I've sorta come to the conclusion that part of the problem is caused by all the
different companies being under the MFJ umbrella and the management structure
only loosely defined with no really strong top dog. Each department has become
very good at passing the buck to another department with no one being held
accountable.
My .02 (or less) worth.
73, Mike NF4L
On Aug 30, 2014, at 9:57 AM, Doug Turnbull <turnbull@net1.ie> wrote:
> Herb,
> I pray that my recent posts did not demean your legitimate complaint.
> This type of response to a customer is shoddy at best. One can only hope
> that alarm bells ring at MFJ.
>
> 73 Doug EI2CN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> Herbert Schoenbohm
> Sent: 30 August 2014 13:35
> Cc: Cqtestk4xs@aol.com; towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Servicing an MFJ 259B
>
> After a week of continuous voice mail hell and leaving detailed messages
> with no reply nor e mail reply I decided to call the only section of MFJ
> that answers the phone, the order desk. I spoke to Janet and she agreed
> to "go to the back" a give my requst to "Jim" and as him to call me. He
> never did. So after several days I called back and and asked Janet
> "what in the world could be going?" She said she would go in the back
> and check again. She put me on hold and in 5 minutes came back on the
> line and said the 269 (hopefully mine) was on the bench being worked on
> by Jim. I asked to talk to Jim since replacing the front end diodes
> should not take four months. (I even sent the correct new diodes with
> the repair order) Janet told me first that Jim was out to lunch and she
> would make sure he called when he got back. I guess that was a late
> 3:30pm lunch break. After hearing nothing I called again and was told
> Jim is at a ham-fest. So I guess Jim is having lunch at a ham-fest
> somewhere. Janet told me to call back on September 2nd after the holiday.
>
> After many months of e-mails and phone calls and being told they have no
> record of the unit ever being received, I am happy to report that they
> now say my MFJ-269 was finally found and has a service ticket number of
> 87303. However when I enter that very number on their website service
> status menu it reports "no such record found." It seems that other
> amatuers have a similar problem with MFJ repair. Maybe Ameritron is in
> a different section, a different building with different people. Not
> sure. But one thing I do know to a moral certainty is that for a
> company in the business of selling communication products MFJ has little
> clue in how to reasonably communicating with customers. Do they have a
> customer service e mail address as I am tired of filling out the
> "no-reply" form they use? There must be someone in charge who I can
> talk to via e mail. They have both my MFJ-269 and a defective Ameritron
> RCS-12. The RCS has a leaking pass switching transistor causing the
> wrong antennas to be switched. This is clearly a design flaw as it
> occurs on several units I have tried. I even gave the solution provided
> to me by Joe W4TV of changing the value of the voltage divider resistors
> to cause the pass transistor to shut off completely when not selected.
> (I have changed to a DX-Engineering 5KW box and built my own band data
> antenna control around a Arduino 1-8 switch board which works
> flawlessly. (Arduino control board from eBay for under $15)
>
> Does MFJ have a specialist in customer relations? I really do get
> better cusotmer service by other large electronic companies when my call
> is routed or outsource to Bangladesh or Mumbai. I strongly believe in
> the success of any U.S. manufacturer. Starkville, MS is a big college
> town and I am certain that there would be some techie students who would
> be willing to work even part time to answer customer's concerns via
> phone or on line. It doesn't require much or MFJ to improve its image.
> In comparison Microham has many excellent products and are located in
> far away Slovakia. I get a reply from them in hours on any and all
> technical questions with valuable solutions. A business that
> demonstrates it cares for its customers is the message I get from
> MicroHam but not from MFJ. It would take very little effort on MFJ's
> part to change all that.
>
> Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
>
>
>
>
>
> On 8/28/2014 7:43 PM, Cqtestk4xs@aol.com wrote:
>> *Five months is long enough. Ask for a supervisor and tell him $$ for
>> the lost unit or a new 259. It's worth a try. Friggin' MFJ sucks.*
>> **
>> *73 Bill K4XS*
>> In a message dated 8/28/2014 6:15:44 P.M. Coordinated Universal Time,
>> herbert.schoenbohm@gmail.com writes:
>>
>> On March 30,2014 I sent my MFJ-259 for repair and the replacement of
>> the front end surface mount diodes which I included in with the
>> repair
>> request. They claimed they do not have my unit. So I sent proof
>> of the
>> mailing and delivery by Priority Mail with the pickup at
>> Starkville. MS
>> They have been giving me the run around for the past 5 months and
>> claim
>> they can not find my unit. This is the worst customer service I have
>> ever received in over 50 years in dealing with vendors.
>>
>> Anyone have an suggestion on what I can do at this point? Please
>> help me!
>>
>>
>> Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
>>
>> On 8/28/2014 12:22 PM, Bill via TowerTalk wrote:
>>> I have bought my last item from MFJ/Ameritron.
>>>
>>> Over the years I have had several items of MFJ/Ameritron
>> manufacture and
>>> always had great customer service. Over the last couple of
>> years that
>>> satisfaction has changed to disappointment...major problems
>> with repair of my
>>> AL-1500 and now my MFJ259
>>>
>>> I sent my MFJ 259B in for repair on July 2 and they received
>> on July 7.
>>> I was told at that time it would be four weeks until they got
>> to repair
>>> it....a long time but fair enough. On Aug 7 still no word from
>> them so I
>>> called. They would place it on their "expedite list". A week
>> later no word
>>> from them so I called again. It was still on their expedite list.
>>>
>>> On August 18, I finally got a call telling me they had done no
>> repairs to
>>> it, and it was working fine. I disputed this and repeated
>> exactly what was
>>> in my letter to them and to check it out again. On the 21st,
>> they finally
>>> found the problem and said they would be shipping it on Friday.
>>>
>>>
>>> It's a two day ship from MS to FL so it should have arrived on
>> Monday, the
>>> 25th. Today, the 28th, it still had not arrived so I called
>> again. The
>>> problem: the MFJ 259 sat around for four business days when
>> they finally
>>> shipped it. It was shipped yesterday. When I asked what the
>> problem was, I
>>> got no reason, apology or anything else. They had no problem
>> charging my
>>> credit card right away.There is no excuse for doing business in
>> this manner.
>>>
>>> Bottom line, do some deep thinking if you want to buy any antenna
>>> analyzers from MFJ. Mine worked great, but customer support and
>> repair is sadly
>>> lacking. They had this device from July 7 until August 27.
>> IMHO, that is
>>> terrible customer service.
>>>
>>> Bill K4XS/KH7XS
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>>
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