[Elecraft] OT: not bashing a product just a warning to future purchasers.

Sat May 6 11:09:34 EDT 2017

.

This frustrates me to see Gerald's OT post on the Elecraft list.

First:  It is totally inappropriate material for the Elecraft support list.
Shame on you Gerald.

Second: Since the can of worms was open I feel it necessary to come to Hans
defense.

I have been both a fan and customer of Hans for many years.  Hans is a first
class engineer as well as an honest supplier of really neat and cool kits.
He has not only shared his knowledge openly with the Ham Radio, computer,
and other technical communities.  But though his kits made access to his
designs easily accessible to others.   I have built his U2 and U3.  The
thought behind every aspect of the U3 is simply brilliant.  If you have
never seen a U3 look at the picture of mine:  http://ka7ftp.com/

Every time I've bought kits from Hans I've almost felt guilty of theft since
his prices are so low.   Hans answers his email and is contactable in many
ways.  Thank you Hans, please keep it up.

Big Big Fan and supporter!

KA7FTP

73

Len Bayles

-----Original Message-----
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Hans
Summers
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2017 2:38 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] OT: not bashing a product just a warning to future
purchasers.

Dear Gerald

Well if that isn't product bashing, I don't know what is... you are entitled
to your opinion, but in the rare event of a dissatisfied customer we prefer
if you contact us directly with your problem, rather than post vague
critiicism in a public and un-related forum. I feel the need to set the
record straight on a few points, and apologise for the bandwidth here in the
Elecraft forum where the original post should never have been posted; hence
the "OT" prefix to the post.

Firstly for background - QRP Labs was started properly, in April 2013.
Since that time we have shipped out almost 40,000 kits across our range, in
9,500 orders, to thousands of customers globally. The products are very
highly appreciated and have received good reviews in major amatuer radio
publications around the world; the most recent US publications are QST
November 2016, QST May May 2017, and TSM (The Spectrum Monitor) May 2017
http://www.thespectrummonitor.com/

We ship from Japan for, what were at the time, my personal reasons. But it
makes no difference - they have to ship from somewhere, and they are
intended for everyone, not exclusively for US kit builders! In fact we have
shipped packages to 69 countries worldwide. That's 69 post office entities,
not DXCC entities which would be a much higher count ;-)   Every order
confirmation sent out since April 2013 has requested feedback from the
customer on when the package arrives. A proportion of people do provide this
feedback and this has enabled us to openly publish statistics on shipping
times, which you can see on the website at http://qrp-labs.com/shipping -
and further information on shipping is available at
http://qrp-labs.com/faq#shipping so there should not have needed to be any
surprises. A pleasant side-effect is that shipping from Japan is very
reliable and inexpensive, Japanese international airmail is cheaper for
example, than sending something domestically within the UK and many other
countries.

You ordered two 50-ohm 20W Dummy Load kits http://qrp-labs.com/dummy at a
price of $8.50 each which I believe is the least priced dummy load kit
anywhere. This is also one of our simplest to assemble and use kits. I am at
a loss to understand your comment about the part leads bending under the
component's own weight! The resistors in the kit are 20pcs of 1K 1W
resistor, there is no way those chunky resistor wires bend easily! In all
the kits we use good quality components, all through-hole - usually 1/4-Watt
resistors but in some kits 1/6-Watt where physical space constraints
dictate, or the 1W resistors where higher power is needed. The capacitors
are NP0 types with Class-I low loss RF dielectric. All the PCBs are
professional quality two-layer with through-hole plating, soldermask and
silkscreen.

The dummy load design is just 20x 1K resistors in parallel to make 50-ohms,
sandwiched between two PCBs... I don't think it gets much easier than
this... and we also receive very good feedback on the assembly and operating
instructions for all the kits, which are very comprehensive.
Additionally for people than run into difficulties we have a QRP Labs email
group at https://groups.io/g/QRPLabs , and direct email support from QRP
Labs, as well as a free repair service as the last resort.

You need only type "QRP Labs" into Google to get an idea of the great
reputation the kits have earned. Blogs, web pages, videos, etc.

Regardless of whether I can understand your reasons, QRP Labs wants customer
satisfaction, and clearly you are not satisfied. Gerald. Therefore I have
refunded in full, the $22 you spent ($8.50 x 2 for the kits, and $5
shipping). I trust that this will go some way to resolving your
dissatisfaction. It is the first time in 9,493 orders for QRP Labs kits that
I have received a complaint like this, and needed to refund the purchase.

Vy 73 de Hans G0UPL
http://qrp-labs.com

I know that Elecraft does not want people bashing other companies products
> and I in no way want to bash them. I do however want to warn other kit 
> builder and kit lovers to please use caution when ordering any kit 
> from QRP-LABS. First it ships from Japan, second the products are so 
> poorly made that the part leads bend when holding the part up by the end
of the lead.
> The design was difficult and instructions are very crude.
> They are Cheap in price lol but also cheap in quality .
>
> Thanks hope this helps someone save their money.
>
> Gerald KC6CNN
>
>
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