Please exercise caution if ordering from MI Audio

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IS350xtrm

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Update, it seems Michael has decided to issue a refund through pp. If anyone decides to order just go in knowing you could be dealing with delays and unanswered inquiries. At least in my case he has resolved the issue albeit a bit late.

I hate doing this but Michael from MI Audio has taken my $795 deposit back in mid February for a megalith beta v2. Told me it would be 8 weeks. At the approx 12 week mark he said it was done just waiting for a foot switch box. Proceeded to ignore all my inquiries for quite a while. Told me a month ago he was almost done with my amp. Went silent again. Told me two weeks ago he was definitely going to be done at the end of the week. Still not done and now he’s ignoring my inquiries again. I finally realized at this point i can’t trust him so i wouldn’t send him the remainder of the money now even if he said he was done. Filed a dispute with PayPal today. Maybe he’s an ok guy, i don’t really know. Seems nice when he wants your money. Just beware you may never get what you’ve ordered. I was super excited about getting this amp and now it has soured me on everything related to him and his business. Buyer beware!!!
 
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That sucks that he doesn't respond. To me that's the bigger problem (for now).

But I have to say it...when you get stuff custom built you should go into it with a LOT of patience. Sometimes things go wrong and extend lead times. Twelve weeks just doesn't seem like that long considering what many other lead times for things are. I would be a bit pissed too from the slow/lack of communication but I probably would not have even contacted him until several weeks past due date.
 
IS350xtrm said:
I hate doing this but Michael from MI Audio has taken my $795 deposit back in mid February for a megalith beta v2. Told me it would be 8 weeks. At the approx 12 week mark he said it was done just waiting for a foot switch box. Proceeded to ignore all my inquiries for quite a while. Told me a month ago he was almost done with my amp. Went silent again. Told me two weeks ago he was definitely going to be done at the end of the week. Still not done and now he’s ignoring my inquiries again. I finally realized at this point i can’t trust him so i wouldn’t send him the remainder of the money now even if he said he was done. Filed a dispute with PayPal today. Maybe he’s an ok guy, i don’t really know. Seems nice when he wants your money. Just beware you may never get what you’ve ordered. I was super excited about getting this amp and now it has soured me on everything related to him and his business. Buyer beware!!!
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This is the same reason I ended up not ordering from him. Spoke to him initially through a mutual friend. We discussed options, he offered a couple additional mods at no charge due to the mutual friend, for which I thanked him multiple times.

Told him to invoice me so we could get the ball rolling. Silence. Asked again. Nothing. Finally a third time, said he would send it. A week after this, the invoice shows up in my email, listing mod options offered for free at $50 apiece. At that point, I just had a feeling that the guy doesn't quite have his things in order on his end, and I ultimately decided not to order.

Like you said, I don't like to put people on blast, as I don't get the feeling he's a bad guy, but he seems a bit unorganized and every person I've talked to that ordered said it ended up being a super long process with very little communication in between, and I'm just not comfortable with that.

Hope you ultimately get your amp.
 
I’m past 5 months now. I was almost a month past when i first questioned what was going on. It wouldn’t be so bad if he’d just say hey things are really backed up can you give me a few months but when he actually responds he says he’s either done or almost done then he goes silent again. He seems like an ok guy when you can reach him but that’s not a good way to do business. I get delays especially these days but honest communication would go a long way. I’m really bummed because i was seriously looking forward to this amp. Now i don’t even want it after all of this.
 
Lesson learned. Hopefully PayPal can get me my cash back. If not i doubt there’s anything else i can do given his location. Hopefully no one else loses money to him.
 
That sucks man, probably too late now but I would have said give it more time. Cannot disagree with the communication and time lines as I experienced the same. He told me 6 weeks as he had the parts on hand and it took 3 months.

Following up usually went without a reply as well. But I did get the amp and they are something pretty special tbh.

He is currently back in school I've heard and between that and his real job I guess the amp business is taking much longer. Not making excuses because there really is no excuse to ignore a paid customer. But it happens, I've emailed Wade at MCP at least 5 times without a reply and cannot give the guy my money. Completely irrelevant but my point is these things just happen unfortunately.

I've never heard of anyone not getting their amp from Michael, this would be the first. Extended delays and lack of response yes, not the first time.
 
psychodave said:
No communication during the purchase process... Imagine if you ever had an issue? There is enough evidence to RUN from this transaction.
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I did actually have an issue. My footswitch was broken, he sent one out no questions asked the next day. But ultimately you guys are right, all bad and unfortunate.
 
IS350xtrm said:
I’m past 5 months now. I was almost a month past when i first questioned what was going on. It wouldn’t be so bad if he’d just say hey things are really backed up can you give me a few months but when he actually responds he says he’s either done or almost done then he goes silent again. He seems like an ok guy when you can reach him but that’s not a good way to do business. I get delays especially these days but honest communication would go a long way. I’m really bummed because i was seriously looking forward to this amp. Now i don’t even want it after all of this.
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Yeah 5 months when quoted 2 and shitty comm...you've been patient enough.
 
He took over 3 months just to respond to an inquiry about ordering an amp from him, but thankfully I found a used one in like new condition before he even got back to me. He does seem like a nice guy, but yeah unacceptably bad communication
 
I wish more people in this business would follow the example of Dave Friedman and Rick St Pierre.
Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to be a bullshitter, liar, thief and a loser, than to be someone who is really proud of their business, and take real care of their customers.
 
as a former business owner i just dont understand why there is so much of this in the music world? it takes all of about 30 seconds to open, read and respond to an email. if i was informed there was gonna be a delay in getting parts or whatever the issue, i would call or email the customer right after i talked to the vendor to let them know the situation, not let months go by where the customer has to hit me up asking wtf which is going to lead to threads like this.
 
This seems to happen a lot. Having a passion and talent for designing and building amps or pedals doesn't mean one is also skilled at customer service, or building and running a business, or is even a decent human being. The expansion of the small/boutique builder market in the 20 years has certainly showcased this. Fortunately there are also a lot of builders who've been able to find that balance as they've grown, or have a least brought in others when their own strengths aren't enough. Even good people can be victims of their own success, but then there are cases where their eyes are bigger than their stomach, and they were probably better-suited for staying small. I wonder if that's the case with Michael and even Trace. Hopefully MI makes it right.
 
SBlue said:
Drugs and impunity.
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at least if i got an email in a reasonable amount of time apologizing for the lack of communication and explain that it was due to being on a bender for a couple weeks in miami and things got a little out of control id probably say yeah dude i understand, might even be a little jealous. months and months with no communication though?? hellll nah
 
I agree with you... but when it comes down to over 20x saying "It'll be shipped next week", or "My business partner already shipped it" just to follow a few weeks later with a "He still has the amp", then over a year later the business partner reply saying "I never had the amp, but it's safe with Mark", then it makes you wonder how bad he wants to steal your amp.
So, yeah, Dave and Rick are some of the real deal, as I'm sure there are plenty of great ones out there.
But unfortunately, there are shitty ones too. And lately, this number keeps increasing.
 
I can tolerate wait times being extended. What I cant tolerate is no communication. I also do not like being jerked around. Had that issue with Zilla and that has killed all future business with them which sucks cause I REALLY want a zilla cab. First time purchases should receive extra attention cause you are building a relationship with that builder.
 
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