Lightspeed - Poor Customer Service

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Robert D

Filing Flight Plan
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May 7, 2018
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RobertD
Buyer Beware - I have been trying to get a response via email from lightspeed in regards to the sticky soft touch coatings failing on my headset. I finally reached out via telephone. The lightspeed rep informed me that I should be glad that I got 8 years worth of use out of the headset and that given the headset is discontinued they don’t have a fix. I don’t believe it is safe to continue to use the headset given the breakdown of this coating. Given how many discontinued headsets they have

I will be sticking with David Clark or other long standing manufacturers. Don’t believe the hype
 
You think the headset is unsafe because of the sticky coating? Mountain.. molehill.

Send it to me and I'll relive you of the liability.

Or, you could put isopropyl alcohol on a cloth and wipe away the coating.

Seriously, I will ask what your expectations are on a $700 consumer product? Would you call out GE or Panasonic if the 40" widescreen TV you bought 8 years ago had a problem they couldn't fix?
 
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My experience working with Ligjtspeed has been nothing but highly satisfactory. I have had a few encounters with them to have headsets repaired and each time I got what I get was more than I deserved.

Each time, emails and phone calls were returned promptly and the tech I was working with was very knowledgeable and friendly.
 
kyleb said:
You think the headset is unsafe because of the sticky coating? Mountain.. molehill.

Send it to me and I'll relive you of the liability.

Or, you could put isopropyl alcohol on a cloth and wipe away the coating.

Seriously, I will ask what your expectations are on a $700 consumer product? Would you call out GE or Panasonic if the 40" widescreen TV you bought 8 years ago had a problem they couldn't fix?
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Sure Kyle. Send me your address and I will send these to you to deal with. I will be purchasing a David Clark set that historically last a lifetime.
 
That’s the first negative CS story I’ve seen on Lightspeed. I always figured their build quality on their stuff was slightly lower than DC so they had to make it up in good CS and fast repairs.

Especially after the Sierra I owned for a while. That thing was plastic-y and wasn’t built any better than the Sony studio headsets I use for audio work and tunes.

Haven’t really had any trouble with my Zulus, but someone I know did, and they swapped out his electronics and switched them to the tougher cable for a reasonable price.

Odd to hear them telling you to go pound it on their poor choice of materials on that overmoulding rubber crap.

Many hand tool manufacturers use that junk too, and it turns to blubbery mush if it comes into contact with petrochemicals of various sorts in the garage.
 
Eight years. Sounds like a lifetime to me. My DCs will last about 4 lifetimes because use my PFX’s every day and beat the crap out of them. I called LS once, sent off my headset and they were fixed and back to me in a week. I can understand hurt feelings when you don’t get your way, I haven’t eaten Wendy’s in two lifetimes.
 
Landing Fees said:
Eight years. Sounds like a lifetime to me. My DCs will last about 4 lifetimes because use my PFX’s every day and beat the crap out of them. I called LS once, sent off my headset and they were fixed and back to me in a week. I can understand hurt feelings when you don’t get your way, I haven’t eaten Wendy’s in two lifetimes.
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Haha I figured the lifetime comment would get the troll comments...have fun folks!
 
Robert D said:
Haha I figured the lifetime comment would get the troll comments...have fun folks!
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You have four posts and it would appear that you only joined to complain. Good luck with your DCs. I am .5 lifetimes into my PFXs and that is about 1000 hours thus far.
 
My PFX broke couple of weeks back, well didn’t completely break, I can’t hear myself talking, everything else include ANR was working. Mine is within warranty though, opened a ticket online, next day for a RMA number, sat on it for a week, sent it to LS , they sent me an email saying it’s being repaired/replaced (don’t know which) and will be returned in a week.

So far can’t complain. Will post when I get it back
 
denverpilot said:
TOdd to hear them telling you to go pound it on their poor choice of materials on that overmoulding rubber crap.

Many hand tool manufacturers use that junk too, and it turns to blubbery mush if it comes into contact with petrochemicals of various sorts in the garage.
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My understanding is Lightspeed used a spray on coating that is designed to make the headsets easier to grab and less plastic feeling. Unfortunately, there is no way to do a real world test on something like that to see how long it lasts, unless you're willing to wait 10 years to release the product. I'm sure they had accelerated aging trials that indicated the coating would last a long, long time, but accelerated testing is only an indicator for actual results.

My Zulu's went through a "tacky" period a year or two ago. For whatever reason (maybe the stuff just wore off), the problem has gone away.
 
Meh...can't please everyone. I am a loyal Lightspeed customer now BECAUSE of their amazing customer service.

8 years?...really? Sounds like a pretty good lifespan with today's electronics.
 
Robert D said:
Buyer Beware - I have been trying to get a response via email from lightspeed in regards to the sticky soft touch coatings failing on my headset. I finally reached out via telephone. The lightspeed rep informed me that I should be glad that I got 8 years worth of use out of the headset and that given the headset is discontinued they don’t have a fix. I don’t believe it is safe to continue to use the headset given the breakdown of this coating. Given how many discontinued headsets they have

I will be sticking with David Clark or other long standing manufacturers. Don’t believe the hype
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Not to defend or knock Lightspeed, but do you leave your headset in the airplane when you are finished flying? Just asking because I used to do that and I had several problems with the ear pads breaking down and the plastic case getting sticky. Lightspeed fixed the "sticky" problem and happily sold me new pads. I don't remember if I had to pay shipping to send the headset in or not, and I think the ear pads are over priced, but relatively speaking, they are "aircraft" headsets, so what else to expect.

If you do leave your headset in the plane, what is your climate? Florida is hot and humid and I always figured that was what hurried their demise.
 
kyleb said:
...there is no way to do a real world test on something like that to see how long it lasts, unless you're willing to wait 10 years to release the product.
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That’s crap. Not picking on you but materials science is way beyond that. They just spec’ed the wrong material. Or their Chinese manufacturer screwed them on what they ordered. :)
 
denverpilot said:
That’s crap. Not picking on you but materials science is way beyond that. They just spec’ed the wrong material. Or their Chinese manufacturer screwed them on what they ordered. :)
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I'm being repressed!!! OK, maybe not.

I work for a very large company. We do a huge amount of product testing, but there is no way to be absolutely sure what odd breakdowns will happen years down the road. UV exposure, chemical exposure, heat cycles, moisture, spills, sweat, sunscreen, and dozens of other exposures and interactions take place. There's no reasonable way to test for everything. Lots of things, yes. Everything, no.

And then (as you said) there's always the possibility that your supplier makes a "minor" change to its product, which doesn't turn out to be minor in your application.
 
Hmm. I have an original model Lightspeed Zulu, purchased when they first came out (2010?) and the only thing I have done to them is replace the earseals once, which were rather inexpensive. No stickiness, but I don't leave them in a hot plane ever. Either in the hangar or taken with me. Never in the plane on a hot ramp. Heat will destroy plastic by boiling out the plasticizers.
 
I have a Zulu 2 that has a sticky battery box; trying to clean it now... Previous to the Zulu 2 we had lightspeed thirty 3G headsets; those too were sticky on both the battery compartment and the blue earcups. Previous to that I had a Ferrari 348 spider with the same sticky plastic on parts of the dash. I have had some success using gojo white to clean the stickiness.

Unfortunate that in models as recent as the Zulu 2 they still have this issue. Love the Zulu 2 sound quality though.
 
Robert D said:
Buyer Beware - I have been trying to get a response via email from lightspeed in regards to the sticky soft touch coatings failing on my headset. I finally reached out via telephone. The lightspeed rep informed me that I should be glad that I got 8 years worth of use out of the headset and that given the headset is discontinued they don’t have a fix. I don’t believe it is safe to continue to use the headset given the breakdown of this coating. Given how many discontinued headsets they have

I will be sticking with David Clark or other long standing manufacturers. Don’t believe the hype
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I had the same issue with Lightspeeds, but I am still a customer. I doubt you will have a sticky plastic issue with Clarks, but buy Advil for your head discomfort if you are going to wear them a lot.
 
Robert D said:
The lightspeed rep informed me that I should be glad that I got 8 years worth of use out of the headset and that given the headset is discontinued they don’t have a fix.
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So what model of Lightspeed is it?
 
My 4 year old Sierra's went bad on one side, intermittent audio in one cup if I held it "just so", and one of the retaining caps/clips on the hinge broke. Granted, due to medical stuff, these only had about 40 hours of use.

Fri 6/15 - emailed Customer Service via website with the problem description
Fri 6/15 - got a RMA from Lightspeed,
Mon 6/18 - headset shipped via 2 day USPS
Wed 6/20 - received email confirming headset received
Thu 6/21 - received email work began, will inform me of repair or replace
Mon 6/25 - received email that repaired headset have shipped - apparently warranty, as no charges noted

Sounds like pretty darn good customer service to me!
 
Adding to what I said about the result being better than expected...

I had sent in my older Zulu.2's in due to an issue with the battery door of the control pod being overheated by the floor vent and now melted and bent and twisted into an interesting shape.

Not only did they replace the pod at no charge, but they also upgraded it to the newer design that had the kevlar braided cable.

And my timeline was similar to what Greg reported.
 
A few years ago one of my Lightspeeds had a broken connection due to a clumsy external force (moi). We lived in the Portland area at the time so we drove it to the Lightspeed factory. They said it was a discontinued model and the part in question was no longer available, but they said they’d see what they could do.

In the time it took us to drive to a nearby Starbucks, have a tall nonfat mocha (no whip), and drive back, they fixed it. No charge.
 
It sure sounds like there are some quality issues with lightspeeds. A lot of people testing out their customer service (which sounds like it HAS to be good) to make up for their inferior product. I only had to send my DC One-X back to DC because I severed the cord in my folding seat, through no fault of DC. They STILL repaired it for free. I can't say enough great things about DC and their product is a tank.
 
Unfortunately they can't issue a statement/service letter/service bulletin to remove soft-touch coating using Qtips and alcohol because that would be admitting its **** coating.

I have already done it to one headset. Will be doing it on the next when it gets sticky.
 
bnt83 said:
Unfortunately they can't issue a statement/service letter/service bulletin to remove soft-touch coating using Qtips and alcohol because that would be admitting its **** coating.

I have already done it to one headset. Will be doing it on the next when it gets sticky.
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And before that there was black dandruff because the pleather flaked off of the headpad on my QFR. I ended up performing a similar fix. After scraping off all the flaking fake leather the underlying cloth was pretty good stuff.
 
All I can add is that LS gave me $150. Trade in value on my thirty year old DC H10-80. Got a brand new Zulu 3 for $700. Plus no tax. Can’t wait to try it out.
 
Ranchoa said:
All I can add is that LS gave me $150. Trade in value on my thirty year old DC H10-80. Got a brand new Zulu 3 for $700. Plus no tax. Can’t wait to try it out.
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You’ll love them. I traded my 15 yo 25XLS for a set. Great value.
 
kyleb said:
You think the headset is unsafe because of the sticky coating? Mountain.. molehill.

Send it to me and I'll relive you of the liability.

Or, you could put isopropyl alcohol on a cloth and wipe away the coating.

Seriously, I will ask what your expectations are on a $700 consumer product? Would you call out GE or Panasonic if the 40" widescreen TV you bought 8 years ago had a problem they couldn't fix?
Click to expand...

Well, I've got a couple Softcomm C-90 headsets. One I got in 2000, the other 2001. They're both working just fine. The older one has been back to Softcomm for service, but gee whiz, what do you expect? So, yes, I do expect products to last. And I didn't spend $700 for the two combined.
 
I have only positive to say about Lightspeed CS.
 
Troll gets rolled :rockon:

I'm a loyal Lightspeed customer because their service has always been excellent for me. I suppose there might be something to the idea that their CS is used more because of inferior product, but most of the comments are about normal wear items or customer abuse. It's rare that a LS item breaks because of poor quality. They've had a couple of missteps with product design (soft touch coating, ear pad design), but generally their stuff is very, very good.

Maybe we don't hear so many stories about CS at other companies because they've lost market share and their support isn't good enough or bad enough to be worth mentioning.
 
I have an A20 now, but was more than happy with my 1st-gen Lightspeed and the associated CS.
 
Eric Gleason said:
I suppose there might be something to the idea that their CS is used more because of inferior product, but most of the comments are about normal wear items or customer abuse. It's rare that a LS item breaks because of poor quality. They've had a couple of missteps with product design (soft touch coating, ear pad design), but generally their stuff is very, very good.
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Their jack cables were notorious for self-disintegrating. If the Zulu3 didn't come with braided Kevlar cabling I definitely would not have bought one.
 
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