Never claimed you ever DID say they'd be free. The issue was whether they SHOULD be free.

Ah, I just wondered why you waited over two months to say anything about it then. I've said lots of times that there would be a charge, the best time to complain isn't at the last minute after a project has been budgeted and is about to ship.

I was under the impression, given past experiences with Empeg, that if there were design flaws, etc., that they would be handled.

First 50 players - new buttons, knob, screen and fascia. First 1000 players - new rotary knob. First 250 (ish) players - replacement serial cable. The few customers affected by powerdown spike problem - new ISO/Diode cable. All free of charge, including shipping and handling.

All new products have glitches - those were ours, and I believe we have acted with exemplary conduct. We've had no more than a handful of complaints about daylight visibility on the Mk.2, and most of those relate to red and amber screens which we acknowledge are not as bright as the blue or green.

Never heard a word back on that, so unless someone else tested them for you (a possibility I'm not ignorant of) then the functionality under the conditions here are a big unknown when they could have been fairly well determined.

We don't have any AR and ITO coated screens yet, and neither will we before the full production run. We can't supply non-ITO coated screens to clients, especially not in the USA - if a competitor picked up on that they could have the FCC shut down our export channel into the US. In any case we have tested the screens in the workshop and have selected the optimum compromise between reflection diffusion and light opacity - this is as good as it gets without rendering the display unreadable.

Given the response other people have gotten with their complaints here in the past, I think it just appears that people are unwilling to speak up publicly and air their contrary opinions.... Hell, I think that's true in general these days, we're conditioned not to stand up and make noise about something, we're a race of sheep.

There I was thinking we had a reputation for great customer responsiveness. I can only think of one issue that we put our foot down over - the visual switching thing - and we came up with a compromise that most people are happy with. But then, they're all sheep, right?

I don't want you to take this personal, Rob. My dealings with everyone at Empeg have always been stellar, with this being the exception.

I think you have this completely out of proportion, and I find it really quite offensive that you can go from a "stellar experience" to vehement condemnation over this issue. In effect you're telling us that no matter how hard we work, how great a product we develop, how great support we offer - despite all that if we make one slip in your eyes (a $10 charge for a new panel) you will turn your back on empeg, withdraw all of the reccommendations you have made to your friends, and presumably run us down to anyone that will listen. With friends like that, who needs enemies?!

Rob