WARNING: Geithain - Vintage King Order Problems - USA Customers...Passives next?

[prestigetone]

Long story short, I have placed several orders with Vintage King, their sole distributor, on their speakers and subwoofers. Never again.

Nearly every single order was incorrect. First one was the wrong color in a finish that was considerably less than what I paid.

Second order, I waited four months for a midfield pair to be made and they were shipped domestically from Vintage King in their original boxes which were mangled to say the least. When I did end up returning them, Vintage King had removed all of the models from display, and seem to not know anything about what each Geithain model does in the first place.

Geithain doesn't return emails and only one contact responds to English during the three days a week they do work. Two other members on here and one on Gearspace have confirmed eerily similar stories. Nearly identical with poor packaging, long wait times, and nonexistent communication.

I've seen the other thread where people ask why do passives exist? This is why. The likelihood of damage with the amp on board is much much greater as the weight is doubled. There is another thread about why do passives exist? This is why. If something happens to the amp or the drivers, you need to in all likelihood send both units back, which would need to go to Vintage King, who then send them to Germany, and then back to Vintage King, back to you. Everything is in matched pairs. When it's a 24kg monitor that is no simple task.

You have been warned. I don't want any fellow members to go through this. Don't get me wrong they sound good, are very well made, but if you have anything go wrong you will be SOL.

Any thoughts on what might be a good next step to this house sound? I am thinking Neumann because they are smaller. Or just ditching actives altogether.

 

[dfuller]

If you want cardioid, Dutch and Dutch.

And yeah, Vintage King are a pain in the ass IME. Wouldn't recommend.

 

[prestigetone]

If you want cardioid, Dutch and Dutch.

And yeah, Vintage King are a pain in the ass IME. Wouldn't recommend.

Love them, but they are much bigger than they look and I would probably want to go with a Trinnov after checking out their interface

Weird because Vintage King gets stellar reviews pretty much everywhere you look. No more money from me!

 

[jasoncd]

I'm interested in cardioid. Coaxial sounds good. I think MEGs look cool. Out of my budget for now but something I've had on my wish list.

Nice reality check here, appreciate the feedback on your experience.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Genelecs
Both are coaxial

 

[jasoncd]

Genelecs
Both are coaxial

Both are not cardioid .

No experience with cardioid in my room. Looking at my REW measurements, I really think controlling dispersion from ~125hz would help a lot, but who knows. A very expensive thing to test out.

 

[BlackTalon]

Appreciate the info, but not the DO NOT BUY headline. How about just a warning about purchasing/ support/ return issues, and then people can make up their own minds?

 

[prestigetone]

Appreciate the info, but not the DO NOT BUY headline. How about just a warning about purchasing/ support/ return issues, and then people can make up their own minds?

These speakers cost upwards of $30K in some cases, and Vintage King did not communicate the problems to me, despite me asking many times to find out what's going on. Only to later find out that I wasn't even close to the only one. People should have a big disclaimer that there could be major issues down the line. Like I said if others want to speak about it, they can, but I have personally talked to at least 3 people who have had major issues that in some cases still have not been resolved. Personally I don't even think Vintage King should carry the brand anymore, which would effectively take them out of the US market.

All of this is my take and people can make up their mind. Point taken and I have updated.

 

[BlackTalon]

I think your info is great. It will definitely result in some potential purchasers doing some due diligence work.

Sorry about your issues, and it is not good when multiple customers go through similar problems.

Isn't there a dealer on this forum that is over in the London area? Maybe they can help with communicating with the manufacturer and bypassing the US seller.

 

[Axo1989]

Geithain doesn't return emails and only one contact responds to English during the three days a week they do work.

So they don't respond? Or they do?

 

[prestigetone]

So they don't respond? Or they do?

Both. they ignored my emails or just waited and then would give very little info rather than just answering. I tried to ask about direct pricing which they used to do, however it was a problem because then you get no warranty. Unfortunately going through Vintage King isnt really any better IMO. Eventually they just stopped responding if they didn't like my line of questioning without notice.

What I should have said is the one person who works there that speaks English is only there 3 days a week allegedly, so IF they do respond it's going to be spotty. I have never had solid communication from them in the few years I have been in contact.

 

[LTig]

Long story short, I have placed several orders with Vintage King, their sole distributor, on their speakers and subwoofers. Never again.

Nearly every single order was incorrect. First one was the wrong color in a finish that was considerably less than what I paid.

Second order, I waited four months for a midfield pair to be made and they were shipped domestically from Vintage King in their original boxes which were mangled to say the least. When I did end up returning them, Vintage King had removed all of the models from display, and seem to not know anything about what each Geithain model does in the first place.

Geithain doesn't return emails and only one contact responds to English during the three days a week they do work. Two other members on here and one on Gearspace have confirmed eerily similar stories. Nearly identical with poor packaging, long wait times, and nonexistent communication.

I've seen the other thread where people ask why do passives exist? This is why. The likelihood of damage with the amp on board is much much greater as the weight is doubled. There is another thread about why do passives exist? This is why. If something happens to the amp or the drivers, you need to in all likelihood send both units back, which would need to go to Vintage King, who then send them to Germany, and then back to Vintage King, back to you. Everything is in matched pairs. When it's a 24kg monitor that is no simple task.

You have been warned. I don't want any fellow members to go through this. Don't get me wrong they sound good, are very well made, but if you have anything go wrong you will be SOL.

Any thoughts on what might be a good next step to this house sound? I am thinking Neumann because they are smaller. Or just ditching actives altogether.

You should not generalize here. Just because one importer and/or one brand behave like this and use improper packing resulting in damaged speakers your conclusion to stay away from active speakers is wrong.

 

[Sancus]

Incredibly surprising that weird boutique German company which can't figure out how to distribute their widely-regarded-as-excellent-speakers properly is also terrible at customer service, lol. (/s)

Sorry you had to go through that, though. My worry that this exact thing would happen is why I went with Genelec instead of trying to figure out how to buy MEG in Canada.

FWIW, another Cardioid option might be our own @sigbergaudio's Manta. And you're guaranteed good customer service since he needs to preserve his forum reputation

 

[prestigetone]

I think your info is great. It will definitely result in some potential purchasers doing some due diligence work.

Sorry about your issues, and it is not good when multiple customers go through similar problems.

Isn't there a dealer on this forum that is over in the London area? Maybe they can help with communicating with the manufacturer and bypassing the US seller.

Thanks. Hopefully people will pause. I will let others come out and talk about their experience if they want, but I wont call them out, but they are on here.

Yep I went through KMR, the dealer in London. I tried to bypass the US seller, but Geithain finally replied when I emailed a third time in 10 days or so. Their response:

"Sorry but what can we do for you? Because you sent a lot of inquiries but not only to us. Then in regard of an offer directly for you-- we 're out of these business,
you are in touch with lot of dealers in the EU to time too.

Sorry but this was your decision that you will purchase from these also, the dealers spend a lot of time and effort with you, too and that means we cannot catch this sale with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,
ME-Geithain"

I am contacting other dealers to get pricing and see who will deliver to the US, because some will and some wont. Basically I am now being turned away from ordering because MEG is telling their dealers not to serve me. I am getting the same responses from every dealer. All that after dropping close to $9K USD and was going to spend more with them. I like the speakers a good deal but I would rather get a pair of Neumann or ATC that have tried and true channels. Vintage King also doesn't want to deal with the hassle from my vantage point. I do get frustrated and I have been a very squeaky wheel, but every single time I asked for updates or voiced concerned I was met with resistance. I even made sure Vintage King sent the speakers 2 day so there would be less travel and I am learning that causes more problems with truck transfers. They didn't double box. If you don't double box youre gonna have a bad time.

 

[prestigetone]

Incredibly surprising that weird boutique German company which can't figure out how to distribute their widely-regarded-as-excellent-speakers properly is also terrible at customer service, lol. (/s)

Sorry you had to go through that, though. My worry that this exact thing would happen is why I went with Genelec instead of trying to figure out how to buy MEG in Canada.

FWIW, another Cardioid option might be our own @sigbergaudio's Manta. And you're guaranteed good customer service since he needs to preserve his forum reputation

As someone else said on here, and I can't find it, they DO NOT care about selling their product outside of Germany. The owner is older apparently based on this ASR member and he just doesn't focus on it. I think they want to keep it domestic, and dealing with outsiders is annoying. Must be doing well business-wise to turn away customers like that.

 

[prestigetone]

Still waiting on my quote for another potential order. I guess I am glutton for punishment. Has anyone else experienced anything similar with other companies like this?

 

[ta240]

No offence, but I wouldn't be surprised if they added you to their email filter.
Sometimes people and companies aren't compatible and continuing to try to work together just brings about levels of stress that just aren't worth it.

 

[prestigetone]

I wouldn’t be surprised either. And they certainly can but they would be turning away nearly $20,000 in business plus whatever the distributor makes off of future sales. This is through the USA retailer not a direct deal.

 

[test1223]

I have heard good things of ME Geithain in terms of service in Germany but you have to have some patience sometimes. It is like an old school small factory not a company with 24 7 service workers and the costumers is always right philosophy.

Am surprised that there might be some problems in the US. I am honestly not sure if there is a different side of the story?

Regardless of this specific case I would definitely do my own research before "banning" a retailer or a company.

 

[Berlin]

The company is quite small. As far as I know, there are only 17 employees...