I recently bought an entry-level Furman power conditioner. It's making some high-pitched noise that it shouldn't, so I called their tech support line.
...And got through to a human. After like 2 selections in a phone tree, without having to run a gauntlet of automated assistant BS. And the human clearly knew and loved what he was talking about and wanted to help.
I sent him a recording of the sound, we did some basic troubleshooting, and he said there seemed to be a defect that was covered by the warranty. Furman itself doesn't currently have any more of this model in stock, but I know the vendor still has some, so I offered to RMA through them. He agreed that'd work – but he pointed out that the replacement would probably come from the same batch as the one I had; if I could wait for the next batch to arrive, there'd be less chance of a repeat of the same problem. The noise is not loud and barely audible from more than a few feet away, and he expressed complete confidence that there was no danger to the connected equipment, so I elected to wait for now. He then obliged a couple of rather niche questions about how best to use this unit and gave me his direct contact info.
I am nobody to these people. I've done nothing except buy one power conditioner from them – one of their least expensive models, and at a steep discount. And yet, all I had to do was call them with some genuine questions and a generous spirit, and I ended up feeling like family. So many other companies have treated me worse even after I've done orders of magnitude more business with them. I'm almost glad for the defect in the product (almost) because it meant I got to have the relatively rare experience of connecting with a good person at the company by cold-calling the number on the website.
In a way, it's sad that the bar is as low as "someone who gives a crap and knows their stuff will pick up the phone and try to help." But I guess that's where we're at in 2026. Having been on the other side of the phone, I'm well aware of the stark realities that drive manufacturers and retailers to automate as much CS as possible and insulate their best employees from potentially crazy and entitled customers. Either Furman is so good that they rarely have such problems, or they're devoting a ton of effort internally to keep the right people accessible without them being driven crazy. Or maybe they're just small enough, and in enough of a niche, that they don't catch a ton of BS from customers in the first place. Whatever the case, I felt I had to speak up for them.
...And got through to a human. After like 2 selections in a phone tree, without having to run a gauntlet of automated assistant BS. And the human clearly knew and loved what he was talking about and wanted to help.
I sent him a recording of the sound, we did some basic troubleshooting, and he said there seemed to be a defect that was covered by the warranty. Furman itself doesn't currently have any more of this model in stock, but I know the vendor still has some, so I offered to RMA through them. He agreed that'd work – but he pointed out that the replacement would probably come from the same batch as the one I had; if I could wait for the next batch to arrive, there'd be less chance of a repeat of the same problem. The noise is not loud and barely audible from more than a few feet away, and he expressed complete confidence that there was no danger to the connected equipment, so I elected to wait for now. He then obliged a couple of rather niche questions about how best to use this unit and gave me his direct contact info.
I am nobody to these people. I've done nothing except buy one power conditioner from them – one of their least expensive models, and at a steep discount. And yet, all I had to do was call them with some genuine questions and a generous spirit, and I ended up feeling like family. So many other companies have treated me worse even after I've done orders of magnitude more business with them. I'm almost glad for the defect in the product (almost) because it meant I got to have the relatively rare experience of connecting with a good person at the company by cold-calling the number on the website.
In a way, it's sad that the bar is as low as "someone who gives a crap and knows their stuff will pick up the phone and try to help." But I guess that's where we're at in 2026. Having been on the other side of the phone, I'm well aware of the stark realities that drive manufacturers and retailers to automate as much CS as possible and insulate their best employees from potentially crazy and entitled customers. Either Furman is so good that they rarely have such problems, or they're devoting a ton of effort internally to keep the right people accessible without them being driven crazy. Or maybe they're just small enough, and in enough of a niche, that they don't catch a ton of BS from customers in the first place. Whatever the case, I felt I had to speak up for them.
