Outlaw Problems?

[M Code]

I haven't read much into reliability of Outlaw since most of the time I'm thinking about the ATI-made amps they sell, which are extremely reliable since ATI make them.

I think U will find to my knowledge..
The Outlaw amplifiers were designed/built off-shore in Taiwan & China not the USA..

Just my $0.02...

 

[Good4it]

Ah, see, if only I'd known BEFORE I bought the damn thing.

We all have the same sort of story. The object is to learn from it. RESEARCH , RESEARCH and a little luck.

 

[JackHart2019]

The challenge that Outlaw faces is trying to keep up with the competition in terms of performance, quality, technology... Essentially not having their own factory they depend upon certain ODM factories to build their products, and now especially the later audio/video products are evolving with newer protocols for immersive surround formats, HDMI, HDCP and their primary factory in China is having difficulties keeping up... The bottom line is that Outlaw as an independent audio brand does not generate enough unit sales to cover the significant R&D, tooling/development costs..
I know alot about this situation but I will not expand the discussion knowing the factory well & Outlaw principals I will not throw more fuel on the fire as IMHO... I like/admire Outlaw as a brand and but to succeed in the long term they have a very steep challenge ahead..

Just my $0.02...

All of that makes sense and seems fair to me M Code.

Personally, I'm just not all that sure that insulting and pissing off customers is the path forward for any reputable company. Even a company that isn't facing the steep challenges keeping up with the competition that you suggest Outlaw faces. Why breech a warranty when you don't have to? I wasn't pissed off at the start of my dealings with Outlaw. No remedy at all seems both unwarranted and unreasonable, but that's just me.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think U will find to my knowledge..
The Outlaw amplifiers were designed/built off-shore in Taiwan & China not the USA..

Just my $0.02...

Any reliability data on them?

 

[CB22]

Outlaw these days will only do tech support via an online ticketing system that they control. They have denied me access to that. Their email doesn't go to an email account, it redirects to this ticketing system. They do not answer on the sales line (but they know my phone number) it goes straight to voice mail. They have not returned my calls. They have Facebook and Twitter accounts but they will not respond to me on those sites either. Neither myself or my partner have been able to speak to anyone at Outlaw since their tech support manager denied me service last Thursday. They do occasionally send a "no reply" email asking me to answer questions that I can not respond to because they will not respond to me. It is my opinion that they intend to simply stonewall this until the warranty expires. I find it shocking, honestly.

Well that sucks. I'm surprised to hear this. I'd image the poor customer support probably comes down to $. If i would have read the some months ago I probably would have bought the HSU subs.

 

[M Code]

Any reliability data on them?

Nope...
Not that i recall..
But both Outlaw sources (Taiwan) & (China) build solid quality amplifiers:

• Taiwan factory builds alot amplifier products for Parasound, Harman/Kardon, SpeakerCraft, Sonance
• China factory builds alot of amplifiers for NAD, Harman/Kardon, Cambridge, Bose, Speakercraft, Russound

Just my $0.02..

 

[slipperybidness]

@JackHart2019
If the review was fact based and did not have opinions or inaccurate information, then they would absolutely lose a lawsuit.

Certainly this person making the threat is aware of this, so that is all it was, a simple threat. Which is also poor taste to bully a person that isn't satisfied with a consumer product that they spent their $ on.

I would be quite interested to see how that played out.

 

[JackHart2019]

@JackHart2019
If the review was fact based and did not have opinions or inaccurate information, then they would absolutely lose a lawsuit.

Certainly this person making the threat is aware of this, so that is all it was, a simple threat. Which is also poor taste to bully a person that isn't satisfied with a consumer product that they spent their $ on.

I would be quite interested to see how that played out.

Oh, trust me, I will continue to watch this thread, & if Outlaw tries to make it right, I will certainly make note of that here.

& yeah, I took it to be a mere threat as well. They were clearly more interested in getting us to take the review down than they were in resolving the problem with their product/service.

A letter from a lawyer would cost em more than offering me a replacement would have. You would think that an actual business person would know better.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I remember a time when companies at least pretended to care about their reputations.

 

[KEW]

I think U will find to my knowledge..
The Outlaw amplifiers were designed/built off-shore in Taiwan & China not the USA..

Just my $0.02...

So this is not an ATI amp? (Apparently this photo, which says "new" is from 2011-ish!)

From Outlaw FAQ's:

The Model 7900, 7700, and 7140, are manufactured in the US and carry an Outlaw price of $3499, $2149, and $1099 respectively. Speaking of carrying, these are heavy components (especially the 7900 tipping the scale at just under 150lbs)! So reinforce your shelves, racks or floor before installation, and think about a dedicated power circuit!

Note dual IEC cables above!

 

[KEW]

I've had the 975 for over 3 years now, they were great at the start and I'd had no technical issues until right around Christmas. They worked with me over the phone, seemed to recognize the issue pretty quickly and had me ship in to them for repair. It hasn't worked correctly since I received it back. Their new ticketing system is the worst. You basically have to quit you job & stay near your system in the hope that someone will respond. They've just been awful. After my partner posted a negative review on Google they reached out to us and offered to resume troubleshooting IF we'd agree to take the negative review off of Google AND threatend to sue us if we didn't. My partner eventually took the review down, but they still refuse to serve the terms of the warranty. It's a 500 dollar preamp & if I have to take the loss & pay someone else to fix it, so be it, but damn, if I had purchased one of their 5 thousand dollar amps, I'd hate to think they'd act this way. I'll never do business with them again, obviously.

I have a 975, so am quite curious about this!
What is the 975 doing (or not doing)?
Did the returned unit show any indication that anything was done to it?
If so, what was different?
Thanks!

 

[M Code]

So this is not an ATI amp? (Apparently this photo, which says "new" is from 2011-ish!)

From Outlaw FAQ's:

Note dual IEC cables above!

Thanks for the correction...
Some amplifiers are built in the USA by ATI and some are built in China....

Just my $0.02...

 

[JackHart2019]

I have a 975, so am quite curious about this!
What is the 975 doing (or not doing)?
Did the returned unit show any indication that anything was done to it?
If so, what was different?
Thanks!

Honestly, when it came back I had this suspicion that nothing had been done to it.

As of this past weekend none of the hdmi ports work with any source except the hdmi arc when i connect it to the tv, but any change in volume causes both audio and video to drop out completely for a totally unacceptable length of time.

Tried running my oppo on the analog ports since the hdmi ports don't work. Makes the same noise that it had started making when I returned it for repairs.

 

[lovinthehd]

Is their sister brand Atlantic Technologies acting similarly I wonder?

 

[ryanosaur]

Bummed to read this thread. Though I’m not even 6 mos into my Outlaw ownership, my experience has been pretty good and on par with what others told me about them as a company.
I don’t doubt the veracity of your claims. It does surprise me that in a time of stiff competition and thin margins, that they would sacrifice a potential return customer as well as the further discredit such behavior elicits through word of mouth. After all, here I am chiming in at post 34.
I hope op gets a breakthrough on this and some resolution is attained. Keep us posted, please!

 

[JackHart2019]

Bummed to read this thread. Though I’m not even 6 mos into my Outlaw ownership, my experience has been pretty good and on par with what others told me about them as a company.
I don’t doubt the veracity of your claims. It does surprise me that in a time of stiff competition and thin margins, that they would sacrifice a potential return customer as well as the further discredit such behavior elicits through word of mouth. After all, here I am chiming in at post 34.
I hope op gets a breakthrough on this and some resolution is attained. Keep us posted, please!

Thanks. & I'm pretty bummed out myself.

I was reasonably happy with mine as well, at least up until the point when I wasn't. Hope your luck holds.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I hope the simplicity of my 2200's leads to a long useful life. Guess we'll see! OP I am sorry about the way the company is treating you. ID companies need good word of mouth to survive, so this is surprising. Hopefully they adjust their attitude and step up.

 

[shadyJ]

Not to say that the OP's account of these events are skewed or an unfair characterization, but I would like to hear Outlaw's side of the story. There are two sides to every story (well, often more than just two sides). There may be missing factors and misattributed motivations here that caused this unfortunate situation that we don't know about.

 

[fuzz092888]

IME, Outlaw delivers solid products when it comes to their amps. I've owned both their ATI versions and their newer China/Taiwan amps. Currently I have a 5000 and a 7270 in my racks. I've never owned their processors, but that's mostly because I would rather spend that money on companies that have been doing it longer and have a fairly reliable track record for something so complicated.

All that being said, my main point is that while their amps have been awesome, I've also been hit or miss with their customer service. I get the whole ticket thing, but mostly I find it frustrating when you're trying to get answers within a certain time frame. At least with an e-mail I'll be notified immediately when I get a response, even if it is a business day later and I don't have to waste time constantly checking.

 

[JackHart2019]

I hope the simplicity of my 2200's leads to a long useful life. Guess we'll see! OP I am sorry about the way the company is treating you. ID companies need good word of mouth to survive, so this is surprising. Hopefully they adjust their attitude and step up.

Thanks!

Not to say that the OP's account of these events are skewed or an unfair characterization, but I would like to hear Outlaw's side of the story. There are two sides to every story (well, often more than just two sides). There may be missing factors and misattributed motivations here that caused this unfortunate situation that we don't know about.

Just out of curiosity, what would you consider valid reasons to deny service/support on an in-warranty product?

But you're not wrong. I am leaving stuff out.

Mostly stuff that would put them in a worse light than I have. But I have copies of every exchange I've had with them from the moment this started. Only thing I don't have a copy of is the phone call I made to the sales line & the tech support manager told me to "truck off" and hung up on me. Guess I could have included that factoid, but honestly, it seemed a bit gratuitous at this point. I just wanted to see if anyone else had run into similar problems.

 

[shadyJ]

Just out of curiosity, what would you consider valid reasons to deny service/support on an in-warranty product?

But you're not wrong. I am leaving stuff out.

Mostly stuff that would put them in a worse light than I have. But I have copies of every exchange I've had with them from the moment this started. Only thing I don't have a copy of is the phone call I made to the sales line & the tech support manager told me to "truck off" and hung up on me. Guess I could have included that factoid, but honestly, it seemed a bit gratuitous at this point. I just wanted to see if anyone else had run into similar problems.

Like I said, I am not saying that you aren't justified in your reaction, I am just saying maybe there is a missing ingredient here that explains their reaction. Something that would constitute a valid denial of warranty support would be product abuse. If they feel for some reason that you aren't being honest about the situation, they may be upset about that. Maybe there was a misunderstanding, and maybe it could be resolved if we heard their side of the story.