General diyAudio store feedback thread

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Great to hear, and thanks for bringing this up, otherwise honestly I wouldn't have noticed. You're the first person to raise the topic, so it was good to dig into it and find out the root cause of the issue. We'll be able to better advise customers in the future about what to expect from shipping companies during the month before Christmas, so thank you!
 
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I've sent two messages in the past two days to contact@diyaudiostore.com No response has been received. Is that the correct address for problems with an order?

Hi Gary. Sorry for the slow response to your message in this thread, it must have slipped through. We're still working out how to ensure forum threads are replied to in a timely manner and sometimes a post is made to a thread, slips through the cracks and sits unanswered for sometimes weeks or months because we don't have a system in place to remind us about it. It was only today's post by Marra that got this thread in front of me. This will be addressed in the near future once we move to a new forum platform and I can code some "reminder" systems.

In regards to where to get support, considering what I just said, email is absolutely the way to go for anything that needs a quick answer. The forum is going to get you crowdsourced answers from the community and is the best place to get any technical related questions answered. For all order related, non-technical stuff, email is the way to go. Yes that's the correct email address.

I just checked our stats and they show for the last week the average time to first response was 11hrs, and over the last month it was 19hrs. We aim for "24-48 hours", and usually are answering emails even on weekends. If a question is particularly difficult or needs to be passed around and discussed internally between various parties spread across the globe, especially if it is about chassis and needs people in Italy to review it, it can take a few days. Throw a weekend into the mix (your first message Feb 9th was sent on a Saturday) and it can drag things out for a few days.

What I've requested our helpdesk staff to do to address this is to ensure that when a complicated issue (ie: one that needs to be passed around and discussed internally) is received we let people know immediately that "we're on it" so you know that "we're on it" :) In your case your issue was indeed being discussed by several parties across the globe while you were waiting thinking nothing was being done. I believe that lately we have been much better about communicating this scenario to customers.

Anway, I'm glad that we were able to resolve the issue for you on the 13th and do apologize for leaving you wondering if we had received your email for that long stretch of time. As mentioned, we've implemented a strategy to ensure this doesn't happen in the future (for emails).

Many thanks guys my Nutube board and jfets were delivered this morning. Time to warm up the soldering iron.

Good stuff - remember everyone loves photos! :)
 
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Must say I have only had positive experiences with my store purchases.

The most recent, my Starving Student II preamp is a little beauty with a thoroughly researched and put-together kit which just about assembled itself. Worked immediately upon assembly. Great work and good service.

Graeme
 
Cannot Order

Hi,

I would love to give great feedback about products or service but cannot because I cannot place an order. I keep getting the message " Your cart has been updated and the items you added can’t be shipped to your address. Remove the items to complete your order. "

I know that USPS or DHL will deliver to my address as they have delivered before from different suppliers in the USA. Also all the products in my cart are available for dispatch. I have asked about this problem at contact@diyaudio repeatedly over the past 3 days but have had no reply. Maybe illness or caught as spam is the reason. Either way it's very frustrating as I am ready to order while the parts I want are in stock but cannot. It's not the service I expected based on the feedback of others.
 
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Hi,

I would love to give great feedback about products or service but cannot because I cannot place an order. I keep getting the message " Your cart has been updated and the items you added can’t be shipped to your address. Remove the items to complete your order. "

This very unhelpful error is what Shopify throws when the shipping rater cannot calculate a shipping rate to your location, for the given cart contents. Based on your email address, I'm guessing you're in Russia, and our services are very limited there due to half our shipments never arriving. We stopped shipping using all the cheaper methods. Now we only use expensive yet reliable services to Russia.

Can you please email contact@diyaudiostore.com with your cart contents and the full address you are entering and we'll find the source of the error.

I know that USPS or DHL will deliver to my address as they have delivered before from different suppliers in the USA. Also all the products in my cart are available for dispatch. I have asked about this problem at contact@diyaudio repeatedly over the past 3 days but have had no reply. Maybe illness or caught as spam is the reason. Either way it's very frustrating as I am ready to order while the parts I want are in stock but cannot. It's not the service I expected based on the feedback of others.

Hi Brian. I found your ticket based on your forum user email address. You emailed the store helpdesk at contact@diyaudiostore.com on Nov 18, and we replied 13 hours later. We haven't heard back from you since.

You mention you have emailed repeatedly, if so, we only got one of your emails (subject "JFET confusion").

Please check your spam folder, or "All Mail" folder, in case our reply got misplaced in your mailbox. And please do re-send any additional emails not with the above subject line we didn't receive. We use G Suite / Google Apps for Business to power our email, so it should be pretty reliable.
 
Cannot Order

Thanks for the information Jason,

I received the reply you referred to on the 18th. Since then I've sent 3 emails which you haven't received. I've just now sent details of those with all the other things you asked for to contact@diyaudiostore.com so let's hope my email arrives this time!

I also re-sent one of the 3 emails you didn't receive titled: Cannot complete purchase. I don't know if it helps you but I got a delivered confirmation from my request for a delivery status notification for each of those three emails.
 
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Thanks for the information Jason,

I received the reply you referred to on the 18th. Since then I've sent 3 emails which you haven't received. I've just now sent details of those with all the other things you asked for to contact@diyaudiostore.com so let's hope my email arrives this time!

I also re-sent one of the 3 emails you didn't receive titled: Cannot complete purchase. I don't know if it helps you but I got a delivered confirmation from my request for a delivery status notification for each of those three emails.

I found your emails. Google filtered them out as spam. We route mail through a Google spam filter before they are pulled to our helpdesk, in order to stay sane when it comes to thousands of spam emails we get each month. Google usually does a great job of this (I haven't even looked in my own personal Google powered spam folder for years), but sometimes makes mistakes. No doubt the origin (Russia) and commercial nature of the subject line "complete purchase" set off enough flags. Any future emails from you should not get caught as you've been added to a non-spam whitelist.

I've managed to push them through to the helpdesk, please expect to see some replies within the next 24 hours!
 
Cannot Purchase

Hello Jason,

Thanks for all your work getting to the bottom of it but sadly it is/maybe to no avail. I got this from the help desk: "It seems that due to previous problems with shipments to Belarus, I am sorry to say that we do not ship to Belarus." That's is not what I wanted to hear having just sold my amplifier to fund this project!

I will copy here what I have replied to the help desk for the benefit of others:

starts>If that is the case I think you should make it clear on your website which countries you do not ship to. You say you ship to the "rest of the world" on your website. To the best of my knowledge Belarus is in the rest of the world!

Also it seems a little strange you should have had problems shipping to Belarus when both USPS and DHL will ship here and the packages (and therefore delivery) are tracked, signed for and insured and payment to you is in advance. What could go wrong? I have received parcels this year from both companies without a problem.

I also tried a UK and Isle of Man address and got the same Your cart has been updated and the items you added can’t be shipped to your address. Remove the items to complete your order. message. Do you also have problems shipping there? I don't have anyone in the USA that can forward this order so it will have to go via the UK with 2 lots of duty and VAT by the time it gets here.

As a beginner in DIY I have spent a lot of time reading the forums so that I chose the best amplifier for my needs and the best components to finish the job to a high standard. I can't say I'm at all impressed by this (non) delivery situation at the last step, and believe me that is a typical English understatement!

Things change you know. Problems you had in the past may now have been solved. For example 5 years ago DHL/FedEx did not deliver to the door in Belarus and items had to be collected from their offices at Minsk airport. Now they partner with EMS or Belpost to do that 'last mile' delivery. Maybe you would consider another try using DHL? Let me know please. <ends

So for all you out there in the "rest of the world" I think it makes sense that you check that you can be delivered to before you spend your time on research for a DIYAudio project.
 
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Unfortunately you can't make a profit by losing money. It would be incredibly easy to just ship domestically within the US but we've invested countless hours in arranging (discounted) shipping rates to service the international community. Not because it would make the most financial sense, but because diyAudio is a truly international community.

The reality however is that there are over 200 countries in the world, and the success rate of packages arriving varies greatly in those known for corrupt customs officials and poor service availability. We stopped shipping to those countries. It increases the prices for all other customers due to the losses we have previously incurred, and don't intend to keep incurring. It's not fair on everyone else.

Just so you know, our policy initially was to ship everywhere. However experience showed us that a handful of countries represented a disproportionate number of international shipping failures. It's nothing personal, just a business decision for the health of the store, and diyAudio. Please arrange a reshipping service in a shipping-friendly country and we can ship there, then you can take the risk and responsibility yourself for getting it into Belarus.

Some of those countries we used to have no way to service, such as Indonesia, we can now ship there with DHL Express. It's expensive but it will get there, and be fully insured. What we can offer varies from country to country.

As for a shipment to the Isle of Man, I can't say if we ship there but if the store won't generate a quote just email contact@diyaudiostore.com and the helpdesk will assist if they can.

By the way, I do like Belarus very much. I visited Minsk, Mogilev and another city in the North. It was a great experience, made some good friends I still keep in touch with. Very friendly people.
 
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Cannot order

Hello Jason,

Thanks for the detailed reply and I'm pleased you like Belarus. So do I - a very much underrated country to live in.

On reflection I could have been more constructive with my post, so for anyone in "the rest of the world" it is not good enough for you to just look at the list of countries that appear in the drop down list when adding your address for shipping. You will need to put something (but not a chassis item) in your basket as if you were buying it and then proceed to shipping. Only then will you know if DIYAudio will deliver to you.

Fortunately I have a relative in Russia (DIYAudio ships there) who will accept delivery for me so I will be able to order after all and will save on tax and duty so all's well that ends well. Off to order now...
 
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Heya, we don't have telephone support, but I can see you sent two emails and Google's spam filter identified them out as spam. We'll have to find a way to make it less defensive. I've pushed your emails through to the helpdesk, so please expect a response in the next 24 hours or so.
 
Whammy kit transformer bolt

Hi Jason:
This just came up on the Whammy build forum. A parts kit buyer (forum name: 'A Jedi') asked about what size mounting bolt was needed for mounting the transformer to the PCB.

Since a blind mount machine screw of the proper metric thread and a specific min/max length is required, it seems to me that the parts kit should include the proper machine screw. Just sayin'.

Oh, on the subject of hardware, I can't really tell by the DIY store photos but does the Noir HPA PCB + chassis kit include the proper Noir panel mounting screws? A standard 3mm front panel DIY store chassis includes flush mount tapered head machine screws, which are not really right for the black PCB front and rear panels. A total of 8 black allen cap head or button head machine screws are what are really needed.
 
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Hi Jason:
This just came up on the Whammy build forum. A parts kit buyer (forum name: 'A Jedi') asked about what size mounting bolt was needed for mounting the transformer to the PCB.

Since a blind mount machine screw of the proper metric thread and a specific min/max length is required, it seems to me that the parts kit should include the proper machine screw. Just sayin'.

I don't know the answer but I'll pass that feedback on to Richard who did the WHAMMY kits for the next batch. The current batch is just about sold out and a chassis is close to being done. First time I've heard someone ask about this though.

Oh, on the subject of hardware, I can't really tell by the DIY store photos but does the Noir HPA PCB + chassis kit include the proper Noir panel mounting screws? A standard 3mm front panel DIY store chassis includes flush mount tapered head machine screws, which are not really right for the black PCB front and rear panels. A total of 8 black allen cap head or button head machine screws are what are really needed.

The Noir PCB is just the PCBs, no extra mounting gear. The chassis is just the standard chassis from HF2K and it includes front and back (8) mounting bolts. Just ditch the standard front and back cover and switch in the PCB front/back.

Hello,

Since the j5 is only available in parts (pcb, parts, chasis)... what else would I need to complete this amp?

Do I need to purchase jfet's and transformer?

Thanks.

There's no J5, but maybe you mean F5 or Aleph J? In either case what you need to buy is "everything", and you'll need to do your own research, read the build guides, look at the schematics, review the build guides (if available), read the build threads, and work out what is going to be the right choices for your specific build. There is no "everything included" kit for First Watt clones by intention. For those you need to work for them a bit, do your own research and understand what you're doing, especially as mains power is involved. Please ask this question in the relevant discussion thread in the main forum and others will help you to work out what you need for your situation.
 
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Jason:

1) Whammy: the transformer uses (1) 4mm button head allen machine screw, 6mm long, for mounting.

2) Noir: the HF2K chassis front and back stock machine screws are the wrong head type to look right and might even crack the plastic PCB front and rear panels if slightly over-tightened. You would be doing builders a big service to include (8) 3mm black button head allen machine screws, 6mm long, packed in a separate envelope for when the chassis is ordered with the PCB set.
 
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...include (8) 3mm black button head allen machine screws, 6mm long

Great idea. I'll see if we can get them added to the next batch however the concept for this is that this is just a PCB set from our PCB supplier and everything else you need comes from the Mouser BOM. Can you see a suitable mouser part number for that screw you think would work well?