yorkie
02-09-2006, 04:14 PM
I am the father of a saxophonist so please bear with my inferior sax experience.
I felt compelled to share my experience with zachary music and their zeus 750 alto sax. With thousands of sax's on the market and my limited knowlege I went on the web searching for the best horn I could buy for my budget. I came upon Zeus instruments but could not find any unbiased reviews. I took a chance and here are the results:
First off Zachary music is the mother company with Alex Zachary the owner. All others are dealers who order the instruments from Alex.
If you are dealing with one of the dealers do not e-mail Alex as a harsh reply will follow. He forgets who works for him and who is the customer. I then called him directly and apologized for offending him but I only wanted to get more information about his saxophones.
I ordered a 750 alto sax in black nickle finish. My son loved the looks but we were still taking a chance on this little known instrument. We received the instrument in a few days and at first everything was fine. Within a few weeks our troubles began. First an Eb pad fell off during my son's jazz band practice and needed to be reglued, no problem, we took it to our local repairman and had it taken care of. A few weeks later the neck cork became unglued and again we had it repaired. Within a week the low C# pad would not go down when the key was depressed. Again we had this repaired but apparently the adjustments are touchy so it did not last long and it needed to be readjusted. However after the third repair I called Alex and he told me that the pad and cork issues are normal with saxes from normal use and that I need to find a repairman that knew what he was doing. He offered to give me the name of a repairman but was not willing to pay for the repairs. Again I had the spring adjusted but in another week the neck collar fell off the sax. I promptly called Alex again to either fix or replace my son's horn but he would not return my calls. I e-mailed him but again he would not respond.
This is the extent of his customer service. Do not believe his return policy because he has none. If it is on his site please show me because I could not find it anywhere. There is only a broad statement of returning the sax for a refund but I would fear sending the sax back and receiving nothing in return.
I found a regional selmer technician and had him look over the sax. The neck collar was never soldered. He also looked at the troublesome spring mechanism and said that particular design has always been troublesome and disengaged one of the springs which does not effect the sound in as much as you only hear a slight tapping when the pad closes. In the past six months the instrument has been trouble free. As I told Alex on a phone message, when the sax is together and working properly it has beautiful tone but it has not been dependable.
I have not heard from Alex and doubt I ever will. The amount of down time and cost of repairs would definitely deter me from ever purchasing one of his instruments. I definitely would not deal with him on the point of his lack of people skills or lack of customer support.
I hope this is helpful to any Zeus info seekers. I wish more people would speak the truth to prevent situations like I found myself in.
I felt compelled to share my experience with zachary music and their zeus 750 alto sax. With thousands of sax's on the market and my limited knowlege I went on the web searching for the best horn I could buy for my budget. I came upon Zeus instruments but could not find any unbiased reviews. I took a chance and here are the results:
First off Zachary music is the mother company with Alex Zachary the owner. All others are dealers who order the instruments from Alex.
If you are dealing with one of the dealers do not e-mail Alex as a harsh reply will follow. He forgets who works for him and who is the customer. I then called him directly and apologized for offending him but I only wanted to get more information about his saxophones.
I ordered a 750 alto sax in black nickle finish. My son loved the looks but we were still taking a chance on this little known instrument. We received the instrument in a few days and at first everything was fine. Within a few weeks our troubles began. First an Eb pad fell off during my son's jazz band practice and needed to be reglued, no problem, we took it to our local repairman and had it taken care of. A few weeks later the neck cork became unglued and again we had it repaired. Within a week the low C# pad would not go down when the key was depressed. Again we had this repaired but apparently the adjustments are touchy so it did not last long and it needed to be readjusted. However after the third repair I called Alex and he told me that the pad and cork issues are normal with saxes from normal use and that I need to find a repairman that knew what he was doing. He offered to give me the name of a repairman but was not willing to pay for the repairs. Again I had the spring adjusted but in another week the neck collar fell off the sax. I promptly called Alex again to either fix or replace my son's horn but he would not return my calls. I e-mailed him but again he would not respond.
This is the extent of his customer service. Do not believe his return policy because he has none. If it is on his site please show me because I could not find it anywhere. There is only a broad statement of returning the sax for a refund but I would fear sending the sax back and receiving nothing in return.
I found a regional selmer technician and had him look over the sax. The neck collar was never soldered. He also looked at the troublesome spring mechanism and said that particular design has always been troublesome and disengaged one of the springs which does not effect the sound in as much as you only hear a slight tapping when the pad closes. In the past six months the instrument has been trouble free. As I told Alex on a phone message, when the sax is together and working properly it has beautiful tone but it has not been dependable.
I have not heard from Alex and doubt I ever will. The amount of down time and cost of repairs would definitely deter me from ever purchasing one of his instruments. I definitely would not deal with him on the point of his lack of people skills or lack of customer support.
I hope this is helpful to any Zeus info seekers. I wish more people would speak the truth to prevent situations like I found myself in.