Posts by jonwrightguitar

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Fair enough, thank you for the feedback. What's interesting is that in terms of audience retention, this video is performing better than many - it's hard to know what to make of that. At the end of the day it's a largely fact-based account of my experience with my feelings on it. Nothing to do with cancel culture at all, other than my feelings on recommending the unit to people with specific regard to reliability and the cost/convenience of getting it repaired. Unfortunately the narrative of me being a MASSIVE Kemper fanboy, recommending it to anyone and everyone, making videos on it and so, and then feeling quite let down by the service, seems to have been missed (or interpreted as being a crybaby).


    The thumbnail was a question mark for me; it's quite inflammatory, but it's how I felt after what happened and those kinds of thumbs are par for the course on youtube. This has been an interesting experience - I regret being drawn into tit-for-tat squabbling with a few of the individuals on this forum for sure. I appreciate the feedback.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    I understand. I completely agree that the customs situation is a mess. Believe me, we all know about it. How is it though, that I can deal with Thomann, and they are clear with communication, they get in touch to explain how they will charge, how it will ship from German to the UK, and all the rest of it, and then they deliver on their promise? The point is that is it possible to work with this situation. Many companies are doing it.


    So yes, the UK customs situation is a factor but Kemper could do better and I don't understand why this is so controversial.


    UPS are the cheapest, and worst option. Kemper chose to use them. They have no responsibility? I don't agree.


    And no, it's not just UK customers who it's relevant to. Earlier in the thread there was a guy from Norway (also no in the EU) who had similar issues.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    That's a hot take.

    I said in the video, before any discussion here, that UPS was a huge part of the problem, and that I was disappointed with Kemper's response. It's been twisted - by you two, mainly - into a somewhat nasty 'well it's your country that voted for Brexit' discussion. Twisted into 'grown men crying' and other nonsense.


    I'm sharing an experience. It's relevant to other people sending their Kemper around the world to get it repaired. You can make it personal and about me being a big crybaby if you like, I don't mind.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Yes you've got it exactly. I think I'm in charge of what Kemper do with their business...


    It seems like you didn't even watch the video, and that this is more just an opportunity to shout at an English person about Brexit. I hope the nationalist Polish government don't do exactly the same thing for you guys as had been discussed, because it sucks.


    How do I put this politely.... it's hard to understand how you come to the conclusions you come to, Skoczy. Is it an intellectual thing or just looking for the worst in people?


    Also I think you're completely wrong (again, sorry) with your bright idea for me - anyone wanting to repair Kempers seems to find Kemper unwilling to provide spare parts.

    But, you know, thanks for your contributions to the thread.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Uh, yes, ZERO blame. Did exactly what was asked of me, in some cases more than once because of the failing system in place. What do you see that I could have done differently? Or is it just your particular worldview that makes anyone involved in something as being worthy of blame?

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Quote from V8guitar

    I think we can all agree:


    1) Kemper are not responsible for this issue. The suggestion is they maybe able to offer input and advice but there is very little they can do

    2) Brexit was voted for by 51% of the population, so not exactly a landslide! To be fair its still early days separating 40 years of integration but in my mind, its a complete mess

    3) It puts people off buying off in UK from buying outside UK.

    Well, I don't agree with 1, at all! For example they could set up repair services in other countries instead of insisting everything be sent to Germany. They could provide the paperwork and communication required to have a good chance at not paying incorrect customs fees. They could do better. Thomann, for example, have sorted this out extremely well.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    This has all got a bit weird. A video discussing how I feel let down by a company, detailing what went on, where the system fell down, and my response to it and we're getting comments about alphas, betas, crying, whether I voted for Brexit (duh, of course not, it's the most self-damaging piece of political chicanery I've known in the UK in my lifetime), being a snowflake...

    What's ironic is that the type of people in the UK that use that kind of language to criticise others tended to be the ones who wanted to take the UK out of the EU. You, know, not particularly nice people, who want to blame others regardless of what's actually happened, and who like to take a grabby thumbnail (because YouTube is entertainment, we all understand that, hopefully) and reduce a person's argument to that. Even ignoring the actual title of the video.


    Bryan I appreciate your efforts to stand up for it being ok to say this stuff and it being ok for men to cry! Amen brother.


    I've shared my experience and how I feel about it. You can assess something as being unfair without being weak.


    Brexit, as I said before, is not even that big a part of it; it's has been coming for years, and shipping companies, and companies who are trading internationally have had to deal with it. As much as I wish it wasn't the case, the UK has just become like all the hundreds of other countries that are not in the EU trading block. Kemper have to work with that, and my criticism is that they didn't try very hard to prevent a problem occurring, and when it did, just washed their hands of it.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Thanks for the thoughts guys. Yes, certainly Brexit is part of the problem and UPS are often very poor. As you say though, it's part of Kemper's existence in the real world to work with this stuff if they want to do business in this world.

    I can say with honesty that the one person who is at no fault whatsoever and who it's cost the most, is me. That's not fair, and some attempt from Kemper to make it fair would not be unreasonable. That's where it becomes apparent that they don't care about customers. That's ok, it's just good to know and a consideration when choosing what systems to invest in - and what to recommend.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Quote from BayouTexan

    Sounds like an issue with your country's policies not with Kemper. It sucks that you needed to have it repaired in the first place, and I'm very glad you got it back ship shape, but I would direct your video to some of your politicians and have them fix shipping and trade laws.

    Again, I think this is a red herring. I'm bemused and dismayed at the UK's decision to leave the EU, but all it means is that the UK is no longer in the customs union. The trade laws are there.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Quote from lightbox

    I looked it up, the protocol to the double taxation convention entered into force on December 17th 2021 and took effect in the UK from January 1st 2022.

    Since the estimate of cost you received from Kemper is dated December 1st 2021, I'm afraid the entire transaction and mess happened before/during the implementation of the double taxation convention. Really bad luck it seems and don't get me wrong, I really feel for you. Must have been a terrible experience for sure. But still I want to state that (from what I see and understand) Kemper couldn't have done anything differently.

    I'm sorry but I really think this is a red herring. There has been a tax treaty between the UK and Germany for many years - the treaties are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/…ions/germany-tax-treaties. The 2021 treaty is just the latest. Yes, there have been new treaties to deal with the UK's exit from the EU.


    Double taxation, as far as I can see, relates to individual and business taxes rather than import duty. I'm not an expert, but they seem to be separate.


    In any case, I can find nothing that says that a repair should have import charges applied to it. And that doesn't seem logical, at all. There were forms I used when sending declaring it was for repair, and UPS contacted me during that out-bound shipment to confirm it was a repair which I assume resulted in there being no import fee in Germany. Do you really think Kemper are paying hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros import fee on all non-EU repairs or returns that they receive? Seems very unlikely to me.


    I can't believe there was not a legitimate way to move a piece of electronics between Germany and UK for repair, without such import fees being charged in both directions. UPS were hassling me for information about the shipment long before they allocated a customs fee - I think they added the fee because despite me providing the info exactly as they asked, they'd ask me again the next day, suggesting something in the system was broken - so eventually a customs fee was applied.


    EVEN if there was absolutely nothing they could do and these fees were completely unavoidable (which I don't believe), it would be ethical and good practice to properly warn customers about it, communicate properly with the shipper, and try to help as much as is reasonable. As it is the strong impression is that they don't care much, leave the customer hung out to dry for high repair costs, and blame governments and even residents of those countries for shipping being a bit more complex than it used to be.

  • Sharing a repair experience

    Ok. The charge is import VAT. It’s not for a service, it’s based on the amount on the INVOICE that Kemper included with the item. The issue is with the categorisation of it as an import rather than a repair. I thought that was fairly clear.

    Secondly the UK and Germany have a tax treaty in place.


    As for the terrible decision of Brexit, believe me this has been wearisome for years and I don’t need reminding what a mess it is. We are suffering, rest assured.


    My issue is with Kemper’s part in it. They must have some understanding of the process and could advise customers on likely outcomes. They also didn’t label the package sufficiently that I didn’t have to provide UPS with info on their behalf when it was shipping in both directions. They ignored the email saying something needed to happen or it might be disposed of by customs, and offered no help in contacting UPS to advise it was a repair not a sale.


    Like I get it, had the UK been in the customs union it would all have been easier, but it’s no different to all the other countries that are also not in (including Norway) and they’re offering an international service. They give the strong impression that they don’t care.