Light Harmonic Amp & Customer Service discussion

[Naonak]

This thread is a permenent thread to discuss Light Harmonic Amplifier and to discuss their customer service. It is intended as a non-vendor controlled thread to prevent deletion/removal of important or archival information.

Please transfer (copy & paste, also LINK to the post you are copying) any relevent posts you think should be saved from other threads to this thread.

 

[OregonBob]

June 15: Payment made. Shipment to follow immediately. Speakers subsequently arrived without amplifier. Amplifier arrived June 30.

July 30: System installed w/o LH sub. NVX sub installed instead.

September 3: LH sub delivered to LH. Multiple follow up emails. No refund. Opened dispute with Amex. Refund received September 30.

November: Right front channel fails. Subsequently, left front channel fails. Service requested November 22. Acknowledged December 2.

December 12 - Second amp received. Installed January 6. Both front channels out. Test car with Tesla amp. All working. Reinstall first LH amp.

January 12 - Third amp arrives with unknown "revision" to resolve front channel problems.

January 26 : Third amp installed.

January 27 - First two amps shipped to LH.

January 29 - Right front channel fails. Service ticket opened. 3 emails to LH - none returned.

January 30 - First two amps delivered to LH. Service ticket closed. No communication from LH.

January 31 - Left front channel fails.

February 1:

I discovered service ticket had been closed with no comments around 11:30am.

Called Amex and initiated a charge dispute (requesting a refund) early this afternoon.

Subsequently received this via email about three hours later:

We have received your two amps and your new revised amp will ship by the end of the day tomorrow. You should receive email confirmation when we ship out your new unit.

Best regards,


Matt M.
Tech Support Specialist
www.lhlabs.com​

I wrote back as follows:

Matt,

Is the revised amp (#4) the same revision as the last amp (#3) or is there a new revision? I really don’t want to pay for yet another installation unless I’m confident the new amp will work long term.

Have you looked at the returned amps (#1 and #2) and found any problems? Is there a pattern? Are some components burned out? It would really help if I understood the issue(s), even if the resolution is unknown.

Bob​

I'd really love for LH to work but (1) I really don't want to spend more $ to replace yet another amp and (2) if I replace the amp and it works, I have no confidence it's a long term play.​

 

[OregonBob]

It appears the second LH thread has been removed...

 

[jeffb]

ouch....

 

[Andyw2100]

It appears the second LH thread has been removed...

That should tell anyone considering doing business with them quite a bit about what kind of company they are!

 

[Muzzman1]

Kinda sad actually.
I was really hoping they could wade through all of the problems and be a success story.
I wonder if they plan to continue support and sales.
Only way to know would be to drop in.
Is anyone close to them?

 

[jeffb]

I doubt it means anything other than somebody didn't like the direction the thread went....IF they were able to fix the issue (looks like Ill have my "revised" amp later today) they will let things cool off and then start a new thread.

 

[jeffb]

To be fair....While I don't like their lack of responsiveness (that seems to be what is really fueling most of the sentiment on these threads) I can say that they have tried to make me happy. I'm one of the people with the repeated amp failures and while I find it super annoying to keep swapping amps and have a half working system, At this point I don't feel like I've been "ripped off"......I just jumped in before all the kinks were worked out.

Not saying the way this has worked out is right or okay.....just pointing out that I think LH has good intentions....but for whatever reasons, seem unable to deliver on those intentions at this time.

 

[Naonak]

Yeah, I would have to agree with Jeffb. I don't feel like they are out to scam anyone or meant to provide an inferior product. I think, as Jeff said, it all comes down to the communication (or lack thereof). I am pretty forgiving as long as people communicate regularly when there's a problem.

The whole wait a week with no response and then what they tell you isn't exactly accurate is not in their favor. If they'd just be up front with what's going on, what they think the timelines are, and then communicate when the timelines change, I would be fine with that. I totally understand bringing a new electronic device to the market and the complications that can arise. I'm fine with giving them a lot of slack to work the bugs out ... I just don't like not knowing what's going on or what their plan is, even if it has to change due to unforeseen issues.

 

[OregonBob]

This was just sent to me via email:

Comment added by : Larry Ho

Comment Content:
Bob. We already sent out two new version of Amp to the professional installers to test their tesla. And we will get the result in few days. And we will be sure if this special problem got resolved.

Thanks a lot for your patience. Please on hold for few more days. We will give you a good answer.

Thank you so much

Sent from my mobile device​

Anyone have a clue as to who these professional installers are and what their experience has been?

 

[Muzzman1]

Has everyone been made complete?

 

[OregonBob]

Has everyone been made complete?

Short answer for me is no.

Matt informed February 1 that a replacement amp would ship February 2. Still waiting.

This was just sent to me via email:

Comment added by : Larry Ho

Comment Content:
Bob. We already sent out two new version of Amp to the professional installers to test their tesla. And we will get the result in few days. And we will be sure if this special problem got resolved.

Thanks a lot for your patience. Please on hold for few more days. We will give you a good answer.

Thank you so much

Sent from my mobile device​

​

Larry emailed me February 2. I responded to Larry's request with some questions. Didn't receive a response.

Matt contacted me February 6 asking if I'd be willing to try amp #4 and suggesting LH might pay for the install. I asked some questions and told him the install cost. Didn't receive a response.

At this point, my disputed charge is working its way through AmEx.

 

[Max*]

This is how I remember that deleted thread:

 

[pdaddy]

Light Harmonic did send me a replacement amp a few weeks ago. It is defective also. The front passenger channel does not play. This is the third defective amp I've received. I have requested a full refund. Has anyone else successfully returned the system for a refund?

 

[OregonBob]

Light Harmonic did send me a replacement amp a few weeks ago. It is defective also. The front passenger channel does not play. This is the third defective amp I've received. I have requested a full refund. Has anyone else successfully returned the system for a refund?

The symptoms experienced are the same as mine. I predict you will soon lose the driver side front channel. Been down this road three times, just like you.

I haven't received a refund and have a dispute going through AmEx.

In my opinion, LH is the worst of the worst in customer service. Those people just stopped trying. Constant empty promises of quick shipments of modified "problem solved" amps. I don't think they are a "scam" because I don't think anyone there wanted their product to turn out this way but the fact remains they haven't delivered a proper product to me and are doing nothing to make things right. if anyone were to ask for a reference, I'd tell them to run the other way.

 

[KR1005]

I agree I still haven't received my refund and this is 3 months outstanding.
What worst is I've never received the goods, they took my money and still have it!!!!

 

[Muzzman1]

Wow. So I guess they've closed the chapter on us.
Has anyone heard from them in any way?

 

[Naonak]

I sent in a request for a status update on the amp I sent back to them almost a month ago. I haven't heard anything from them in over two weeks and no response to my message.

We might want to get on their audiophile forums and let people know of the experience. Maybe if their crazy audiophile clientele start drying up, they'll actually do something.

 

[Naonak]

Hmm... well, this looks familiar:

Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

Almost two years ago. Looks like history is repeating itself.

 

[CuriousG]

Early on in their original thread there were detractors that warned of their past history. They seem to pump up their product and get people excited and under deliver then disappear into the woodwork. Rinse and repeat.