My customer journey with Paul Hynes...

[paulhynes]

Hello Francois,

 

The cancelled order SR7 you purchased was still in the custom build queue and subject to queue courtesy. The estimated preparation time was based on position in the queue and knowledge at the time you placed your order. Unfortunately it is impossible to predict the future accurately which is why my ordering terms allow for delays caused by circumstances beyond my control. When a delay occurs the whole queue moves back accordingly. It is common knowledge that delays occur with these custom build orders but they do get completed and shipped out.

 

At this point I have to say that I did not give you a categorical guarantee that you would receive the power supply by 20^th December. In my e-mail of 26^th of September I stated that “assuming no issues along the way it should be possible to ship this power supply during the first week in December”

 

Regarding the delay to your order I notified you on the 6^th December of the delays with the move to the new premises. The move to these premises was originally scheduled for last summer where I would be able to use my summer holidays to make the transfer with little or no impact on the build schedule. However the move schedule was delayed firstly with a new start date for the beginning of September and secondly a further delayed start date on the 5^th November due to the landlord being unable to find local contractors with free time to complete works required to prepare the premises for general occupation.

 

All the workshop equipment, office equipment and stock from home was packed and stacked in the hallway during the week before the 5^th November ready for transfer to the new premises as the room I was using for business at home is being re-furbished with disabled facilities to cope with family requirements.

 

Business premises have to comply with more rigorous building regulations and health and safety requirements than home workspace, here in the UK, before use is permitted. There have been delays with compliance where contractors qualified for the required works have been unable to complete the works where bad weather has caused delays with materials and transit here to complete the work. The last hurdles for compliance, as far as I am currently aware, are the solder fume extraction installation and anchoring the workbenches to the wall so they cannot topple forwards onto anyone working at the benches. The fume extraction is likely to be completed in January now, but I have a couple of bench top fume absorbsion units on order, which should be delivered on 2^nd January, to allow us to use the workbenches until the extraction system is actually installed. The workbench anchor will be completed as soon as the anchor extrusions arrive.

 

South Uist is an island over 50 miles from the UK mainland on the East side and directly facing the Atlantic on the West side with the next landfall being Canada. We do not usually get clearly defined seasons here like those on the mainland, just weather, and the weather can be appalling for quite long periods during the winter months when the Atlantic storms batter the islands. There are scheduled ferries to and from the mainland during this period but they are completely unreliable as bad weather causes many cancellations. This, of course, affects supplies inward, shipments outward, business and family health appointments off island. On trips off island I have often been delayed returning due to ferry cancellations. I am afraid there is nothing I can do about the weather, so weather related delays are included in my custom build ordering terms.

 

I had expected to have the business premises operational within two weeks of starting the preparations for the move but the accumulation of delays has prolonged this. I currently have no alternative area to process power supply build so I have been concentrating on getting the premises ready as quickly as possible and getting the tech computer re-built after the unfortunate meltdown of the ATX PSU powering it. I have also been preparing the office/workshop computer systems. I have not answered your recent e-mails over the last couple of weeks because I have either been too busy progressing installations at the new premises or away off island last week dealing with family health appointments when the weather settled.

 

As the primary carer for two disabled family members I do not have the luxury of unlimited free time to devote to business activity. I have rather specific obligations regarding this care duty that cannot be compromised and this does restrict my work time availability. I have clearly stated on this forum, and others, that working hours are typically from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. I do not work weekends due to family commitments and I take holidays like everyone else. Here in the UK holidays are considered essential for mental wellbeing. Perhaps not in Switzerland.

 

I appreciate that you are disappointed and are now taking further consideration regarding our arrangement. If you do not wish to continue with the order there are people awaiting cancelled orders, especially the DR versions, so I can offer this power supply to someone else with a less urgent requirement and provide you with a refund when the power supply is sold. You can advise me of your decision via e-mail and I will deal with this on my return after the holiday.

 

Regards

Paul

 

[paulhynes]

sima66

 

Hello Adam,

 

As you have decided to discuss this power supply issue in public a second time after having your vexatious flaming attack removed from the SR7 thread, and being told to handle the issue in private, I will answer in public.

 

Firstly after so much down time over the Autumn/Winter period I have been very busy catching up with the lost time. This was never going to happen overnight, as there is so much work to do to catch up. Having received over 21000 e-mails over the last year there was also no way I would be keeping up with e-mail in real time through this period. Do the maths yourself if you doubt this. Many of the e-mails are highly technical and demand much time to formulate an answer.

 

I have been reading back through our communication history and I believe I have made every effort to resolve the issue of your failing SSD drives even though remote diagnosis can be difficult. I have a copy of all our communications so I would suggest you refrain from quoting out of context.

 

I have also checked your original order specification and it included 3 off DC3FS all terminated with both a 2.1mm DC plug and a Sata power connector. Were you powering more than one item of equipment per rail?

 

Of significance is that your second SSD drive was working on the 5v rail properly after the first drive failed which would lead me to conclude that the supply rail was operating correctly at that time and not the cause of the first drive failing, as drives do fail of their own accord occasionally. I know this from experience. When the second drive failed I advised you not to connect another drive to the suspect rail until we had a proper diagnosis of the cause of the failure. You agreed with this suggestion at the time but then you proceeded to connect a third drive to the supply rail before diagnosis. Why on earth did you do this? This is gross negligence on your part and in direct contradiction of my advice.

 

I have offered to either have your power supply collected for repair, or to supply you with a replacement regulator module. In retrospect I should be insisting that you either return the power supply or the regulator module for diagnosis to assess whether there are any signs of abuse on the failed rail. In the interest of assessing why the 3A rail failed I want you to return the damaged module to me. I will refund your shipping cost so you are not out of pocket and I will still send you the replacement 3A regulator module, which I have just upgraded to the 6A output stage with a powerful 380W IXYS device. This module was modified just before the sewage contamination incident at the premises this last week but has not yet been through soak test, as I had to close the premises for health and safety reasons. As soon as the premises are cleared for occupation again I will get the module through soak test and have it shipped out to you. I will also include the two additional DC3FS DC leads I offered to you free of charge as compensation for your SSD drive loss, although I fail to see why I should be so generous after your flaming attack on the SR7 thread and the uncertainty of the failure mode.

 

For your information, I have never in all my time testing the power supply modules using this regulator topology, measured a spiking over voltage either during switch-on or during normal operation. Indeed I have four of these 3A modules still running happily providing power to my class A power amplifiers. They have been running at 3.5A continuous (Class A standing current) for 12 years and in use daily for family entertainment. That’s a lot of on/off switching and a lot of on time without failure.

 

Of course it is possible for any product to fail and I cannot claim exception to the rule, but failure of my products is a very small percentage of the number made, as I use rugged components from known sources and soak test to weed out any weak components.