Fanatec support response time?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dougdoberman
  • 84 comments
  • 8,825 views
dougdoberman

dougdoberman

Messages
285
Messages
dougdoberman
Anyone know what the timeframe for response has been lately?

I'm going on 6 days without a response other than what seems to be an automated message telling me to make sure I've included a buncha information in my email. (All of which I did, even videos. Other than a serial number, as there isn't one on my H-shifter, which is where the problem is.)

This is exactly why I never bought a Fanatec setup before now. So SO many stories of shoddy quality control and poor support in the past. It'd seemed like that had turned around lately, so I gave them a shot. At the moment, I'm wondering if I should just return the whole setup (CSR wheel, CSR shifters, Clubsport pedals) for a refund while I still can.
 
I'm afraid your in limbo mate.
Rest assured that your problem will be rectified but cannot say when.

To give an example around a month ago I needed a new fan.
I contacted Fanatec who responded the next day.
They shipped on Friday and I received it Tuesday.

All in all around six days including the weekend.

Good luck.
 
Funny...I heard that Darin (Spelling?) from InsideSimRacing was going to work for Fanactec and that was going to be one of his things to focus on...being customer support!

I'd hire myself out to do their support..but I doubt they'd want to do that...even though I'm reasonably cheap and could work those odd hours! :)
 
Thanks Coxis, but I've already posted there as well. :)

No response from the resident Fanatec contact there either. :(

I did get a response from a Fanatec rep on the www.f-wheel.com Fanatec fansite forums. He said he'd try and look into it with support. Still no official response from the support line though.
 
I have had very good customer support from Fanatec. I live in the US and had to contact them on several instances.

When I ordered my GT2, the CS table clamp showed up twice on the receipt. I contacted customer support and had a response in less than 2 days. It was just a computer error.

I also had to change my shipping address (no PO Boxes) and they responded the same day with that.

Never had to wait more than 10 days for delivery of my items.
 
dougdoberman
Still no response from anyone.
Click to expand...

Why not use the phone? They should have got the mail I'd reckon. Maybe in a spam filter? :S
 
Ouch... Thomas. You owned him with a good point. lol

You can't complain now, Doberman. You got the CEO contacting you personally. ;) good luck
 
Fanatec...
Why not answer to the PM i have sent to you?
Click to expand...

Because the PM wasn't sent until 2 hours AFTER I posted the last update of "No Response"

While I certainly appreciate that the head of the company is now on the case, that wasn't a "gotcha" question from him. (Should I include screen shots of the timestamps as part of my documentation? :) )
 
dougdoberman
Because the PM wasn't sent until 2 hours AFTER I posted the last update of "No Response"

While I certainly appreciate that the head of the company is now on the case, that wasn't a "gotcha" question from him. (Should I include screen shots of the timestamps as part of my documentation? :) )
Click to expand...

I'll take your word for it ;)
Though not knowing them anyone would make the same conclusion I did. Oh well, hope your issue gets resolved.
 
This thread went from discouraging to slightly encouraging. I'm strongly considering parting with a decent chunk of change to get the CSW early next year. Low quality control and bad customer support would be the only issue preventing me from making the purchase, so please let us know the results of your experience. I'm hoping for good news. :)
 
I received an email on Monday stating that they'd tried to send me the new firmware but it had bounced. (Really? They've never sent a .rar through gmail before and been rejected? I'm the VERY FIRST CUSTOMER EVER to have a gmail account?) I explained to the support guy that he'd have to rename the .rar to something else and I'd name it correctly when it arrived. (Perhaps I should charge them for that bit of tech support I provided?)

Despite my assertations that the new firmware would NOT fix my problem, I humored them, knowing that it'd be necessary to do so in order to actually get a physical replacement for my faulty shifter.

So I installed it. No change, as I expected. Shifter still won't reliably go into a gear and stay there.

I responded as such, even offering to make new videos showing that the firmware is on the wheel and that it's still doing exactly the same thing it was before, but no response yet.

Am I going to wait another week before someone authorizes a new shifter being sent to me?

I'm running out of time to just return the whole mess for a refund.
 
Wow seems we are having similar issues. I just received the CS pedals, gt2 wheel, csr shifter and CS paddles (after waiting 3 weeks). The shifter will not stay in first gear and the club sports will not work correctly when plugged into the wheel via ps2 cable (cannot play consoles at all). In my case Fanatec is responding but only one email a day and it's at 4am CST. Support has been giving me the runaround and it took them 3 days to tell me that my PCB on the pedals needs to be replaced and they still haven't deemed the shifter faulty. I Am at my wits end with these people and quite frankly for the amount of money they charge, the support is worse than Walmart. Fanatec if you are reading this, reply to my email regarding full refund of all the hardware I purchased from you immediately or I am going to pursue aggressive action to ensure the entire simracing community is aware of this mistreatment / lack of response on your high priced items. I was going to order the CSR Elite wheel, but after this experience I rather buy a T500 and sell my Xbox.
 
Well you shouldn't have to run for cover :D People have a legitimate beef with Fanatec. If Fanatec continues with their poor Customer service as shown many times over they will lose more customers.

I know Thomas is working hard to correct this but time after time Customer service is to frustrating to deal with and I have first hand experience with them.
 
I agree left888. Iirc you git a ration of crap for your complaints as well.

Tho I also agree with the argument about how to present oneself when making said complaint. I know it can be downright infuriating when you expect a working product and get a faulty one. Let alone to get poor CS after the fact.
But there is a level of personal professionalism hat should be maintained.

Not to call out the post that made me comment but 1st posts by a user to rant are generally suspect to me. Again, not calling anyone a liar in anyway shape or form.

As for the 4 am response time in CST, you do realize that is about 9 am Germany time ( where fanatec is). So really top of the work day for them.

Anyway, i sincerely hope your issues get sorted and you end up with a wheel from any manufacturer that suits your needs.



Edit: I read a book that is pretty much all about customers when i first got into retail.
I believe it was called "raving fans"
 
Last edited:
left888
Well you shouldn't have to run for cover :D People have a legitimate beef with Fanatec. If Fanatec continues with their poor Customer service as shown many times over they will lose more customers.

I know Thomas is working hard to correct this but time after time Customer service is to frustrating to deal with and I have first hand experience with them.
Click to expand...

What wheel do you own?
 
I emailed Fanatec yesterday and they just replied to me today. I asked them if they would ship APO and unfortunately they don't :(
 
LogiForce
I'll take your word for it ;)
Though not knowing them anyone would make the same conclusion I did. Oh well, hope your issue gets resolved.
Click to expand...
👎

Unfortunately, knowing Fanatec customer service we would make the opposite conclusion.

Why would not believe Mr. Dougdoberman? He has not reason to lie since he started this thread 9 days ago. Add to that the poor customer service noted from Fanatec (that to their credit is improving greatly! 👍 ) and you should not question or be coy with Mr. Dougdoberman.


edit. I think Darin Gangi being added to the Fanatec support team will do wonders! Of course, he has to get up to speed so he will need some time.
 
I literally JUST posted this over on the other Fanatec thread. If this guy is having issues contacting support, scream a little louder in your emails. They WILL reply. I will admit though, if you just send in 1 email and wait. You might be waiting for a couple weeks. They are inundated with support inquiries right now.

Hey guys, just wanted to give you an update.

My pedals are @ support being repaired as we speak. I did literally EVERYTHING imaginable to cure the clutch to no avail. So, to the service center they go!

As for the wheel. I am willing to live with the codewheel issue for now. I am going to wait for the CSW to be released (even they said they still are unsure of when, definitely not this year though, fyi) in lieu of another replacement GT2. They are going to discount part to whole of the GT2 off the CSW price for me(I do have a couple issues internally with my GT2, they won't do it if your wheel has no issue). I have come to realize I am more into the true simulator than console sim racing. Console racing simply still does not match up to PC, imho of course.

Support was there for me 110%. I had to scream a couple of times to get my point across, but, in the end, they came through in flying colors.

I am PSYCHED for the CSW now. Can't wait! Just looks like it will be a little longer than expected... Good things come to those who wait............I hope :P
 
Patrocles
👎

Unfortunately, knowing Fanatec customer service we would make the opposite conclusion.

Why would not believe Mr. Dougdoberman? He has not reason to lie since he started this thread 9 days ago. Add to that the poor customer service noted from Fanatec (that to their credit is improving greatly! 👍 ) and you should not question or be coy with Mr. Dougdoberman.


edit. I think Darin Gangi being added to the Fanatec support team will do wonders! Of course, he has to get up to speed so he will need some time.
Click to expand...

Yes, and I posted my reply two days after? What about it. I said I would believe what he says. I have never been in contact with their customer support, only with Thomas himself. So in all honest I don't know how bad it is, but since it is 9 days now... I admit that it's very bad. Besides that, it's just not 1 person but more that complained in here.
Next to that I don't work for Fanatec or anything. I can tell you however that I used to work for Ziggo (the biggest cable ISP in the Netherlands) when their customer support was **** like Fanatec's, and was hired to improve this at their headquarters with a couple of other IT knowledgable guys.
I found that there were various reasons at my work there that caused all sorts of issues. Think of capacity, mail spam filters, buggy mail system, buggy phone system... list is endless. So I am sure from their side there is a reason for this to happen, I just don't know what.
Also I think Thomas is still in China so he can't do much at this point in time I think.
Anyhow, I totally agree that this is crappy service due to probably issues with their mail system or spam filter (most likely).

Also about that reply, I have no other way to take his word for it that Thomas send that PM 2 hours after the post. The only other way is for me to either get his or Thomas's login to check the time stamps myself if I wanted to be 100% sure, because anyone can make up a time stamp. But seriously, that knowledge would be useless info for me anyways and I don't feel like knowing someone else his login info.
I also was evasive or as you call it 'coy' because I didn't want to get into an argument here about Thomas's his comment which I saw as a so called 'bitch slap' at the time. So it was just a simply misinterpretation on my side, which can happen a lot on the internet. I should have read it as nothing more then a hint from Thomas saying "I send you a PM so let's discuss this further via PM".

So yeah, never wanted to make trouble here but whatever. Just never tell me what to do, cause that pisses me off to be honest. So no "and you should not question or be coy with Mr. Dougdoberman" or other things like that. I am willing to talk about anything and admit my wrong doings, but just never do that cause you'll get on my bad side. 👎

Also Darin Gangi isn't a saint and nobody is with customer support, so he won't do wonders. He isn't Jesus Christ or Mozes. I am sure he'll do his best to sort out the issues with customer support. The only problem is that things like that aren't so easy to do, especially not when out sourcing the support (which I don't know if that's been done) as it's harder to control quality. Just at least wait about 3 to 6 months before you see any tiny result in their customer support.
 
AGP5000
I have come to realize I am more into the true simulator than console sim racing. Console racing simply still does not match up to PC, imho of course.
Click to expand...

That is the truth, I have both Xbox and PS3. They do not compare to my PC games. Have you checked out CARS yet? I have all the Sim Bin games and iRacing and all the other usual suspects as well on PC.
 
Spagetti69
Nice one Pesci.
Click to expand...

What the **** is a grit?




And no, I have primarily been on iRacing only left. Been thinking about rFactor2. I am more a Nascar/Oval racer myself. iRacing has it mostly right. They just keep changing **** too often.............
 

Latest Posts

Back