Whatever happened to tuners?

I've been on that waiting list for about 3 years now. I guess the guy just flaked out?

If you're referring to the PCA tuners, then no. Patrick's been having a hard time finding adequate amounts of the right parts, and everytime he does he sends another batch out.

I don't think this has been going on for three years yet though. More like a year, a year and a half. Are you sure we're talking about the same thing?

It's been over 2 years minimum. I got on the list the minute it was announced.

I'm pretty much fed up with the whole thing. $300 for tuners, $50 for remotes...

Its not been 2 years. I was like number 7 on the list and got mine sent to Rob Schofield and it was built and sent to me just over a year ago. How could you be on the list the minute it was announced and still be waiting?

PCA does all this in his own time - he sources all the parts, and designed a new tuner just for us. He's not exactly making a lot - if any- money from this.

Remember the product is discontinued and be grateful for what we have. I don't mean to sound like an f****r, but I think we should appreciate what he's done. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and making you buy tuners or remotes.

Hey, nobody ever said the Empeg came cheap. I paid $1800 for my first one (that was before the blowout sale) and I haven't regretted it for a minute. It's still the best option on the market if you're serious about your mp3's. And "best" never comes cheap, not even if it's EOL'd.

I don't know how I got skipped but I've signed up at least 4 times in 2 years - yes it's been that long - and never got anything.

Just look at the site he has up - no updates since August of last year.

Hey, I'm an original Mark I owner - I signed up to the empeg list in 1997! I know about expense. I'm less concerned about cost than I am about how it's both expensive and impossible to get.

The site may not be updated but PCA posts updates on here. He made one quite recently actually regarding orders and problems getting hold of tuner modules.

Edit: I got one of the first batch of ten tuners and made my payment to PCA on 5th Febraury 2003 (according to my Paypal history).

February 2nd, 2003 - Patrick starts taking orders

Nice try, though. Whatever you were signing up for over 2 years ago couldn't have been PCAT's tuner kits. So, I'm not surprised that you never received one.

- trs

Yup, I got my tuner in February 2003, signed up on the 2nd of Feb and got number 15.

Perhaps you're one of the people he tried to contact, and was unable to do so? There were some people on his list who he couldn't reach because of changed email addresses and such.

Each time he did a shipment, he would post here on the BBS, being careful to state where he was in the numeric queue so that anyone who thought their number had been missed could contact him. Did you miss those times?

Okay fine. It seems like 2 years ago. Perhaps I signed up on a pre-lim list that was put up before he started taking orders.

Still, over a year now...

I got rid of my old email address in November but had a forward on it until recently. I might have missed the call for my number.

What number were you?

Checking my email I see discussion of it as far back as August 2002, so I'm not full of [censored].

Well, perhaps not totally

I ordered one on February 12, 2003 but never received a number.

My current number is 302.

PCA does all this in his own time - he sources all the parts, and designed a new tuner just for us. He's not exactly making a lot - if any- money from this

Well, he's:

- not making any money at all, and has to invest masses of his own, unsecured money (GBP 4,000+) to buy bulk batches of tuner modules, leaving himself way out on a limb

- ordering, sorting, and bagging the whole thing up himself (many hours work for even small batches - think of the number of components)

So I reckon the relatively modest price he's charging (GBP 110? Not sure now) for the unbuilt kit is actually ridiculously underpriced for what you're getting.

Hi.

Well, if you didn't receive a number then the probability is that I didn't receive an order. The order system is automated, and automatically sends out both the confirmation email to the customer and the order to me. I will check your details against the order database, and if by some odd chance you were skipped, I will let you have a tuner immediately, but I would be rather surprised to find this was the case.

pca

Actually, I've just spent ~$11000 on tuner modules (a little more than 200 units), which required a bank loan and a lot of negotiating with the suppliers. The main problem with the supply is that the factory in Manila will:

A) Only supply in bulk, and
B) only to reqular customers for that product, and
C) makes the product to order, which explains A, and
D) only has about 5 or 6 customers worldwide for that particular product

I am, in fact, the only customer in Europe for the damn things. And, of course, take by far the smallest quantity. Everyone else who uses them is basically a car manufacturer, since the module was designed for automotive use. The cost of the things has been steadily going up, and the availability down, since the project started, and I only got them this time because one of the other customers placed a very large order which started the ball rolling. I have received the first 50 modules, and the balance will arrive sometime around 2 months from now. I expect that in fact this will be the last batch I can get.

As of order 305 the cost will have to go up by 10 GBP to cover the extra cost of the modules, which are now about 60% more expensive than when I set the price originally. The web site will be altered to reflect this in the next couple of days. I will have modules in sufficient quantity to fulfil orders to around 400 or so, but after that I'm not sure what the situation will be.

pca

Here's a copy of the email I sent:

Date: 3/12/2003 07:29pm
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
From: Jeremy Wilson <[email protected]>
Subject: Tuner order


My address is:

Jeremy Wilson
107 Atlantic Ave.
Toronto, ON
M6K 1Y2
Canada

(416) 820-3025

I need one tuner. What's the grand total with the cheapest shipping?

You didn't place an order on his website? I guess that would explain not getting the automated order confirmation with queue number...

At the time he wanted email sent to that special email address, there was no website!

I think at that time he just wanted to gauge interest - unfortunatley that didn't give you any place in a queue.

The date and text of the email implies he was taking orders, not guaging interest.

He was indeed taking orders at that point, in fact the first couple of batches had been shipped by then.

If you sucessfully placed an order on 12th March 2003 then your order hasn't made it to the front of the queue yet. I placed my order around about the 8th March and I'm not at the front of the queue yet.

There were a few days when the website was down and/or some people where blocked from accessing it, which is why Patrick offered that email address as an alternative route to order them.

Ah... I thought it was a December email (in december he wasn't taking orders). Yes, he was taking orders by March and I had mine delivered by then.

However, he wasn't accepting orders via email - only through his website. The lack of a queue number doesn't look good.

His site was indeed active in Marech - I signed up and paid for my tuner on 5th Febraury 2003.

Here is the proof the Patrick did have to accept some orders via email in March 2003:

http://empeg.comms.net/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=empeg_general&Number=145630

I've sent you a PM re a spare tuner kit that I have.
Thanks
Ray

In reply to:

---

I will have modules in sufficient quantity to fulfil orders to around 400 or so, but after that I'm not sure what the situation will be.

---

Just put my order in yesterday (number 312) - any idea how long till you'll have the parts?

number 312? So if I send my order now, I could possibly get a tuner someday?!!?
I thought that all the available sets were preordered!

which order number was the last shipped now?
I'm trying to understand when I'll receive a tuner if I order one today

Ciao Stefano,

I ordered mine arounf 1 year ago, around N. 240 IIRC, and I have not received it yet.

My second tuner was number 180 and I received an email this morning.

I just got my e-mail today order number 189. WOOT!!!
It’s time to clean off all my EverQuest perihelia from my desk to put the tuner together. WOOT!!!

Jerz,

when did you place the order for your tuner?

uhhhhh....hmmmm... well, about a year ago I'm guessing? I don't have the confirmation of that email anywhere and actually didn't need the kit any longer so gave it up to the next person in line when I received the email that it was ready to ship.

Hi,

2 weeks ago I received my confirmation mail for kit number 192; I paid for it the day after I got the mail but until now, I have no news about the kit; do I have to start worrying?


EDIT:
I just noticed that my address on PayPal is still unveified; could that be a problem?

No. You can trust Patrick. Email him. There might have been some problem in contacting you or something.

Thanks tman;
It's not that I don't trust him, but I don't trust our postal services... :-/ They already lost tone thing.

I will send him an email, just to know if it has been shipped.

Given the amount of work Patrick has on at the moment, plus preparation work for the empeg meet, I vastly doubt your tuner will have shipped. However: I can tell you that there are literally hundreds of boxes of components worth many thousands of pounds being slowly put into kit form (it takes a long time to label, bag and pack up a kit - you will understand when you get yours) so he can really only do a few a week. That's the price of needing to earn a crust at the same time as doing the fun stuff.

Don't worry: be patient - you can trust him implicitly.

Alternatively, you could come to the 2004 meet and collect it in person

Hi,
just after I wrote my last post, I realized that the Amersfoort meet is going to happen soon, so I didn't send any mail to Patrick as I don't want to push and be impolite.

Coming to Amersfoort would be really great, so I could meet half of this BBS in real life but I have my exams soon, and therefore every spare minute I have I'm over my books...

But I hope that I can come next year!

Hello;

So the Kit arrived yesterday!
I can't wait to get back home and start building it!

Hey Patrick, just curious if my tuner shipped? I sent an e-mail to ya not sure if it got to ya, and I know that you were having an issue with my ISP blocking your e-mails to me.

Robert Michael Tuner 189

Thanks

Quote:
Everyone else who uses them is basically a car manufacturer, since the module was designed for automotive use. The cost of the things has been steadily going up, and the availability down...
pca

If you are saying that the tuners are for the automobile use, then it's possible that many car stereos out there have those tuners?
We just need to find out which ones. So, instead of waiting for that Manila factory for their product batch, I would just go to a junk yard and rip a couple of stereos apart...