Experience ordering vintage manuals from Mike Thomason at Vintage Audio Manuals

10sguru

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Who has ordered manuals from Mike and how long did it take to receive them? I Ordered a Yamaha CR-2020 service manual with bulletins and owner's manual back on November 26 and Pioneer SX-980 owner's manual and service manual back on November 27. So far none of the manuals have been received. Is it unreasonable for me to expect them to have arrived by now, almost 3 weeks after sending him the PayPal payments especially since he advertises "Manuals ship within 24 to 72 hours after payment receipt and are shipped via USPS First Class Mail". At any rate curious to know if other AKer's have experienced similar shipping delays or if anyone has ordered a manual since my last order on November 27 and you have received your product. I sent him a follow-up E-mail this past Monday, December 12 asking for a shipping staus/update but so far no reply. I see by looking on his web site that back in September he had a major computer outage. Perhaps it has happened again or maybe "his crew" is on strike, lol. Thanks.
 
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Usually I have Outstanding service.But Mike has posted on his site a slight computer/internet problem which may have really screwed up his business communication for a while..
Quoted from his site:
Please Note: Due to some strange phenomenon I do not understand completely, my cable internet experienced a surge, or short, that has taken out my primary computer used for e-mails and image clean-up/manipulation. Mainly, it fried the motherboard, processors, memory and primary hard drive. Hard drive has been forensically dissected/data recovery but they were only able to save about 10% - 15% of the data so some scans are lost and almost all of my e-mails that were on the drive are lost. In addition, my internet access will not be back up until at least the 10th of September. I am currently using a public access wireless account at a pool hall down the road and it is very sporadic and slow so please remember this when sending us e-mails. It may take a few days for us to see it and be able to respond. Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience....:scratch2:
 
No back up? Wow...pretty bonehead.

Sorry Mike...if you read this, I call 'em as I see 'em. A spare computer and a weekly backup of all data is mandatory.
 
Avionic, that post was for when his system went down several months ago as it says "In addition, my internet access will not be back up until at least the 10th of September" so I don't think that is the problem.
 
I've ordered stuff from Mike in the past for Old Magnavox gear. It takes a bit longer as he has to look it up, and manufacture the reproduction, then ship it. Usually 2-3 weeks. He's generally good about communication. His staff from what I remember is him and a few cats. I'd cut him some slack if he's having or continueing to have 'net problems and or trying to take care of the back log.

Larry
 
Mike had an offer on his site to 'borrow' manuals and I sent him a list twice of manuals I have that were not on his list and I never heard from him. I doubt I will look his direction if I need manuals as Rick gets such good press here at AK.
 
Sent Mike a second E-mail this past Sunday, December 19 asking for a status update on manuals. So far no reply. I will send a third and final E-mail asking him for a shipping status this coming Monday as that will mark a full four weeks since I sent him payment for the manuals. If I do not receive a reply by the end of the week I will have to assume his lack of a response means he has taken my money without any intention of sending the manuals and he will leave me no option but to pursue a dispute claim with PayPal for non-receipt of goods. This is really an unfortunate situation as I really need the manuals. If anybody knows Mike personally and has other means to contact him you might put a bug in his ear.
 
I am more concerned that something untoward has happened to Mike. I have dealt with him many times in the past and this is so unlike him. He was always prompt in shipping.
 
Rob, I thought about that thus my remark about anyone who may know Mike personally who might have an alternate method of contacting him. I also hoped that maybe another AK'r would chime in that they had placed an order after mine thus indicating some sort of correspondence with him. Certainly I hope nothing bad has happened.
 
Unfortunately I did not receive a reply from the third E-mail I sent Mr. Thomason last Sunday. As a result I have submitted two disputes to PayPal for the transactions and have escalated them in an effort to restore funds to the rightful owner. This is nothing personal against Mr. Thomason but I do need to resolve this business transaction and again I hope that he has not not met with any misfortune. Additionally I did a little more research and found this thread http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=252892 so it would seem there have been previous issues with his service.
 
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If Mike gets back with you, tell him to get it together. He's one of two suppliers for readable manuals...
 
Glenn, will do. According to PayPal's procedure Mike has 10 days to respond after which I should receive a refund. I really need the Service manual as I will be transferring components over to the new power and relay PCB's that I had fabricated. I know Merrylander has a copy and he has commented in the past that they can be ordered thru Mike as that's how he makes his living however after all is said and done with this situation perhaps under the circumstances he would be willing to help a fellow out. If and when Mike were to ever contact me I would gladly PayPal the money again as I am not looking to try and get something for nothing. Look for a post update around January 10. Thanks.
 
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Damn ..As Glen said before. Mike made up some real quality manuals.
 
I ordered a manual on November 27th, and am in exactly the same boat. I think I'll be opening a dispute aswell.

I'm looking forward to your update.
 
Mike has always been my source for quality manuals. I hope he is doing ,ok?
I will send him an email and see what's up.
 
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