Total fail - ampeg and digital village (dv247)

Mosfed

So some of you might have seen my excited questions regarding my brand new Ampeg heritage Svt-cl and heritage svt 410 that was on its way this week. Well it's ended up as maybe the biggest gear fail of my recent past. So the story... 

 I finally saved up enough to purchase an Ampeg SVT and cab. And finally on Monday at about 1pm I place my order with Digital Village because they had the right price. The salesman assures me that even though they only have 1 in stock, it's brand new and in the box and that I will have it by Wed. Which is good news given that my band has all day Sat and Sunday booked in a recording studio to work on our next record. Brilliant. Wed comes - no amp or cab. So I call and I am *assured* that I will have it by Thursday. Thursday comes - no amp or cab. So I call and I am assured I will have it by today. Today - nothing - so I call DHL instead of Digital Village and they tell me - the amp is scheduled for delivery on Monday. FAIL. 

 So I ask where it is. Well I am in London and and it is Luton at their depot. So I get a minicab and proceed to drive up to Luton. We get there (and after my driver decides to take a piss in the bushes which is grabbed by the camera and gets the DHL people to threaten to not give me my crap) and the boxes come out. One is labeled Ampeg and is the right size for an SVT-CL. The other is HUGE. And it's supposed to be a 4x10. And it's labeled Electrovoice. So I call Digital Village - answer "oh we often pack in other boxes don't worry about it". So £130 pounds later, I get home. And low and behold it's an Electrovoice 2x15 PA speaker with a horn. So I call Digital Village furious about the waste of time and money. The guy is offended that I am so pissed off and tells me he will sort it (obviously not in time for our sessions but still sort it). So I hang up and start thinking about options. Of course when I call him 30 minutes later he had left for the day. Asshole. 

Well by now I was set on using the damn SVT so I find another used Ampeg 4x10 in north London - hop in a cab, go up, grab it and come home. Another £50 round trip. So all chuffed and not really thinking about Digital Village, I plug everything in, fire it up, let it warm up for 20 mins, turn it off standby and...... The fault light is blinking. And won't stop. And won't make a sound. So...I whip out the manual. It says it's probably a power tube. But wait isn't part of the point of buying an Ampeg Heritage that it comes with nice Winged C tubes? Open up the back - oh look they are JJs! Awesome!!! Not....

 Call up Ampeg in the US. 15 minutes of hold on a cell phone. Finally they answer - and suggest swapping out tubes. Now I happen to be one of the only assholes that actually has another set of 6550s on hand so I swap. But then I need to wait 20 mins for warm up after swapping tubes. So hang up, wait, turn it on, still flashing light - totally shit out of luck. So by now the experience has cost me - £2000 for the amp, £700 for the 4x10 svt cab, £350 for the used ampeg 4x10, £130 for the cab to Luton and £50 for the London cab. And I have NOTHING to show for it. At this point, they are coming Monday to pick up the Electrovoice. I am seriously tempted to give them both items. I don't think I can be asked to bring this to an authorized dealer and have it fixed. Frankly I just want to forget the whole miserable experience. What would you do?

monquixote

DV247 are a bunch of unethical arseholes 

http://theeccentricblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/digital-village.html

stonevibe

NEVER buy anything from DV. The biggest bunch of liars in music retail. Simples...

ToneControl

just send it back, you have 7 days. It will wind you up forever otherwise when you use it

Mosfed

I guess I really would have liked to have asked that question in advance...

thermionic

Digital Village have been on my boycott list since I ordered something from them years ago (either a mixer or an audio interface) and they took the money off my card straight away then failed to deliver over about six weeks. Got a load of "we're expecting it in tomorrow" nonsense whenever I rang up. Cancel the order and get it from somewhere else.

meltedbuzzbox

I have used them before without issue for a cheap Ibanez classical but after reading this post and several others on here I dont think I dare risk use them again.

were these the same guys that folded as a former business, screwed loads of people over and opened the next day as DV247?

Or am I thinking of someone else?

siremoon

Sadly a not uncommon story with both the current and previous incarnation of this outfit.  Like some of the others have said, these are very high on my "to be avoided at all costs" list. 

I hope you get it sorted

ICBM

Get a full refund, keep the used cab (the difference between that and the new price might help offset the money you spent trying to get it sorted) and buy a replacement head from somewhere else.

stonevibe

About 10 years ago I worked in their Acton store for a few weeks as I was looking to change companies. The practise of taking money and not having it in stock was standard. They have one warehouse in Romford that has minimal stock and everything else is ordered from suppliers one item at a time.

Terrible service and lots of demo / B stock equipment sold as new.

The whole outfit is a shambles and made Turnkey look like professionals.

If you want great prices and mail order always use GAK. 

Biased as I worked there for a sometime many years ago and I know they aren't always perfect (stuff sells out, suppliers can give retailers the run around, these things happen) but the man that owns the company is one of the most honest down to earth men I have ever met.

They are the only online retailer I would trust as they have a massive warehouse and hold most items in stock. 

All online deals / over the phone orders with any company can cause issues but DV are the worst of the lot. SO I would never recommend them to anyone.

crunchman

Will not use DV anymore after the way they treated staff and suppliers in their administration. 

I never used to buy online from them anyway but the Acton shop was only 5 mins walk from work.

redrighthand

Send it all back. What when the next thing goes wrong! Then write a strongly worded letter direct to the head of customer services in their German parent company.

redrighthand

Oh an then buy a new head from Thomann where you will get a 3 yr warranty. And make sure you tell the Germans that's what you've done.

dindude

Get a car? 

 Seriously though, send it all back, they don't deserve your business. What's a point in having a £2k amp that doesn't work!

Mosfed

Yeah it's going back. I'll keep the used cab and the rest is going back. Then I will get a new head from somewhere else. What a crappy experience. I wish I had asked about the company before ordering. Btw - why can't I put returns in my posts? They all come out like one big paragraph

monquixote

Mosfed said:

Yeah it's going back. I'll keep the used cab and the rest is going back. Then I will get a new head from somewhere else. What a crappy experience. I wish I had asked about the company before ordering. Btw - why can't I put returns in my posts? They all come out like one big paragraph

You are probably in HTML mode 

Click the icon with the "<>" on it.

Van_Hayden

Although the German parent company does the same. They had over €400 of mine for 6 months, I waited because the price was unrepeatably good. But talk about being in the dark.

mike_l

monquixote said:

DV247 are a bunch of unethical arseholes 

 

This. In bucket loads.

Similar, but nowhere near as bad, DV told me they had a pedal I wanted in their Cambridge shop, I did my utmost to get there and back in my lunch hour. Lo and behold, when I got there, no pedal in the shop, but the line of "we can order it for you".

Me "Fuck off, You told me you had it in store".

Went to Coda a week or so later to check the Charvel range, so they got a sale of a guitar, and a sale of a pedal. 

martinw

Mosfed said:

  What would you do?

Send them both back.

I get more Ampeg SVT CL bass amps through than all other bass amps put together.

6 off expensive 6550s, combined with an oversensitive self-diagnostic system, 700+ volts on the anodes, questionable design and mediocre build quality are not happy bedfellows.

ICBM

martinw said:

I get more Ampeg SVT CL bass amps through than all other bass amps put together.

That's truly shocking. I knew they weren't as good as the old ones, but I never expected them to be as bad as that.

For me it's Ashdowns.

If Mosfed is interested a friend of mine has a SVT Classic and a SVT450 (yes, the solid-state one that sounds quite good and never breaks ) for sale, each with a 6x10"...

Mosfed

Nice one

Thank you