[Elecraft] Customer Service, a Myth?

[Brian Kassel]

Folks:

   Some of you might recall in a recent posting, that I had lost 20M on
my K-1 during the recent QRP Afield event. Well, due to their excellent
documentation, I traced it down to the 22 MHz. crystal used for that
band only. I called Elecraft, expecting to pay 10-20 bucks for a new
crystal, as the rig is way out of warranty. As usual, Elecraft really
surprised me. Scott told me that they had seen this crystal failure
maybe 10 times in the K-1. Of course, as the number of K-1's sold out
there are well over 1000, I figured that 10 failures was not indicative
of an epidemic ;). 

    I was blown away, when Scott told me that they would send not 1, but
2 crystals, totally *FREE* to me!  He mentioned that he was sending 2,
"just in case".  He *APOLOGIZED* for the failure, and said that he would
get the crystals out to me right away, the same day Priority Mail.

    Heck, the failure was not due in any way to anything that Elecraft
had done, it was strictly a manufacturing problem with the crystal
vendor. And so small a sample out of that many kits is really not a big
problem I wouldn't think.

    In 42 years of hamming, I have never had so much consistent good
luck with customer service from a ham radio manufacturer. Heath Kit and
Ten tec come close, but in my experience, (YMMV), Elecraft is tops on
the list.

    I'm the kind of guy who is critical about service, weather in a
restaurant, airplane trip or any other situation where I am the
customer. I have been known to not leave a tip at all when I perceive
that service received was not up to par.  On the other hand, I have been
known to leave a tip way over 20% when I get exceptional service. I
mention this only because I wanted you folks to know that I don't offer
this experience lightly.

    Now *THAT* is service! 

Brian K7RE