Is klipsh out of business?

[Alan123]

Is Klipsch out of business?

 

I've tried for hours to reach them on the phone and

they haven't responded to my emails in days.

I've tried all there numbers on their website and some of them

have been disconnected.

[OO1]

Klipsch has had a record year  for sales , but  due to the pandemic  , a lot of the  staff  are gone or working remotely   ---they've been rehiring staff as of  lately  ( latest news )--

[Bubo]

56 minutes ago, Alan123 said:

Is Klipsch out of business?

 

I've tried for hours to reach them on the phone and

they haven't responded to my emails in days.

I've tried all there numbers on their website and some of them

have been disconnected.

 

All business always comes to the human to human interface

 

Customer service is everything ....

[Zen Traveler]

On 2/9/2021 at 7:03 PM, Chief bonehead said:

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are concerned about the problems with customer service. Here is the response I got from the head guy.....

 

“we’re dealing with unprecedented traffic and are drastically increasing the size of the team to get back to world class service asap.“
 

We have more than doubled the customer service reps as of last week. We appreciate your patience. Thanks. 

 

[barjohn]

A record year calls for record CS, sadly that is completely missing.  Even shipping on orders is SLOW!  I placed an order at 4:32am on 2/18 and no sign of it shipping as of today and I paid extra for 2nd day air.  No way to contact anyone to find out why the order hasn't shipped and an email sent Friday morning asking for an update only receives an automated response.

[OO1]

2nd day Air , means you'll get your order on Monday or Tuesday  ------shippers  dont work on weekends -

[barjohn]

I understand that the two day air applies to after it is shipped.  The problem is that it hasn't been shipped and has a cryptic status of “Processing Exported."  No where is this particular status message defined.

[nickyboy6100]

Most Americans are used to poor customer service by now. We live in the era of cheap goods and how quick can it be delivered to me. Businesses like Klipsch, who have been known for their customer service and quality products, suffer in a market like this. 

[barjohn]

Personally, I try not to do business with a company with poor customer service.  I will usually cut some slack the first time but if it happens consistently, they re off my buy list and I quit recommending them to friends and family.  I purchased a Klipsch 5.1 wireless system so I have over $2,500 in it.  Not a huge sum by audiophile standards but big enough for a movie playback home theater system. In my past I have owned $40K systems but this isn't that kind of system and I don't expect the same performance.  However, I do expect good customer service.

[nickyboy6100]

43 minutes ago, barjohn said:

Personally, I try not to do business with a company with poor customer service.  I will usually cut some slack the first time but if it happens consistently, they re off my buy list and I quit recommending them to friends and family.  I purchased a Klipsch 5.1 wireless system so I have over $2,500 in it.  Not a huge sum by audiophile standards but big enough for a movie playback home theater system. In my past I have owned $40K systems but this isn't that kind of system and I don't expect the same performance.  However, I do expect good customer service.

I don’t disagree, but we are in the minority. 

[jjptkd]

On 2/19/2021 at 10:25 AM, Alan123 said:

Is Klipsch out of business?

 

I've tried for hours to reach them on the phone and

they haven't responded to my emails in days.

I know how you feel I tried getting through for a straight week beginning of January called every day stayed on hold forever sent emails finally got a ticket number a week and a half later saying they would get to me and then nothing-- now it's been well over a month since that email I called a couple times again last week and sent out another email so far nothing. 

[OO1]

On 2/20/2021 at 7:32 PM, jjptkd said:

 so far nothing. 

 

they definitely gotta be  overloaded , klipsch  products are selling faster than they can make it  - 

-   what other brand , can claim to have  6 new speakers in  the span of 1  year - H IV-CW IV -Forte IV -LS5-  AK6  -Jubilee 2021  - and we're in a pandemic --klipsch 's been very busy    -

[barjohn]

Unless the products are experiencing a very high rate of problems, a handful of CS personnel should be able to handle the calls.  Back in the 80s and 90s I ran a company that produced a software product to remove copy protection from copy protected software (it was legal ) and we sold thousands of copies all over the world.  It required some computer knowledge to utilize so we had a staff of 4 to handle customer calls and complaints (yes we had some) however, we managed to keep up with the calls and respond mostly in the same day, next day worst case.  With the right people and attitude and giving your CS people some authority to resolve issues it can be done.  If a manager has to make every decision, then you will have a bottle neck that will slow you down and the money you save you lose in reputation.  We were cranking out new products every week so it can be done.

[barjohn]

By the way, as an engineer I understand acoustics and speaker design but like any other profession when you have been doing it as long as Klipsch, unless it is a radical departure from your past designs and requires a significant amount of testing in an anechoic chamber, you generally build on your past knowledge including knowing and understanding how the drivers and crossovers you have used perform and how to build cabinets with low resonance and how your port designs behave.

Where things are changing is in the use of a lot more electronics and digital signal processing that is being used today and working with the issues of wireless, various audio encoding and decoding formats and streaming audio.  It appears to me that Klipsch is struggling in this area based on what I have read concerning the RP-HUB1 and their surrendering it for the Axiim puck.

[jjptkd]

11 minutes ago, RandyH000 said:

they definitely gotta be  overloaded , klipsch  products are selling faster than they can make it  - 

-   what other brand , can claim to have  6 new speakers in  the span of 1  year - H IV-CW IV -Forte IV -LS5-  AK6  -Jubilee 2021  - and we're in a pandemic --klipsch 's been very busy    -

Yeah I'm not in a big hurry as I'm busy myself, actually forgot about it for awhile. Hopefully they can get things together soon.

 

[OO1]

On 2/20/2021 at 8:10 PM, jjptkd said:

Hopefully they can get things together soon.

 fingers crossed 

[barjohn]

As an aside, I tried out two other complete wireless packages, the Platin Monaco 5.1 and the Enclave Audio CineHome II.  The Enclave was the better performer as it used their own hub design and they only let it work with their own speakers.  Since they make it all, they can ensure the integration is solid and everything plays together as it should.  The Platin Monaco works well with the SoundSend and appears to be reliable though not quite as solid as the Enclave.  I think Plain has a close relationship with WISA.  Where it starts to get tricky is when you try to integrate a host of different speaker vendors and each implements their speaker receiver and amps a little differently but to what they think is the same standard.  I think WISA has the right idea from a technical viewpoint but they should probably produce the receivers for each speaker too in addition to the transmitter hub.  Then their system could be made to work with a large host of legacy speakers with a small dedicated amplifier and many of the communications issues could be easily resolved.

[hanksjim1]

4 hours ago, Surs29106 said:

I think they still face the same issues.

Care to share your issues specifically?  What Klipsch products are you talking about?

[hanksjim1]

Thanks for editing your post and confirming you are a troll...moderator?

[Islander]

Every company seems to be shorthanded these days.  At the drugstore I usually use, the business hours are 9 am-10 pm.  They sell all kinds of things, from clothing to cameras to computers, to Klipsch speakers.  They even have a little listening room.  However, the pharmacy section itself now closes at 7 pm, because they can't find enough pharmacists.

 

Some labour problems take years to appear, and years to fix.  Here in BC (British Columbia), a previous Conservative government decided that they didn't want to have too many doctors to pay (through our government-funded health system), and restricted the number of places at medical schools.  It took a few years for the shortages to appear, but now many doctors are old and are retiring, with not enough mid-career doctors to replace them.  As a result, many people can't find a family doctor, and the walk-in clinics are overwhelmed.

 

The case with pharmacists is similar, and now the store can't find the people to staff the pharmacy for as many hours as they used to.  The help wanted signs are all over town, in every kind of store.

 

Back when I bought my first La Scalas, in 2006, Klipsch customer service was great, with friendly people who answered the phone quickly, and had the info you need.  Later, in 2013, when I got the La Scala IIs and needed a little advice about their lacquer finish, the customer service was just as good, but it sounds like it has gone downhill in the last few years.  The pandemic has to have been a factor.  It caused changes throughout society and business around the world, and the effects will last for years.  The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway shut down after 35 successful years, due to the reduction in the number of tourists visiting New York, because travel is down all over.  In my town, Victoria, many businesses depend on the cruise ship traffic.  This year we'll have over 300 visits from cruise ships, each one carrying 2,000 or more tourists looking for souvenirs.  However, cruise ships were banned for two years, 2021 and 2022, meaning many shops closed, due to the lack of business.  The few that could hang on will do well, but it's too late for quite a number of them.

 

As for the comments that customer service is everything, I disagree.  Yes, it's very important, especially if the products you're looking at are mostly the same.  For some car buyers, for example, maybe they restrict their choices to Ford, Chevy, and Dodge.  Then they choose which one to buy based on which dealership is the closest, or which has the friendliest staff, rather than on any technical or performance advantages.  For them, the cars are basically interchangeable.

 

However, when it comes to speakers, the higher-performance Klipsch speakers, especially the Heritage Series, are not interchangeable with other brands of speakers.  To me, at least, their performance advantages, as well as their long-term resale value, put them in a league above other speakers.  Some other premium products, like certain electronics or cars, can have a waiting list of a year or more, but their customers buy them anyway.  The product comes first.  Customer service is important, but it's not Number One.  Hopefully, Klipsch (and many other companies) will soon be able to find the skilled and courteous staff they need.  In the meantime, we enjoy our speakers.