#9
Postby rspaghetti » Thu, 2020-Oct-01, 21:08
100% SCAM! Here is a summary of my experience with Acousticfields (Dennis Foley).
Firstly, I would like to mention that I was stupid and lazy enough NOT to do a simple google research on Acoustic Fields / Dennis Foley. I urgently needed assistance with the design of my room prior to building it, to get things right and not find myself in a situation where I had already built the room with some non advisable dimensions and situations. So, I saw a bunch of his videos (not even until the end), and with that really annoying jingle at the beginning. It seemed to me that this guy was making sense, so I enquired about a design cost.
He promptly answered that a full design would cost 2000$. I stupidly sent the money, and this is what happened in a chronological sequence:
- A few back and forth emails providing proof of payment (which took 24hrs to arrive), and I had to send proof for 5 days in a row before he would acknowledge my payment.
Summary of the first call with his suggestions and requirements:
- Since I can't make the room any longer, I have to make it as wide as possible, no matter what the length is
- I cannot consider in-wall speakers, unless I make the ceiling a minimum of 5 meters high, otherwise they would sound horribly!
- He will provide calculations based on his carbon, therefore I must buy his carbon in order for the acoustics to work. Any other material would not perform as well, and he can't provide precise calculations for any other materials
- I give him the maximum room dimensions
- He estimates a total of 10,000$ expense on materials for a full no compromise treatment, and will have "Steven" send me the quote.
Emails summary:
- I immediately receive a 10,000$ invoice for the precious carbon. This time I "wisely" do not pay for it.
- I ask for clarifications, and ask about other materials (not only bass traps), and if I should measure the room (acoustically) before applying materials for the mids and highs. Therefore only once the room will be constructed.
- He replies only saying that I should pre-order the carbon, as carbon prices are going up 5% every month. (I'm not even going to comment on that)
Summary of the second call:
- I try to get a little more technical and ask where the carbon should be positioned, and what about diffusion and the rest of the treatment. And what about the ceiling?
- I ask him to clarify what that 10,000$ invoice was, as there's written it's only for carbon, and he had estimated 10,000$ for all materials (not only carbon)
- He tells me that my priority should be to buy the carbon as the prices are going up, and he would very kindly keep it in his warehouse for me free of charge until my room is built.
- He tells me that the 10,000$ are only a deposit for 17,000$ of carbon. He explains how critical it is to fill the entire surface walls with carbon and keep the same amount per square meter on every surface including the ceiling. If I want to do the ceiling, which he says is a good idea, he will calculate the amount needed to cover the surface, then quote the cost.
- He explains that on the walls, over the carbon, I should apply his amazing foam. The more I put, the better it will be for mids and highs. Apparently no measurements needed, and "Steven" will send me a separate quote for the foam.
Summary of the next emails:
- Surprisingly, only 21,000$ total cost of carbon, only 4000$ the ceiling, which surface area is exactly half the area of all the walls. Therefore as per his rule of applying the same amount of carbon per square meter on all surfaces, it would've had to be 17,000$ / 2 = 8500$. Instead he quoted less than half that amount. Maybe he miscalculated. It sometimes happens even to the best!
- I also received a quote for diffusion: 100,000$ !
- He sends me a link to show me a wonderful 2M$ room he just made. I click on the link, and was disgusted by the aesthetics and how incoherent it looked compared to what he was saying to me. There were 4 wooden flat walls (no carbon whatsoever), with a bunch of foam panels randomly placed, the front wall full of diffusers, and 2 expensive speakers. That was it.
- I stubbornly did not pay even this time, and kindly asked if he would possibly consider a DIY solution for the diffusors.
- He replied with a PDF guide on how to create diffusors. The guide seemed from the 1800's and the diffusors were missing an element.
- I scheduled a call to clarify some technical aspects, although I had already lost 100% hope on the seriousness of this method and person.
Summary of the last call:
- I need to really hurry to pay the deposit for the carbon, otherwise I'll regret it, as the prices will increase starting tomorrow. I would only have 1 day left, otherwise he would charge me 5% more on 21,000$ each MONTH!
- I have to fill the rear wall and ceiling with diffusors, and the diffusers must be placed on top of the carbon. (So why put the carbon in the first place if it gets covered with wooden diffusers?!)
- And another bunch of incoherent nonsense...
Last emails summary:
- I receive an email by "Steven" (The email address never changes, be it Steven or Dennis), asking if I will pay for the invoice, as they have a strict policy about clients who don't pay invoices in due time, and he would let Dennis know I have not paid yet, which would make him very unhappy, and probably cancel my design.
Signed "Dennis" (by mistake. Steven probably got confused and thought he was Dennis)
- I reply mentioning that unfortunately, as much as I would love to purchase the best material in the world for acoustical treatment, I cannot afford to prepay 21,000$ of carbon, and 8000$ of foam. And as his design would solely be based on his materials, I will have to sadly accept the cancelation of my treatment design as "Steven" mentioned, and ask for a refund, minus the 3 precious calls. (I gave it a shot, but wasn't expecting any refund at this point).
- Steven replies that refunds on treatment are not granted, and Dennis will delete my information to leave space to other paying clients.
- I then reply that it's not a problem and I'll go through with the treatment design, and once I have the money, I'll purchase the carbon and foam. (Curious to see if there would be a reaction to this)
No answer. No surprise.
My thoughts:
This Dennis Foley person (if that is even his name), does not know what he is saying, is incoherent, has no knowledge on acoustics, and probably does those videos based on someone else's terrible instructions. He is a good actor in his videos, I have to admit that. So good, that he might actually believe he is a very qualified professional. He probably brainwashed himself. The youtube channel has almost 50,000 subscribers. That is quite sad unfortunately. Probably out of these 50,000 people, a bunch got scammed, a bunch got "treatment" and even think it works, and a bunch filed lawsuits, as should I. If he's still around and the youtube channel is still up, unfortunately the people who got scammed and didn't file a lawsuit, and the ones who actually think the treatment works, balance out the ones who did file a lawsuit.
You can immediately understand there's something wrong from these 2 major aspects:
- Incoherenece and illogical proposals on all technical aspects
- Behavior and pressure to pay outrageous unjustified invoices
Many bad disgusting people exist who never will learn any better. Just try to avoid, and create awareness.
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However many people there in the comments still aren't... 
And that poor rich bastard who's gonna spend 2 mln dollars on that shit. Furthermore - with such amount of treatment, channels and space it will probably work decent enough so that most people won't know it could've been better (and cheaper). 