I have recently had some good experiences with the Ameritron customer
support group.
A couple of months ago I bought a second Ameritron AL1500 amplifier. After
installing the tube and power transformer (packaged separately), it came up
and worked fine. However I noticed one oddity about the new amplifier. On
40, 80, and 160 meters the loading control would be at zero (maximum
capacity for the loading capacitor). My older AL1500 used less capacity for
loading on the three low bands but it was close to the same settings for
10, 15, and 20 meters.
I called the Ameritron Customer Support and described my problem to them
and they said that the newer AL1500 models switched in less loading
capacity then the older models. However, the load control should not end up
at zero for the three low bands in spite of that and the newer AL1500
manual agreed with what they said. The amplifier was certainly usable but I
wasn't happy with what I perceived as not enough plate loading capacity as
normal.
The customer support guy walked me through some checks with my capacity
meter to see if any of the fixed caps were bad. But we just couldn't find
anything wrong. After what I thought was a reasonable effort on my part to
isolate the problem I finally said, "I think you should just send me a new
RF deck". They agreed to do this without any argument whatsoever. A few
days later the new RF deck arrived and it worked according to the
specifications in the AL1500 manual. Ameritron also sent me a UPS sticker
for me to return the old RF deck at no cost to me. I see this as good
customer service.
Another Ameritron story:
Soon after replacing my AL1500 a friend brought over an AL1200 that had a
problem. I thought since I had just been digging into my Ameritron amp, I
was on a roll and could help my friend fix his. We found a single bad
capacitor in his power supply bank of 8 capacitors. After determining the
part number of the capacitor, we ordered the part from Ameritron.
However, the part arrived and the new capacitor was physically shorter, had
more capacity, but had the same working voltage. When I called Ameritron
back to ask about it they said, "you must have an older AL1200 because we
can't get those capacitors anymore. We now use the newer capacitors that
are really better anyway."
Since I couldn't use one capacitor that was of different value in the power
supply, I priced seven more capacitors and I priced the entire capacitor
assembly (includes eight capacitors, bleeders, circuit board, and other
components). The entire assemble was actually cheaper then buying seven
more capacitors. When I ordered the capacitor assembly I asked if they
would leave one capacitor off the assembly and credit me for what I paid
for the first capacitor I ordered. They were happy to do this and I was
very satisfied with their help.
The only minor criticism I might have is that it would be helpful for
Ameritron to ask for serial numbers of amplifiers when taking parts orders.
This might allow them to identify part changes in the amplifiers and make
sure their customers get the right parts the first time they call.
Over all, I am extremely satisfied with Ameritron Custom Service.
73, Richard
k5na@texas.net
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