter from Parcelforce with a total demand for payment of £15.83p Comprising of V.A.T £7.83 Parcelforce clearance fee £8.00. In disgust I have written the following complaint email to Parcelforce. If they reply I will insert it below the following.
Dear Sirs, PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT
3801-3788-3051-61000 Customs fee & clearance charges £15.83
How can you justify charging me an £8 clearance fee for an excise charge of
only £7.83 ? You have already been paid for your shipping fee for this
parcel, you are nothing more than money grabbing b------s. Given the choice
I would NEVER use Parcelforce for any deliveries, you are the most expensive
and unreliable courier company I have ever had dealings with. Full of
pathetic excuses and rarely deliver on time, especially special delivery
items.
I fully intend to advise on my website
www.amp-fix.com that Parcelforce
should be avoided at all costs, and are responsible for the higher charges I
have to pass on to my customers for imported spares. Enough is enough, the
public need to know, who is ripping them off.
Yours Sincerely John Beer.
Thank you for your email.
This is an automated acknowledgement to your Email, please do not respond to
this message.
We will aim to reply to your enquiry within the next two working days. Our
business hours are Mon-Fri: 8am to 7pm and Sat 8:30am to 12.30pm. Please
accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause.
Deliveries to UK addresses are usually made between 7:00am and 5:30pm Monday
to Friday, depending on the service selected. A Saturday service is
available to the majority of UK destinations and deliveries are typically
between 7.00 am and 1 pm.
For tracking enquiries, online tracking facilities are available on our main
webpage:
http://www.parcelforce.co.uk/
If
you would like to arrange a redelivery please follow the below link:
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/jump1?catId=500187&mediaId=2600005
If
you would like to price a delivery please follow the below link:
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/jump2?catId=25800694&mediaId=25900681
If you would like to pay a
customs charge please use the below link:
https://www.pfwcustomercontact.co.uk/aps/public/index.aspx
Telephone: 08708 50 11 50
Text phone: 08000 855 854 (for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing)
Fax: 01924 294 205
This email and any attachments are confidential and intended for the addressee
only. If you are not the named recipient, you must not disclose, reproduce or
distribute the contents of this communication. If you have received this email
in error, please contact the sender and then delete this email from your system.
(says nothing about disclosing it if I am the named recipient. (Does it?)
Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group plc. Registered in
England and Wales.
Registered No. 4138203. Registered Office: 148 Old Street, London EC1V 9HQ.
Mmm well that's a start, I'll post the next one below.
Here it is, more brick wall syndrome!
Dear John Beer
Thank you for your enquiry.
I appreciate your concern regarding the Parcelforce clearance charges and I
will attempt to clarify them for you.
Parcelforce clearance charges are made in accordance with the Universal
Postal Union, and indeed the UPU Parcel Post Manual does refer to
"Presentation-to-Customs charge (our Customs clearance fee). Unlike most
other couriers in the UK, we do not charge for Customs clearance, except
when an item attracts Import duty, Excise duty or VAT. Then and only then do
we charge a Customs clearance fee. This is set at a single level (regardless
of goods value or duties raised) to cover the expenses incurred in the extra
handling of dutiable items. This fee is currently £8 for non guaranteed
services and £13.50 for express items and covers; the segregation and
presentation of all items for HM Customs, the provision of secure facilities
in our Coventry sorting centre to enable them to inspect and provide Customs
clearance (which will include opening and repackaging of some items),
dealing with the relevant HM Customs paperwork, paying duty and taxes to HM
Customs so that parcels can be released, as well as the collection and
administration of due payments from the recipient.
The fee only reflects the additional costs incurred over and above the
delivery of the item, and we do not seek to profit from this charge. Indeed
our major competitors in the UK charge significantly higher amounts for
Customs clearance fees on dutiable items imported to the UK.
The Parcelforce charge is an integral part of the service agreement that is
held with all postal administrations and indeed a fee of this kind is
charged by all postal administrations on delivery when Customs duties have
not been prepaid. The charges are pursuant with section 89 of the Postal
Services Act 2000, and as such we have the right to recover our costs.
Customers do have the right to refuse to pay the duties and charges, in
which case the goods will be returned to sender, at our expense. Hopefully,
this explains our charging arrangements, how we advertise the detail, and
highlights that we are in a highly competitive marketplace whereby customers
can readily choose the carrier they wish to use. Charging of such fees is
widespread within the parcel distribution industry and our charges are at
the low end of competitive rates. When you take delivery of the goods, there
will be a red label attached to the parcel, advising you of the way the
charges are broken down.
If you feel the charge may be wrong, you can query this with customs.
The customs helpline number is 02476 212860.
HM CUSTOMS AND EXCISE
Siskin Parkway West
Middlemarch Business Park
Coventry
CV3 4PF
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us
again at this email address: parcelforce@parcelforce.co.uk.
Please ensure that you include the full history of your enquiry so far in
order to help us respond to you as quickly as possible.Our hours of business
are: Mon to Fri: 8am to 7pm and Sat: 8:30am to 12:30pm
I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Kind regards
Sharon Patterson
Parcelforce Worldwide
Customer Service Email Team.
Yea yea yea typical load of old bollocks, but what else can you expect really? Sorry people, one reason I have to charge you more for imported goods! Cor my head ------ hurts, too many brick walls I think!
Below, is an invoice for another eight quid for the Parcelforce fat cats on top of the duty payable to the government, bringing the total to £26.96 instead of just £14.96. Who pays in the long run? Yea you've got it! (19th March 2010 )
After years of searching for these parts, on the 16 April 2009 I sent via ROYAL MAIL 1st CLASS PACKET 100 precious Copicat lid catches to Birmingham to be brass plated. Yes they appear to have lost them!!!! They never arrived at the platers at the expected time. More proverbial brick walls, finally they turned up 4 weeks later! 1st class mail, what the hell is the matter with these people?
Oh' then just before Christmas, 2009, they all decide to go on STRIKE !!
I posted a cheque to British Amplifiers 1st class letter post, on Feb 15th 2010. Not in a Post Box, it was handed over the counter at my local CULLOMPTON Post Office with some other mail. When after several days, I was told it hadn't arrived, I assumed it to have been lost in the post. I cancelled the cheque and paid by direct transfer. The cheque finally arrived at its London destination, ten days later on the 25th Feb.
1st class & 2nd class mail is all the same, you pay the 1st class option expecting a better service, but it's just the luck of the draw. Think of all the extra work involved separating letters with gold stamps from letters with blue ones. Who is going to do it when they are cutting staff all the time. Cost cutting exercises means lower efficiency and a poorer service in all walks of life, despite what Mr Brown might tell us.
All these problems look to my customer as if I am shooting a line. This is not the case, as I often spend many more hours trying to find the right parts than it takes to do the repair, and that's all for free. Therefore I think it only right to spill the beans on manufactures whom I have found unhelpful with after sales service and spares. Thankfully the majority are very good. After all it's your hard earned money that keeps them in business. I refuse to take the flack for those that reap the profits. It would be good to see other repairers do the same.
Mothering Sunday / Mothers Day 2012. We all like to look after our dear mothers don't we. Mine lives an hours drive from me, and my sister was taking her and her mother-in -law out to lunch on the day in question. (I wasn't invited) I decided to send her a nice card and visit the following week. In plenty of time I went into the local Tesco's and bought a nice but not overly large card which set me back £4.50. Yes that's right £4.50 for a Mother's Day card! Exploitation or what ?
That however is not the point. I took the card home added a few words of my own, applied a first class stamp and on the Thursday morning, took a walk down the road and popped it in the post box expecting it the get to Mum the following day, or at the latest Saturday morning. However, Saturday came and went, no card : ( Mother was quite disappointed, thinking her only son had forgotten about her. I rang to wish he well and discretely asked if she liked her card. "CARD WHAT CARD" she said !! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, still no card, but on Thursday morning a letter arrived from a "jobs worth" at Royal Mail's sorting office in her home town, saying there was an item there for her with insufficient postage paid. The card was a few grams over that covered by a first class stamp. What did it cost R M to send this letter? This bloody little "jobs worth" invited her, a frail 89 year old lady to the sorting office to pay the 12p excess postage and their administration fee of £1 ! Total £1.12p
Now surely anybody with half a brain cell would have guessed that this was a Mothers
Day card and ignored the rules on an occasion such as this. Or maybe he
just never had a mother, a small drip on the pavement simply hatched out in the
sun!