I'd not usually bring this to the forum, but this is beyond a joke now.

I asked for a refund on the 15th October, only got an email back after I emailed AGAIN to say I still hadn't had any response althoughI'd noticed that the Twitter page had been updated. This email told me "the cheque's in the post". After finding out on the 25th of October (after emailing again) that it wasn't actually in the post at all, it was sitting on a table somewhere I was asked if I would prefer a bank transfer. I said yes, and was told it would take a couple of days. I gave it a week, and still had nothing in the bank, so I emailed again. "Bank transfer's take a couple of days to go through and the power's been off but we're all up and running again now", or words to that effect, was what I was told.

That's nearly a fortnight ago, Ben. Where's my money? This isn't funny anymore. I can kind of understand and put up with an 18 month wait for a synth which never arrived, because at least that's a hand-built item which apparently takes a long time to get right, but nearly a month for a promised refund? Sorry, but that's taking the piss big time. There's absolutely no excuse for that.

While I have had no problems with Chimera, I have had big issues with Plan B/Peter Grenader. The sordid history has been rehashed in a number of places, the Muff Wiggler forum in the most detail. There is currently a similar issue with synthcases.com, which is also being rehashed on the Muff Wiggler forum.

Because I've been through this, I have the utmost empathy for you. And because Ben designs great products, I really want him to pull this together.

There is a commonality here among all of these different issues/companies, and people's reactions to them. The unfortunate thing is that once people get into this pattern, it seems hard for them to break free of it. What pissed me off the most, and what I think legitimately pisses people off the most in general (just inferred from reading through many, many pages of threads about these similar issues) is the communication.

I think that people understand that small companies can have issues, and that finances can get behind, etc. However it is very difficult to deal with a company when the communication is nonexistent, or when you are told things that aren't true, repeatedly.

Ben - I'd really urge you to communicate MORE, not less when there are issues, and if there is a problem with following through on a commitment that you've made, just be up front about it, even if it's painful. The problem starts becoming that people develop a reputation that is hard to get rid of. The Plan B situation became quite awful, and people who were directly affected will likely never trust Peter again, let alone do business with him. Just my 1.5 cents - I have the bc8 and bc16 and they are great products. But whatever may be going on behind the scenes, it is a fact that Chimera is developing a bad reputation - and (imo) the communication part seems to have the most impact. Ben - I really urge you to take control of this before it gets worse.

He has no incentive to do that. He's been operating this way for ages, and has it really caused him any trouble? No, just some angry posts on a forum. I don't see any reason why he would fix these problems.

What happened to the person he hired to do customer service? Supposedly she started on Nov 1st, but it's hard to imagine that someone who held that position would not have introduced herself on this forum by now.

dalasv wrote:

He has no incentive to do that. He's been operating this way for ages, and has it really caused him any trouble? No, just some angry posts on a forum. I don't see any reason why he would fix these problems.

What happened to the person he hired to do customer service? Supposedly she started on Nov 1st, but it's hard to imagine that someone who held that position would not have introduced herself on this forum by now.

Of course it's cost him trouble - this isn't the only forum where this has been under discussion, and certainly it has cost him sales.

It's probably cost him more than he thinks - I look after the music department for a college, and I've been recommending that we buy a load of these to teach the students about synthesis. I was going to buy between 22 and 30 of them a few months ago after mine was supposed to have arrived. When it didn't arrive, I told the head of music just to hang on a bit, as when I demonstrate the bc-16 he's sure to get on board and want to get a load of them. I also work alongside various owners of local music studios, all of which were interested to see the bc-16 when I got it.

Needless to say, none of those potential sales are going to be happening anymore.

And I really need my money back now; I've been patient, friendly and polite so far, but I'm seriously considering getting my solicitor involved. On top of other things which are going on in my life at the moment, I really don't need this kind of shit.

Ok, I'll agree that it has cost him theoretical sales, but he's not even producing enough (at the moment) to fulfill the sales he has already made. Yes, if he got his production issues together, he would be able to make more sales, more money, but what I'm talking about is his customer service. So far, it has not impacted him to the point where he has no more orders to fill, so there is no incentive to change the customer service.

-Production: Incentive is there. If he made more synths, they would be purchased.

-Customer Service: Incentive is not there. His bad customer service still results in having more orders than he can fill in a reasonable amount of time.

Which is probably why he spends time always buying new machines for the production side and continues his bad relationship with his customers.