We have 14 people, our own service center in Kajaani, and thousands of customers around the world. Some of them love us. Some would like to burn our office down. Both groups are equally dear to us — one is just a bit scarier.
In this article, we go through real feedback we’ve received over the years. Names have been changed because we don’t want lawsuits.
Love letters
Fortunately, most of the feedback is positive. Otherwise, we’d already be bankrupt and the Death Star wouldn’t be progressing on schedule.
A typical message goes something like this: "I bought the VMK25 because they were cheaper than Sony. I didn’t expect much. Now I don’t want to use anything else." This is the best possible compliment for us, because it means the product speaks for itself. We don’t have to pay celebrities a million to keep the headphones on their ears for two seconds in an ad shot.
Another favorite: "The left earcup stopped working. I sent it in for service. It came back fixed in a week. Why doesn’t every company do this?" Good question. The answer is that other companies’ business model is based on you buying new ones every 18 months. Our business model is based on you buying from us once and then recommending us to your friends. Hannes will fix those headphones with his teeth if he has to.
A third classic comes from our German customers: "Die Klangqualität ist besser als bei meinen vorherigen Kopfhörern die das Dreifache gekostet haben." In other words, the sound quality is better than in headphones that cost three times as much. Germany is our biggest foreign market. Germans appreciate engineering, and Jasse’s ears are insured for a reason.
Threat letters
Then the other ones. Yes, we mess up sometimes too.
"I ordered the headphones three weeks ago and haven’t received anything. Where are they?" Usually the answer is Posti. Sometimes the answer is us. Once the answer was that the factory in China interpreted "July" incorrectly and we didn’t check. Mistakes happen. What matters is how you react to them. We admit them immediately and fix the situation — we don’t hide or blame "supply chain challenges."
Another classic: "ANC doesn’t remove children’s screaming." No, it doesn’t. Nobody’s ANC removes children’s screaming. ANC attenuates low frequencies — airplane drone, office air conditioning noise, the engine sound of Henri’s Alfa Romeo (on those rare days when it runs). For children’s shrieking, only a closed door and music at full blast help.
And then there are the folks who give one star because "the headphones aren’t red even though they looked red in the picture." The colors on your display are off. But we do understand the disappointment.
What we’ve learned
Every piece of feedback — good or bad — is valuable to us. Except for that one guy who wrote us three pages about why Bluetooth is a CIA conspiracy. We didn’t learn anything from that.
Seriously though: the VMK25.2 exists because customers told us what could be better in the VMK25. The NL25’s ANC controls were improved based on feedback. The water resistance of the Nordell MK3 was retested when one customer claimed to have submerged it in a lake. (It still worked. The customer was still angry, because the speaker scared the fish.)
Leave your own feedback
If you want to praise, roast, or threaten us, write to info@valco.fi. We read everything. We reply to everything. And if your feedback is funny enough, it might end up in the next article.
Every message you send takes us one step closer to the Death Star. Or at least to Henri’s Ferrari. Or realistically: to the next Alfa Romeo service bill.
