John Wood Audio, a tale of woe

[Rick E]

The expensive amps in the range, relatively speaking, are the 200w mono's.

[Marco]

I wonder how much he pays for the cases? Would be good to see the innards, if someone could pop the underneath off and take a pic…….

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Enclosures can be had fairly reasonably Marco, here's an example-

http://www.bluebellaudio.com/enclosurewoodsurround.htm

[Clive]

Marco's right to bring up margin and I feel the fundamental issue goes further than this. It may be that John Wood needs to carefully assess who his customer base should be. I get the impression the OP is very unaware of the hassles involved with running valve amps as he doesn't even appreciate the difference between PP and SE, which is fine as there's no reason he should.....but is he a suitable customer for a one man band building specialist equipement? Yes customer service needs to be good but we're talking one man band here. The ideal customer for his amps I suggest would be someone practical enough to take a look inside, check some basic aspects internally and very possibly even make a small repair ie reflow a solder joint. This of course is quite a small target customer base.

Valve amps being heavy beasts can easily suffer damage in transit, some ability to check if something has come lose is useful. It's quite possible that when the amp left John Wood it was fine but I'm guessing. I know a few one man band companies, some of the proprietors try to vet their customers in the hope of working out whether they can successfully setup their purchase without too much hand holding and this is why some of these guys have a support community of enthusiasts to help out. Of course when a non-trivial problem occurs the product needs to be returned and fixed.

I just wonder whether John Wood is filtering his potential customers for suitability to take on running valve amps supplied via the post vs being delivered and set up by an expert.

[Rick E]

Whilst I agree that margins could be an issue here, I disagree that it has any bearing on what the customer should expect. If Mr Wood felt he was not getting enough from the transaction, he should have asked for more from the outset. Then he could have covered his back for the 'hand holding' process.
Even if he carries out builds at a loss, that doesn't make it the paying customers problem, and Geoff shouldn't be out of pocket.

[Macca]

Whilst I agree that margins could be an issue here, I disagree that it has any bearing on what the customer should expect. If Mr Wood felt he was not getting enough from the transaction, he should have asked for more from the outset. Then he could have covered his back for the 'hand holding' process.
Even if he carries out builds at a loss, that doesn't make it the paying customers problem, and Geoff shouldn't be out of pocket.

Agreed. It is not like it is the first valve amp he has ever built and sold so you have to figure he knows exactly what it will cost in parts and how long it will take.

This is a shot in the dark but is it possible he got Geoff mixed up with another customer. Some one man band businesses are pretty badly organised and some are total chaos (I know, I have dealt with plenty via my work) so potentially the whole thing is a misunderstanding and someone who was expecting a no returns second-hand amp actually has Geoff's brand new remote control effort?

[Marco]

Enclosures can be had fairly reasonably Marco, here's an example-

http://www.bluebellaudio.com/enclosurewoodsurround.htm

Thanks, Ali. It all adds up though, especially when you’re not buying parts in any major quantity. I also wonder how much he ’saves’ by (apparently) winding his own transformers, as opposed to buying in ready-made (high quality) ones, from the likes of Sowter?

The transformers used on a valve amp are known to be the single most expensive items… Also, apart from the cost of parts, what about his labour charges? By the time he’s bought all the bits to build this £1300 KT88 amp, I can’t see there being much left to pay for his labour costs, unless he’s happy working for ‘buttons an hour’….

What’s the hourly rate of a decent valve electronics engineer? For example, how much does Nick Gorham charge for his time? It’s got to be at least £50-60 an hour, so how many hours work do you think are in this John Wood KT88 amp design?

I’m just throwing some questions into the mix, as it were, in order to ascertain what might be going on. IMO, part of why this situation has arisen is likely to be down to the poor cash flow, organisation, and most importantly of all, POOR COMMUNICATION of the seller.

In any case, Mr Wood has gone quiet, as I’ve received no more correspondence from him, despite further prompting, so he doesn’t appear to have a lot to say for himself….

Marco.

[Thetiminator]

This is a very sad all round.

We have one guy who has had the stress of having to go through the courts to get satisfaction. The another guy has perhaps spent years building up his business now has had over 5000 views on the threads detailing this sad affair.

There are only losers in this situation

[Eagle owl]

The amplifier I have looks very similar to the one in the photo Rick posted but it doesn't have a small red light on the front. It has four Sovtek KT88 valves which came in their boxes and which I had to fit myself. It also has four smaller valves, two of which are smaller than the other two, these were already in situ when I unpacked the amplifier, I've tried this morning to identify what they are without success.

[killie99]

Is it only me that has read what happened here as some people seem to be missing some vital information or have selective reading?

Geoff paid for a new amp to be build. Mr Woods send him a 2nd hand amp which he admitted in court. As far as I'm concerned you can't accidentally do something like this and you deserve to have no more customers.

To deceive a customer by sending them 2nd hand goods and trying to pass them off as new is just unforgivable and inexcusable.