Well my Naim Unitiserve packed in with a hard disk boot drive failure at the start of lockdown. The usual process is to take it to richer sounds in Preston to have it shipped to Naim for repair. The nearest proper name dealer is Manchester and Richer sounds are approved by Naim to return stuff for repair and then they send it back there to be collected. Now considering RS Preston is only phone call stuff and pickup of large items only I cannot get my Unitiserve repaired. I phoned Naim regarding returning it myself but they wonāt do this. It has to be through an approved outlet. They want Ā£400 to repair it (which is fine if they can recover the music on it) but why so inflexible. Why make it so hard to return stuff. Iām about to pull the plug on this one and go and buy a cd ripper/server from a competitor. Not good customer care in my book.
Audio T Preston ?
I think the reason Naim donāt like to let customers return items directly is because this would create a large administration headache in terms of payments, paperwork, invoices, returns etc. They would need a separate function to manage all of this; Iād imagine they get through a lot of servicing and repairs.
Just restore the music from your backup once itās been fixed.
I think I am missing something around this part: āRS Preston is only phone call stuff and pickup of large items only I cannot get my Unitiserve repairedā.
Is the issue that you canāt get the Unitiserve to RS Preston because they only pick up larger stuff? Can you not drop it off at RS yourself for some reason (I donāt know how far away you are from RS) or get it picked up by UPS or similar at your home and have it delivered to RS?
I probably worded that badly. RS is phone only. The shop isnāt open. I think they are delivering orders via courier so Iām not sure you can even pick up even.
Errrā¦I hadnāt done a backup for a while. I was about to when I discovered there was an issue with it.
Any Naim dealer can organise the RMA and get it sent off to Salisbury for you. Just contact your nearest one. The fact that RS canāt sort you out is not really Naims fault.
I think Audio T closed down a while ago in Preston. I donāt think they were a Naim dealer at the time either. RS arenāt really a main Naim dealer either but they did have MuSo stuff in stock.
Are we to take your comment to mean that thereās a lot of Naim products suffering from breakdowns? It would seem that any company like RS should be more accommodating since theyāre the middleman. After all during this virus some of us only have our music cooky puss Happy and sane
I see. As others suggested, I would call any large Naim dealer in UK and ask what to do, I would expect they let you UPS it to them and they will return it the same way after it comes back from Naim
I understand this but a) considering the current situation and b)the cost of repair/service then they should offer a more flexible customer service. At this rate Iām likely to go elsewhere. Alternatively, if I canāt recover the music off it then I may as well just buy one used. I spoke to Naim and they wonāt allow me to ship it to them. Iām not really happy about this tbh.
If they allowed this it would not be just you but thousands of people all over the world would suddenly ship their gear to Salisbury
No idea, hence the word āimagineā. I wouldāve imagined, though, that if only a small percentage of sold kit gets serviced each month that still mounts up to quite a few boxes to keep track of.
Whatās the problem with that. Itās not cheap gear so they should be more accommodating. In any case if itās UK mainland most other companies donāt seem to have a problem with customers returning stuff for repair/exchange etc. If itās just until we get back to normal (sic) then fine but at the moment itās a paperweight and has been since May.
If you are immobile/housebound/sheltering then I am absolutely sure that Brian and Trevors, near you in Manchester, or Geoff at Acoustica in Chester would be more than willing to help and facilitate.
I believe you are being a bit unreasonable on purpose when asking what would be the problem with that. It is probably doable, but not easy and not to be implemented overnight especially in the current situation. They would need a separate new department of people, the storage space, etc.
In larger non UK countries like Germany where I am, the local distributor is also authorized to perform certain work, so not everything needs to go to Salisbury, making for shorter and safer shipment and less load on Naim.
Given this, it seems reasonable that they cannot make fundamental changes to how this works during the pandemic
No, Iām none of those things. Yes I know Brian and Trevor at House of Linn. Thatās always been appointment only. Wasnāt aware they were Naim dealers now. Also know Geoff at Acoustica and his oppo (Paul?) who lives not far from Preston so heās actually nearest. Iāve been to pick stuff up from Paul that Iāve bought from Acoustica rather than have it posted but dropping stuff off at his home seems a bit cheeky. I think Iāll try having another word with Naim. If no joy then I might give Brian and Trev a buzz. Iām in Manchester quite a lot anyway. Might combine that with a trip over to Whitefield.
Naim used to accept direct returns from customers. I guess a change of management a few years ago resulted in a change of services on offer.
We all still have a choice. Stick with Naim and their current customer relationship ie via a retailer only, or move to some other company where personal service direct with a customer is their norm.
Of course, this forum is the ideal place to express these and other differing points of view.