Devialet in a state of chaos

[ozthepoz]

Just catching up on here after a busy weekend.  One thing that strikes me is that there are a number of recent posts that suggest all is not going smoothly at Devialet.  A few examples, people wanting to get minor repairs done on their Phantoms and then discovering that Devialet have no mechanism in place for any repairs of any kind.  People sending queries to Devialet and getting nonsensical responses.  Delays with branch.  The new Phantom remote being sold with only partial functionality.  Mr Womaz being told Devialet would call him last week, but then no call or proper response to his emails.   And so on....

I could add endlessly to this with "historic" issues, problems with AIR, Dialog compatibility with expert promised for January, then March, then the summer, then Christmas, then 2016, and now "no date available".  And so on and on.....

All this leaves me to surmise that Devialet are in a state of utter chaos.  Just an impression I have, I do not have any hard facts.  The old theory persists, they are geniuses at putting hardware together, but everything else is somewhat lacking.

Does anyone actually know any facts that tell a more promising story?

Seems to me a classic case of growing too fast too soon. As you say, they are brilliant audio engineers, but developing a global business infrastructure presents a different sort of challenge. 

They could be using dealers and distributors in a more intelligent way, since the direct sales model seems to be putting them under a huge amount of pressure.  Also, the excessive focus on phantom has alienated the expert community, and the company seem to have no clear strategy for reconciling the two product sets. 

I suspect the next year will be critical - unless they get better organised at both strategic and operational levels, they will end up deeply in the merge. I do hope they sort it out.