[Kenwood] Getting a Response from Kenwood

[Steve]

Hi All,

KB6BSN is pointing us in the right direction.

Sometimes you have to generate noise in order to get some signal.

Have not had to deal with Kenwood directly in many years, but have had 
similar experiences in getting the attention of North American divisions 
of Japanese companies.

There is usually a large gap in communication between domestic and 
Nippon offices The home office usually doesn't want to hear any bad news.

In two instances, I sent equipment, (not ham gear), back to Japan for 
service because the local branch wasn't getting things done. In both 
cases, gear came back quickly, in perfect shape,  and at lesser cost 
than dealing over here. Clearly, YMMV.

If a letter is written or, much better and faster, a fax sent to the 
home office in Japan, addressed to "President" or "General Manager", I 
suspect your issue will be adressed within a week. In most cases things 
will be favorable. In fact if enough letters were sent, KW might even 
return to their previous (1980s) excellent level of service and parts 
availability. (Accountants would have to be assigned to high-voltage 
test area for awhile before this could happen)

If the home office gets some faxes clearly and objectively outlining the 
problems with gear and frustrations with responses to same, and giving 
clear contact info, bigger things may start to happen.

If you can get the name of the president or GM it's helpful. Email to 
these offices is even more meaningless than it is over here.

A fax sent to JA with one of the discount prefixes, usually costs less 
than $2.00 if you know what you're doing.  Addresses and fax numbers 
usually appear in older manuals or on the Net..

Presumably someone on the list, maybe in  JA, can supply us with the 
Home Office mailing address and main fax number and perhaps main 
telephone number. Even if you are not fortunate enough to speak 
Japanese, sometimes a $5.00 phone call gets things moving as many 
Japanese office workers know some English.

GL es 73,
KL7JT/1