[Madsumm]

Hi all,
 
I have a major rant here. If you are a supporter of HPL (or Chris), I am with you, because I just became an ex-supporter.
 
Since October last year, I have ordered 2 sets of upgraded cable for ATH-M50x headphones and a Y Splitter.
 
2 set of headphone cables came after 1+ month.
It doesn't fit. There I send the cables back to Chris to get it fixed.
 
That was last year. It is now 2015. I never see that cables anymore.
 
The biggest issue I had was, when I sent email requesting info on the cables, I got absolutely no reply from him.
After I raised the issue on his Facebook page, the initial posting was DELETED!
 
Later, it was restored... not sure why. But than, I never had any replies since than.
I shipped the cables back to Chris on my own account and paid for everything.
 
Now, I have requested a total refund of the 2 cables that he wasn't able to produce, let alone reply me on the status.
 
Again. total quietness since weeks.
 
I have lost count on the number of weeks that went by.
 
I am sure, I am not the only guy here that is facing this. Not sure what is happening to this dude, but he seems extremely active on this FB.
 
It seems likely he could have made a name for himself in the industry and things has gone to his head? Or he has no interest anymore in this business.
 
Either case, I would strongly recommend to deal with care.
 
@Chris Tran, if you are reading this, for most, we pay in full trusting you, but I would NEVER do this anymore.
Please return my money. I have already nicely asked you over the last few months, but have no choice to raise the rant here.
I had enough of your non-reply.
 
Good luck in your business if you start treating your long term customer like this.
 
Rgds

 

[Chris_Himself]

Hey, everybody. I'm really sorry that a valued repeat customer like this one slipped through the cracks. He has been an avid supporter of my brand since the very beginning and it truly broke my heart that I've failed to make things right in a timely manner for one reason or another. I'm handling it as we speak. An offer for a full refund is on the table, and him and I are working together to make this right between us.
 
Cabling is not at all my main source of revenue as you suspected, so in that regard you are correct, but that should never diminish how I handle a business with my name on it. HPL has grown leaps and bounds since my split with my former brand due to the trust I've built with people such as yourself and the many people on Head-Fi whom I've befriended for years, and I cannot let this type of thing happen if I want to continue that relationship with the fine people of this board and the audiophile community as a whole.

 

[boomslang20117]

same thing happened to me. there was a defect and i send it back for repair but its been more than half a year and still no reply from him

 

[dancehallwraith]

same thing happened to me. there was a defect and i send it back for repair but its been more than half a year and still no reply from him

There's a pattern here; he's doing exactly the same to me.

Chris agreed in December to fix a defective cable, I sent it to him and since then he's not answered any of my emails. I tried PMing @Chris_Himself here, but he's ignoring that too. So he has my money and I have no cable. Not happy.

 

[Eddie C]

Oh my goodness me too, have a cable sent to him for repairs, had it sent back to me repaired which was great but they weren't terminated so it was no use for me. Sent back and has been at least 1.5 months of me waiting for the cable since i have sent them back. I told Chris if he lacks the time to repair them to just send it back because now I have mmcx connectors and a working soldering iron. No replies from him since and I don't know if I will ever receive my cable again. Worst customer service I have dealt with and definitely not getting his cables in the future. Paypal dispute opened and i'd be lucky to at least get my $20 back for the repair service. I can reterminate it myself under 15 mins, cant believe i've waited 2+ months 

 

[John Dowland]

Same thing here.. Bought a cable that has a defect after using it just two months and not even daily. Emailed several times, Chris himself directly by replying the order confirmation email in which i explained my cable problem, as well as the contact form on the website but never had any reply.
 
After reading of the experiences from other buyers above, I don't want to take the risk haphazardly returning the cable ending up with nothing, but I'm very disappointed and would never do business with HPL-Audio or Chris Himself again.

Sad thing I didn't read this thread before ordering

 

[pablodiablo]

I am also a victim of HPL/Chris Himself's horrible craftsmanship and unprofessional business practices.
 
I bought a set of cables for my UE Triple-fi 10s about 2 years ago.  Chris made the cables with the wrong adapters, so when I attached them to my IEMs, the fit of the adapters was extremely snug.  So snug that when I took the IEMs off, the adapter ripped the internals out of my IEMs, destroying a pair of $400 cans.
 
Chris Himself initially said if this was his mistake he would stand by it and would replace the IEMs and fix the cables.  Instead, he fixed the cables, but refused to replace my IEMs even though it was entirely his mistake.  That's integrity and gratitude for ya!
 
Now, after only 2 years, the insulation is fraying on my cables and the sound is cutting out in the right channel.  So, if you think spending hundreds of dollars on cables that have a shelf life of just a few months and don't mind blowing $800 on $400 headphones, HPL Cables is the place for you!  I can honestly say buying cables from HPL was the worst decision I've made in my audiophile life.  I have recently reached out to HPL to address the fraying, but am not going to hold my breath waiting for a response considering my prior experience dealing with this joke of a company.  I was considering suing them (I'm a litigator for ****'s sake), but it's not worth my time.  Hopefully, I can at least deter others from making the same mistake I did by buying cables from HPL.

 

[pablodiablo]

  Hey, everybody. I'm really sorry that a valued repeat customer like this one slipped through the cracks. He has been an avid supporter of my brand since the very beginning and it truly broke my heart that I've failed to make things right in a timely manner for one reason or another. I'm handling it as we speak. An offer for a full refund is on the table, and him and I are working together to make this right between us.
 
Cabling is not at all my main source of revenue as you suspected, so in that regard you are correct, but that should never diminish how I handle a business with my name on it. HPL has grown leaps and bounds since my split with my former brand due to the trust I've built with people such as yourself and the many people on Head-Fi whom I've befriended for years, and I cannot let this type of thing happen if I want to continue that relationship with the fine people of this board and the audiophile community as a whole.

 
You're a liar and a clown.  Stop blowing smoke up the asses of the people who pay your way.  You're a fraud and a deadbeat; nothing more than a parasite.

 

[narnos]

THIS IS A BIG WARNING TO ALL - Just in case anyone thinks Chris may have changed his ways, he has not at all.  I STRONGLY ADVISE ANYONE AND EVERYONE TO AVOID DEALING WITH CHRIS/HPL (and his friend/alias TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES).  I will try and keep my story as succinct as possible.
 
Unfortunately, I only discovered this thread on the forum AFTER I have made payment to purchase my cables.  It took almost 3 months and an endless string of emails and promises before my cables actually arrived.  Thankfully, at that point, the cables were good, certainly not worth the wait, but I finally received what I had paid for and has happy with the product.
 
After using them for some time (with care) the left channel stopped working, I emailed Chris in late October '15 about having them repaired under warranty and he advised me to send them back to him and he would fix them.  I sent my cables to him for repair the following week (early November '15) and after at least 10 emails to follow up and chasing Chris on the 8th January '16, just over two months later, he told me that he had repaired my cables and I would receive them shortly as he had sent them back to me.
 
(8th JAN '16) - It broke some wire the solder joint, so it's all good now. At least I know my soldering isn't suspect, I think it was just a tear in the wire, it didn't look stress related.
 
After two weeks of waiting and obviously not receiving the cables nor any response to my repeated emails - on the 25th January, Chris emailed me out of the blue saying that he would send me another pair of cables.  Finding this peculiar, I enquired as to whether he had sent my original repaired cables in the first place, to which he simply responded:
 
(25th JAN '16) - I'm sending you a replacement pair to make up for the set that was lost in transit. It's the right thing to do.
 
 
This was obviously another stalling tactic in the array of stalling tactics that he has used.  I continued to email him without any response.  Then on the 6th February, completely out of the blue comes TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES who allegedly has my original pair of cables that he has fixed himself, meaning that either Timothy is lying to me OR the entire donkey ride I had been on for the previous 3 months was a fabrication of Chris himself.
 
What makes this even more sour is that TIMOTHY claims that he is no way affiliated with CHRIS/HPL.  I enquire how that is possible, given my cables were sent back to Chris/HPL for repair under warranty, allegedly fixed and returned to me, then apparently lost in transit and were being replaced, following which TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES appears WITH my original cables that he has fixed himself and wants to send to me, so kindly.
 
Upon hearing the above story TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES makes me wait another 10 days before saying (on 17th February) that he will ensure I get my 'new' cables, whatever that means, and that he will send me shipping confirmation shortly.   On the 21st February, he sends me tracking information for the cables that he has sent to me, which according to USPS tracking website is the creation of a Shipping Label and does not indicate receipt by USPS or the actual mailing date.
 
Four more unanswered emails and more than 2 weeks have gone by, the USPS tracking shows that nothing has been sent to me and TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES has not responded to me at all.   CHRIS from HPL has not responded to an email from me since January when he promised to send me new cables.
 
CHRIS/HPL have my money AND he or TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS have the product they sold me.  CHRIS from HPL is not a businessman and conducts himself in the most unprofessional manner possible.  TIMOTHY from ARTEMIS CABLES is either his friend or simply an alias of Chris - everyone should heed this warning as you are better to just flush your money down the toilet.  They are both a bunch of jokers, completely dishonest and will lie to you at every point of the transaction. 
 
If anyone would like me to give them actual emails or additional information I will be more than happy to share, just PM me.

 

[boomslang20117]

1.5 years and still waiting

 

[Eddie C]

I've tried escalating this problem through the headfi feedback form twice but nothing. There's THIS thread where a member did not receive the cable(s) he ordered from Bellatone Audio so IPodPJ has a Caution: Incomplete Customer Orders next to his name now.
 

 
Just don't want more people to fall into the trap and lose their money or cables to this crook. Whenever I think about how I lost my silver iem cable to Chris makes me furious. 

 

 

[narnos]

Perhaps he knows people at Head-FI and that is why it doesn't escalate? 
 
In respect of telling the truth, I did eventually receive my cables back last week, after 5 months.
 
So, thanks Timothy from Artemis Cables, who I believe is just a pseudonym for Chris as their similarities are too great to be a coincidence.
 
1) They claim to be completely unrelated, which is simply bogus - as how did one get my cables from the other?;
 
2) The logic of someone sending a cable he has manufactured personally to another unrelated party for repair is more ridiculous than the endless string of broken promises Chris has made.
 
3) They are both from the same small town, conducting identical businesses; 
 
4) They both send flippant emails with exaggerated promises of getting things done and delivered in a timely manner, when in fact the reality is you need to wait exorbitant lengths of time and if you are lucky, you may receive the product you paid for.
 
I suspect I only received my cables back because I never actually told either of them what I really thought, I kept it as polite as possible, given the circumstances. 
 
If you are reading this AND it isn't too late, stay away from both of these clowns.......

 

[gkr1981]

It seems as though I've been had by HPL as well. I ordered an upgrade cable for my westone 4r the first week of Jan. I chose CDN funds on the HPL website since I live in Canada. After making my choice I was charged an additional $100CDN after going through PayPal. I immediately emailed Chris and received an email from him apologizing for the error and saying he would refund the difference. Instead I asked for another cable (3.5 to 3.5) which he gladly agreed to. I have yet to receive my cables or any responses to the three emails I've sent.

If anybody has anything recently positive to say about HPL please post.

And to HPL stop screwing people. If you can't meet your obligations STOP TAKING PEOPLES MONEY!

UPDATE: Chris has emailed me back letting me know that he's still there and I will have my cables. I will update my post when/if I receive my cables and I will review them as well. I have read many good reviews about HPL and Chris, I hope that the wait is worth it.

 

[narnos]

If you are lucky enough to receive what you have paid for, the wait is definitely NOT worth it.
 
He is completely unprofessional and full of ****.

 

[Gigabit]

Looks like he ran away with our money. Ordered my cables about 5 weeks ago, under the impression it was a 1-2 week turnaround as it said on his website. Chris did respond to a few emails saying not to worry, and that he's working on it.
 
Recently, last week hasn't respond to my email. And today, it looks like his website is gone. 
 
It seems like he's just some guy that makes cables on the side. Not a real business. Wish I knew that ahead of time.
 
EDIT: to be fair, I'm ok with waiting. It's just the lack of communication, and the seemingly carelessness of the business.