Enya Poor Quality Control

besley

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There have been a lot of posts here by people who have been very happy with their super inexpensive Enya ukes over the last few months. I was looking for a knock-a-about uke to keep by my desk, so I ordered their HPL Enya EUT-X1 a few months ago. I really liked the idea of no maintenance HPL on the body with Richlite on the fingerboard. No concerns about humidity at all, with a raidused fretboard to boot.

When it arrived I expected the action to be a bit high, but not to be lopsided the way it was. The action at the 12th fret was 3.1 mm on the first string, and just 2.3 mm on the 4th. I thought that maybe the saddle hadn't been filed correctly, so I removed it, and found that the problem was the saddle slot itself was lopsided, being 0.8 mm deeper on one end than the other. There was enough saddle showing for me to sand it down to get about 2.3 to 2.4 mm across the strings, but that sure didn't leave much saddle showing.

But the bigger problem turned out to be the neck. When I first got the uke it seemed fine. But after a couple of months it seemed as if the action was going up. I checked the relief on the neck and found that while it had been almost flat when I received it, the relief was now over 0.015". This would be a high value for a guitar, let alone the short neck of a uke. So the neck had warped in just a few months.

I contacted Enya, and initially they were helpful, sending me replacement saddles. But they insisted that the neck could not warp because if had a radius. (Huh?) And in any case, other people had not complained about their necks warping, so it didn't happen.

As I write this the relief has grown to 0.024" at the fifth fret, which is an absurd amount of bend. I tried to capture the curve of the neck in a photo or two, with a straight edge on the left side of the photo to show that the curvature you see is not a result of the lens.

Anyway, I don't have that much invested in this, so I'm just writing it off an experiment. But I really did want this uke to work, so it's quite a disappointment. Let's hope all of your Enya experiences are better.
 

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That is not right. Send them the pictures, better yet send them the link to this post. Explain to them UU is the largest ukulele community in the world. Use the power of social media, if they won't stand behind their products everyone will know and sales will suffer greatly.

I own three different Enya X1 ukuleles and so far my necks are fine and no issue with saddle height. I will keep an eye on them as they are less than one month old. Good luck
 
I have one arriving on Monday .
Let’s see if it survives a huge temperature change from 30C in Asia to -10C in Canada .
Yes Camsuke is right, the neck is changeable. Perhaps ask them to replace or send a new neck? If you bought from amazon. They are usually quite good at protecting you and sellers act very quickly prevent you from writing bad review.
You should not leave it be just because it’s cheap.
 
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This is why I don’t recommend enya or other Chinese ukes to my students. I have 3 enya’s and they are all quit nice. However, one I got for free and two I got for $22 apiece. I use them as loaners in my classes. But they are quirky enough that I fear they represent typical low cost Chinese goods. They can be a great deal but quality control is lacking. If you have problems you have no recourse. For $25 or less, well worth the risk for a car uke or beach or camping uke. But otherwise I can’t recommend them. If you do get a bad one amazon has a liberal return policy. Don’t expect to get service to fix it.
 
Sorry to hear, I wonder about them...

besley, how did you contact them? I thought their site was pretty impressive looking, and the email on the contact page I tried to email them a few times, but never heard any word back, and that then didn't impress me....

This might seem odd to people here, not sure, but we all know there are a lot of companies out there.

So with companies like Ohana and Kala, I'm sure people here will agree they make nice Chinese Ukes, if many people start putting there business into other companies like this Enya, with hardly any background or reputation, I'm afraid the good companies in the long run will suffer.

Hmm
 
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Sorry to hear, I wonder about them...

besley, how did you contact them? I thought their site was pretty impressive looking, and the email on the contact page I tried to email them a few times, but never heard any word back, and that then didn't impress me....

This might seem odd to people here, not sure, but we all know there are a lot of companies out there.

So with companies like Ohana and Kala, I'm sure people here will agree they make nice Chinese Ukes, if many people start putting there business into other companies like this Enya, with hardly any background or reputation, I'm afraid the good companies in the long run will suffer.

Hmm

I contacted them through Amazon, and got replies by email.

Huizhou Enya Musical Instruments Co. ltd - Amazon Marketplace <xhdr8jdy57spzfq@marketplace.amazon.com>

"Due to our ukulele use the Black Richlite of fingerboard, it's radian, and the Black Richlite is more stable compare with the rosewood.
A lot of customers buy our ukulele, none of them review the problem of neck with bend.
Maybe our ukulele can't meet your requirement, you can choose other more high level ukulele which accord with your requirement."
 
I contacted them through Amazon, and got replies by email.

Huizhou Enya Musical Instruments Co. ltd - Amazon Marketplace <xhdr8jdy57spzfq@marketplace.amazon.com>

"Due to our ukulele use the Black Richlite of fingerboard, it's radian, and the Black Richlite is more stable compare with the rosewood.
A lot of customers buy our ukulele, none of them review the problem of neck with bend.
Maybe our ukulele can't meet your requirement, you can choose other more high level ukulele which accord with your requirement."


Ok, this is the email I was talking about on their site;

http://www.enyamusical.com/lxwmFG/index_66.html
 
Poor response! From business perspective, if that is true, they should fall over themselves to get you a new ukulele. If they are that good and so few problems, if it were my company I’d want this to go away ASAP. It always comes down to who you buy from and how they handle issues.
 
Poor response! From business perspective, if that is true, they should fall over themselves to get you a new ukulele. If they are that good and so few problems, if it were my company I’d want this to go away ASAP. It always comes down to who you buy from and how they handle issues.

Not to jump in here and spam on this, but seriously, Enya has an email address on their site, and I don't care where you are in the world, e-Commerce happens all over with good service, and I sent this company 3 emails.

I also found out they have an Alibaba site and I tried contacting them through this with no response;

https://jiyimusical.en.alibaba.com/?spm=a2700.details.cordpanyb.9.6c8c79a7569jnO

And a few weeks later when no word from the Alibaba contact, I then sent an email to their company email address, and when no word again a week later I sent a third email, to the company email address again, they never replied, 3 emails nothing...
 
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I contacted them through Amazon, and got replies by email.

Huizhou Enya Musical Instruments Co. ltd - Amazon Marketplace <xhdr8jdy57spzfq@marketplace.amazon.com>

"Due to our ukulele use the Black Richlite of fingerboard, it's radian, and the Black Richlite is more stable compare with the rosewood.
A lot of customers buy our ukulele, none of them review the problem of neck with bend.
Maybe our ukulele can't meet your requirement, you can choose other more high level ukulele which accord with your requirement."

Don't settle for this. Escalate the complaint "upstairs" to Amazon. Enya should either replace the neck or the entire ukulele. If Amazon doesn't make you happy, post the email you received in a review on Amazon.
 
The OP states that the buyer has decided to write it off as an experiment. Which I think is a sensible course of action. If you are buying an Enya uke it is probably worth considering the risk. I think you would be better buying off AliExpress than Amazon because AliExpress offers a return policy and a process to communicate with the seller to resolve issues.
It looks like the Enya EUT-X1 is not 100% HPL. The body is HPL, which helps a lot with humidity and toughness of the body. The neck seems to be a laminated combination of Mahogany wood (real wood) and Richlite. So it is like almost any other neck you buy, if you mistreat the neck it will warp. This is not to say that the buyer in this case has mistreated the instrument, some necks are defective from the factory. That is what would need to be sorted out in private between the buyer and seller.
If you buy these Enya instruments, you need to realise that they do need some care, HPL is not a magic substance that fixes everything. It just deals with some of the problems caused by humidity and sustainability of wood supplies. You still probably need to keep the instrument away from extreme temperatures.

Bill,

I need to jump in here. I know Besley—Just sat next to him at an event yesterday. He is a long time guitarist who has adopted ukulele, and his primary ukulele is a Blackbird. He bought the Enya specifically because it was HPL and Richlite, plus he was a career chemist with a PhD—and he communicates clearly. I’m going to reach out to my Enya contact on his behalf, because this is unacceptable.

If you follow the original thread, he bought an X1 tenor to use in scenarios where it was less favorable to bring the Blackbird. This makes sense to me. The first had a very slight bow, and he contacted them, and he received a replacement. They never asked for it back, and sent him a second. That one did not have the bow at that time—he checked. He donated the first Enya to my school program.

Some time ago, he decided to take a risk and add a side port to the second X1, and something dropped on the body as he was working on it, and the HPL cracked like an egg. That isn’t Enya’s fault...but it did not bend the neck. When I learned this happened, I offered him the chance to get the original back where he could put the new neck on it. That finally occurred yesterday, and he found that the new neck had warped—and after being in a very dry school, the original neck was worse, too.

This bothers me, as I had been planning to buy the concert version with electrics as a solution for some gigging. I’m not sure that I can do that any longer.

I just took out my X1 camp soprano ($29 ukulele from this summer with Martin M600 strings) and it is still straight and still is pretty quiet. I had that X1 tenor in our school for the past months, and I can attest that it had a bow. As we use the first four frets 99.999% of the time in my classes, the bow wasn’t a problem...but if you play up the neck, it is.

I have also been considering buying X1s (concerts) over time to replace our Caramel ukuleles. The price was too high to do it this year, and I was in contact with the company about a bulk purchase (50 concerts and 10 tenors). The per unit price was excellent, but shipping made it within a few dollars of ordering via Amazon.

I like the company and I like their products. They did step in once here, and maybe there is a question of whether they should step in a second time. At the least, I would go to the assembly line, grab a neck assembly, and ship it off. The instrument should be well under warranty. Either one!
 
Hi, besley. Sorry to hear.

You have two problems with two photos each.

The first problem is about your saddle. Your bridge is too deep on the first string side. In this case we normally put metal spacer in there instead of sandding saddle too much. Your saddle looks very low in the first string side.

The second problem is about the neck. Wrapped neck is unusual in ukulele. And I can not see what happens on the neck in your two photos. I think you need to put metal ruler on there and show the evidence. If you make a good photos, we may see the way to fix or even Enya may understand what the problem is. Good luck.
 
Have no idea in the photos of the bend, that said you knew the risk buying a cheap mass production ukulele
What did you really expect? Buying from amazon I feel you are getting the rejects, seconds or returns
Buyer Beware.. at least this was not an expensive lesson right? Get over it, aside slamming the company
If you'd paid with pay pal, you could have gotten your money back. Even call your bank if you used your credit card, or contact amazon direct..
 
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Oh as far as Amazon is concerned, when it comes to a 3rd party vendor and you have any problems, and things are not being done properly, Amazon will step in and take care of you.

I recently returned something defective that the 3rd party vendor wanted to charge me shipping over, that Amazon doesn't do, and Amazon credited me back the shipping.

So if you bought a Uke through Amazon, had issues, take it up with Amazon, they won't let a vendor rip you off.

I know there can certainly be a lot of BS that can take place with Amazon, but if you get after them and talk to upper level escalation like staff, they do look after people, of course I've always asked to be transfered to speak to the staff in the USA and then take it up with the Execs at USA level, and Amazon has never let me down in 10 years.

Also if everyone doesn't realize, you can send emails direct to the CEO's office jeff@amazon.com and I sent emails to Jeff with replies from top level execs that work directly under him that have helped me many times too...
 
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So you can send an email to Jeff at amazon and get another uke with the same problem, or you can just say you have had a $120 lesson in buying Chinese ukes. The lesson is to first look at the customer feedback and then look for the lowest price, not the other way around. I see a lot of Chinese ukes in Australian shops which I think are overpriced, but at least the makers know how to select the right piece of wood to make a good neck. And the people in the shop cull out the poor quality items and send them back. Maybe it is worth paying a bit extra for them if you don't want to pay for a more expensive USA made uke. Or maybe its just better to not pay more than $50 for the Chinese uke to get yourself started and save your money up to buy a uke made by a company that has great after sales support. Like MFC, Koaloha, Kamaka, Kanilea, Maton and so on, as well as many the many custom makers on the planet.

It is good of Besley to be brave enough to post the comments to warn others. Can we let him or her go now?

Besley has a Blackbird as his primary player. The Enya was for situations where the Blackbird may not be desirable to use. The draw of the Enya was the HPL and Richlite, along with the low price. So, Besley has one of the very best ukuleles—and the best non-wood ukulele—on the market. The appeal of Enya was the combination of high quality and low price point, starting with a $29 HPL camp ukulele special, leading others to buy additional items. The Enyas I have purchased for school (17 of them) have all been excellent inexpensive ukuleles. Whether HPL or laminate mahogany—they easily meet or exceed the quality of ukuleles that cost much more.

I am also pretty sure that he modified his review after Enya’s recent reply. I wrote my contact at Enya a note...I don’t expect an answer on a weekend, and I’m pretty sure there is a language barrier at play as well.

And I would caution that not every K brand ukuleles is excellent, and that there are good ukuleles from China. For some reason...this X1, and specifically the neck, was not. They were shipped within a week of each other, so perhaps they were from a bad batch. This also goes to show why Pono puts a truss rod in the neck of their instruments. A bowed neck is not a rare phenomenon; at my last school, we ordered guitars for a guitar class and someone chose the cheapest Yamaha classical guitar they could find...where the neck did not have a truss rod. You guessed it...all 30 guitars ended with a bowed neck. They killed the class minutes after I left that position...I think they are all sitting in cases, unused...and unusable.

I know there is an anti-Chinese ukulele bias among many “advanced” ukulele players—as if the beginners who are drawn to them would have bought a $600 or $1300 ukulele if Chinese ukuleles were not on the market. After the Aklot situation, Barry May has decided not to review any more ukuleles that are Amazon only. He wants to only cover ukuleles that are sold in stores. That’s fine, but I hope someone else steps forward to review Amazon only ukuleles because people—particularly beginners—are going to continue to buy first ukuleles that way.
 
Sorry for your troubles.
We've liked the Enyas we have gotten, and was considering an x1 tenor for the very same reasons you got one.
My wife is a big Amazon Prime consumer and she always gets good service.
As the others have said, don't be shy about complaining!
They will make it good, but you do have to be loud until you are happy.
 
Besley has a Blackbird as his primary player. The Enya was for situations where the Blackbird may not be desirable to use. The draw of the Enya was the HPL and Richlite, along with the low price. So, Besley has one of the very best ukuleles—and the best non-wood ukulele—on the market. The appeal of Enya was the combination of high quality and low price point, starting with a $29 HPL camp ukulele special, leading others to buy additional items. The Enyas I have purchased for school (17 of them) have all been excellent inexpensive ukuleles. Whether HPL or laminate mahogany—they easily meet or exceed the quality of ukuleles that cost much more.

I am also pretty sure that he modified his review after Enya’s recent reply. I wrote my contact at Enya a note...I don’t expect an answer on a weekend, and I’m pretty sure there is a language barrier at play as well.

And I would caution that not every K brand ukuleles is excellent, and that there are good ukuleles from China. For some reason...this X1, and specifically the neck, was not. They were shipped within a week of each other, so perhaps they were from a bad batch. This also goes to show why Pono puts a truss rod in the neck of their instruments. A bowed neck is not a rare phenomenon; at my last school, we ordered guitars for a guitar class and someone chose the cheapest Yamaha classical guitar they could find...where the neck did not have a truss rod. You guessed it...all 30 guitars ended with a bowed neck. They killed the class minutes after I left that position...I think they are all sitting in cases, unused...and unusable.

I know there is an anti-Chinese ukulele bias among many “advanced” ukulele players—as if the beginners who are drawn to them would have bought a $600 or $1300 ukulele if Chinese ukuleles were not on the market. After the Aklot situation, Barry May has decided not to review any more ukuleles that are Amazon only. He wants to only cover ukuleles that are sold in stores. That’s fine, but I hope someone else steps forward to review Amazon only ukuleles because people—particularly beginners—are going to continue to buy first ukuleles that way.



You're right, I've seen bad K brands, even had a local shop tell me one of them has quality control issues I was looking at, and I've seen Chinese Ukes that looked better, sad... :(

Buy what you can afford, is what should be spoken, and there are decent Chinese Ukes being made, from some well known names in the Uke business.
 
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I hope you will keep us updated on your situation.
Hope Amazon stands by their products although it is over two months! Let's hope the situation resolved in your favour.
 
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