CRISIS- damaged aeon i's

[cmescia]

Well I was super excited to get a pair of 1y/o mint aeon i's on ebay for the low price of 1700 (surprised few people bid on them). They were going to be my new mains with my aerius i's going to the rear and I have coming a logos center.

However, when I recieved them, they had been dropped (and they were not in the orig boxes) and they both have damage. One has a large triangle (2"x3"x2") of the finish ripped off the side.....annoying but doable. The bigger problem is the other which has obvious stellate cracks on two bottom corners. Whe I hook it up, the wooferworks ok, but the panel does not come on. the little blue light comes on briefly but then goes off after about 2-3 seconds. the other one sounds fine....just cosmetic damage. I took off the panel of the one that does not work and looked at the board and nothing appeared loose or borken off. However it seems to trip some sort of breaker or protection circuit. Although the light briefly comes on, there is never any sound from the panel.

I have contacted pakmail, and they contacted dhl (the shipper) because they were shipped with insurance. I was told it would take at least 3 weeks for the claim to process, and they might have someone come over to the house to inspect the boxes and speakers. There is no ML dealer in Louisville, so I know they would need to be shipped somewhere to be repaired.

My questions are:
1) Does anyone here have experience with dealing with shipping isurance/damaged items? any tips to get them to cover this damage. The corners of the boxes are crumpled some, and I doubt from talking to the seller that he was shipping me bogus gear.

2) Any quick ideas of things to check that I might be able to make them functional? I do not know where the panel attaches to the board, to see if that came loose, and did not want to pull out all of the stuffing to look around until after they are inspected. I am not an electrical engineer, but can do minimal soldering etc...

3) Where would people recommend I ship this speaker to be repaired or to get an estimate? any phone # or address would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[SugarMedia]

Check with your CC company to see if it has insurance on purchases made. Sorry to hear the news.

 

[cmescia]

here is a pic of one of the corners

 

[cmescia]

it was thru paypal/ebay and I dont think the cc's insurance needs to step up just yet. I think the first hurdle is getting the shipper to own up....hopefully. The seller has been nice and asked if I still want the sale. I told him that if the speaker can be repaired, then I will stick with them....just wondering here how difficult it is to get the shipper's insurance to pony up for damages.

 

[patlad]

If memory serves Dolfin, member of this forum, faced a similar problem. You may want to search the thread about his problem or maybe get in touch with him.

 

[Jeff Zaret]

I would pursue the shipping the CC and the shipping company for reembursrement. I am not sure about the Aerius but there may be a fuse on the power board and if so check to see if it is blown. If you replace it and it still blows then the power board is bad. These can be replaced easily and are not realy expensive butr you should not have to pay.

Good Luck and keep us informed.

Jeff

 

[cmescia]

if the blue light does come on briefly and then blinks off after 2-4 seconds, is that a blown fuse on the power board? I would imagine that if a fuse blew, then the light wouldnt come on at all. i would think that some sort of protection circuit or breaker trips then trips back. The only reason i ask is that i do not want ot keep reopening the back panel, since they are screws right into the wood, and not bolt or other type connectors with threads. I dont want to strip out the wood. If any other folks here think that the fuse could be the problem, I will go back in. Otherwise, I was thinking about waiting until the dhl folks inspece the speakers and determine the damage claim. Then I am more comfortable digging around in there.

Again---if you needed your ML's repaired, where would you go?

folks constantly mention Jim Powers, who I am guessing is a big ML engineer. How do you get to talk to him (or what is the secret handshake?)

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Jeff Zaret]

It sounds the power regulator board but I am not the expert. Jim Power is the Service Manager at ML. You can contact him via email at [email protected] or call him at (785) 749-0133. He will be able to tell you and if they need to be shipped back. Chances are he will be able to get the parts for you and let DHL pay.

Jeff

 

[cmescia]

Ok, Jim Power is the MAN. he told me all about how to try and swap panels to help debug the problem, told me what parts are more likely to have fallen off, and told me what to at least start on to find out what to do. A nicer man I have rarely met. I guess now I can stop taking my stomach acid medicine ;^)

I will put out an update as to what happened.....

thanks for the advice folks,
Chris

 

[Chuck Macondo]

Hello Chris
Sorry to hear about your problems. I just went through almost the same with a pair of Ascent i's I bought from Tweeter. One of them arrived damaged.

For help I talked with Jeff Dearringer at ML, very nice man, very helpful and fast.

For the damage claim I can suggest several things:
1. Patience
2. File the claim as soon as possible. Did you sign for the package when it arrived or did you discover the damage once the delivery guy had left? If its the second, please double the dose of antiacid you are taking since you are now in "Concealed Damage Hell" That's what happened to me.
3. Schedule the visit of the cargo inspector and make him take lots of pictures. Get a copy of the pictures, since these will be the official ones.
4. Patience
5. Get a quote for the repair from ML. As detailed as possible
6. Do not let a day go by without contacting either the shipper or the seller
7. DO NOT settle with the shipping company for less than you need to repair or replace the speaker. They tried to give me some "voluntary settlement" in the form of two checks that didn't even cover a third of the repair.
8. If the claims clerk is not willing to help you or move your case, talk with management.
9. Patience

In my case only the cabinet was damaged; the panel, electronics and woofer were in good shape. Jeff Dearringer suggested, in order to save money and time, to send me a new cabinet and do the swap at home. That was what we did and now I have my speaker as if nothing had happend. You can also send the speaker back to ML but you have to include the shipping both ways in your claim

It is a pianful and annoying ordeal, it took me almost 3 months to get it all done, but if I survived it I'm sure you can do it too.

Let me know if I can be of any help

 

[cmescia]

just a heads up.....

turns out i just had a bad powerboard and they were able to replace it for just 100....yee haw. they guy that sold them to me agreed to pay for it and deal with the insurance himself....more yee haw. so I get to have functional aeon i's with some cosmetic damage at a great price and a bit of delay. Gotta give kudo's again to the ML service team...a nicer bunch of folks are hard to meet.


The seller must swing waaaaay more cash around than I ever will though I will b using the aeons as my mains with aerius as the rears (and a logos center), he was using the aeon's as the sides in a 7.1 (you know, because the aeons are small and good as side speakers ;^)

I will make a separate post regarding tips I was given for thecosmetic damage.

peace,
Chris

 

[SugarMedia]

I will make a separate post regarding tips I was given for the cosmetic damage.

peace,
Chris

Let me guess... if duct tape can repair the space shuttle suit (see recent July articles) then it's good enough for a Logan.

 

[cmescia]

and duct tape is also good for warts! It really can do anything....though, no it was not recommended by the ML folks. I guess they still have a problem with the charge that the tape gets makes it stick to one side of the ESL panel instead of vibrating like it should ;^)

 

[JonFo]

cmescia, great news about the repair situation.

Although I would have looked for some comp on the cosmetic damage issue as well, as they units are substantially less valuable for resale due to that.

However, there are always suckers (like me) who actually want damaged goods for other nefarious purposes