WARNING: Many people selling their faulty Topping L30 amplifiers in eBay

[Blank Verse]

Shipping to China is crazy expensive, so it's not the same playing field as Schiit.

Yes, I understand that, but on the other hand, is it an excuse? Buying car insurance is crazy expensive too.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I really don't see it, though. If I were Topping I would have gone all out. I guess Schiit went the extra mile because they probably thought they were more exposed to potential repercusions since they are located in the US, but still.

Really didn't want to reply to this thread. But do you really realize that with all those incidents Schiit never recalled and never tried to improve the protection circuit? Where it was already the goal of L30 just it sadly failed to do unfortunately. Schiit is simply gambling that the cost of refunding the headphones are cheaper and simpler. Enforcing the destruction of the unit is easier said than done. And it really comes down to the responsibility of the sellers of the second hand unit themselves.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Yes, I understand that, but on the other hand, is it an excuse? Buying car insurance is crazy expensive too.

But are you buying insurance? Or just a product?

 

[Helicopter]

Yes, I understand that, but on the other hand, is it an excuse? Buying car insurance is crazy expensive too.

I think you pay for a mix of product and service an should understand that everyone is better off when the service part of the mix is more limited with something that can only be repaired in China. It cost me over $30 to return an 8 ounce package with a vacuum tube to China once last year. I would generally rather just pay less and accept the product risk for the most part.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Also the only guy that ever came to me to request compensation for broken headphones got his compensation. No one else asked for this.

 

[pozz]

Not only ask the seller, but report him for fraud, yes. I also think Topping should take matters into their hands and not allow something like this to happen.

Well you need evidence for that kind of thing. If you buy and test and it's nonfunctional there's a good case for it.

 

[Blank Verse]

Really didn't want to reply to this thread. But do you really realize that with all those incidents Schiit never recalled and never tried to improve the protection circuit? Where it was already the goal of L30 just it sadly failed to do unfortunately. Schiit is simply gambling that the cost of refunding the headphones are cheaper and simpler. Enforcing the destruction of the unit is easier said than done. And it really comes down to the responsibility of the sellers of the second hand unit themselves.

I am not claiming that Schiit followed an optimal course of action, I am just saying that you didn't either. You should require users to ship the faulty units back to you, because if you don't you are leaving the door open for bad things to happen. Nobody will care that you asked the user to return the faulty unit when your name is in the newspaper headlines because something bad happened. Is it really worth taking that risk to avoid shipping? Is shipping really that expensive?

Why not have a proxy in the US and have people send it there, some electronics disposal company that can verify those units are destroyed? That would be extremely cheap for you. It's just a question of applying creative problem solving, and not being lazy.

 

[Blank Verse]

But are you buying insurance? Or just a product?

I didn't mean I was buying insurance, you misunderstood me. I said that Topping verifying the destruction of the faulty L30 units would be like me buying insurance. In other words, you would incur in some cost, but it might avoid potential problems in the future.

 

[Blank Verse]

Well you need evidence for that kind of thing. If you buy and test and it's nonfunctional there's a good case for it.

But Topping recalled units with serial numbers under 2012, didn't they? It's as easy as looking at the serial number.

 

[Blank Verse]

I think you pay for a mix of product and service an should understand that everyone is better off when the service part of the mix is more limited with something that can only be repaired in China. It cost me over $30 to return an 8 ounce package with a vacuum tube to China once last year. I would generally rather just pay less and accept the product risk for the most part.

Yes, I completely get your point. But as I said above, wouldn't it have been very easy for Topping to contract some electronic waste disposal company to handle the destruction of the faulty units? There would have been no shipping to China involved then, and maybe even the disposal company would have fronted the shipping costs, since they might have been able to salvage some of the materials.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I am not claiming that Schiit followed an optimal course of action, I am just saying that you didn't either. You should require users to ship the faulty units back to you, because if you don't you are leaving the door open for bad things to happen. Nobody will care that you asked the user to return the faulty unit when your name is in the newspaper headlines because something bad happened. Is it really worth taking that risk to avoid shipping? Is shipping really that expensive?

Why not have a proxy in the US and have people send it there, some electronics disposal company that can verify those units are destroyed? That would be extremely cheap for you. It's just a question of applying creative problem solving, and not being lazy.

Because it is that expensive. More than the cost of the unit itself or even many folds. A lot of people was simply requested refund. Not even replacing the unit. Unless you actually have dealt with customers you won't understand.
Plus if you are going secondhand it's already out of our control in any way.
Only way is that you guys know to avoid these listings. And don't bother with anything else.

 

[Blank Verse]

Also the only guy that ever came to me to request compensation for broken headphones got his compensation. No one else asked for this.

There was more than one instance of people who got damaged headphones, wasn't there? Maybe they weren't aware of your generosity, you might have wanted to issue a press release to make your good intentions known widely, it would also have been good publicity for your company.

 

[Helicopter]

Yes, I completely get your point. But as I said above, wouldn't it have been very easy for Topping to contract some electronic waste disposal company to handle the destruction of the faulty units? There would have been no shipping to China involved then, and maybe even the disposal company would have fronted the shipping costs, since they might have been able to salvage some of the materials.

If they are going to ship them someplace, I agree I would ship them in the US and have someone destroy them here. Probably not worth it for that either though. I best most of the people on the recall were honest even if a few dozen were scummy. No idea how many people actually got new units in the US, so just a guess. When I ran a store on ebay years ago, there were a few bad apples, but it was overall a very good community.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Yes, I completely get your point. But as I said above, wouldn't it have been very easy for Topping to contract some electronic waste disposal company to handle the destruction of the faulty units? There would have been no shipping to China involved then, and maybe even the disposal company would have fronted the shipping costs, since they might have been able to salvage some of the materials.

Or is it that simple to let the user just not use it and not sell it anymore? Can you do any sort of enforcement? No. Anything you said doesn't make any sense.

 

[Blank Verse]

Because it is that expensive. More than the cost of the unit itself or even many folds. A lot of people was simply requested refund. Not even replacing the unit. Unless you actually have dealt with customers you won't understand.
Plus if you are going secondhand it's already out of our control in any way.
Only way is that you guys know to avoid these listings. And don't bother with anything else.

I deal with customers all day long, I have my own business. And I know that sometimes you need to take a loss.

My point is that I don't understand your approach to this problem. If there was no serious risk, then why send replacement units free of charge? And if there is a risk, then why not take the extra measures to avoid potential problems in the future?

 

[JohnYang1997]

There was more than one instance of people who got damaged headphones, wasn't there? Maybe they weren't aware of your generosity, you might have wanted to issue a press release to make your good intentions known widely, it would also have been good publicity for your company.

No one else contacted me. If they do they'd likely get their compensation. I already said many times in the L30 thread, incidents will be taken care of individually. You don't know how much advantages some people are trying to take.

 

[JohnYang1997]

I deal with customers all day long, I have my own business. And I know that sometimes you need to take a loss.

My point is that I don't understand your approach to this problem. If there was no serious risk, then why send replacement units free of charge? And if there is a risk, then why not take the extra measures to avoid potential problems in the future?

Can you do any better to take the extra measure? It's already the best the we can do.

 

[wwenze]

One time I had to get some guy from China to send a replacement, the guy needed me to take a video of me destroying the product.

 

[Blank Verse]

Or is it that simple to let the user just not use it and not sell it anymore? Can you do any sort of enforcement? No. Anything you said doesn't make any sense.

It is very simple. You need to enforce the destruction of the faulty units, which can be clearly identified by a serial number. It appears that you tried to do that in the beginning by having people send pictures of smashed units, but that is obviously so easy to counterfeit (using Photoshop or the like) that you probably gave up and didn't look for a better way to check that users were actually destroying the units.

 

[Blank Verse]

Can you do any better to take the extra measure? It's already the best the we can do.

No, it is not the best you can do. The best you can do is to have users ship the units back to you or to a third party that you can contract in the US. Of course, you will lose more money in doing so, but you will get some peace of mind.