Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Meridian - You are Pathetic!

Hello again all,

Just to add to the last few comments, when you have pretentions to be considered the best, or one of the best, in your chosen line you should remember that two things are critically important:
1. The quality of after sales service must be even better than the product, and speed of response is (perceived as) the best indicator of quality, and
2. A great deal of your sales is achieved through satisfied customers who act as 'free of charge' advertisers.

Last night we had a party at our home and people were absolutely stunned by how good the sound coming from ordinary CDs was. These are people whom Meridian should target as potential customers. I did not tell my guests how disappointed I had been with the service - in fact I did not mention at all that the 800 player could not read any of my DVDs. However somebody might have acted differently.

What made things even worse in my case was that I went through a lot of trouble to try and get the problem sorted out in good time. I even tried to call Meridian myself but discovered that unless you know somebody's direct number you cannot in fact speak to anybody. You are requested to leave a recorded message and they will get back to you. This I did, but no one called me back.

The final straw was the fact the I couldn't even get my second 800 to function. When everything is working as intended you sit back and enjoy tremendously but in my situation I suddenly did not understand nor wanted to understand why the latest configuration program would not communicate with an older version of a product. After all, we expect the latest windows office program to be backwards compatible with older versions, so why shouldn't Meridian have ensured the same compatibility?

My intention was not to cause Meridian or my dealer any trouble but at the same time I felt that nobody cared a great deal about the fact that an ardent fan and big investor in their products was not being looked after the way he should have been. I did not ask for priority, just what every customer should have expected of a top-brand product.

I would bet that Richer Sounds is actually making more money than Meridian too.
I know Julian Richer and he is passionate about customer service, and he is a firm believer that the customer is there for the long haul, not just the now. He knows that they will move away and move onto higher end products, but he certainly manages to keep them while he has what they want.

Philip,

i agree completly with you, that is not a professional procedure way for a company.
For THAT kind of money you should get a better service.

I will tell you my story with M.
Iam very satiesfied with my service her in austria,
BUT i have big skepticism about the quality of the M technical repair ability.

After a lightning this year my 861 get repaired (powersupply ) and COMPLETLY checked(regarding to M-Uk).Also two 8k electronics get repaired.
The 861 comes back and dit work properly.
One months later the 861 switch off by itself.
So the unit go back the second time to M Uk for repair.
I insisted on an error log and a burn-in test as every new unit will get.
After several weeks and pushing M Uk every week from my dealer here,
the unit comes back.
The feedback from Uk was that the failure doesnt appear and the unit is working properly.
After several weeks M Uk say that the unit has got a new mother- and control-board just for preventing reasons. The repair was free of charge-the dealer take the shipment costs-so was very happy beside that point that there was no test report as i wanted.

So i was very exitited about the service from M, only the missing report leave a bad impression.
Four days later exact the same failure appear as before the second repair.
The unit switch itself off and try to reset, show some incomplete text on the display.
Shurly a lightning could cause very seroius trouble, but two times repair and "testing" the unit-still the same failure?
Also my repaired 8k electronics from the lightning that year-sometimes a sparkling noise-
have again problems after the first repair. So this will get also need a second repair,
if that hopefully solve the problem.

These are also not the first proplems with my M equipment.
I changed both powersupplies on 800+861 about 10 ten !! times in the last 5 years.
Also replaced the DVD drives several times and one bass chassis in my 8k.

After all the troubles that year i let the power company track my line voltage,
that was just to get insure that the powerline is not the problem.
The tracking was over 7 days, every detail was stored. They line voltage is completly correct refer to the EU regulations/laws.
Also the problem with the 800/861 since the last years where in different city, so the powerline couldnt be the issue for that.

Shurly, my dealer here make the best what he can do, and the service from M Uk for financal reasons was very friendly to me, BUT slowly it leaves technically the expression that M have no control about their product quality in terms of technical repair and design and quality from their supplier.

Sorry to have that impression after stay with M equipment more than 10 years, but in which I can believe after all that problems?

Are you sure you don't have random IR floating in the room (e.g. compact flouresent bulbs). Is the whole system powering down or just 861? If everything is powering down it could be any Meridian component in the system that is faulty.

Philip, the situation for yourself and Manus is an absolute disgrace.

Meridian, you cannot treat customers this way. Do not ignore these guys any longer.

George, only the 861 is turning off(to standby).
The sequence is like power off/on,
means that all lights are on and the standard text on the display-but it will stay in that status for maybe 30 seconds more or less-its not a constant time.
There is also no reaction via the MSR or front panel to the 861 on that status.
Then the unit switch off, the other equipment(800,DSP) are still on.
Also very often the displays shows an incomplete text like "Mer " or "Meridian 8 "
When the unit turn off, you can turn it on again (at that time),
then it will work for a certain time-some minutes to maybe one hour.

Someone should print out the thread and post it to Bob Stuart by snail mail. Even better, add up the value of the gear being discussed here - surely with two customers with a set of 8Ks and 800/861 we are talking about a substantial fraction of a million quid - and write the amount in red on the top.

They are playing a dangerous game being semicompetent with these kind of customers...

I thought that Meridian's latest markeitng push was to go even more upmarket. This type of non-service doesn't seem consistent with the "high end" aspirations.

My dealings with M:

Bought my 207 that long ago I can`t remember, it worked for 15 years or so but eventually it gave up the ghost. (It wasn`t through over use)

I contacted M and posted the unit off - I did write a nice letter stating that I would appreciate a repair as I couldn`t possibly afford a replacement - stating that I was - am, a joiner - and it takes years to save up for M stuff. I am not self-employed.

The unit couldn`t be repaired.

No charge for the effort or even the postage - I even received a phone call - the man I assume was a technician didn`t sound too happy that he couldn`t repair the unit.

A few years later when circumstances changed I bought a G06 I didn`t even hear the unit before I bought it.

A year later I contacted M - this time I was told that new management was in place and unless I was a dealer I couldn`t talk to anyone! That didn`t make me very happy.

As you all know I am new to this site and have enjoyed the experience and more importantly the very friendly and extremely helpful advice.

Yes circumstances have changed but for me, without this site I wouldn`t have bought any more M gear - I was am looking at a new HD621 in the new year but even that doesn`t sound problem free!

Shaun

PS

I have had Ford RS`s all my life OK the last one was a series one Escort RS but as I have said circumstances have changed. I now have a new Focus RS -fantastic car - the service with ford - well I won`t buy another one!

OK, so far I have had my G68ADV into service three times and my G55 replaced twice (!), all in less than 12 months. My G98DH (the one used with the G68ADV) have worked all the time, and my HTPC98 (G98DH with a HTPC inside) is not ready for prime time yet, but it will most likly handle all I can think of - nothing that Meridian seems interested to supply like apodizing filters for the G68, MMHR input, Network input (for streaming or something).

I guess that the best that can happen is to cross diasemble the software code, compare say the DSP7200 codes before/after apodizing filter, recode the G68 asembler code and try it. While I'll do that I might try to figure out how to get a network stream into the G68 thru the USB interface, and why not some other nice things... Hmmm wonder if one could use one of the MHR inputs + on extra coax at the same time to get 7.1 channels into the box at the same time... Just a few thoughts of what I think is possible with current hardware... And if someone happened to get me the internal hardware drwaings I might add a few new cards by myself, for example an upgraded Radio card with a network radio ?

Ahh if I only had a bit more time...

Actually we only need an impulse response from the apodizing filter (preferable from the 808.2i) to copy it ... too bad the signal is encrypted with MHR. Maybe you can find the filter coefficients in the firmware, although I guess they will be obfuscated. However it can't hurt to compare the firmware files from before and after the apodizing filter. This should be possible with the firmware for the DSP5200.

It`s very sad and very troubling to read of other`s problems with their M equipment in this thread and elsewhere on this forum.

It`s easier for me to understand their difficulty as I had much too many problems with my M equipment purchase and functioning. Nevertheless I have repeatedly praised M equipment and provided links to great reviews of their gear.

However, because of what I went through and read here I recently started a thread asking would you recommend M gear to others. The issue has never been the very high quality of their properly configured and functioning equipment. The issue is getting to and maintaining that stage or after some inevitable malfunctioning getting back to that stage in a reasonable time with a proper Meridian fix.

The situation seems worse since I asked if you would recommend M equipment, such as with now no service/advice calls direct to Meridian headquarters.

I wish I could say the problem is not that bad as these problems are about Meridian`s old equipment, including equipment out of warranty. There are too many problems with their current gear that results in fear of what problems will be in their next new release.

To me the situation with Meridian equipment is a very serious issue and a substantial warning/caution to those considering buying their new equipment. There are some great people working in the Meridian dealership, importing/distribution, and at HQ service that I had contact with. They are not the problem. It seems there are basic technical problems and some Meridian policies/procedures that are the problem and that may to some extent correspond to the period of the new ownership of Meridian.

What do we do? Accept that Meridian read this forum and get the message and deal appropriately with it, send a letter to them (do emails get through or receive sufficient attention?), or perhaps somehow send a joint message to Meridian.

I am frankly sick of too often reading here indications of too many problems with Meridian equipment and their sometimes apparent failed efforts to provide a timely and sustained fix of problems.