cktse

This feels like a classic case of expanding business too fast -- run by brilliant engineers who love to tackle technical problems, but do not have the experience and/or desire to solve the more 'mundane' operational / people issues.

Sharing my experience for those considering one of these Geek products: my Geek Pulse Xfi + LPS bricked after working fine only for 1 day. No sound from either USB and headphone. Opened a support ticket *6 months* ago and in short after a couple of initial back and forth testing (took a lot of time as instructions were provided piecemeal), the last reply promised to submit RMA to his production manager. 2 weeks since I posted on various forums, the only actions they had taken were to take down my comments from their FB home page and block my access. Since then I picked up an alternative email contact. I got a quick response and the support staff jumped back into action, so presumably I must have reached someone more senior. Anyway, I finally received instructions to send the unit to their repair center located in Shenzhen, China. Believe it or not, 3 weeks later, the package was bounced back because no one at the repair center was available to receive the delivery! This was after emailing them with the tracking number which they had promised to pass it onto the repair center. And once again, no response after repeated attempt to ask for confirmation of delivery. They really need to clean up its operations. The incompetence is simply incredulous at so many levels. This reflects a) poor quality control, and b) poor customer service. Unfortunately I cannot recommend the Geek series except perhaps for those who has got a lot of spare time to deal with testing and returns.

Sharing my experience for those considering one of these Geek products: my Geek Pulse Xfi + LPS bricked after working fine only for 1 day. No sound from either USB and headphone. Opened a support ticket *4 months* ago and in short after a couple of initial back and forth testing (took a lot of time as instructions were provided piecemeal), the last reply promised to submit RMA to his production manager. That was half a month ago, and no news since despite asking for updates twice. This reflects a) poor quality control, and b) poor customer service. Unfortunately I cannot recommend the Geek series except perhaps for those who has got a lot of spare time to deal with testing and returns. ---- For those who are interested, details of the support conversations attached: Active RMA since 15 days 8 hours #18128 Geek Pulse Xfi defective C.K. Tse reported 4 months ago Hello there, unfortunately the Geek Pulse Xfi unit appears to be defective. It stopped working after operating seemingly OK for a couple of days. The unit continued to be powering up fine, with the display looking normal, but it stopped producing sound. The DAC is detected at the Mac OS level as well as shown as selected in the software player, but as soon as I tried to play a track, the player immediately went into pause, no sound. I tested with a number of different players (iTunes, Pure Music and Audirvana, OS sound effect) to no avail. I also tested this on 2 different computers (Mac Mini, which used to work fine initially; and a Macbook Air, which is working fine with a different Geek Pulse unit borrow from a friend of mine). Just to be clear, I did the usual reboot/power recycle etc, none helped. As such, I would like to request the unit to be returned for repair. Would I need to return also the LPS unit, just in case? Please advise. Cheers, C.K. Technical Support Team said 4 months ago Hi C.K. Tse, This is Matt from technical support, I have received your support case and will be further assisting you with any questions you may have regarding your product. I apologize for the issues you've been having with your product. If you can, can you please preform the simple indicated steps below: Step 1: Connect the Pulse to the standard wall-wart that came with the unit (power supply). Step 2: Now connect the USB cable that came with the unit to the Mac and to the Pulse. Step 3: Power on the Pulse and verify that the unit has made a handshake with the computer (connected to Mac). Step 4: Select the Pulse and make it the default audio device in the "Sound Preferences" tab. Step 5: Connect some headphones/speakers with a TRS tip ONLY to the Pulse and verify that the volume is at the desired level. Step 6: Play music off of iTunes or Foobar (even if no sound is heard). Step 7: Change the sample rate within Audio Midi on the Mac. Does this allow the Pulse to play now? Also, what are your "Buffer Settings" set to in the "Light Harmonic Control Panel"? Note: I have attached a picture of the "TRS" adapter needed to be used with the unit. Please preform the indicated steps above and let me know how it goes. Thank you, Matt Ticket: https://support.lhlabs.com/helpdesk/tickets/18128 TRRS_TRS Com... (4.19 KB) C.K. Tse said 22 days ago Finally got time to follow the steps you outlined. Unfortunately it doesn't work. No sound from either USB or headphone. Please advise how to send units back to return. Technical Support Team said 21 days ago Hello C.K. Tse, Thank you for the reply. Can you test the Pulse with any other input besides USB? I want to ensure that the Pulse is atleast receiving some type of signal. Also note to change the input within the Pulse to the desired input being played through the unit. Ie: SPDIF or Toslink. Try giving that a shot and let me know how it goes. Thank you, - Matt Ticket: https://support.lhlabs.com/helpdesk/tickets/18128 C.K. Tse said 21 days ago I don't have spdif or toslink source to be able to do that. Cheers, C.K. Technical Support Team said 19 days ago Hello C.K. Tse, Thank you for getting back to me. Can you verify the firmware version within the Light Harmonic Control Utility and within the Pulse itself? Also, can you test this on a Windows computer? If I'm not mistaken, you said you tried this on a Mac Mini and on a Macbook Air? Have you also tried using different USB cables? Please give the following a shot and let me know how it goes. Best, - Matt Ticket: https://support.lhlabs.com/helpdesk/tickets/18128 C.K. Tse said 17 days ago I tried different USB cables before. Same thing. I am traveling hence won't be able to check firmware version. Having said that as far as I know there is no official way to upgrade firmware so it would be the same as it were shipped. I really don't have that much time to troubleshoot this, especially if the instructions are only given piecemeal. Please can you let me know how to send this back for return? I just got another notification that tickets are being auto closed soon. Cheers, C.K. C.K. Tse said 16 days ago Excuse me - any updates? Technical Support Team said 15 days ago Hello C.K. Tse, The ticket system is closed over the weekends and Monday was a holiday so my apology for the delayed response. I will go ahead and submit this as RMA New and will have it reviewed by my Production Manager for approval. This may however take up to 2 business days. I will keep you updated on the status of this case. Thank you for your time, Matt Ticket: https://support.lhlabs.com/helpdesk/tickets/18128 C.K. Tse said 10 days ago Hi there - it’s been almost a week now. Any news? C.K. Tse said 8 days ago I saw that the ticket status is now Active RMA. Does it mean I should send the unit back now? Please confirm next steps. Thanks. Want to get this done before my next trip out of town. C.K. Tse said 15 minutes ago It's now 2+ weeks -- any updates please?