In August I purchased a USP-1 Preamp and two UPA-1 mono-block amplifiers "B stock" from Emotiva. I did this not so much to save the few dollars that I "saved" but because the person I was dealing with at Emo said that new units were not available until later in the year. I am not disappointed in the performance of the product as much as I am in the performance of the company.
I was assured that the B stock units were "Factory Renewed", meaning thoroughly gone over by QC and would be the functional and cosmetic equivalent of new, and contain the same warranty. In good faith I went ahead and ordered the trio.
Upon receipt, I opened the Preamplifier only to find that the inner box had never been resealed, the preamp itself was not "professionally" packaged, the manual was missing, the power cord was not the one normally provided with Emotiva equipment and two screws were missing from the back of the remote (found loose in the bottom of the box) . How could this be if the equipment was thoroughly gone over? Opening the second box, one of the Mono-blocks everything was fine. The third box, the second amp was not so fortunate. The inner box also was not sealed, but the amp seemed to be properly packaged...however, the female SE RCA input socket was bent and nearly 60% ripped out of the case. The exterior of all three boxes were stamped FACTORY RENEWED EMOTIVA QC APPROVED. Once again how could this be if the equipment was thoroughly gone over?
I spoke with the individual whom I ordered the gear from originally and and after listening to my ranting he asked for the opportunity to make things right. He assured me that he would "personally" stand over QC to assure that the units would be right. I asked that only the UPA-1 be replaced because in spite of the indications that the units had not been gone over the Preamp seemed intact and was functioning normally. I didn't want Emo to spend anyone's hard earned $ on two way shipping for no good reason. I tried to be as understanding as possible..... I know that occasionally things "fall thru the cracks". :-/
Two days later I got shipping notification from FEDEX...my new amp was on it's way. But wait...it's fortunate that I am a thorough reader...they had shipped a UPA-2 instead of a UPA-1. How could this have happened if that individual had "stood over" QC and supervised the shipment? I wrote back to that individual and the next day I got a call from someone else in Emo with an apology, and I was assured everything would go right the next time. I requested that she mark the FEDEX shipment "Hold at Nearest FEDEX" facility so I wouldn't have to miss another entire day of work waiting. My nearest FEDEX facility is 8 miles away, but it's certainly better than to drive 8 miles than to lose an entire day's work in my book. Well, someone in Emo thought they knew better than me what to do... instead of marking it "Hold at nearest FEDEX facility they addressed the package to me at the address of the nearest FEDEX facility. Therefore when the package arrived at that indicated address there was nobody there by my name to sign for the amp. It was returned on the same truck it arrived on. I was sent an exception notice by email and later that day I was able to have the return truncated at the main FEDEX distribution Facility in West Palm Beach, FL which is 45 miles away. The following day I drove the 45 mi down there and picked up the amp and dropped off the RMA amp.....nearly a 3 hour round trip.
However, the story isn't over yet. Any reasonable person would think that after the two previous slip ups that SOMEONE would have been concerned enough to assure that the unit I was sent was 100%...well you would have been wrong, because even though the unit "works" the red LEDs in the rear that are supposed to indicate which voltage the unit is operating on don't. How could this have happened if that individual had "stood over" QC to be sure the unit was good? While these LEDs are not essential to the operation of the unit it kind of makes one wonder if the rest of the unit was gone over and is up to spec. :-/
I wrote about my adventure on EMOTIVA's forum and got attacked by the EMO bobble heads for telling the factual truth about their beloved company. After a week or so of being attacked, Dan, the owner came on and calmed the zealots down and assured everyone that Emotiva would make things right for me. He also called me but unfortunately I was indisposed due to being in Temple for a religious holiday and told him I would get back to him. Since that time I wrote him three times, one PM through the Emotiva site and two emails. Three weeks after the first PM, I got a PM back giving me his office phone number. I called that number as was passed from receptionist to secretary. I left a clear message who this was calling and asked that he return my call. That was over a month ago and I have not heard back from him. It's obvious to me that Dan's commitment to me was made only for the purpose of PR on his own forum....ie: "oil the squeaky wheel" then he immediately turned around and stuck his head back into the sand, with no intention of following through on it. I have lost hope that they will ever make things right without extensive effort on my part to get their attention.
Overall I find the gear performs decently even though there is strong evidence that it is made with cheap and unreliable parts. However, at the end of the day, good gear from a BAD company should be avoided as much as bad gear from a good company. The company shows signs of poor leadership from top down, employees who are not the brightest bulbs on the porch and a corporate attitude of indifference and lack of integrity that leads one to believe that they think the difference between right and wrong is what they can get away with. The more things I hear about Emotiva the more I believe that the company is in failure mode. They have been unable to efficiently bring their promised new products to the market, they have shipping issues, they have QC issues, they have personnel issues, they cut prices radically for the holidays in order to pre sell certain inventory. I say avoid at all costs.
