I posted this out of respect for my fellow GF members. Due to the collective opinion of the forum, regarding Karel and his work I decided to approach him for a job. I unfortunately found the opinion to be skewed. Karel is indeed a friendly guy, and I’m sure his work is top class, however the way he handled business I keep asking myself: How the hell does this guy have the apparent reputation he has?
For me GAS is a two-edged sword: In order to gain great pleasure you have to suffer a bit to reach your objective. I see it as marrying a woman. I’m not interested in marrying twelve and divorcing eleven. I want one who I can be happy with to spend the rest of my days with. This is how I approached this:
I’m currently studying music full time at UCT so music means everything to me. An amp is also an integral part needed to do what I do. For a year I worked three part-time jobs whenever I had the chance, often in humiliating circumstances. I just shut up about it and kept on working and saving, working and saving. I carefully budgeted how I will spend my money so as to not deviate too far from my target: In this case it was about R8000-R10 000.
After finally saving up enough money for something decent, I decided to approach Karel. We spoke about what I wanted and he agreed it could be done. Here is where the heart of my anger lies in this whole situation: He created an expectation and crushed it. Nearly three months after paying him and waiting for feedback on his progress, I find out he hasn't done squat - He had not bought ANY of the specified parts we discussed in November, after paying him R3000 in advance, in December, for the parts of a Tweed Deluxe. When I approached him on the 17th of February to get my money back, he told me the amp could NOT be done. (He said the transformers were too big or something in that vein. How he would've built me an amp using HIS Chinese parts, is another question altogether). I would've been perfectly fine with that answer if he told me months sooner, then we could have ended this matter on friendly terms.
I have since been repaid on the 1st of July 2014 after an official court order had been put in motion, for services not delivered. It took me months to get my money back but it is finally settled.
This has undoubtedly been the most frustrating business transaction I have ever had to deal with. I know of a few guys who were unhappy with his service, yet they kept quiet about it. I refuse to do so. If it was possible to separate man from machine, I might have still bought one of his amps, unfortunately though, he is Mars Tube Audio. Karel takes pride in his work and I believe he may deliver top quality amps, yet his quality of service does not reflect that of a boutique amp builder.
If anyone has any questions, I will discuss it with you in private and even provide all the information of our correspondence from November – July. Hopefully we can all learn from this experience and may he take this to heart so that his business may one day flourish:
Honesty, Integrity, Quality.