Rothwell Audio Transaction

Has anyone had transactions with Andrew Rothwell of Rothwell Audio in the UK? Two months ago I ordered a product on the company website - a step up transformer- which was promptly shipped by mail but has not been delivered to me. Shipped by Royal Mail and USPS. Tracking has not been updated since early May and simply states it is in transit. Andrew Rothwell has promptly responded to my inquiries but has not proposed any solution. I think he should refund my purchase price or send a replacement unit. What do you think?

 

I generally expect the shipper to handle problems, they are the one that made the transaction with the shipping company, and should be responsible. Have you directly asked him about the situation and conveyed your thoughts, as stated above? He does post at AudioKarma (and other sites) and seems a standup guy, it's surprising to hear you aren't getting a satisfactory response.

 

I dealt with him in late March/early April. The product (a pair of RCA in-line signal attenuators) was exactly what I wanted, but the experience was not so great. There was no notification when the package shipped; it took two weeks and a couple nagging emails to get a response from him that indicated they were in transit, and he failed to supply a tracking number. They did show up a few days after he finally got back to me. I would do business with him again, but I'd probably ask for better communication this time around when I placed the order.

If it was me: if the tracking still shows this is in the UK, I'd lean on him to chase that from his side; if it's in the US, I'd check with USPS and see if they can track it down. Either way, if no one can come up with this after another week or so, I'd ask him to make good in one way or another.

 

No experience with Rothwell, but shipments from the UK have been taking absolute ages. Dejoy should be dragged into the street and publicly scourged.

 

The Rothwell SUT got to a facility in Flushing, Queens, NY ; as of May 5th USPS will only advise that it is in transit. I asked Andrew Rothwell to refund my purchase price but he evaded the request simply offering to“chase up” the package with no further response from him.

 

I just checked USPS tracking. As of June 30th package was in Atlanta! Please note I live about 15 miles from Flushing where package was last tracked. The saga continues…

 

Well, at least it's on the move

Hope it shows up soon, most of us have probably had some pretty screwy tracking issues in the last year, I know I have. Which transformer did you get and what cartridge are you gonna connect to it? I have some Lundahl transformers in one of my setups, but not the ones he uses.

 

Thanks. I am waiting on an MCX to use with a Denon 103 and the onboard phono stages in a Marantz KI Pearl and Sugden A21 intergrated amps and/or a Graham Slee MM phono preamp.

 

I have ordered LPS from the UK via ebay and they took 2.5 months to show up. The tracking stopped once they left the UK and were not picked up again by Canada Post. Shipping from USPS always shows up in Canada Post once it crosses the border so Royal Mail has some catching up to do. I stopped using couriers where possible because the brokerage fees were brutal.

 

International shipping via postal is a cluster-you-know-what.

Two months from U.K. to U.S. is just when things start to get interesting.

And there is little Rothwell can do, the thing is in the hands of USPS. You ever try to light a fire under USPS?

I'd wait it out.

It is gonna be fantastic, and you'll have an interesting story that goes with it.

 

I will not be buying anything that is shipped from the UK from now on. I'v been waiting for months for something and it's showed no movement the whole time. I had the seller refund my money $300 and they don't know where the package is either. They have emailed the shipper a few times and never had a response from them at all.

 

International shipments via USPS worked flawlessly for me right until 2020. Japan --> SF in 1 week. UK --> SF in 2-3 weeks. Central EU --> SF 2-4 weeks.

Now, it's a coin toss whether your package shows up at all.

 

I too had a problem like this, it seems weird that the shippers seem to respond "well, what do you want me to do about it?", as though its the recipients problem, and not their responsibility. Hey, the transaction is still the vendors liability, until it is successfully delivered to me, IMO... Also eb*y (and some credit cards?) seem to have different rules about attempted chargebacks after 60 days, so I'll make sure all my complaints are done before day 59...

But anyways, it took me a while to discover "MissingMail(dot)USPS(dot)com", and I put in a claim. This special USPS site works if the tracking indicates that it made it to the USA before it fell into the lost mail abyss.... But once my claim was processed, they miraculously found it (YMMV), and I got it about 10 days later. Either the sender or recipient can put in a claim, it seems.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Missing-Mail-The-Basics

 

I've had several transactions pre Dejoy with Andrew. He's very knowledgeable and a standup guy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from him again but via USPS, no. One idiot ruined a fine institution. Unbelievable.

Their mission, which they are indeed now failing after hundreds of years of fulfilling it:

The Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with reliable, affordable, universal mail service. The basic functions of the Postal Service were established in 39 U.S.C. § 101(a): “. . . to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It [the Postal Service] shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.” The Postal Service delivers to more than 150 million addresses six days a week, and picks up pre-paid letters and packages at the time of delivery. It provides mailing and shipping services through more than 36,000 retail outlets and usps.com.

 

Good grief, the pandemic screwed up everything, not just USPS. Give it a rest.

 

Lest you all think that it is just you.

Shipments from the US to the UK are at least equally bad - I am still waiting on a package from the US that was ordered in early-March of this year. USPS tracking shows that it is in the UK but not where or even which deliver provider it is with (they use several in the UK)! USPS also needs to up its game.

Fortunately, although the vendor gave a virtual shrug of the shoulders my credit card company processed a refund without delay.

 

Open up a case directly with the USPS to locate the package. They are responsive, and you will likely get to the bottom of the situation in short order.

It could be an issue of the address label being too small or in the wrong spot in the package. Last year I had a parcel sent from Nice, France to me in Los Angeles. It made it to about 50 miles away (which took one month), and then reversed course and was sent back to France. Once there it began it’s journey back to the U.S. and in just a short time was finally delivered. It turned out the shipper had pasted his tiny address label in the lower right corner, and at some point the machines processing the package didn’t see it. When I bought from him again I reminded him about proper address placement and had no issues.

 

Thanks for all your replies and advice. Glad to know it is not just my problem but unfortunately a more general issue.

 

This was more than a Pandemic. Sorting machines were removed amongst many other changes to increase mail delivery times. No reason this shouldn't be corrected by now if it was simply the Pandemic.

 

No, they are talking about slowing delivery as a means to lower costs, that is just a proposal at this time.

You're beating some sort of agenda drum, and this ain't the place or time for it.

 

All delivery services have been slow recently, facilities here in Canada are still suffering from pandemic related issues.
Just be glad you're fortunate enough to still be shopping rather than looking for work or housing!

 

You enjoying any reduced costs? I’m sure not. Costs seem to have increased, in fact, and deliveries are not just slow but completely unreliable.

But back on track: I had an LP take four months from Germany, so OP should hang tight and trust that Rothwell isn’t being shady. Dude has a very good rep, to my understanding.

 

If it doesn't show up and you want to go with a more local alternative, I think the Rothwell MCX is using the Lundahl LL9226 transformer, which is used in many phono preamps (like the $2900 Modwright PH 9.0), it is sold for around $85 in singles. You can buy the transformers directly from K&K Audio in the US (I think they are in North Carolina) to build your own SUT, or they offer a kit or pre-assembled SUT with two transformers on small PCB with options for gain and loading, $325 kit, $385 assembled ... Moving Coil Phono Step-Up Kits – K & K Audio

 

Exactly...

 

And I think Rothwell uses a very simple little loading network of a ~180pf capacitor and whatever resistors load the cartridge at 100 ohms.