VPI Industries what is going on?

[Massimo66]

Good morning dear forumers, for about six months after purchasing an upgrade for my Hr-x turntable and, after this upgrade arrived broken and unusable and, after receiving, at my request, a whole series of promises to solve the problem, refunding me or receiving another working spare part, to date, the only responses I have from Mat Weisfeld or his wife Jane, continue to be promises of wanting to solve the problem and to be patient because: they have fired all the staff, or the new hire had an accident with the motorbike or the staff is on holiday, or they have all been struck by phantom off-season flu. Frankly, after five months of endless emails I am starting to get tired and wondering if it is not the case to ferry towards another brand of turntable. I am certainly in contact with another user who has had a problem with the power supply to his HR X for months and despite repeated emails he too cannot find or receive a definitive answer to eliminate the problem that is plaguing him. I know of other users who have reluctantly jumped the plunge and abandoned the historic brand because they are tired of hitting a brick wall. The last email I received showed a photo of the Rim drive I bought and which to this day I have not, according to Mrs. Jane Weisfeld, placed on her husband Mat's desk, to make me understand how close we were to solving my problem. Too bad this email is now three/four weeks old.
I don't want to create unnecessary alarmism (see what happened with Dartzeel) I think it's just a matter of respect for the end user and I would be very sorry if everything I was told by email was true that "the 7 plagues of Egypt" had hit the Weisfeld/VPI family. Do any of you have first-hand news?
Massimo

 

[tima]

Sorry to hear this.
Is your turntable operational without the broken upgrade part?

If so, I'd take the refund, wait for a few months then inquire again. In the mean time, explore alternatives.

 

[Massimo66]

Sorry to hear this.
Is your turntable operational without the broken upgrade part?

If so, I'd take the refund, wait for a few months then inquire again. In the mean time, explore alternatives.

This Is the mail that Jim sended me Mr. Jm from Vpi:
l giorno mer 12 giu 2024 alle 16:40 Info VPI <info@vpiindustries.com> ha scritto:

Massimo,

I sincerely apologize for any disconnects in our email exchanges...my concern was your satisfaction and trying to figure out a way to get this to you outside of our normal practices -- both by not using our distributor AND by not having you send the motor here for fitment/install/conversion. Our lead tech was consulted on the pulley question (both times) and is still not exactly sure why those pulleys would work fine on your flywheel w/ belt but run at 3X with the rim drive flywheel, it's odd. But the item that is not easily resolvable is the large gouge in the rim. This was not present here at the factory...the unit was inspected AND tested on the same motor as yours, and ran smooth for several hours. It is not a chip, but a "drop gouge", and I wouldn't expect you to find any remnants of it in the package. I can't tell you where in the delivery chain it might have happened.

So, your satisfaction is still my number one concern. If you want to return that unit to us, we will issue you a refund, which will bring you back to "square one" at least, with your flywheel & belt running properly. The oscillation is absolutely due to this deformity, and it is not something that will ever go away.

Since it is likely not feasible for you to ship the dual motor here (plus, I wouldn't want it to get damaged), and since the conversion process can be a bit more complex than was described to you (again, my apologies), my concern right now is just to make you whole again.

Thanks,
Jim

This is the email I replied to Jim/VPI on
Il giorno lun 24 giu 2024 alle 07:36 Massimo Scrima <PRIVATE EMAIL OMMITTED> ha scritto:

Good morning Jim. I hope this weekend was as enjoyable as mine is. Here the sun, the sea and good weather abound. If it's not a problem for you, I prefer to receive a refund … Let me know how to send the rim drive back to you in New Jersey.

This is the email after a month I received on July 23rd:
Dear Massimo,

I apologize for the very long delay in responding. Jim is no longer part of VPI, and I have been catching up on a number of open items. Unfortunately, your case is filled with a lot of notes on our end, so I thought I would start fresh with a new email introducing myself and addressing the problem and how we can resolve it.

It appears you have an Avenger class turntable with a rim drive, and it seems the rim itself has been damaged and needs to be replaced. If that is the main issue, we can arrange to get you a new rim and have you back to transforming your living room into a Sicilian Symphony!

Thank you for being part of the VPI Family, and again, I apologize for the delay in resolving this issue.

Talk to you soon,

Mat Weisfeld
President of VPI

I could bury the thread by publishing all the emails where the 7 plagues of Egypt hit the Vpi Family, (but I don't want to bore anyone) but as you can see 4 months have passed since the request for a refund or a new shipment. Luckily my turntable continues to give me great music but at least if I received a refund I would invest this amount to support the purchase of a tonearm to replace the VPI one that I don't use and since I already have a dynavector 507/2 on the same turntable I would like to insert a Glanz 12 inches or a Supatrac.

 

[Massimo66]

"Miracle on 34th Street"
After only 5 hours from my treed Mat Weisfeld wrote me that everything is ready and that they are about to ship. thanking me for my patience and apologizing for the delay.
I am like Saint Thomas who if I don't see I don't believe