# zalytron: unprofessional?



## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

Anyone ever call these guys? I just did and have never talked to an internet distributor rep quite like this before.

First, I may as well have been talking to someone in their home in their livingroom. The only time I ever had any evidence at all I was talking to someone who might be customer service at a business was that I heard a telephone ring in the background at one time.

After he asked me what I wanted, I told him I wanted to order a product which I listed by name. He replied by saying "oh, you want to order speakers? hold on." Not a confidence booster!

His next question was to ask me what the list price was on the website. Are you kidding? My supplier is asking me what his own price is? Should I have said a quarter a piece? I ballparked it, and he took that at face value.

He then ballparked shipping for me. something along the lines of: oh, itll cost about $20 to ship these across the country, so XXX shipped. As if I am dealing with a member of the boards rather than a business! I asked if he used any sort of quote system to generate more accurate shipping quotes, and he responded immediately in the negative and then telling me he would charge me $15 for shipping. In the same breath, he then said "whatever shipping is, thats what you will be charged."

In the same breath, he then asked for my credit card number.

With confidence darn near zero, I asked for some last minute information which he wishy-washy addressed then rounded out the run-on sentence by asking me for my credict card number again.

I told him I was no longer comfortable dealing with him in the slightest; that he was the most unprofessional person I have ever spoken to on the phone. I can not believe a website that has the apparent reputation zalytron enjoys employs such people to take telephone calls.

the final words were "oh, you dont want the speakers? ok." hangs up immediately.



Has anyone ever called zalytron and experienced this? I honestly almost want to say I dialed the wrong number and got a crook by mistake. I was certainly being treated like a mark.


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## fej (Feb 8, 2006)

I have dealt with them in the past, several phone calls. My guess is you dealt with "the other guy" .. who has answered before but I have always asked for Elliot, who is pretty knowledgeable and a fair guy. He can be a little short but I think that is an east coast thing  

I ordered some Focal mids and tweets from them and they came well packed and at a good price, shipped when promised etc. I turned a couple guys on to them and they had good experiences as well.

If you want Steve, call back and play dumb and ask for Elliot, and see how that goes, hopefully it will go better, but I do agree that "the other guy" is kind of clueless and not very CS oriented at all .. sounds like the dumb brother who pulls down a check out of relation or something.


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## 3.5max6spd (Jun 29, 2005)

They are a little rough around the edges on the other side of the phone... 
the product was in stock though and I got it safely...I'd buy from them again.


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## lucas569 (Apr 17, 2007)

ive dealt w/ them a few times. no problems for me.


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## T-Ro (Aug 1, 2005)

I bought a "speaker kit" from them a few years back. When the kit arrived it was just a box full of drivers and crossover components. No crossover diagram, no box designs, or even volume suggestions. Luckily the crossover diagram was posted on their website and was written in a fairly legible scrawl. Box volume, port length, etc... not there. So I called them up and asked about building a box. They were like, "just build a box that is about 0.5ft^3." That was it. Thanks guys.

It turned out OK, but I've never been compelled to order anything from them again. And I'll agree with Whiterabbit on an unprofessional presentation of themselves on the phone. I got the impression that they were annoyed that I had called them. Do you want business or not? Maybe I'm just used to how people interact here in the south.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

3.5max6spd said:


> They are a little rough around the edges on the other side of the phone...
> QUOTE]
> 
> that alone would make me tell them they lost a sale because they weren't friendly. nice counts in my book.


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## jay (Sep 12, 2005)

steve, sorry to hear the experience didn't go well. maybe you should just go through ellisaudio


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## Wildcat_Fan (Jun 8, 2005)

I had the same experience when I ordered the 27TBFC tweeters. I must say I was a little nervous about placing the order after I hung up the phone. 

However, as others have said, the tweeters were packed well and arrived when they were supposed to.

I, too, chalked it up as a "Yankee" way of doing business.


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## Guest (Jul 2, 2007)

no, it's just a piss-poor way of conducting business.

I've had similar experiences. I've never done business with them again.


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## tRidiot (Jun 29, 2006)

Look for Marv's thread about customer service when buying a Verizon phone recently.

I'll chalk this up as another company not to waste my time on.  Customer service is a HUGE issue, and phone etiquette is a HUGE part of customer service, I think. To ME it is, anyways.

Good to know.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

I had a rough time with Zalytron and ended up not ordering, I am a 100% loyal customer to Madisound, they never treated me wrong.

Crest Audio used to be the same way.... and Korg (Marshall/Vox/Korg/others)

We always joked about Crest's next step answering the phone would be... "Crest, what the **** do you want?" I mean hell, I'm FIXING your product that BROKE! Treat me with respect and answer my questions in a timely manner so I can get the item back to the CUSTOMER! I was on THEIR side!!!!!

Peavey bought Crest and their realtions have improved vastly, I'm now very impressed with them, went from east coast assholes (no offence easterners) to having Southern Charm.


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## firegate (Jun 9, 2007)

FWIW, Zalytron's actually a TV Repair Shop with a wall of drivers, etc on one side of the store.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

jay said:


> steve, sorry to hear the experience didn't go well. maybe you should just go through ellisaudio


Funny thing, Mr ellis and I joked for awhile about professionalism. His baby was crying in the background. Great guy to chat with though, and more professional than zalytron for sure. Baby notwithstanding! A shame that paypal is giving me grief.


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## npdang (Jul 29, 2005)

Yeah... best is to avoid phone calls. If you know what you want, e-mail them your payment info and the order... keep it brief with no questions... don't ask for special shipping arrangements... and it'll arrive sometime on your doorstep in about a week.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Couple times I called Madisound, they were worse than Zalytron...best so far has been Meniscus.


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## Luke (Jun 20, 2007)

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Madisound earlier this year and it went well. One of the resistors (I think) was out of stock so they called me and substituted two with the same summed value at the same price.


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## dogstar (Jan 31, 2007)

I had the same thing with Zalytron, hung up and called Solen, leaving a message during regular (eastern) business hours, called again just before closing and left another message.

Three days later, two more unanswered phone calls to Solen and I gave up and ordered from Madisound.


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Steve, you're not the first. Zalytron has some notoriously rude and unpredictable person answering their phones...I refuse to order from them.


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## Sunjammer (Apr 3, 2018)

I dealt with the Zalyt brothers back in the 80's when I needed a source for Audax drivers, film capacitors, and such for building loudspeaker systems. Elliot Zalyt was a friendly, talented, and honest businessman, who offered me much help and advice. His brother, who 'manned' the phones and served as an impenetrable brick wall between Elliot and the rest of the world, was a complete imbecile!


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

Sunjammer said:


> I dealt with the Zalyt brothers back in the 80's when I needed a source for Audax drivers, film capacitors, and such for building loudspeaker systems. Elliot Zalyt was a friendly, talented, and honest businessman, who offered me much help and advice. His brother, who 'manned' the phones and served as an impenetrable brick wall between Elliot and the rest of the world, was a complete imbecile!


this thread is 11 years old...


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