MARKBASS Customer Service.............

Fender4Me · #1 07-05-2011, 05:30 PM

Having been a Markbass fan for about 3 years and having bought 3 NEW combos and 2 NEW cabs, I gotta say, thier customer service is lacking. I blew a tweeter in my 1-12 combo a few weeks ago and emailed Markbass about a replacment. I was contacted and told that they would send a replacement. After several ignored emails, I have still not recieved the part. I am done with Markbass. There are too many good amps on the market to put up with crappy customer service. Its fire sale time for the Markbass stuff and time to replace it.......

rodl2005 · #2 07-05-2011, 05:41 PM

Yeah I hate unanswered emails especially in this regard. Genz Benz & Bergantino really seem to be leading the way in this aspect. & these days after sales service is SO important.
How many people can hear a negative storey about a product these days?
But Mark Bass are pretty good usually, I'd at least give'em just a little more time (as 'The Mighty Clouds Of Joy' said in the '70s :-)

chadhargis · #3 07-05-2011, 07:53 PM

Hunt down Peter Murray. He's a TB member. He'll help you out. He's always been very responsive when I've had questions.

Peter Murray · #4 07-06-2011, 10:15 AM

Hi there,

Our service department has been trying to reach you without response--I saw the emails myself this morning. So perhaps there is an email problem of some kind?
OP, if you are still not receiving the emails from our service department, please PM me with your email address and I will facilitate as necessary.
For the record, we respond to emails around the clock and pride ourselves on top-level customer service. I'm sure many people here could attest to that.
In any case, I'm here to assist as necessary!

Best, Peter

FuzzBoxVoodoo · #5 07-06-2011, 10:20 AM

I just had an issue with my MB Compressore and they were very helpful,responded to my first email the same day and took care of the repair quickly.

fenderhutz · #6 07-06-2011, 10:21 AM

Spam filter fail.

Fender4Me · #7 07-06-2011, 10:33 AM

Well, I may finally be getting somewhere with them. I did get an email requesting my PayPal address for shipping cost. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon. Thanks

jeff7bass · #8 07-06-2011, 11:25 AM

It's cool the MB guy posted! I gotta believe there was just some sort of mixup. They have great amps and are very popular amongst pro bassists so it doesn't make sense to go cheap on CS.
I saw Peter Frampton last night and his bassplayer had a HUGE Markbass stack!

mikeruss · #9 07-06-2011, 11:37 AM

I just had an issue with a buzz in my New York 151 cab and took it to GC. They swapped it straight up with no trouble once I mentioned the 2 year swap program I found on TB. I did have my receipt so that did help also.

I love my Markbass gear and get constant complements on my sound. My back loves Markbass too as it has saved me on medical bills once I switched to it from my ampeg rig.

Really nice to see Peter Murray chiming in so quickly also.

3rdInstrument · #10 07-06-2011, 03:52 PM

when i was still a GC manager (recently, Union Square location, NYC), i tried to get a MB combo repaired for a local pro, reasonably well-known guy. i don't know if MB has taken back responsibility for US repairs, but at the time it was still being handled by GC. it took me months to even get a progress report on the repair, let alone to get it completed. MB messed up by getting in to bed with GC, who care little-to-nothing about customer service anymore. great sounding amps, and the 2-year swap-out policy is nice, but when GC is in charge of the repairs, and 90% of their stores don't stock enough MB to cover the swap-out policy, maybe it's time to look elsewhere.
Peter Murray, feel free to rebut my complaints, but these days if someone asks me about an amp they can rely on, i usually nod my head towards Genz.

P. Aaron · #11 07-06-2011, 05:02 PM

It's what we like to see.

countrybass007 · #12 07-06-2011, 07:41 PM

Customer service is so important these days, especially with the cost of most of the new gear. PJB is unbelievable, with Phil, himself, directly involved in the process. I use PJB gear not only because I love the sound, but because of excellent service Phil gives to all his customers. Hopefully, Markbass and some of the other manufacturers will follow suit. GC needs to wake up, and make sure they can take care of any problems with what they sell.

Peter Murray · #13 07-06-2011, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3rdInstrument

when i was still a GC manager (recently, Union Square location, NYC), i tried to get a MB combo repaired for a local pro, reasonably well-known guy. i don't know if MB has taken back responsibility for US repairs, but at the time it was still being handled by GC. it took me months to even get a progress report on the repair, let alone to get it completed. MB messed up by getting in to bed with GC, who care little-to-nothing about customer service anymore. great sounding amps, and the 2-year swap-out policy is nice, but when GC is in charge of the repairs, and 90% of their stores don't stock enough MB to cover the swap-out policy, maybe it's time to look elsewhere.
Peter Murray, feel free to rebut my complaints, but these days if someone asks me about an amp they can rely on, i usually nod my head towards Genz.

Our service program has evolved significantly in the US in the last year.
We have our own service network (VST) with about 40 authorized service centers nationwide. If something goes wrong with your Markbass product, you contact VST directly, not GC.
They have been giving excellent service to our customers.
Our warranty is also transferrable now, as long as the current owner has the original receipt.
As I've mentioned here before, our component failure rate is currently 0.6%, which is much lower than most amp manufacturers. We take quality control and customer service very, very seriously.
Being in GC means that we are available to try and buy in 215 stores across the US, at a competitive price. As a result we are confident that we are offering excellent availability, affordability, reliability and service.

best, Peter

rodl2005 · #14 07-06-2011, 09:50 PM

See, some things are so easy!

MarkA · #15 07-11-2011, 09:24 PM

Hmm. I think I might have a blown tweeter in my CMD121P combo -- which I bought used, so, as far as I know, no warranty for me. The reason I say "I think" about the tweeter is that, 6 or 8 months ago, it did the following:

paper-y, fluttering sound (as if there were a small piece of paper held against the woofer, but definitely coming from the region of the little tweeter)

followed by...

loss of high end; everything sounding muted and muddy.

It did that for a day or two, then stopped -- everything went back to normal. I don't know if something re-aligned itself in the tweeter or what, but that's what happened.

A day or two ago, the paper-y fluttering started again. Today, playing my fretless, the loss of high end. This is at very low volume, btw. The amp is not being pushed at all.

When I contacted Markbass directly by email, the first time, I was told that they don't send parts -- any parts -- to consumers, and that the only option would be to send the amp to an authorized service center for repair -- i.e., shipping both ways, plus parts and labor. If that's changed, great. Please let me know, via PM if you like, what I need to do to get a replacement tweeter and what it'll cost.

If, on top of that, the Markbass techs would be willing to answer some questions, then that would be over-the-top great.

I can probably find a compatible tweet elsewhere, but if I can get it from Markbass at a reasonable cost, cool. I haven't opened up my amp yet, but, as I am out of warranty, figure I haven't got a lot to lose.

If Markbass can provide replacement parts and/or specs, that'll go some way to improving my impression of their customer service.

If there is a service center that I'm confident would handle repairs reliably, quickly, and at reasonable rates (should I ever need it for this or my Markbass SD800), that'd go further.

Your taking the time to answer questions of this nature on here, Peter, does shed a positive light on the company.

MarkA · #16 07-11-2011, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Murray

Our warranty is also transferrable now, as long as the current owner has the original receipt.

Ach! The original receipt! What if (and this is a big if) the original purchase can be looked up in the GC database? They have every little purchase I've ever made on file there, along with my parents' names and the color socks I was wearing. Maybe they'll have the original buyer's purchase in there, too.

Let's not count on this as concerns my original query, and assume I'm out of warranty.

MarkA · #17 07-15-2011, 06:00 PM

For the record, I talked to a guy named Dave at VST, and I can get a replacement tweet or a replacement crossover, should I need, it, sent from them for something like $17 and $30 + shipping, respectively. This is an improvement over my previous result, when Markbass told me "we don't send parts."

I don't know whether they'll send out other parts or not. Specs on parts (such as crossover frequency) didn't seem to be available, but that's more or less what I expected.

The authorized service center nearest me looks to be roughly a five hour drive each way and I'd rather avoid shipping, so that's the option of last resort. 's okay. I need a little DIY, anyway! I'll see if I can figure out how to test the tweet before spending money to determine if I indeed need a new one or it's something else (loose connections, crossover, etc.).

Thanks to Peter Murray for the PM putting me in touch with the service center.

seungkoo · #18 07-15-2011, 06:07 PM

Thought blowing the peizo tweeter was an upgrade =[

MarkA · #19 07-17-2011, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seungkoo

Thought blowing the peizo tweeter was an upgrade =[

Might be that running the 12", full-range and tweeter-less, would sound good. I dunno. As is, with, I presume, the crossover still working and only sending everything below a certain frequency (3 KHz? 5KHz?) to the woofer, things are pretty muffled. The fretless thumps alright, but the "mwah" is gone. The little piezo's not my favorite, but I miss having the high-end there.

Anyway, that's material for another thread.

Jeff Scott · #20 07-17-2011, 10:50 AM

Uisually, with piezo tweeters the woofers run full range and the crossover is just a high pass for the piezo. So........

With a blown piezo, I too, say this is an upgrade.