PLAN B analog blog

Peter,

Kudos to you for taking responsibility and your courage to do so publicly is admirable. 
This is not something we see every day. That being said, I'm not sure that you owe anyone 
an explanation other than the one customer. 

The internet is a "funny" place where people feel particularly free to throw stones as they 
can do so without any real repercussions. There are dilettantes and spoiled brats who 
spend gobs of money on boutique gear and then feel some sort of skewed sense of 
entitlement in which they can pointedly criticize without any sense of reality or humanity. 
Free speech is a given but it is meaningless without consideration. 

It's your business and you seem to follow your heart. My two shekels is that as long as you 
communicate with your customer in a timely fashion and take good care of him, the rest of 
us aren't owed an explanation. But thank you for the sentiment.

Adam

--- In PLAN_B_analog_blog@yahoogroups.com, "(i think you can figure that out)" 
<peter@...> wrote:
>
> I want to take responsibility for something I recently mishandled.  A
> gentleman sent me two Model 15's for repair, one with a problem which
> was easy to fix, one which was oscillating well beyond it's normal
> range (52K), which I didn't catch in final test.  This was my first
> mistake.  I test all units functionally on my system before they go
> out.  In part of the VCO test, I sweep the frequency to verify it goes
> from sub to super audio.  What I didn't do until I found this problem
> is read those limits on a frequency counter at final test.  Our normal
> operating range is 5 to 20K cycles, which in real terms usually ranges
> anywhere from to 20 to 22K on the high end.  Regardless, both of these
> are well beyond the audio range.  I didn't realize how much however.
> Because of this unit I received back, I've now installed my frequency
> counter to my system and do verify the limits are within spec.
> 
> This was an error, but not the problem.  We're all human and
> unintentional mistakes happen. The problem I want to take
> responsibility for is mistakenly telling this gentleman his units had
> shipped back to him when in fact they hadn't.  I got two repair return
> orders confused. I should have been more careful with this before i
> let out false information.  I decided to replace the unit which was
> oscillating to 52K as I was a bit weary that it was healthy even after
> finding that specific problem. Initially having to wait  for new PCBs
> to arrive to fill this, his VCO feel through the cracks the week of
> the Analoglive show.  I got the boards in, but dropped the ball.  In
> short, I forgot.
> 
> I've had my share of bad comments on the internet.  I dare say that
> for whatever reason there was a time when on certain lists it was
> fashionable to do so. Matrixsynth and Analog Heaven come to mind.  In
> many cases I've been no more guilty than many of my competitors about
> announcing products before they are available, not filling custom
> orders on time, doing rework that some feel is unacceptable, not doing
> a lot of things I should have in the time I should have done them. It
> seems to me however these instances get broadcast on the internet more
> than some of the other manufacturers who are as equally deluged with
> their workload, and equally accountable for the same types of issues,.
>  Along with this, there also has been a lot of false information
> thrown out about my operation, my products, my business ethics, even
> some which touch upon much more personal issues. So be it. That's the
> way it is and each of you are all free to form any opinion you wish
> about me or my products.  The only thing I can do is keep on doing the
> best that I can, which I have.  Whether or not that's sufficient is
> another story.
> 
> In this instance with the two VCOs however, I bungled something I
> shouldn't have and I take full responsibility for this and any
> comments people wish to make. They are justified. I don't feel it's
> appropriate to name this individual publicly, he's more than welcome
> to do so if he feels it's just to do so.
>