GK MB 212 II Rant. Not Happy

[StudioGC]

The reason I purchased a GK combo amp last October was because of the great customer service and dependability of the product I had heard so much about.

Well, I've had the amp 6 months and I've only been able to play it for about 3 months. Half of its life has been spent in the repair shop.

It started cutting out on me during band practice in March of this year. Took it into the store where I bought it (Chuck Levins Washington Music Center) and they said, wrong place to bring it in for repair. You need to take it to our repair facility (about 10 miles away, but ages in DC traffic). Bummed out since I called ahead and asked where to take the amp for warranty work and they said back to the store. Oh well.

The big issue I have is it took them 3 months to get the amp back to me. They claimed lost parts, amp didn't get put into repair rotation etc. etc.

Two months into this ordeal I wrote to GK to see if they could light a fire under the butts of the repair facility. Jason simply said the repair facility's are independently owned and operated and they have nothing to do with them other then to supply parts.

This brings us to last Friday when I FINALLY picked up my amp. Plugged it in at band practice and same damn problem. It's like they didn't even test it.

Can you imagine how tee'd off I am at this point?

I took it back to Chuck Levin's the next day to see if they could exchange it for a working amp or atleaast talk to GK. They said nope, you're only choice is to take it back to the repair facility. So here I wait again.

My local mom and pop store hooked me up with a cab to get me through gigs I've had and I've since purchased a Markbass since I will be selling this GK lemon.

I would be inclined to keep it if there was some concern on the part of GK or Chuck Levins for the crappy service and disregard for customer service. I really feel left out in the cold on this and it has REALLY turned me off of GK and Chuck Levins Washington Music Center.

Rant over.

 

[Al Kraft]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Chuck's sounds like it's changed a lot from the old days when I used to do business there.

I'm kind of surprised that GK didn't offer you the option of sending it back for a factory repair at their expense (and at least cover the cost of return shipping). Not spending an afternoon in metro traffic is easily worth $50 to me.

While I've never had to get something GK serviced (yet), Mesa had me send stuff back to them (it was for upgrades under warranty on my still functional Carbines) and they covered the shipping back to me.

 

[StudioGC]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Chuck's sounds like it's changed a lot from the old days when I used to do business there.

I'm kind of surprised that GK didn't offer you the option of sending it back for a factory repair at their expense (and at least cover the cost of return shipping). Not spending an afternoon in metro traffic is easily worth $50 to me.

While I've never had to get something GK serviced (yet), Mesa had me send stuff back to them (it was for upgrades under warranty on my still functional Carbines) and they covered the shipping back to me.

I was at least expecting them to offer to send it back to GK.

Steve (customer relations manager at Chuck Levins) best response was it's a 6 month old amp, you're only choice is to send it back to the repair shop.

Heck, Victor Litz Music in Gaithersburg set me up two weeks ago with a used amp and cab for an outdoor gig and didn't even charge me rental since I've been a decent customer there. I called Chuck Levins about getting an amp for the weekend and they said sure, we can sell you an amp. sheesh.

 

[bobcruz]

That is extremely poor and unacceptable customer "service." Thanks for the heads-up. Doesn't GK's owner have a TB presence? You might want to ping him.

 

[shawshank72]

That's a shame.
I proudly suggest this amp in lots of threads.
Years ago I got an original silver faced 212 and GK shipped me a brand new one from the factory when I got a lemon.
Have the 212-II now and no issues.
Sucks to get treated that way.
Sorry to hear it's tainted you, it's such a fantastic amp.

 

[pcake]

The reason I purchased a GK combo amp last October was because of the great customer service and dependability of the product I had heard so much about.

Well, I've had the amp 6 months and I've only been able to play it for about 3 months. Half of its life has been spent in the repair shop.

It started cutting out on me during band practice in March of this year. Took it into the store where I bought it (Chuck Levins Washington Music Center) and they said, wrong place to bring it in for repair. You need to take it to our repair facility (about 10 miles away, but ages in DC traffic). Bummed out since I called ahead and asked where to take the amp for warranty work and they said back to the store. Oh well.

The big issue I have is it took them 3 months to get the amp back to me. They claimed lost parts, amp didn't get put into repair rotation etc. etc.

Two months into this ordeal I wrote to GK to see if they could light a fire under the butts of the repair facility. Jason simply said the repair facility's are independently owned and operated and they have nothing to do with them other then to supply parts.

This brings us to last Friday when I FINALLY picked up my amp. Plugged it in at band practice and same damn problem. It's like they didn't even test it.

Can you imagine how tee'd off I am at this point?

I took it back to Chuck Levin's the next day to see if they could exchange it for a working amp or atleaast talk to GK. They said nope, you're only choice is to take it back to the repair facility. So here I wait again.

My local mom and pop store hooked me up with a cab to get me through gigs I've had and I've since purchased a Markbass since I will be selling this GK lemon.

I would be inclined to keep it if there was some concern on the part of GK or Chuck Levins for the crappy service and disregard for customer service. I really feel left out in the cold on this and it has REALLY turned me off of GK and Chuck Levins Washington Music Center.

Rant over.

i've read this over twice, and i feel i'm missing something.

is chuck levins' repair facility a facility that GK uses, and did you talk to GK before letting the CL facility do the repairs?

 

[Al Kraft]

GK's reputation for quality and customer service is better than the way you were treated. I suspect that when the GK folks read your post someone will reach out to you. It's not unusual to see Bob Gallien himself (user name RAG as I recall) jump in directly.

Victor Litz Music certainly showed Chuck's what customer loyalty means!! You've got to love places like that.

Best of luck getting your combo sorted out - they are really sweet sounding rigs when they work properly.

 

[Al Kraft]

i've read this over twice, and i feel i'm missing something.

is chuck levins' repair facility a facility that GK uses, and did you talk to GK before letting the CL facility do the repairs?

I think Chuck's is an authorized GK repair center, but am not 100% positive - they used to be an authorized repair center for just about every brand in the business.

 

[StudioGC]

i've read this over twice, and i feel i'm missing something.

is chuck levins' repair facility a facility that GK uses, and did you talk to GK before letting the CL facility do the repairs?

Chuck Levins uses Protech for their amp repair.(where I took the amp and they are a GK authorized repair facility).

 

[two fingers]

That is awful customer service. Based on what I have heard about GK over the years, my gut tells me you got the wrong guy on the wrong day when you called them. At least I hope that's what happened.

Maybe @rag will swing by and help make things right.

 

[StudioGC]

Update. I've had a multiple email exchange with Jason at GK this afternoon so we will see what happens....

 

[bobcruz]

 

[StudioGC]

That's a shame.
I proudly suggest this amp in lots of threads.
Years ago I got an original silver faced 212 and GK shipped me a brand new one from the factory when I got a lemon.
Have the 212-II now and no issues.
Sucks to get treated that way.
Sorry to hear it's tainted you, it's such a fantastic amp.

I think I remember reading about your replacement amp in a thread from the past. It's stories like that that made me give GK a go.

It's also why I'm so surprised about the service I received.

 

[pcake]

i am very sorry you received crappy customer service - that's very disheartening. GK should have been much better in the communication department. i hope things get sorted out for you.

as a suggestion, in the future don't take anything back to the retailer after the return period is over - contact the manufacturer. they and their authorized service places are usually the only ones who can deal with warranty issues. i'm into photography, and most photographers i know avoid retailers who do their own repairs for a variety of reasons from poor repairs that invalidate the manufacturer warranty to holding onto stuff for months. usually it's the first, and that's why it's a good idea to make sure the manufacturer is your contact person and that you use their repair shop. sometimes the shops that offer their own warranties aren't even official resellers for the manufacturers, which is i guess why they have to offer their own warranties.

still, poor repairs done by third party places make life hard for the official repair shops to figure out and can cause more expensive parts to need repair, which is why manufacturers rarely warranty stuff that's been worked on by others.

 

[Kukulkan61]

And then a lot of these Mom Pop shops with bad customer service bitch and cry because there customers are buying online or at the GCs, Sam Ash etc.

 

[StudioGC]

i am very sorry you received crappy customer service - that's very disheartening. GK should have been much better in the communication department. i hope things get sorted out for you.

as a suggestion, in the future don't take anything back to the retailer after the return period is over - contact the manufacturer. they and their authorized service places are usually the only ones who can deal with warranty issues. i'm into photography, and most photographers i know avoid retailers who do their own repairs for a variety of reasons from poor repairs that invalidate the manufacturer warranty to holding onto stuff for months. usually it's the first, and that's why it's a good idea to make sure the manufacturer is your contact person and that you use their repair shop. sometimes the shops that offer their own warranties aren't even official resellers for the manufacturers, which is i guess why they have to offer their own warranties.

still, poor repairs done by third party places make life hard for the official repair shops to figure out and can cause more expensive parts to need repair, which is why manufacturers rarely warranty stuff that's been worked on by others.

I probably wasn't very clear. But the repair facility (Protech) is the authorized GK repair facility for our area.

 

[Al Kraft]

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Washington DC metro area and our music stores, Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center is (or at least used to be - I haven't been there in a while) a monster operation. When local music stores would get a box or two of something, Chuck's got train car loads. Every top brand could be found there and you had your choice of picking from a huge stock room of almost any product you can imagine. If you came in looking for a Fender Jazz Bass you could try out 20 or 30 and pick the one you liked. That's what adds to making this such a sad and hard to believe story. Chuck's was a music icon for decades.

 

[FirewalZ]

Unless I read something wrong, sounds like more of an issue with the repair shop than actually GK.

 

[pbass2]

I was at least expecting them to offer to send it back to GK.

Steve (customer relations manager at Chuck Levins) best response was it's a 6 month old amp, you're only choice is to send it back to the repair shop.

Heck, Victor Litz Music in Gaithersburg set me up two weeks ago with a used amp and cab for an outdoor gig and didn't even charge me rental since I've been a decent customer there. I called Chuck Levins about getting an amp for the weekend and they said sure, we can sell you an amp. sheesh.

Man, when I was growing up in the DC area Chuck's was THE place to go--they took care of you, even if you were a noob. Bummer.

 

[MoeTown1986]

That's crazy it took so long. I had a defective speaker in my MB212 and took it into Protech and had it back in like 2 weeks. It was covered under warranty, no issues. Came back working fine. Sorry to hear you had to go through this.