chase up

Well, little surprise here, and certainly no Happy New Year. So, time for a "three month anniversary of your last email" email.

On the subject of sharing (as this blog so comprehensively attempts to do), I did a web search on "Zinky owners" just to see if there was any organised confluence of Zinky-related opinion out there.

Still no response to my email from a month ago, so off goes a seasonal follow-up.

Will this engender a Happy New Year? Best hurry on to part 65.

Like the title of the latest email says, a month has gone by since Bruce's last email in which he claimed he would "do that today". A month in which my last two emails went unanswered. A month in which my amp did not make an appearance. Will the next development be an email from Bruce? See part 63.

October ends with no response from Bruce to my email of two weeks previous, so off goes another one.

Will this finally generate an answer, an idea why any mention of supplying my a case is met with - not an answer - but another communication stoppage? Watch this space for part 62.

Frustration soars again - as far as I know Bruce now has a working amp, a silver case, a stock of power valves and my home address.

Just take my money and send it back. According to his reply it is indeed as simple as that - see part 58.

31 July came and went and much as expected, Bruce had not put in the effort to fix the amp that I would have rewarded with the $1,000.

So another 90 days after I made the offer, it was time for an email.

Had Bruce really done nothing at all since 17 March? Six days later came a rather surprising reply - see part 55.

Before sending this email I checked the Zinky web site customer service page - it was blank (see picture on left and just for fun, try clicking the link in the email text!).

I also did a web search to see if anyone was offering a Superfly for sale, and I got lucky: there on the well-known CraigsList site was an ad which sang the amp's praises and made much of the Lifetime Warranty provided by Zinky.

For example:

It's truly a work of art and has a lifetime warranty, because Bruce warranties his amps for life.

So this call didn't go particularly well, both of us lost our cool and nothing was achieved except that some of my suspicions concerning the commercial viability of the Superfly were confirmed.

As of October 2009, there are several retailers in the US and UK advertising "new" Superflys in stock or to order. If you've read this far, you would be expected not to want to buy one at any (low) price.

I decided that calling Bruce was no longer effective, so sent him a terse email with a few reminders - see part 51.

So my call at least prompted Bruce physically to take a couple of pictures and get them sent to me (see left).

How much more was done "after lunch" I doubt, but there at least is my amp... in bits, on the bench.

But Nate's attention must have been diverted because another two weeks went by and the "shipping information" that I had been assured of on 3 March did not materialise.

Low on patience I called Bruce again - see part 50.

It seemed so straight-forward and would hopefully break the deadlock:

I'd like to have a black case, but would settle for a silver one and could shop around for an affordable re-covering service in the UK once I'd received it.

So that just left the amp to be finished up...

Except that my email wasn't replied to, so after a few days, yet another call seemed necessary - see part 47.