I’m guessing that Phoenix Sound is belly up. I’ve left several messages and no return. I talked with Renee at Reindeer to confirm they had some couplers, to which she said (and I believe her) she called and they had 4. I said order me 2 and some sound cards. After multiple weeks, Renee said can’t get returned calls to see where the couplers are so I said forget the couplers and ship sound cards. From what I’ve been reading, I’m assuming they are out of business or something close to it. It’s ashame as I really liked their sound boards, but you can’t have a viable business not returning calls from your sellers or customers.
What coupler are you looking to get? Someone out here may have what you need. I use Kadee’s and make my own. All that is needed is a Kadee coupler, jewerly chain, and a servo. My decoders drive servos.
A couple of years ago, I tried to get a few more Phoenix P8 sound cards for my USAT Diesels. Everybody was out of them, including Phoenix. After waiting three months with e-mails to Phoenix going unanswered, I said “Screw it” and switched to RailPro. Their modules have everything, including the sound, built-in. No more costly external sound cards required.
I need a Phoenix Sound card for my 2-1/2 inch scale Super Husky.
I decided to see for myself what is going on with the company. I called BOTH phone numbers just now (the 800 number and the 734 number. Got the same Covid message on both lines. I’m done with the unanswered emails I’ve sent in the past two months. I’ll see how long I have to wait for an answer to my two phone messages I left just now.
Hell of a way to run a railroad :(!
DELETED double post!
Gentlemen,
My dealings with Phoenix have been stellar, although that was a few years ago. I fount them VERY responsive to issues and questions.
Lets face facts, COVID 19 has not been kind to anyone. I don’t believe Phoenix is just ignoring anyone, although it might seem that way. Might I say I have had the same kind of responses to emails and phone calls to Ozark Miniatures. I don’t hear anyone going off on them. I know that the owner of Ozark has had some health issues, long before COVID 19 came by.
I have two daughters suffering from Long COVID. My younger daughter, age 41 is having heart issues since COVID. She caught it in March 2020. My older daughter caught it March this year, and her sense of taste and smell are all but gone. COVID is not joke, I pray it hasn’t taken the owner out entirely.
I am sure we will hear what is going on with Phoenix soon enough, and I certainly hope it is not the worst.
My tuppence.
Dan Pierce said:
What coupler are you looking to get? Someone out here may have what you need. I use Kadee’s and make my own. All that is needed is a Kadee coupler, jewerly chain, and a servo. My decoders drive servos.
Dan, do you have a pdf on, or link to, how you do that?
I had a short phone conversation with a well known vendor in the hobby. The Phoenix story doesn’t “sound” very promising according to THIS vendor.
I would suggest that those folks who have Phoenix Sound in their equipment, might want to download those sound files before the website “disappears”.
As a precaution, I just downloaded the files from the website and they are safe on my computer now.
So let me get this straight Gary, you are going to drive the stake deeper by spreading doom and gloom. I always associated ‘Phoenix’ with the mythological bird rising from the ashes. And I did not care much for your lousy pun.
Good thing we are not in the wild west, you would be the guy running out in the street to snatch the boots off the dead gunslinger who just lost the fight.
Bob Cope said:
So let me get this straight Gary, you are going to drive the stake deeper by spreading doom and gloom. I always associated ‘Phoenix’ with the mythological bird rising from the ashes. And I did not care much for your lousy pun.
Good thing we are not in the wild west, you would be the guy running out in the street to snatch the boots off the dead gunslinger who just lost the fight.
Give me a break, Cope! The person I had the conversation with today is a well respected vendor in this hobby. He passed along this information because of his personal experience with Phoenix in the recent past (January of 2021). If you can’t stand the truth, then maybe YOU should call around and get YOUR OWN information! Call the same vendor I did and see what he has to say about this. If your as “bright” as you think you are, it won’t take you long to find out where I got my information. OR just bury your head in the sand and keep fantasizing.
Oh, and by the way…I’m STILL looking for the lousy pun you say I made about Phoenix. Can’t see it ANYWHERE :). Again, you are seeing things that are literally not there. Just a suggestion to you, if you feel my comment and many of the others before me, are detrimental to Phoenix, why don’t you call them and leave a voicemail (that’s NEVER answered) or write an email to “constantly changing” email addreses (and NEVER get a reply). Tell them there is a very simple way to clear everything up just by posting to LSC some clarification of their issues. Then all of us that have been loyal customers of Phoenix Sound over the past 26 years, wouldn’t feel like Phoenix (with their deafening silence) hasn’t poked them in the a**! Is that clear enough so even you can understand it?
Bob Cope said:
Gentlemen,
My dealings with Phoenix have been stellar, although that was a few years ago. I fount them VERY responsive to issues and questions.
My tuppence.
Mr. Cope,
You “might” want to re-read your own post from yesterday…as you said you had dealings with Phoenix a few years ago. WE ALL had dealings with Phoenix a few years ago and Phoenix didn’t have problems with communications THEN.
The issue is the lack of communication with them in the past 8-10 months! So before you start “shooting’ from the hip” gunslinger, maybe get your facts straight before running off at the mouth!
I have a good friend in the hobby who is going to call the same vendor I talked to today and verify what was said for himself.
A cornerstone of good business practice is customer relations, someone should be able to at the very least post on the website or add to the voicemail issues preventing them from answering questions or calls.
Mr. Armistead,
As far as I am concerned, you are operating entirely on speculation and rumor. Until you name this ‘well known vendor’ so others can talk to him and ask questions of him, it is rumor, third party information, here-say. And even then, if this vendor has not spoken directly to the owner of Phoenix, his information is speculation.
I would suggest that those folks who have Phoenix Sound in their equipment, might want to download those sound files before the website “disappears”.
Yes, pillage the body before it is cold.
Done
Dial it back. Now.
http://phoenixsound.com/library/am_diesel.html
Honestly, I’m sorry for never installing one of their cards in my fleet of P42’s. The GP-38/40 would have worked in the F40phr I built but they didn’t have the Nathan K-5la horn I was looking for nor was it in my price range at the time.
Hahaa! I love the ending!!
(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
It’s all good !
Just don’t understand when a company is going belly up and why they don’t admit it, I guess some owners are too proud to just say it, but on the other side they are giving themselves a bad name. This will leave many owners with there equipment with a bad taste in there mouth for many years down the road. They could just send out an email and say due to circumstances beyond our control we can no longer provide you with our products and company support and let it go from there.
trainman
I was talking with the pres of our club yesterday and he said that Phoenix is still around and will even repair their boards. No such luck with Sierra SoundTrax though.
Rooster said:
I watched the whole thing.
Spoiler alert: the “rooster” NEVER got what he deserved.
edit: use a real computer when posting, the tablet stinks