I recently sent off a non-ADJ light for repair. I received it back today. I am furious. I'm no angry about the time(20 days), but I am FUMING about the work.
This is NOT an anti-ADJ vent. This is so you, other forum readers, are aware of what can and does go wrong out there.
1: First off, I shipped the bulb in its own box within the same box as the fixture because this fixture has a tendency to break bulbs just in transit, set and strike. Figured I'd save theose repair folks the hassle of a broken bulb on delivery. Mind you, these bulbs cost $20 each and I ain't made of money.
2: All the rear panel screws were partially stripped due to OVER-TORQUING. Simply put: they cranked them in there too hard. 2 screws are WRONG screws. Oh wait, let me correct this: one screw was not even put in all the way, so I guess after over-torquing all the others, they ran out of steam.
Me, I use a low torque setting on my electric drill that I use primarily as a screw driver. If I need to tighten, I'll often do it by hand with a long screwdriver that I enjoy using. Even when I'm doing a rack, it's the same thing. The drill gets them in and out faster, but the finishing work MUST be hand-done.
Not onl that, but the front screws were removed by service, and when I took out the rear screws and all the guts came out, well, WTF? Don't they know their own product?
3: Since they'd lost my bulb, I can't test the fixture without the bulb. I can NOT remove the access panel becuase they have the WRONG screw in there AND it is stripped and now I can't do squat because the head is stripped as well. On top of that, I had to bust my butt to get to my replacement bulbs since they weren't readily available. Let's keep in mind that today, where I am, it is POURING down rain and heavy winds, and getting into a tight packed truck and no room to place gear/boxes in my way is simply NOT convenient.
EXTREMELY UNHAPPY.
I'm not mentioning brands because it could get people in trouble.
This is what I am going to say:
Stick with ADJ and Elation. You won't get shoddy products. And when should something go bad, they aren't gonna do a crap-as job on repairing it. They are going to take good care of you.
Time wasted. So angry. I had better things to do today than fight this fixture. I had to bend the bracket to get teh screw to pop, but not before removing all the rear screws to gain access to everything and "free" the panel in a way where I could bend it. I hope I can find a properly threaded replacement, not that it will matter at this point. I'll probably have a nut spot welded to act in place of how the sheet metal used to be.
Which reminds me, I am calling ADJ service/support today. I can guarantee I won't have issues with those folks on the phone, or once my repaired products get back to me.
On the positive side, the fixture works again. I got soaked getting a bulb out of the truck, hurt my back and legs and arms.
I'm not some toady or endorsed ADJ or Elation representative. I am an audio engineer wiht 28 years of experience and have been working in pro audio for 28 years as well. I've been doing lighting for some 8-9 years now as well. While I may not know a lot, I know from my 30 years in IT(concurrent with audi) and 28 years in audio what is crap and what is NOT crap. I know good service and I know BAD service. I am a satisfied customer and if buying the ADJ and Elation brand costs me more, then SO BE IT. I don't have time for problems and issues, so remind me again where am I saving this money?
Case and point:
There is this generic brand CSU/DSU. Sells for around $600. It's decent, no frills, gets the job done. But, they don't tend to last very long. Probably have to sell the client a replacement in 2-3 years, which I guess is good for business. Or, I could sell them this $6500 one that typically can last around 20 years or so and has a buttload of features most clients will never use. In this case, we're talking a massive price difference. BTW: On a previous thread, this expensive gear is the one I do repairs on. RARELY. I don't need to, they don't break. Typically, a repair is more of a "Hey, I want the remote management modem board, so pop that in for me, oh and I'm buying it from you and oh, here's the money for installing it too". On the bad side, it's hard to "upsell" a maintenance package on hardware that has such a good reputation for rock solid performance and reliability over excessively long periods of time. These items get fully tax depreciated and continue to work like a champ, thus saving some companies hundreds of thousands of dollars each "upgrade cycle". They upgrade their routers and switches, but leave their ingress/egress devices alone.
Read on for more price differences.
The difference between ADJ and this "unnamed brand" is night and day. ADJ acts like I do. This other company behaves like the people I put out of business(because I offer superior service).
A few days ago, I was at Skip's Music, one of the local pro audio merchants in my area. I'm seeing lights by the unnamed brand that are $80 LESS than the ADJ equivalent. I was sort of angry about the price differences for what APPEAR to be equivalent product. Thank you for reminding me why I am choosing to pay a bit more for the ADJ product.
A few years ago, I was looking at the ADJ Color Fusion and a light by the same competitior.
1: The Competitor was constantly out of stock, or "was delayed due to weather".
2: The ADJ fixture was $20 more. I needed/wanted 2, so it was $40 more to me.
Guess what? I have 2 Color Fusions. And they STILL WORK.
The hour I spend tearing apart and getting this light back together means I'm out $150 in loss time. Right there, just tack on another $10, and that makes up the difference in price that I paid for TWO working ADJ Mega Panels compared to a competitor's equivalent.
Oh, did I mention they lost my $20 bulb? That's right, I did. Which means the other company has caused me to LOSE money.
Rant off. Don't worry ADJ support, when I call you guys, I'll be in a good mood. You never let me down.
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