I recently purchased an old Marantz compact flash recorder pretty cheap on eBay. Whe it arrived I wasn't able to use any of my compact flash cards, a firmware update was needed but no where to be found.

This bit of kit is long dead I think, a quick call to Marantz UK and the matter was solved within a few minutes. They answered the phone within 30 seconds, dragged up the service manual and firmware updates emailed them over and I was up and running within the hour.

Totally awesome level of support for Marantz! Anyone else had a good experience like this ???

Cheers

Cris

I'm trying to think of a similar experience, because I know I've had one, but I can't get past one question: "Marantz made CF readers?"

Compact Flash Recorder, yep http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=1582

Maybe I should have said Solid State

I know the trend for recorders is to use SD, but I like the idea of this old Marantz as it uses Compact Flash cards like my camera and AA batteries like my flash guns, I always have lots of the in the camera bag.

I was really surprised by how helpful they were, if I were to be in the market for something new they would be my first port of call I think.

Cheers

Cris

Ooohhh! I missed the recorder part. Pardon me, I'm still waking up from a LOOONG sleep after working my butt off for Thanksgiving dinner last night

I've always said that I appreciate the service from my web host. Bluehost has a 24 hour phone line you can call (and I've had to call in the past at 3am). Even at the busiest times of day I've gotten through to someone in a few minutes (at 3am it was about 30 seconds).

Still, I know there was a recent case of great service, and it's really bugging me that I can't think of it right now...

That's the model I was telling you about last weekend. Think they still have some spares knocking about downstairs.

Back on topic: Omneon & Tandberg.

I've actually gotten really good support from Netgear ProSafe. They sent me some spare parts for free even though the switches were secondhand and I didn't have any kind of maintenance contract.

Sweet !!! It's a really nice unit, I'm only using it for backup recordings so I'm not too fussy to have the very latest thing. Would have preferred the 671 but I only paid £220 which I think is pretty good for the condition it's in.

Cheers

Cris

"Quick to criticise, slow to praise"

If I get really good service, I think the most important thing is not just to thank the individual but to go to the top, preferably the CEO, and let them know.
I worked in Selfridges for a short while, early in my career, and have seen just what crass complaints the public make, particularly when they know you can't respond: It's influenced me into taking this stance ever since.
Not that I did it for that reason, but it got me a free flight to Venice!

I think the best support I've had for an old bit of kit, was when my 10-year old North Face VE-24 tent began to disintegrate. The screens deteriorated, and the coatings began to peel away from the fabric.

I took it into the local dealer, and inquired about possible repair services. The nice chap there took the tent and said he'd get back to me.

A week later, on the way out of town for a long weekend camping/climbing trip, we stopped by to pick up the tent -- and were handed a brand new VE-24 in place of the old one.

Sweet!

I don't know if this qualifies. It would certainly be considered an old bit of kit now, but at the time it wasn't.

This will surely date me, but back in the day (mid 1980s?) I had paid to upgrade to WordStar 5.5 about three weeks previously. There was some minor technical glitch, I don't recall what, so in desperation I called their technical support and was told that WordStar 6.0 was now available, and that they would no longer support prior versions. I informed them that I had purchased every version of Wordstar since 2.0, and what I paid for 5.5 was absolutely the last nickel of mine they would ever see. (Probably the loss of my business was what caused them to go broke.)

I then called Lotus, they were happy to send me a feature-restricted demo copy of their word processor Ami Pro. When it arrived, it wouldn't install, and they were happy to spend half an hour on the phone with me working out the glitches. This was back in the happy days when you had to deal with IRQs and memory management, etc. I then bought the full working copy of Ami Pro, and would be using it still if it had ever been ported over to 32-bit platforms. For what I do with word processing it was hugely superior to Microbloatsoft Word. The point of this rambling narrative is that any company that would give technical support for a free demo download gets my vote for good service.

tanstaafl.

Back in the days of Empeg, I had just bought a 10GB model when a couple of weeks later the stock clearing action took place. Rob reimbursed me the difference, even without me asking IIRC.

Craftsman's hand tools warranty is still awesome. Break a wrench you bought in 1954? Walk into the Sears with it and walk back out with a brand new one, no questions asked. In fact, the last time I did this, there wasn't even any red tape. The salesperson just handed me a replacement off the shelf.

You don't even have to break it first...