Gentlemen,
I hope my previous comments were not dismissive of a problem with
repairs. It does seem that MFJ has an overloaded repair department which
is not particularly well managed. They could turn this around.
A decade back I had summer employment for a few years with a
Connecticut company involved with electronics for the security industry -
this was a quite considerable firm. Their repair back log was going back
nearly a year and it was frightening to look at the shelves stacked with
work that was gathering dust. The new VP of manufacturing brought in a
new manager for the repair department and turned this around in about four
months maintaining a two week turn around from then on with careful logging
of all work. So we can hope MFJ does something similar.
We do however need to remember that the USA (EU as well) is a high wage
economy; I am sure in Mississippi technicians are paid above the norm. A
MFJ 259B costs all of $259 so maybe it is an expendable - not a nice thought
but perhaps a reality. It is not worth a lot of hassle. How are other
well known companies, with Chinese import QRP radios when it comes to
non-warranty repair? I do not much like the throwaway society but with
surface mount and real product cost dropping there is a practical problem
when it comes to repair.
Meanwhile I am happy with my MFJ 223 and 259C analyzers. I do not
want to use a laptop or tablet while up the tower or out in the damp
weather. There analyzers are amazing for the money. How can people sell
supposed analyzers which do not even measure reactance?
When I needed some vertical mounts for a four square, I ordered 14AVQ
bases from MFJ - thank you for this MFJ. Ameritron amplifiers are less
expensive than TenTec, Alpha, Acom so of course the build quality is not the
same yet they do seem to operate reliably for many in our hobby. We pay for
what we get.
I hope no one is offended by any of this as I do not wish to ruffle
feathers but feel we need to consider some of the good in this company and
to question how MFJ is able to offer repairs for a 259B at any type of
affordable price. We are living in a high wage economy - I am grateful
that MFJ is able to manufacture as much as they do in the USA. Yes some
product is made elsewhere - this is a global economy.
73 Doug EI2CN
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
john@kk9a.com
Sent: 28 August 2014 19:15
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Servicing an MFJ 259B
What a shame, I really dislike poor customer service! The 259B is a nice
unit for working on the tower. I just used my analyzer last weekend to
adjust the driven element on a new homebrew 10m OWA beam. I believe that
MFJ has a fixed repair price for many of their products. I am not sure
what the repair charges were for the 259B, but rather than go though your
experience I would toss it in the garbage. Thanks for the heads up!
John KK9A
To: TOWERTALK@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Servicing an MFJ 259B
From: Bill via TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
Reply-to: Cqtestk4xs@aol.com
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:22:08 -0400 (EDT)
I have bought my last item from MFJ/Ameritron.
Over the years I have had several items of MFJ/Ameritron manufacture and
always had great customer service. Over the last couple of years that
satisfaction has changed to disappointment...major problems with repair
of my
AL-1500 and now my MFJ259
I sent my MFJ 259B in for repair on July 2 and they received on July 7.
I was told at that time it would be four weeks until they got to repair
it....a long time but fair enough. On Aug 7 still no word from them so I
called. They would place it on their "expedite list". A week later no
word
from them so I called again. It was still on their expedite list.
On August 18, I finally got a call telling me they had done no repairs to
it, and it was working fine. I disputed this and repeated exactly what was
in my letter to them and to check it out again. On the 21st, they finally
found the problem and said they would be shipping it on Friday.
It's a two day ship from MS to FL so it should have arrived on Monday, the
25th. Today, the 28th, it still had not arrived so I called again. The
problem: the MFJ 259 sat around for four business days when they finally
shipped it. It was shipped yesterday. When I asked what the problem was,
I
got no reason, apology or anything else. They had no problem charging my
credit card right away.There is no excuse for doing business in this
manner.
Bottom line, do some deep thinking if you want to buy any antenna
analyzers from MFJ. Mine worked great, but customer support and repair is
sadly
lacking. They had this device from July 7 until August 27. IMHO, that is
terrible customer service.
Bill K4XS/KH7XS
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|