Paul Hynes: Customer Service Problems

[Always.Learning]

Last March I contacted Paul Hynes regarding a new power supply for my phono stage. We exchanged about a dozen emails during the course of a week and Paul was very responsive and very thorough in his replies to my questions. I sent Paul photos so he could make the proper connectors for the cables between his power supply and my phono stage. At Paul's recommendation, I placed an order for an SR5DR-48, a custom version of his SR5 power supply for my Crayon phono stage. The order included funds for a custom cable, shipping to Seattle, insurance, and a wire fee. On March 29, 2017, I wired $1214 USD (977 GBP) to Paul's account with Barclay's Bank in Scotland. I have not heard from Paul since. I sent emails to the same email address I had used before -- [email protected] -- on the following dates:

 

March 29

March 31

April 4 (three emails)

April 24

 

I received no response to any of these emails. I did a little more research and asked some people about Paul and was told that a) he can sometimes "go dark" after an order is placed but he always comes through and I should be patient; and b) some storms had knocked out Paul's internet connection where he lives in the Hebrides Islands off Scotland. In light of this information, I decided to stop emailing Paul and just wait for the expected shipping notice in a few months. 

 

I has now been over five full months, with no shipping notice and no further communication from Hynes. On September 1, I sent another email to no avail. Today I tried calling the phone number listed on the only website that I am aware of that Hynes uses (paulhynesdesign.com) but got a recorded message that the line is no longer working. 

 

I am aware that people often wait a good number of months before receiving their orders from Hynes, but five full months seems like enough time to build a power supply. At the very least, I expect some basic communication regarding any problems. 

 

Can anyone shed light on this situation? Does anyone have suggestions for how to proceed? Has anyone experienced similar issues? If Hynes is unreachable, does anyone have a suggestion for pursuing further action or recovering my funds?

 

I am still hoping to receive a power supply -- I have heard only good things about the quality of his work -- but I am running short on patience. 

 

Jon in Seattle

[AnotherSpin]

I had good experience with Mr.Hynes. My item arrived after long wait, additionally I went through sending it back for small check (the failure was outside of PSU as it was discovered later), and receiving again. Mr.Hynes is not accessible all the time, but everything worked fine after all.

[Always.Learning]

Like I said, I've only heard good things about the work that PH does. And I don't have a problem with someone who is basically a one man show being inaccessible part of the time. But all of the time? I have tried on different days of the week, different hours of the day, different months of the year, and no response since March 29. Nothing. Simply not acceptable in my book. If I were to try and get a refund of the money I wired, I'm not sure where I would begin. 

 

That said, I'm still holding out hope that Mr. Hynes sends me a shipping notice soon. 

[Panelhead]

  With what you paid for a power supply and cable the service should be top notch.

  The pricing has really ramped up. I used to see them less than half that price. 

[jaspal kallar]

Perhaps try to contact him at Audiocircle  if you have an account.

[Always.Learning]

Good idea, Jaspal, I'll give it a try. Although I see his last post was nearly 10 months ago. Unfortunately, I now see that the "circle" that Paul Hynes sponsored is archived and no longer active. If you have an idea how to get around this, I'm all ears. 

[Indydan]

Check out Paul Hynes' post (the first one in this thread). He gives out a few ways to contact him. It seems he relocated his company last year:

 

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?47691-Paul-Hynes-Audio-Ltd-is-closing

[Always.Learning]

I am happy to report that Paul Hynes finally responded to my recent email. My power supply should be shipping within the next week to ten days. He apologized for the lengthy delay and failure to respond to messages. 

 

I have never questioned Paul's motives or his good faith. I do question his capacity to respond to customers in a timely and reasonable manner. He mentioned that he has been seeking expansion funding for his business and has had to replace a "work experience helper." I sincerely hope Paul upgrades his business infrastructure in a way that would allow him or someone else to respond to customers in a timely manner. 

 

My advice to anyone interested in buying a power supply from Paul is this:  

 

1) Be prepared for a long wait -- up to six months

2) Be prepared for spotty (at best) communications

3) Be comfortable with the idea that you are paying lots of money up front 

 

If you can live with these realities, then Paul can deliver (by all the accounts I've read) a superior power supply. 

 

Paul's recent message offers some hope that some of these issues might be addressed in the future. I hope so. 

[jaspal kallar]

Great to read that there's "light at the end of the tunnel"

 

[Always.Learning]

I can finally close the book on my Paul Hynes saga and I'm happy to report that it has a happy ending. 

 

Picking up where I left off on this thread, I received a shipping notice on Sept 20. After spending a full week in various UK cities, the unit landed in Philly, then Louisville, then Portland, where it sat for a few long days, and finally delivered in Seattle last week, almost two full weeks after the tracking number was assigned. I opened the triple boxing and hooked it up. What I heard was some faint music in my right channel and nothing in my left. I emailed Hynes, who was very responsive and suggested some basic troubleshooting. My friend and TT setup guy came over and measured about 26 volts coming from the power supply, which was supposed to be rated at 48. He then checked the fuse, which appeared fine. After putting the fuse back in, he measured the voltage again and, lo and behold, we were up to 48. We then hooked up the power supply and played a record and everything was in working order. Perhaps the fuse was jostled during shipping and wasn’t seated properly? 

Here’s the real news. I have an essentially new phono stage. I’m tempted to say that everything is better. Certain things you expect from a better power supply:  more robust bass, better dynamics, snappier transients. I can say yes to all of the above. But the change goes beyond this. Most surprisingly, I’m hearing better tone and timbre. Voices and instruments are more corporeal, with greater tonal density and richness. Is that the result of a lower noise floor or are other factors at play? Everything is more lively, and upbeat music just pulses. Just listened to “88 Basie Street.” Good grief, Count Basie never sounded this good. Paul Simon’s Graceland album really had me dancing in my chair, and the voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo were mesmerizing on the “Homeless” track. Everything has greater clarity and is more defined. After listening to Solti and Chicago play Brahms 4, I have a new appreciation for how Brahms constructed the work.

Most of the system changes I’ve made over the last couple years have been on the digital side and I’m really happy with how that’s sounding now. But I see a new romance with analog happening and some new vinyl on the horizon. 

I guess the big lesson here is that power supplies are really critical (but you already knew that) and can make a huge difference on certain components. I’m thinking that their effect is magnified when the signal is really small, and so preamps and phono stages are some of the best candidates for getting really good power supplies. 

 

For those of you waiting for or contemplating a Paul Hynes power supply, a big dose of patience is required. Eventually, I'm betting you will be rewarded in spades. 

[amir57bs]

On 9/7/2017 at 9:05 PM, Always.Learning said:

Last March I contacted Paul Hynes regarding a new power supply for my phono stage. We exchanged about a dozen emails during the course of a week and Paul was very responsive and very thorough in his replies to my questions. I sent Paul photos so he could make the proper connectors for the cables between his power supply and my phono stage. At Paul's recommendation, I placed an order for an SR5DR-48, a custom version of his SR5 power supply for my Crayon phono stage. The order included funds for a custom cable, shipping to Seattle, insurance, and a wire fee. On March 29, 2017, I wired $1214 USD (977 GBP) to Paul's account with Barclay's Bank in Scotland. I have not heard from Paul since. I sent emails to the same email address I had used before -- [email protected] -- on the following dates:

 

March 29

March 31

April 4 (three emails)

April 24

 

I received no response to any of these emails. I did a little more research and asked some people about Paul and was told that a) he can sometimes "go dark" after an order is placed but he always comes through and I should be patient; and b) some storms had knocked out Paul's internet connection where he lives in the Hebrides Islands off Scotland. In light of this information, I decided to stop emailing Paul and just wait for the expected shipping notice in a few months. 

 

I has now been over five full months, with no shipping notice and no further communication from Hynes. On September 1, I sent another email to no avail. Today I tried calling the phone number listed on the only website that I am aware of that Hynes uses (paulhynesdesign.com) but got a recorded message that the line is no longer working. 

 

I am aware that people often wait a good number of months before receiving their orders from Hynes, but five full months seems like enough time to build a power supply. At the very least, I expect some basic communication regarding any problems. 

 

Can anyone shed light on this situation? Does anyone have suggestions for how to proceed? Has anyone experienced similar issues? If Hynes is unreachable, does anyone have a suggestion for pursuing further action or recovering my funds?

 

I am still hoping to receive a power supply -- I have heard only good things about the quality of his work -- but I am running short on patience. 

 

Jon in Seattle

 

I am sorry , after 8 month i lost my money .

 

[Spacehound]

54 minutes ago, amir57bs said:

 

I am sorry , after 8 month i lost my money .

 

Ask him to do something about it.

He's respected and quite liked in the UK and Iran and the UK are now trying to be friends, Our 'Special Air Services'  military force  would probably enjoy a visit to Scotland.

 

 

 

[amir57bs]

15 minutes ago, Spacehound said:

Ask him to do something about it.

He's respected and quite liked in the UK and Iran and the UK are now trying to be friends, Our 'Special Air Services'  military force  would probably enjoy a visit to Scotland.

 

 

 

HaHa nice joke

[Panelhead]

On 10/11/2017 at 5:31 PM, Always.Learning said:

I can finally close the book on my Paul Hynes saga and I'm happy to report that it has a happy ending. 

 

Picking up where I left off on this thread, I received a shipping notice on Sept 20. After spending a full week in various UK cities, the unit landed in Philly, then Louisville, then Portland, where it sat for a few long days, and finally delivered in Seattle last week, almost two full weeks after the tracking number was assigned. I opened the triple boxing and hooked it up. What I heard was some faint music in my right channel and nothing in my left. I emailed Hynes, who was very responsive and suggested some basic troubleshooting. My friend and TT setup guy came over and measured about 26 volts coming from the power supply, which was supposed to be rated at 48. He then checked the fuse, which appeared fine. After putting the fuse back in, he measured the voltage again and, lo and behold, we were up to 48. We then hooked up the power supply and played a record and everything was in working order. Perhaps the fuse was jostled during shipping and wasn’t seated properly? 

Here’s the real news. I have an essentially new phono stage. I’m tempted to say that everything is better. Certain things you expect from a better power supply:  more robust bass, better dynamics, snappier transients. I can say yes to all of the above. But the change goes beyond this. Most surprisingly, I’m hearing better tone and timbre. Voices and instruments are more corporeal, with greater tonal density and richness. Is that the result of a lower noise floor or are other factors at play? Everything is more lively, and upbeat music just pulses. Just listened to “88 Basie Street.” Good grief, Count Basie never sounded this good. Paul Simon’s Graceland album really had me dancing in my chair, and the voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo were mesmerizing on the “Homeless” track. Everything has greater clarity and is more defined. After listening to Solti and Chicago play Brahms 4, I have a new appreciation for how Brahms constructed the work.

Most of the system changes I’ve made over the last couple years have been on the digital side and I’m really happy with how that’s sounding now. But I see a new romance with analog happening and some new vinyl on the horizon. 

I guess the big lesson here is that power supplies are really critical (but you already knew that) and can make a huge difference on certain components. I’m thinking that their effect is magnified when the signal is really small, and so preamps and phono stages are some of the best candidates for getting really good power supplies. 

 

For those of you waiting for or contemplating a Paul Hynes power supply, a big dose of patience is required. Eventually, I'm betting you will be rewarded in spades. 

  This is a hot button issue. The number of respected companies that take deposits and do not deliver products needs to be more visible. That needs to be a consideration for prospective clients.

  I waited at least a year for a 1,000.00 dac from LHL. Was real happy when it arrived. But never again. 

  Also, hopefully the measured 26 volt output was a measurement  anomaly. The fact the phono was not operating properly indicates maybe the power supply was not putting out the correct voltage. 

  The fuse has NOTHING to do with this. It either has continuity or is an open. Sounds more like a loose connection inside the power supply. Hopefully the problem never reoccurs. 

[PeterG]

In the US, if you use a credit card for a purchase and you believe you have not been treated fairly, you may dispute the charge.  The credit card company will investigate, and they will reverse the charge if they come to agree with you.  I have done this several times with excellent results.

[amir57bs]

Hi guys

if you remember i told you paul is not trusted and he not refund my money after 6 month.

now Paul have sent me an email and he told me he will refund my money this week.

 

Good news to me and other who would like to order Paul hynes PSU.

i should say Paul is trusted and if you pay him he will refund your money .

 

Amir

[GUTB]

51 minutes ago, amir57bs said:

Hi guys

if you remember i told you paul is not trusted and he not refund my money after 6 month.

now Paul have sent me an email and he told me he will refund my money this week.

 

Good news to me and other who would like to order Paul hynes PSU.

i should say Paul is trusted and if you pay him he will refund your money .

 

Amir

 

Good news. Sorry you had to go through this BS.

 

I'll never buy anything from this guy.

[AnotherSpin]

I had good experience with Paul Hynes. My order arrived as it was expected, in several months. Also after I had a problem which I mistakenly attributed to LPSU and send unit back to Mr.Hynes, he returned checked and well-working item with certain upgrade free of charge, just to compensate my shipping costs. Very much satisfied with service.

[NOMBEDES]

I think he lives on some island in far far Scotland.  Merlin comes to mind.  I would not expect much feedback from such a small operation.

 

Audio lore is full of tales of one-man shops getting overwhelmed by customer service issues, delivery issues .... the list goes on.

 

[gmgraves]

On 2/19/2018 at 12:13 AM, amir57bs said:

 

I am sorry , after 8 month i lost my money .

 

When dealing with overseas suppliers, especially small companies and mom & pop concerns, your money is always at risk. Let me tell you my tail of woe (not audio related) Back in 1968, fresh out of college and working in the aerospace industry, I found a very old Ferrari sitting in the weeds of an unkempt front yard of a cottage in Santa Rosa CA. I had become lost coming back from my first trip to Bodega Bay in my Jaguar XK140MC Roadster which was my only transportation at that time, and stumbled into this residential section of Santa Rosa. Curious about the vecchio (very old) Ferrari, I stopped and walked up to the door and knocked. An elderly lady answered and I asked her if the Ferrari was hers and if she wanted to sell it. She told me that it had belonged to her son, who had been killed in Viet Nam. She asked me in and fed me a piece of cake and a Coke and we talked for a few minutes. Finally she said that if I could haul the car away, She'd sign the title over to me gratis. I thanked her, followed her instructions back to US101 and made my way back to San Jose. The following Saturday, my room mate and I in his big Dodge took a single car trailer back up to Santa Rosa to pick-up my "new" Ferrari. While loading the car onto the trailer, we noticed that the right-hand drive shaft was broken as it slid out of the axel housing as we moved the car. 

 

Being just a kid, I didn't really know anything about fixing up old cars, so I assumed that I would have to get a new axel half-shaft from the Ferrari factory in Italy. Naively, before work one morning I placed a call to Ferrari SPA in Maranello, Italy. I found an operator at the factory who spoke English, and she put me through to the parts dept., and stayed on the line to translate for us. The parts man told me that they had all the plans for the 1952 212Inter MM that I had (I gave him the serial number off the builder's plate on the firewall). He told me that they could make me a new pair of shafts and ship them to me for the Italian Lira equivalent of US$1200. I went to my bank, extracted $1200 from my meager savings (yeah, it just about cleaned me out) and had the bank do an international wire exchange of funds payable Automobile Ferrari SPA of Maranello Italy. I attached everything that the parts guy told me to attach to that wire transfer to make sure that it got to the right people and they knew what the money was for - and I waited.

Months passed with me rushing home from work expecting to find a freight package from Italy awaiting me. Needless to say, it never came. I tried calling the factory again, and this time, I could find no operator who spoke English. I tried several more times and even though I had the name of the parts dept. supervisor that I had ordered the part from, I could never reach him. A couple of years later, a colleague of mine was going to Northern Italy to visit his Italian wife's family and it turned out that they lived in another suburb of Modena, so I asked him if he could stop by the Ferrari Factory and inquire about my !@#$%^&* axels! He said he would be happy to do so, and I gave him all the pertinent information. When he returned, he said that even with his wife doing the translating, the PR office at the factory seemed to not grasp what he was asking about. Anyway, he did not get to talk to the parts guy who's name I gave him, nor did he gat any satisfaction. I never got the axels and I never got my money back. I sold the Ferrari, subsequently, for you guessed it - $1200. When I asked the buyer what he was going to do about the broken half-shaft, he said: "Oh, I'll take it a really good automotive machine shop I know of just off of West San Carlos Street in San Jose, and have them machine me out a new one by copying the good one as they are both identical to one another!" Being able to get it done locally, had never even occurred to me! One of those forehead slapping moments that we all have as we live and learn.

 

I saw the car again, in the Ferrari corral at Concorso Italiano in Monterey Ca., a few years ago and I spoke with the then current owner (who was not the guy who bought it from me) and told him that I had once owned the car, and related my tale of woe. He made me feel even worse when he told me that he had earlier in the day been offered $2.7 million for the car and turned it down......

Below is the picture I snapped at the Concorso Italiano some years ago of the very 212 Inter MM that I owned.Don't I wish I had held on to it?

[mozes]

40 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

When dealing with overseas suppliers, especially small companies and mom & pop concerns, your money is always at risk. Let me tell you my tail of woe (not audio related) Back in 1968, fresh out of college and working in the aerospace industry, I found a very old Ferrari sitting in the weeds of an unkempt front yard of a cottage in Santa Rosa CA. I had become lost coming back from my first trip to Bodega Bay in my Jaguar XK140MC Roadster which was my only transportation at that time, and stumbled into this residential section of Santa Rosa. Curious about the vecchio (very old) Ferrari, I stopped and walked up to the door and knocked. An elderly lady answered and I asked her if the Ferrari was hers and if she wanted to sell it. She told me that it had belonged to her son, who had been killed in Viet Nam. She asked me in and fed me a piece of cake and a Coke and we talked for a few minutes. Finally she said that if I could haul the car away, She'd sign the title over to me gratis. I thanked her, followed her instructions back to US101 and made my way back to San Jose. The following Saturday, my room mate and I in his big Dodge took a single car trailer back up to Santa Rosa to pick-up my "new" Ferrari. While loading the car onto the trailer, we noticed that the right-hand drive shaft was broken as it slid out of the axel housing as we moved the car. 

 

Being just a kid, I didn't really know anything about fixing up old cars, so I assumed that I would have to get a new axel half-shaft from the Ferrari factory in Italy. Naively, before work one morning I placed a call to Ferrari SPA in Maranello, Italy. I found an operator at the factory who spoke English, and she put me through to the parts dept., and stayed on the line to translate for us. The parts man told me that they had all the plans for the 1952 212Inter MM that I had (I gave him the serial number off the builder's plate on the firewall). He told me that they could make me a new pair of shafts and ship them to me for the Italian Lira equivalent of US$1200. I went to my bank, extracted $1200 from my meager savings (yeah, it just about cleaned me out) and had the bank do an international wire exchange of funds payable Automobile Ferrari SPA of Maranello Italy. I attached everything that the parts guy told me to attach to that wire transfer to make sure that it got to the right people and they knew what the money was for - and I waited.

Months passed with me rushing home from work expecting to find a freight package from Italy awaiting me. Needless to say, it never came. I tried calling the factory again, and this time, I could find no operator who spoke English. I tried several more times and even though I had the name of the parts dept. supervisor that I had ordered the part from, I could never reach him. A couple of years later, a colleague of mine was going to Northern Italy to visit his Italian wife's family and it turned out that they lived in another suburb of Modena, so I asked him if he could stop by the Ferrari Factory and inquire about my !@#$%^&* axels! He said he would be happy to do so, and I gave him all the pertinent information. When he returned, he said that even with his wife doing the translating, the PR office at the factory seemed to not grasp what he was asking about. Anyway, he did not get to talk to the parts guy who's name I gave him, nor did he gat any satisfaction. I never got the axels and I never got my money back. I sold the Ferrari, subsequently, for you guessed it - $1200. When I asked the buyer what he was going to do about the broken half-shaft, he said: "Oh, I'll take it a really good automotive machine shop I know of just off of West San Carlos Street in San Jose, and have them machine me out a new one by copying the good one as they are both identical to one another!" Being able to get it done locally, had never even occurred to me! One of those forehead slapping moments that we all have as we live and learn.

 

I saw the car again, in the Ferrari corral at Concorso Italiano in Monterey Ca., a few years ago and I spoke with the then current owner (who was not the guy who bought it from me) and told him that I had once owned the car, and related my tale of woe. He made me feel even worse when he told me that he had earlier in the day been offered $2.7 million for the car and turned it down......

Below is the picture I snapped at the Concorso Italiano some years ago of the very 212 Inter MM that I owned.Don't I wish I had held on to it?

OMG what a story! Thanks for sharing.

[TubeLover]

George, 

 

You have my immense respect, and thanks, for telling us the tale, which was remarkable. But especially for not having had something like that ruin your life,  and leave you endlessly bitter, as many people would have. 

 

JC

[gmgraves]

16 minutes ago, TubeLover said:

George, 

 

You have my immense respect, and thanks, for telling us the tale, which was remarkable. But especially for not having had something like that ruin your life,  and leave you endlessly bitter, as many people would have. 

 

JC

The way I look at it, you simply can't let bad breaks get you down. Life is full of them and there are essentially two types of people: Survivors and those who succumb. I've always considered myself a survivor,  and I believe that makes the difference.  If you believe that life will get the better of you, it will. But if you believe that you are stronger than the forces arrayed against you, you will ultimately come out on top! Ok, I don't own a 2.7 million dollar Ferrar, but I have my health, and I'm financially reasonably secure, And I'm single and happy without much of scare in the world.

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, gmgraves said:

The way I look at it, you simply can't let bad breaks get you down. Life is full of them and there are essentially two types of people: Survivors and those who succumb. I've always considered myself a survivor,  and I believe that makes the difference.  If you believe that life will get the better of you, it will. But if you believe that you are stronger than the forces arrayed against you, you will ultimately come out on top! Ok, I don't own a 2.7 million dollar Ferrar, but I have my health, and I'm financially reasonably secure, And I'm single and happy without much of scare in the world.

 

Good for you. I believe there is even more simpler approach than not letting certain things or happenings get you down. It is to realize all and every problem exist in your head only.

[gmgraves]

9 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Good for you. I believe there is even more simpler approach than not letting certain things or happenings get you down. It is to realize all and every problem exist in your head only.

....along with the solutions. They're in your head too! You just have to find them!