Fanatec customer service?

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  • 274 comments
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How long did Fanatec take to respond to a support issue?

  • I have a Fanatec wheel and it hasn't gone wrong

    Votes: 51 34.7%

  • I won't be buying a Fanatec wheel beacuse of concerns about after sales service

    Votes: 37 25.2%

  • Faulty hardware: resolved in one week

    Votes: 32 21.8%

  • Faulty hardware: resolved in one month

    Votes: 9 6.1%

  • Faulty hardware: resolved in six months

    Votes: 4 2.7%

  • Faulty hardware: took over a year to resolve

    Votes: 1 0.7%

  • Faulty hardware: I'm still waiting after 1 month

    Votes: 6 4.1%

  • Faulty hardware: I'm still waiting after 6 months

    Votes: 1 0.7%

  • Faulty hardware: It's been over a year and I'm beginning to give up hope!

    Votes: 6 4.1%
  • Total voters
    147
Schmo
Been almost 2 weeks since my first email. Sent another yesterday with everything listed as they requested, even broke out the camcorder for a small video of the issue. So hoping I can get a timely reply on that one.

I love my PWTS with a passion. Works great, and firmware upgrades made it better. And I promote their product on my Xbox forum when someone asks about a good wheel. The only downfall are these broken pedals I have. Funny thing is I dont want them replaced, I want to pay for an upgrade to the CSP. I dont want to pay full price when I have busted pedals. Hopefully they pull through.

Till then I stare at the GT Academy button, as my pedals arent working 100% to complete.
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I feel your pain, I have tried to play with a controller and though it was far better than I imagined it would be, its not a wheel, so haven't played more than one in the last week! Still I have been told my new load cell will be delivered today, only problem it is to my old address!! it not far thankfully, just around a very snowy corner (The UK is having the worst winter there has ever, ever been anywhere in the world thats official!!! lol)
 
Update....Update....
I received a Message yesterday from Thomas and he is very keen to investigate and resolve the issue, I thank him for his willingness to help.

Happy holiday
 
capt_aaa1
Update....Update....
I received a Message yesterday from Thomas and he is very keen to investigate and resolve the issue, I thank him for his willingness to help.

Happy holiday
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Very good to hear! I think Fanatec is a victim of it's own success and going through some growing pains. The good thing is I see a company that's eager to do the right thing by it's customers!

Merry Christmas
 
It seems that there are quite a few people complaining about how poorly Fanatec treat their customers after they've had the money off you.

In another thread I was browsing there was a suggestion that it was just a few people making a fuss but I'd like to see just how many people have been left feeling angry and frustrated by their complete lack of support (hence the poll).

My story goes like this: My 911 Carrera wheel was ordered as a Christmas present with the main intention being to enjoy it with the rest of my car-mad family over the Christmas period. The order was made at the end of November and arrived the week before Christmas.

On Christmas day we opened up the wheel to find that it was not working - when you switch it on it rotates all the way right and then, rather than returning to the centre, it rotates all the way left whilst showing "888" on the display.

I emailed fanatec on the 27th December enclosing my original invoice, a description of the problem and a video clip of the issue. One week later and no reply so I forwarded the information again. Two and a half weeks after my initial email there was still no reply so I sent another email requesting that they acknowledge reciept of my enquiry. Still nothing.

I'll be honest. I'm digusted with this lack of contact. They have an automated response email: surely if they're experiencing a lot of enquiries at the moment then they should state this in that automated response.

If you have been lucky enough to have some good support in the event of product failure... please tell the rest of us to give us some hope!
 
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Look, I'm not saying that your feelings aren't justified but do we really need another thread complaining about Fanatec's customer service? There are plenty of people on here (in other (very busy) threads) of the same opinion as you and there are also people who are very happy with Fanatec.

What are you going to achieve with this poll/thread that hasn't been discussed already?
 
the_greeze
Look, I'm not saying that your feelings aren't justified but do we really need another thread complaining about Fanatec's customer service? There are plenty of people on here (in other (very busy) threads) of the same opinion as you and there are also people who are very happy with Fanatec.

What are you going to achieve with this poll/thread that hasn't been discussed already?
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Fair point and that is exactly the reason I have made a poll. Everybody gets bored of reading the same sob story but surely it is worth knowing just how many people have been effected and the sort of timespan it takes to have issues resolved.


Steve
 
Yeah, I can kinda see where you're going with this now, you want to build up a picture of the customer support levels. Fair enough! :)
 
waxweazle
The easiest and fastest way to resolve support issues with Fanatec is to call the support.

I posted more informations in a nother thread here: klick me
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Unfortunately, it's proven difficult for me to phone them during the small window when they are available. However, I'm off work for an exam on Thursday so hopefully I'll have the chance to call them afterwards. I will of course report back... positive and negative!

the_greeze
Yeah, I can kinda see where you're going with this now, you want to build up a picture of the customer support levels. Fair enough! :)
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Yeah, I'm also more than happy to build up a bit of a database on issues if people would like me to do this.

Although at the moment I am very annoyed with Fanatec, it also upsets me that such a great product is being so badly let down by how it is supported. Hopefully by actually putting a number on things it will highlight the issue and perhaps make a step towards getting things sorted.
 
Poll creator, you should and an option ot the poll.

Fanatec finally responded after I made a stink on a web forum

This seems to be the final route a lot of people follow to get at least some response.

That is what is often the final straw for people - they think they are alone in their frustration of lack of response from Fanatec, they wonder around the Interwebs till they find a forum, they post up all hot and bothered and then out of nowhere a "Fanatec" user pops in sounding all surprised at the claims of poor service and says "Oh, tell me your problem I will get it looked at".

This leaves the impression that had you NOT found the forum you would still be waiting for a response.
 
RC45
Poll creator, you should and an option ot the poll.

Fanatec finally responded after I made a stink on a web forum

This seems to be the final route a lot of people follow to get at least some response.

That is what is often the final straw for people - they think they are alone in their frustration of lack of response from Fanatec, they wonder around the Interwebs till they find a forum, they post up all hot and bothered and then out of nowhere a "Fanatec" user pops in sounding all surprised at the claims of poor service and says "Oh, tell me your problem I will get it looked at".

This leaves the impression that had you NOT found the forum you would still be waiting for a response.
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And there I was thinking I'd covered all of the options! :sly:

It pains be that my first few posts have had to be about this issue as I have actually been browsing the forums for a while now. I desperately need to get my wheel working so I can get involved in some decent online races!

Steve
 
Thomas has got to be going nuts! I think it's time for Fanatec to dump the pricey Porsche license. Their name is established in the industry now. They don't need gimmicks which backdoor over inflate the cost of the product. Once Thomas frees himself from that chain, he should get hooked up with Amazon.

I don't feel confident about the issues plaguing Fanatec's customer service and shipping cluster f••k. Get set up with Amazon please. They know how to do this whole Internet retail thing. Your business has gotten too big for your small crew and trying to serve the US without UPS or FedEx is counter productive.

As far as failing hardware, it's another strong indicator of why global manufacturing should not be depending on China. Even items with hefty price tags can't escape the penalty of corner cutting with sub-par parts.

Samsung decided to go with a cheap capacitor for their 2008 LCD displays. Now they are repairing every display that has these failing caps at their own expense, even units well outside of their 1 yr warranty. We have one of those displays :)
 
Even though there haven't been many responses to the poll so far, it's good to see that on the whole things are looking favorable for Fanatec (even though one of the responses to the non-faulty option appears to be from Fanatec themselves! :sly: )

Also, I had an email from Armin today so things are looking up for me as well. Hopefully it'll arrive in the next few days so I don't slip into the 1-6months category.
 
I had problems with my CSP, wrote a mail, responded in a few days.
Agreed to give me a new PCB. All was solved in a matter of days. But i also am not the nervous kind.
working myself in a little company i know how it works sometimes, and things get forgotten but not because of pure evil/ laziness,....


And concerning the poll :
You could have had 2 polls , 1 for europe and 1 for NA. Cause as i read the comments there is a huge gap in the 2. NA being worse.
 
sjflat
Even though there haven't been many responses to the poll so far, it's good to see that on the whole things are looking favorable for Fanatec (even though one of the responses to the non-faulty option appears to be from Fanatec themselves! :sly: )
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I disagree. When you have ~28% of pollsters, as of this post, claiming they will not buy a Fanatec product because of customer service shows that the company is doing very poorly. They have a great products (from what I have read) but that will not save them if they have terrible customer service.
 
If you go to the iRacing forums it's really bad over there. Those are the hardcore guys who bought these products on the first run and who use their products to the limit.

The amount of hate for Fanatec there is just over the top. Many of them claim to have gone a month with a broken product and no reply to their service request.

I used to think it was just that the people with problems will speak the loudest but unless it's the same few people who are signing up for this forum, fanatec's forum, iRacing forum and others just to complain, it's pretty widespread.

Then again my CSP and GT2 have worked pretty well for me so far so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.
 
I had support cases with fanatec.

First one was recieving wrong Coloured shifters. Was solved quickly.

Second. Wheel itself went a bit loose on the shaft. Could be felt under usage easily. Also by being more noisy. I had reply in decent time. I recieved a replacement wheel. Which worked great for a few days. Now that one has a faulty rumble engine. It's making a very weird noise when rumbling.

I had troubles with a brake flickering set of clubsport pedals. Which I fixed myself


Status is: 2 faulty wheels and waiting for reply from fanatec. Been over 2 weeks since I sent the email about the replacent wheel also being faulty. No replies yet

When they do reply. It's decent handled
 
I have a random annoying problem with my wheel. what sucks is they want me to take a video of it. Should I hold a camera up to the fricken wheel for an hour and hope the problem reappears? If I could, I would return the entire gt3rs cs package. Why can't they just send me a new wheel and I send them my defective one and not waste my time. My friend plans on bringing a tripod for my video camera. Waste of time. I would pay 20% more just to have customer service. This has been going on for almost a month.
 
zombieatbrain
I have a random annoying problem with my wheel. what sucks is they want me to take a video of it. Should I hold a camera up to the fricken wheel for an hour and hope the problem reappears? If I could, I would return the entire gt3rs cs package. Why can't they just send me a new wheel and I send them my defective one and not waste my time. My friend plans on bringing a tripod for my video camera. Waste of time. I would pay 20% more just to have customer service. This has been going on for almost a month.
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I heard in the past that they make you take the video to confirm the issue and then send you a new wheel immediately. I could be wrong though.
 
I bought the Fanatec GT2 wheel and it was dead on arrival. I wrote a mail with invoice, video and a detalied descripion and got answer back after a week. In the mail the guy said they were sorry and so on and gave me a link to the RMA support page to request a new wheel but I changed my mind and wanted a refund for the broken wheel. He when answers that I will get refund after I send it back but only after a few minutes later I get a new mail there he says I don´t need to send the wheel back to get a refund and I can just keep the broken wheel.

I got the mail the 20th January 2011 and it have gone 5 days now but I haven´t still got a refund. I know it takes time to transfer money to a paypal account but it takes 3 days and those 3 days have passed but I have still not got any money back.


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Update:

I got my money back now for the wheel 1/2/2011. Never thought it would take so long, I got my money back but feel somewhat ripped off becuse I have no use of the shifter wich I bought with the wheel. But since the shifter was not defective I would obviously not get refund for it. For the people here who are interested in the Fanatec wheel, buy only the wheel and see if it works properly so you won´t get ripped off if you want a refund.
 
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Update:

I had an email from Fanatec last Monday apologising or the delay in responding to my query and saying that I will need a new wheel (had to follow a link and complete the form). I did this and the wheel arrived on Friday! Great! I was really hoping to come on and sing Fanatec's praises but I thought I'd hold fire until I got home and tested it. I'm very sad to say that wheel 2 won't even power up. I'm gutted.

Steve :(
 
Haha. Welcome to the "get a replacement wheel that's also is defective" club. Leaves you to wonder what fanatecs wheel fault % is
 
Meelapo
I have to agree with capt_aaa1 here. It doesn't matter about USPS. As a customer you are purchasing items from Fanatec. Whether they use USPS, UPS, Fedex, or they drive it to your house directly it doesn't matter. If there are problems then it's up to the company to fix the issues by changing providers.

That being said, I think Fanatec's problem here is the company in the USA that they are using to ship the products out. I think they need to change because the people they are using are useless. And unfortunately, this reflects badly on Fanatec.

Hopefully they see all these complaints and start investing money in customer service rather than spending it on R&D to make handbrakes and shifters. Take care of your current customer base before you start trying to get more people because clearly you don't have the infrastructure for it.
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I agree. Most of the issues I've heard of, and the ones I personally had, can be directly traced to the US distributor. They don't seem to have a clue what's going on.
 
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Are all Fanatec wheels faulty? Or certain models?

I was really thinking of getting the Carrera but it seems they break all the time and even if you get it replaced it will still die on you again......
 
theofilosz
Are all Fanatec wheels faulty? Or certain models?

I was really thinking of getting the Carrera but it seems they break all the time and even if you get it replaced it will still die on you again......
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Not really. Its most likely lies in too bad quality control. Or the sampling process is not good enough (china factory). That's my guesses

I do not think there is much difference on faultiness between the models. Maybe the cheapest one that runs on helicoil gears is more reliable due to more simple mechanics. But I don't know :)
 
Good Morning all,

decided to give a shout out to all Fanatec owner and potential Fanatec Owner's!

I own a GT3 RS V2 with CSP and everything works great so far!

I ordered the 6 speed / sequential gearbox about 12 days ago.
I started wondering what takes so long and sent Fanatec an Email.

They did respond within 12 hours telling me that the gear shifters wont be available until march!

However, they already took my money and didn't even consider letting me know that the shifter's are not currently available!

Im going to cancel my order today and order them once they are available.

70 euro are 70 euros!

Please get together with Amazon. Its the best online shopping option in my opinion!!!

Chris
 
I normally don't post in threads like this but I guess I need to.

I have the PWTS CS's with a dead load cell which is causing the the game to register braking force that Fanatec clearly knows about considering how many have been replaced but yet they want me to send them a video of my issue before they even attempt to help.

Not good CS if you ask me.
 

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