Goodbye to Devialet - after upgrade program

[Hifi_swlon]

Too much hate on this excellent site and not enough love! I want to hear about tips, user wisdom, great tunes, fabulous Devialet integrated systems - it all seems to be going down the usual anonymous blog oneupmanship contest......... bit depressing.

Well, no-one's stopping you contributing along those lines!

I honestly don't think its just a 'usual anonymous blog oneupmanship contest'.  

My perception is Devialet launched with some incredible tech as a small startup, and earned the respect of a very loyal fan base, and there was a really good connection between the founders and their customers.  Posts from early adopters here seem to reinforce that.  
Devialet became 'flavour of the month' and achieved greater sales, while a seemingly small murmur of discontentment was building over AIR and one or two other things.   Devialet then started focussing on over-zealous hyped PR campaigns, and putting all resources into Phantoms, to the detriment of their Expert user base and in particular its support.  All these new Expert sales were now generating more frustrations with things like AIR, while a seemingly growing brick-wall was being built between Devialet and its customers over the issues.   I guess many of these newer adopters (like myself) never saw or interacted with the original company and felt much more frustrated that their products weren't working as intended but more-so that the issues were being brushed under the carpet.  I think I likened my experience with support at the time to that of a high street shop where you might buy a vacuum cleaner.  It was truly shocking, and will be the thing I always remember about my Devialet ownership.

Very little was materialising on the Expert side, yet meanwhile Phantom users were seeing frequent software updates, but also experiencing issues on the software side.  Complaints and frustrations continued to grow about the issues and Devialet's silence and alleged broken promises.  It was obvious from the number of people joining the forum that people were clearly becoming more upset.

No doubt the company had growing pains under VC interference, but whatever the reason, they should have jumped in before this point and worked to keep their customers happy.  They didn't, and I think the frustration built to a much stronger level than perhaps they expected (assuming they were paying attention).  When you start seeing public petitions from customers just trying to get a single comment from a company about defective technology, things have gone very very wrong.

That's where we were a week or so ago anyway, and they have finally acknowledged the issues, and said there are things that could have been done better and are now allegedly doing something about it. So far the betas of the new AIR's have just been released officially, and so let's watch this space - there's no reason they shouldn't have a far more enthusiastic and happy user base if they seize this opportunity to get back on track.

That is of course just my opinion based on my experiences.  Many seem to have had a much better time of it - especially those not using AIR or those for who AIR worked properly.

My point is, I don't think the sentiment on DC deteriorated by itself, it just became the hub for an increasingly frustrated user base.  Hopefully things will change but the launch of the 'Pro' line after the Od'A and communications surrounding it and the upgrades won't have helped matters of course.  Again Devialet just need to learn to put themselves in their customers shoes, and tailor effective, clear, and consistent communication to make them feel 'loved'.  Assuming they do that, the DC forum will no doubt also return to a bit more 'love' and a lot less 'hate'.

FWIW I've never found DC (or the majority of its members) any less helpful despite the frustrations aired. It's an amazing resource for all things Devialet.