John: We have all sinned at one time or other. I called Kenwood one
time regarding one HF radio and one VHF radio, I owned, and had sent
them for repair. I got a hold of a tech, he didn't like my question,
put the phone down on the table, LIVE, told a fellow co-worker my
problem, and the co worker told him to hang up on me. Then I heard a
click as I was disconnected. Bandwidth is too valuable to go into all
the details, but my questions and requests were very reasonable. I could
not believe this actually could happen to me! After I went ballistic on
a return call to their sales manager, they attempted to help me. I have
never bought another Japanese HF rig since then. It truly woke me up and
got me to realize how bad these foreign manufacturers are on customer
service. They keep coming up with new rigs every 6 months with a 100
new buttons nobody will ever use and don't support their last weeks
model. I had a less than 2 year old VHF radio in there for repair they
had no part to fix it. I had to make up my own home made part to put the
radio back in service. (A coax pigtail with connector). This really
opened my eyes to how they treat customers. Part of the problem is the
unsophisticated new type non technical ham of today who puts up with
type treatment. But, it is obvious it is catching up with them. Sales
are slumping for numerous reasons. Their fix is cutting cost and giving
even poorer service. They just don't get it. We as a ham community
need to help good companies like TenTech get the word out to new hams.
We need to explain, "You don't need 1000 buttons on a radio and you need
a radio you can operate without having a truth table next to you at all
times". We need to explain to them how important customer service is
over the long hall. We need to help our American Manufacturers sell
their superior products and superior service to our newer hams. We need
to do this for ourselves. What is wrong with punishing the guilty and
rewarding the worthy? I have heard hams talking about the latest
Ikomatic or Kenellmatic radio and we sit back saying to ourselves, "not
me", and we say nothing. They reinforce each other and keep buying this
trash. Companies like TenTech help us everyday. We need to pay them
back by helping them. This goes beyond patting each other on the back
on this reflector. So John, look at your transgression as a learning
experience! You are now a wiser and more knowledgeable consumer. JUST
DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE AGAIN, OR WE WILL CALL THE RADIO POLICE ON YOU!
Lee Bahr w0vt
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