Al Kraft
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- May 2, 2016
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- Mesa Boogie beta product tester and player support
+1...and it's how we work problems to a solution that defines us, not the problems that come our way.
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GK MB 212 II Rant. Not Happy
- Thread starter StudioGC
- Start date
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- Tags
- 212 gallien-krueger mb
@StudioGC, if has been a couple days now after your rant exploded. Did you get properly taken care of, what happened and are you satisfied about the end result?
Jason popped in to say it was resolving, but no details. My guess would be new amp guts on the way to the repairers to install, since it was B stock originally.
Email from Jason at GK from Thursday said Washington Music Center would be in touch with me. Haven't heard from them yet.
Be sure to let Jason know if they are dropping the ball!
Yes he had a receipt for a three year old unregistered amp (not produced for G-K until after this thread gathered troll steam). It may have been "New in Box", but without registering the product the assumption with ANY manufacturer goes back to the date of shipment. Register your purchases people or you are bound for problems. Doesn't help to also say 2013 on your purchase date (done by mistake in an email to the manufacturer) but since YOU made it a point. I'm sure the OP appreciates it
.
I agree with Mr. @B-string . Even with buying used equipment it doesn't hurt to get in touch with the manufaturer. I've called GK 3 times about used amps I bought. They are the best in the business for tech support.Yes he had a receipt for a three year old unregistered amp (not produced for G-K until after this thread gathered troll steam). It may have been "New in Box", but without registering the product the assumption with ANY manufacturer goes back to the date of shipment. Register your purchases people or you are bound for problems. Doesn't help to also say 2013 on your purchase date (done by mistake in an email to the manufacturer) but since YOU made it a point. I'm sure the OP appreciates it
only if you fat finger typo the purchase year same as build year in your email of complaint like OP did.
How has this "point" been made? The very few that ever came across my repair bench were a polar opposite of your point.
Check your spam.
You kind of expect Friday after the Thursday email but Monday isn't too bad. Tuesday I think I would be getting uptight again.
You kind of expect Friday after the Thursday email but Monday isn't too bad. Tuesday I think I would be getting uptight again.
Okay, that private repair station also serves as a warranty station for many other brands like Fender, Mesa, Peavey, Yamaha and many others. So this point is; they are also throw away because the same shop contracts for their warranty repair?
It might be an isolated case, we don't know. To make make a conclusion on so little info is neither fair or proper. In life: "Stuff happens, only the depth varies". [Cleaned up for TB board use.]
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I find this the most baffling part about this whole situation. How can one be a bass player and not frequent talkbass?
In all seriousness, here's to hoping it all works out to everybody's satisfaction.
Well a purpose has IMHO come from it.
1) Register you stuff after you buy it. Be sure to keep your sales receipt as backup.
2) There is a real big separation between who made it, who sold it after buying from those that made it, the customer who buys it as end user/owner and a service center other than contacting the manufacturer directly.
EDIT: 3) Assume nothing.
1) Register you stuff after you buy it. Be sure to keep your sales receipt as backup.
2) There is a real big separation between who made it, who sold it after buying from those that made it, the customer who buys it as end user/owner and a service center other than contacting the manufacturer directly.
EDIT: 3) Assume nothing.
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Ok.
As should be done, I'm going to make closure with this thread.
I have a brand new amp in my possession thanks to Jason at GK. Let me be clear that I also need to take some responsibility for some of the confusion with GK on the actual purchase date of my amp. If GK had known the amp was actually purchased in October 2015 I'm sure they would have been on a replacement like "white on rice". So my apologies to GK.
The real problem in the whole deal has been with Protech for sloppy work and scheduling and also with Washington Music Center for not giving one hoot about the problems with my new amp.
In customer service, a bit of shown concern (even if not meant) goes a long way to appease a disgruntled customer. Something Protech and Washington Music Center failed to do.
Again, my thanks to GK for making it right.
They do make great amps and everybody that makes electrical components will have items that fail. I just happened to get unlucky.
So please go and buy GK products and know you will be taken care of!
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Here is something from 2018 OH WELL. I was considering listening to some GK Combo's MB210 ii AND 212 ii
but to be honest only because of similar problems being rumored with Markbass [want Ninja 102 500]
"Just a warning to all out there considering GK. This is my recent experience:
After trying an MB Fusion 800 in November 2017, I decided to order one. This is essentially GK’s flagship bass head: 800 Watts with a tube pre-amp, valued at $1,500 CAD. I was still waiting on a cabinet order by the time I received the head (January 10th 2018), so I was limited to headphones for the first two weeks of usage.
Right away I could tell that there was some type of white noise / hiss in the signal path. I thought that maybe it was just a noisy headphone output, so I’d wait on my cabinet to really judge the problem. When I received my cabinet, the white noise was clearly present from the tweeter. I had not experienced any white noise on a Fender Rumble 200 combo, and soon following, a 500W Markbass Momark and an Ampeg PF-800.
I e-mailed GK for support. My e-mail was ignored. I then told my retailer about the problem. They said I was going to have to bring it in for repairs. Given that this was a defect right out the box and because it was a relatively expensive head, I wanted it replaced with a new one. Because they were not an official GK retailer and my unit had to be obtained by special order, this was refused, but more importantly, refused because they didn’t want to be stuck with a defective head. Even after repairing it, they didn’t want to be stuck with a product they didn’t usually carry (so it was explained to me).
I waited at least two weeks for the store’s service center to say there was nothing wrong with the amp. They compared it with other amp heads and said the amount of noise was in-line with acceptable norms. However, they did not compare with another MB Fusion 800 nor even confirmed if they tested with a cabinet that had a tweeter. I didn’t accept their diagnosis. The store then told me they could have their distributor look at it, but they would most probably find no fault and end up charging me shipping fees for the back and forth.
I then made a long-distance phone call to GK California and spoke with their service representative Jason Finley. He was mostly unwilling to help and just wanted to funnel me back to the store’s distributor. He finally ended up responding to my ignored e-mail with the distributor’s contact information (which my store already had). I then asked my store to contact Jason and the store manager claims that he was rude and unwilling to help, once again trying to funnel everyone back to the distributor.
In retrospect, I should have asked for a full refund at this point, but I wanted this amp functional. I agreed to have it shipped back to the distributor. I waited over a month to get it back. They claimed they added a “stabilant” to a molex connector and that one of the pots was noisy (not even part of my original complaint). At the store, I went as far as putting my ear to my cabinet’s tweeter and could hardly hear anything. Treble at maximum was not even 10% as bad as what I had before. The amp was essentially now dead quiet, it had been fixed, thank the Lord.
Two days later, white noise started spewing out of the cabinet again. I contacted the distributor myself this time and demanded a brand new replacement. The distributor told me that they felt confident that they’d be able to fix it for good this time and refused me a replacement (also claiming stock issues on this model). They wanted me to return the unit a second time. Unreal.
I waited over a month again to get it back a second time. I had acquired this amp January 10th 2018 and we were now April 22nd 2018. The distributor claimed that the entire power amplifier (an Ice module) was replaced. Originally they said they were going to have to order one from GK which would take until late May, but tried to make me feel special as they ended up ripping the module out of a unit to then transfer into mine. When I plugged everything in at the store and heard a small bit of noise, it seemed acceptable, however it was somewhat hard to judge with the noise of the store. When I hooked it up at home, the original white noise problem was back in full effect.
At this point I demanded of the store either a brand new unit or a full refund. The store didn’t want to go the brand new unit route as there was always some risk of the same problem happening again. Apparently the distributor even gave the store a really hard time in getting me a refund, despite all the insanity I had been put through. So in the end I got my money back.
In this day and age, most products and services are great…until something goes wrong and you see how the company is there to support its customers. I worked in the service industry for over 15 years and bent over backwards for some when it only involved a monthly account of maybe $40. GK’s ill regard for their customers is despicable, especially with ignoring my original inquiry and then just brushing off myself and the store. Their Facebook administrator is also a joke as my messages were ignored and when I would post comments, they would simply delete them so they could maintain the false image of some healthy company. The distributor is also pretty much worthless like boobies on a nun. Who cheaps out on a repair and then has the gull to say they’ll get it right the second time…..and actually ends up not!?
Thank God I did not buy a matching GK cabinet. This pitiful company will never get a penny of my money ever again and I hope everyone stays away. I have been buying musical equipment for over 20 years and this has to be not only the worst musical purchasing experience I’ve ever had, but the worst retail experience, period."
[my comment]
B String, don't you think 'defective out of the box' once confirmed, deserved a new one and then fix bad one and sell as B Stock? Jason is portrayed very differently from your gleaning. Maybe Freddy's post are as valuable as as anyone's.
but to be honest only because of similar problems being rumored with Markbass [want Ninja 102 500]
"Just a warning to all out there considering GK. This is my recent experience:
After trying an MB Fusion 800 in November 2017, I decided to order one. This is essentially GK’s flagship bass head: 800 Watts with a tube pre-amp, valued at $1,500 CAD. I was still waiting on a cabinet order by the time I received the head (January 10th 2018), so I was limited to headphones for the first two weeks of usage.
Right away I could tell that there was some type of white noise / hiss in the signal path. I thought that maybe it was just a noisy headphone output, so I’d wait on my cabinet to really judge the problem. When I received my cabinet, the white noise was clearly present from the tweeter. I had not experienced any white noise on a Fender Rumble 200 combo, and soon following, a 500W Markbass Momark and an Ampeg PF-800.
I e-mailed GK for support. My e-mail was ignored. I then told my retailer about the problem. They said I was going to have to bring it in for repairs. Given that this was a defect right out the box and because it was a relatively expensive head, I wanted it replaced with a new one. Because they were not an official GK retailer and my unit had to be obtained by special order, this was refused, but more importantly, refused because they didn’t want to be stuck with a defective head. Even after repairing it, they didn’t want to be stuck with a product they didn’t usually carry (so it was explained to me).
I waited at least two weeks for the store’s service center to say there was nothing wrong with the amp. They compared it with other amp heads and said the amount of noise was in-line with acceptable norms. However, they did not compare with another MB Fusion 800 nor even confirmed if they tested with a cabinet that had a tweeter. I didn’t accept their diagnosis. The store then told me they could have their distributor look at it, but they would most probably find no fault and end up charging me shipping fees for the back and forth.
I then made a long-distance phone call to GK California and spoke with their service representative Jason Finley. He was mostly unwilling to help and just wanted to funnel me back to the store’s distributor. He finally ended up responding to my ignored e-mail with the distributor’s contact information (which my store already had). I then asked my store to contact Jason and the store manager claims that he was rude and unwilling to help, once again trying to funnel everyone back to the distributor.
In retrospect, I should have asked for a full refund at this point, but I wanted this amp functional. I agreed to have it shipped back to the distributor. I waited over a month to get it back. They claimed they added a “stabilant” to a molex connector and that one of the pots was noisy (not even part of my original complaint). At the store, I went as far as putting my ear to my cabinet’s tweeter and could hardly hear anything. Treble at maximum was not even 10% as bad as what I had before. The amp was essentially now dead quiet, it had been fixed, thank the Lord.
Two days later, white noise started spewing out of the cabinet again. I contacted the distributor myself this time and demanded a brand new replacement. The distributor told me that they felt confident that they’d be able to fix it for good this time and refused me a replacement (also claiming stock issues on this model). They wanted me to return the unit a second time. Unreal.
I waited over a month again to get it back a second time. I had acquired this amp January 10th 2018 and we were now April 22nd 2018. The distributor claimed that the entire power amplifier (an Ice module) was replaced. Originally they said they were going to have to order one from GK which would take until late May, but tried to make me feel special as they ended up ripping the module out of a unit to then transfer into mine. When I plugged everything in at the store and heard a small bit of noise, it seemed acceptable, however it was somewhat hard to judge with the noise of the store. When I hooked it up at home, the original white noise problem was back in full effect.
At this point I demanded of the store either a brand new unit or a full refund. The store didn’t want to go the brand new unit route as there was always some risk of the same problem happening again. Apparently the distributor even gave the store a really hard time in getting me a refund, despite all the insanity I had been put through. So in the end I got my money back.
In this day and age, most products and services are great…until something goes wrong and you see how the company is there to support its customers. I worked in the service industry for over 15 years and bent over backwards for some when it only involved a monthly account of maybe $40. GK’s ill regard for their customers is despicable, especially with ignoring my original inquiry and then just brushing off myself and the store. Their Facebook administrator is also a joke as my messages were ignored and when I would post comments, they would simply delete them so they could maintain the false image of some healthy company. The distributor is also pretty much worthless like boobies on a nun. Who cheaps out on a repair and then has the gull to say they’ll get it right the second time…..and actually ends up not!?
Thank God I did not buy a matching GK cabinet. This pitiful company will never get a penny of my money ever again and I hope everyone stays away. I have been buying musical equipment for over 20 years and this has to be not only the worst musical purchasing experience I’ve ever had, but the worst retail experience, period."
[my comment]
B String, don't you think 'defective out of the box' once confirmed, deserved a new one and then fix bad one and sell as B Stock? Jason is portrayed very differently from your gleaning. Maybe Freddy's post are as valuable as as anyone's.
