Sound Solutions Audio (SSA) fail

[BigAl205]

So I found this old thread and thought it had some useful info:

So I ordered a new 18" sub from Sound Solutions Audio on 11-26-11 and it arrived on 12-12-11. The subs had damage during shipping. Here are the pics I took right after opening the box. I hadn't moved the sub at all.




After removing the sub, I found out it had a bunch of scratches

[BigAl205]

I sent an email to SSA

From: Alan Works
>>
>> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 9:21 PM
>> To: wlmailhtml:/mc/compose?to=support@soundsolutionsaudio.com
>>
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I just received my ICON 18 tonight, and While I'm
>> impressed with the driver itself, I was upset with the packaging.
>> When the UPS guy handed it to me, I noticed the bottom of the box
>> was bumped out and when I set it down, the box didn't set flat.
>> When I opened the box, the sub was just floating around freely and
>> the four foam bumpers were laying in the bottom of the box. I
>> removed the sub to find that the basket was badly scratched. It
>> seems to be mechanically okay, but I won't know for sure until I
>> put power to it this weekend. The attached pics are exactly how
>> the driver was sitting when I opened the box. I had planned on
>> mounting the driver inverted and was wanting to know if it could
>> be painted or do you have another solution?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Alan Works

I tried to be nice and not come out swinging with demands or a Paypal dispute, I was trying to leave them room to make a gesture of good will. I got this instead...

From:
>> Aaron H. Clinton <support@soundsolutionsaudio.com>
>> Subject: Re:
>> Your Order From SSA STORE
>> To: alan_works@yahoo.com
>> Date: Monday,
>> December 12, 2011, 10:56 PM
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello Alan,
>>
>> I am very sorry to see the damage, we had an Xcon get damaged in
>> shipping yesterday. So I have spoken with the build house to
>> upgrade the shipping materials. As for your driver, you can paint
>> over the chips, as the basket itself is painted.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Aaron
>> H. Clinton
>> VP - SSAudio
>> Inc.

He wanted me to paint over the damage! I responded:

From: Alan Works
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 4:19 PM
>> To: Aaron H. Clinton
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hey Aaron,
>>
>> Thanks for your response. After thinking
>> about it, I'm concerned that the sub may have sustained damage from all
>> the banging around...damage that may lead to premature failure. I feel
>> that the best action is to get a replacement unit and I was wondering how
>> I would go about this.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alan Works
>> (BigAl205 on the
>> audio forums)

At this point, he aparrently realized who I was and posted this in EMSQ:

We (SSA) have shipped a number of the brand new Icon 18's with no issue with the packing. This is the same packing set up used for the last Icon and it was not an issue then, and the increase in weight between the original Icon and the current Icon is not enough to cause a massive upgrade in packing materials.

Keep in mind, the build house where our drivers are made, ships out magnitudes more speakers then just SSA, and they are packed the same way, so if it was a build house issue, it probably would have been corrected a few years ago.

The photos provided were sent to the build house to address it as we don't want to see it happen again, but we are not going to ship out another driver that is very expensive to build and ship because the shipper was careless with this one package and only cosmetic signs of damage on the basket are shown. UPS needs to cover this if there is serious damage, when they do, a replacement can be sent out. I am curious how they are going to respond due to cosmetic damage from a few paint chips.

Yes, it stinks that UPS treated the package this way, and all our shipments have insurance on them to cover damage in shipping. But let's not get ahead of ourselves and ship back a driver at our cost, build a new one at our cost, and ship it out at our cost, with out dealing with UPS or at least finding out if there is any actual damage to the driver in the first place.

Alan, I just replied to your last email.

[BigAl205]

I also got this email

--- On Tue, 12/13/11, Aaron H. Clinton <support@soundsolutionsaudio.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Aaron H. Clinton <support@soundsolutionsaudio.com>
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>> To: alan_works@yahoo.com

>> Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 6:05 PM
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello Alan,
>>
>> As I explained on the forum, it is not a packing material issue.
>> Thousands of drivers are shipped this way with no problem. The claim as
>> been filed, your email address was attached to the claim. It is UPS claim
>> # 36154877
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Aaron
>> H. Clinton
>> VP - SSAudio
>> Inc.

Even though I was getting pissed, I decided to play along. I got an email from UPS on the same day saying that a driver would contact me to pick up the package for inspection. A couple of days went by and I sent another message

>> --- On Thu, 12/15/11, Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>> To: "Aaron H. Clinton" <support@soundsolutionsaudio.com>
>> Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 2:26 PM
>>
>> Hi Aaron,
>>
>> I got an email from UPS a couple of days ago saying that they might have a
>> driver contact me to inspect the packaging, but I never heard anything beyond that. I tried to check status using the claim number you gave, but I can't log in without your UPS account number, etc. Have you heard anything further?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alan

Followed by

--- On Thu, 12/15/11, Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>> To: alan_works@yahoo.com
>> Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 4:42 PM
>>
>> Just an update...UPS showed up out of the blue to pick up
>> the package. The driver is taking it in to have it inspected. He got the box, the speaker, the packing material, and the literature. The new tracking number is 1ZR3353T0395703422 .
>>
>> Alan

I got no response so the next day I sent:

>> --- On Fri, 12/16/11, Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> From: Alan Works <alan_works@yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: Your Order From SSA STORE
>> To: alan_works@yahoo.com
>> Date: Friday, December 16, 2011, 3:30 AM
>>
>> I checked that tracking number and it appears that the sub is being sent back to your warehouse. If you want to pursue UPS over the damage or the build house as a warranty issue, go ahead. Rather than go through the trouble and charge of shipping another unit, I just want a full refund of $286.71.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Alan Works
>>

He responded:

On Dec 16, 2011, at 7:18 AM, "Aaron H. Clinton" <support@soundsolutionsaudio.com> wrote:

> Hello Alan,
>
> From my understanding, they have already started some of the machine work on the replacement.
>
> Thanks,
> --
> Aaron H. Clinton
> VP - Sound Solutions Audio Inc.

And I finished with:

I've already decided to go another route. Let's just end this. Please do a refund and we will go our separate ways.

Thanks,
Alan

There was a lot more discussion on EMSQ, but after feeling the pressure, Aaron finally refunded the full amount.

So...I ended up getting an Audioque HDC318.

[dejo]

I got an email from them yesterday and opted to unsubscribe from their mailout- thinking back to this very issue. how well timed.
so sad when people will lie to try and push blame to someone else, knowing the truth the whole time. No-one takes it as a bump and learn session. its always about making the most money reguardless

[BigAl205]

This was from the thread on EMSQ

Yes, I am sorry UPS handled the shipment the way they did, but again that is not our mistake when countless drivers are shipped this way with NO issues. In the black Friday sale alone, over 100 drivers (only a small fraction of that were SSA drivers) were shipped out exactly the same way with no problems. Side note, we still don't have the Icon you ordered back as UPS still has it.

Al, we did attempt to fix it, the replacement build ticket was already in before this so called "pressure", if you look back at my posts. So there is a partially built Icon 18 motor sitting at the build house as I type this, no big deal as it will get used. I am sorry we don't have a warehouse full of these drivers to ship the next one out the moment something goes wrong before taking any action what so ever with the shipping company. I feel that I, along with others, explained the reason why it is not like that.

A suit is not a good example, there is no comparison between something that is a simple fix in person with a few inches of thread, and something that takes time to assemble and machine and is heavy to ship. In addition, I never told you to metaphorically "sew it up". You offered to just paint over the chip on the basket, but did not even want to test to see if the driver worked or not. If you had taken a moment to just see if it worked, I would have had no problem offering a partial refund for the paint chip as the driver did not arrive perfect. This would have saved a ton of hassle and you would still have an very nice American made sub woofer. We had done that in the past when there was a basket color mistake at the factory, for a customer with a wrongly silver basket Xcon.

Please don't compare the AQ to the Icon. I don't ever want SSA and AQ in the same thought process, we work REALLY hard not to be in that segment of the market. You went from an American made and machined sound quality built-to-order driver, to a Chinese copy of an Digital Designs "SPL" driver. There are going to be vast differences in appearance, performance and especially sound.

I am glad you have a driver you like, that is what matters in the end. I do hope it meets your goals for your install.

Later.....

SSA is the SoundQubed Authorized Internet Dealer

The SoundQubed Authorized Dealer. Free shipping in the US48 on all their products.

http://store.soundsolutionsaudio.com...oundQubed.html

[dejo]

as Alanis would say "isnt it ironic". but you really should wave the finger that Alanis mentioned as well

[chithead]

Ironic... had always been middle of the road with them. Then when I posted once that the W7 was a better sub, even though I'd never heard an SSA sub, Aaron kind of made a good point calling me out on that.

But... after reading all of this, not having much desire to ever hear an SSA sub. Sorry folks

[dejo]

when I just unsubscribed to their email, if they would have offered a reason. I would have posted the treatment of al as the reason. so sad when companies will lie to save a nickel

[BigAl205]

LOL...I would post this on the SSA forum, but it would be deleted before I could hit send. Stuff like that is the reason I want to stay lax on the rules here. People should have a venue to vent their frustrations without it being swept under the rug.

[subwoofery]

LOL...I would post this on the SSA forum, but it would be deleted before I could hit send. Stuff like that is the reason I want to stay lax on the rules here. People should have a venue to vent their frustrations without it being swept under the rug.

Amen

Kelvin