Axiom had me spoiled. David recently mentioned that he was expected to pay the shipping charges to return his defective... sub amp? Was that it? Anyway, no one thought that sounded right, and that certainly hadn't been my experience with Axiom's service side. I've always been impressed with their willingness to send out replacements before you even ship back your problem unit, minimizing downtime, and shipping was always covered by Axiom both ways. That policy did apparently change, as after the amp for my Audiobytes just failed, I contacted Axiom and was informed that returning the defective amp for repair would be at my expense.

While I'm somewhat sympathetic to their situation, with all of the money they lose on providing service beyond what others are offering, it's a bit underwhelming to suddenly be partially footing the bill for their amp failures. Amp failures have certainly been the number one reason for service for me, but I always found comfort in the fact that Axiom was there to take care of me each and every time. They're still there to take care of me, only now with me covering the shipping one way and with a longer wait for a working product (since now I'll be waiting for a repair of the product instead of a simple swap with a new unit). As I told JC, it's still worth it to me to pay the shipping and have working Audiobytes again, but I wanted to have my displeasure with the new policy heard. I doubt I would be such a loyal Axiom customer if my experience had always been to pay return shipping for the numerous defective amps I've had. The amps are not light. It's going to be a lot harder for me to recommend any Axiom products with amps to other people under this new policy.

Can't say I blame you Charles. It's not that these are budget subs either.

Wow, that sucks. That was one of the best things about Axiom, the free shipping for warranty repairs. I am in full agreement with you Charles.

Although I must admit, prepaying the product back is the normal situation I have used for any other item I have sent back for warranty, hdd's, avr, etc.

The sub amp did appear to be the problem CV, as far as I know. I had intermittent outages where the sub just flat would not work. As mentioned previously during one outage it was completely silent until I cranked the volume knob on the sub up to max and then after a few seconds it started working, amongst other issues. The amp I received is working flawlessly so far. I was a little bummed to be asked to fork over $25 for shipping but they were nice enough to send me a replacement amp and wooden box to ship mine back in so I didn't have to go without a sub or pay for packaging (after I asked).

It did however, take several weeks to receive the replacement amp (maybe a month?) Axiom indicated that they were waiting on parts for the amp which is why it took so long.

I believe I received a rebuilt amp as it is the older version of the V2 amp that still has "bypass" instead of "150" on the max crossover point (the v2 amp I sent back had "150" as the max crossover point). Also, the boot had "600" written on it in white chalk but it was 95% wiped off with a new "500" written on it.

I have no problem that I receievd a rebuilt amp as it had been a month short of 3 years since my purchase and it beats the other option of having to send mine in for repair and then waiting a month with no sub.

That being said, it still was a bummer to be asked to pay the return shipping on the amp. I suspect that if a speaker/amp/etc. was faulty within the first few months of ownership they would ship a brand new replacement product and pay to have the old one shipped back. After an extend duration it makes sense that they would require old products to be shipped in for repair or have rebuilt products sent for replacement, but it sure would be nice if they still footed the bill for shipping both ways. It's frustrating to be asked to cough up some $ for a product that isn't working as designed... especially when you are talking about a $1,200 sub (in my case).

On a side note: I am on my 6th xbox 360 and Not one time have I been asked to pay for shipping. However, I have NEVER convinced Microsoft to send me a replacement prior to sending my defective unit in, which is still a big plus on the majority of axioms repairs, although this does not sound like the case with your audiobyte repair.

Further conversation with JC has revealed the following: "I would like to clarify that within the first year Axiom will cover freight cost both ways and try to send a replacement ahead of time. Over a year and for models which have gone more extensive changes sending a replacement unit ahead of time has created more problems than solving them."

That makes me feel a bit better.

I was also curious about what changes have been made to the Audiobytes to make them v3. Here's what he said in case anyone else was curious: "Even if the sound quality is the same the changes are major. The crossover which used to be at the amplifier level is now inside the speaker enclosure itself as all Axiom speaker models. Also when the EPZero is added to the system, the amplifier differs."

Its amazing what you get somethimes when you ask questions.

Always more questions. Now I'm waiting on the answer to what they do when someone orders Audiobytes without an EPZero and then decide to add one later. Since "the amplifier differs," it seems like they'd have to swap out their amplifier in order to add the sub.

Good to hear they are offering the same replacement policy for new owners (less than 1 year). Not many companies send replacement units before receiving the defective one back.

Apparently you have been married at one time Fred? I often get "It's amazing what you'll find when you open your eyes!"

Hunh. I wonder if he means that the amp works differently with the sub attached, like the existing ABs. Odd.

I got further clarification: "Starting with the latest AudioBytes version (to be released at the end of October), adding the EPZero at a later date will require the amplifier to be switched out; you are right."

That does seem like an odd way to go. Oh, I didn't ask, but I assume it would still have the other normal sub output. If I had it to do over, I probably would have picked up a different sub instead of the EPZero, as there are so many other brands of subs I'd like to try.

I feel like a bit of a whiner now, but JC mentioned to Ian about me thinking shipping would be paid both ways, and Ian decided to go one (or two) better than that and upgrade me to all new v3 Audiobytes, shipping all taken care of. I really wasn't expecting that, but I'll take it! The understanding is I'll provide feedback on the new version, which I'm happy to do.

I did read the warranty as stated on this site before starting this thread, and I still don't know how I was supposed to know shipping is covered both ways in the first year, but not after that. I'm fine with that being the policy, but going by this, it's somewhat up in the air:



Maybe there's more specific warranty information included with the products themselves. I haven't dug through my paperwork, but I was going by that information. Does that need to be updated with more specific wording, maybe?

In any case, Axiom has once again made me feel like I won the lottery. Thanks to JC and Ian.

That is good news CV. Let us know what you think, I'm thinking about getting some audiobytes fro Christmas

I will guess most people would be contacting Axiom to find out about the warranty (who really hangs onto that stuff, for 5 years no less?) and what would be required. It would be during this process Axiom, at their discretion, would be informing the owner about the free shipping.

I wonder if Ian is Jewish? Got you, didn't he?

Reading that warranty it is clear to me that they only pay return shipping, but then I spent 15 years in the twisted world of marketing.

1. It is clear that they pay the return shipping.
2. It says absolutely nothing about who pays for the shipping to Axiom.

FWIW, that is very standard warranty wording. I'm not suggesting that Axiom is being any deliberately misleading.

Kudos to Axiom for going one better for a good customer(and making you work for it).

I'm still amazed at Aperions industry leading customers policies which is their no risk trial period and 10 year warranty on all their products. They are so ahead of the pack right now. I can't think of any other popular ID brand either (Ascend, SVS, Emotiva) that can come close to matching them in this regards.