Fanatec support response time?

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dougdoberman

dougdoberman

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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 (besides not racing on the Xbox, so never really needing it since my Logi stuff worked fine on PC & PS3). 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.

Thanks for any community response. (Anyone in the community want to do Fanatec's job for them and send me their functional H-shifter to replace mine? :) )
 
i also have a problem with a forza csr fanatec wheel, and like yourself i also have had no response from fanatec about it other than the dismissive automated email which treats their customer as if they are a moron. This is definitely a company which does not believe in treating their customer with any kind of respect. i will post any updates here. but i am also talking to the trading standards people although what they can do is unsure since this is a german company i am dealing with here. maybe my credit card company should be leaned on too.
 
Good luck with your issue simjamimx. Please do keep us updated. Posts like these will hopefully help inform potential customers as to what they may be getting in to.

I finally received a response 9 days after my initial email to Fanatec. Seemingly they had attempted to send me the latest firmware a few days earlier, but it had bounced. (Had they sent it a 4:59:59 and then walked out the door? because he tired to send a .rar file to a gmail address, which would have bounced immediately. Is this REALLY the first time they've had to send .rar to a gmail account? That hadn't come up before?) After a few more days of back & forth, ensuring them that the firmware update did not solve my issue (which was clearly a hardware issue from the outset, but I understand that they needed to try the firmware first, as people had been having somewhat similar issues which were solved by the firmware.), they shipped me out a new shifter.

The new shifter arrived a few days ago, and so far is performing as expected.

My support problem was finally resolved. My frustration was, and my dissatisfaction still remains regarding, the length of time I waited before I received any response from them other than the automated email.

This has long been the knock on Fanatec, and the thing that most kept me from purchasing their gear in the past. As I mentioned in my first post, web research had led me to believe that this failing on their part had been much improved. I donno if they've recently tired to take on more than they're capable of again or what, but it seems that they've once again fallen back into their past ways. You cannot read any of the top sim racing web forums without just about daily hearing of a new case of a quality control issue and/or someone having no response from support.

So, keep that in mind, prospective Fanatec purchasers. While their gear is fantastic when it works (and they do try to get everyone working & happy eventually), they seem to have far more quality issues than a company should reasonably have, and you may have to wait a while with non-functional gear while you're getting it resolved.
 
dougdoberman
So, keep that in mind, prospective Fanatec purchasers. While their gear is fantastic when it works (and they do try to get everyone working & happy eventually), they seem to have far more quality issues than a company should reasonably have, and you may have to wait a while with non-functional gear while you're getting it resolved.
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Glad you got it fixed, I can relate to the emails that come from the automatic system.. I keep telling myself it's not there native language :)

I think it's worth mentioning that when I research the web before buying, I hardly ever find good news on the web concerning products. In fact, I find the worrying trend is that many net based companies appear to have removed support, and simply leave it to the community to solve the Issues.

Guess what? on the net folks complain.. so the picture that develops is of a dodgy product, and a lack of support!
Now we don't see this with other manufacturers because......????

That's right they sell via retail, and if you have an Issue you go to the retailer and it gets resolved (they replace it)so with retail quality Issues disappear for the consumer, only product Issues get escalated to the manufacturer or we don't bother we just ask for our money back and go elsewhere! (we don't scream about it on the net)

The point I'm making is because fanatec is a web based company the Issues will look worse than others, cause you often don't see other manufacturers Issues as there dealt with by the retailer.

Let's hope Fanatec's presence on the net is more than marketing and that they can improve the levels of support further, some kind of service level agreement would be good.

Cause The community support is failing, it's getting to the stage that I've seen some offer advice around an Issue, only to get shot down as some kind of fan boy.

I believed as you do that although the products were good they more Issues than they should.

However on reflection they announced originally that the Porsche multi platform wheels were going to be a limited set of I think 10,000! and they sold all of those wheels, in fact several limited edition wheel sets! I'd love Thomas to tell us how many wheels in fact because I think it's a rather a lot, and if every Issue appears on the net then I think there's only a small fraction of the wheels that are problematic.

Anyway it's just a thought, I'm glad you've a new shifter heading your way.

Enjoy the drive..


GSL
 
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 (besides not racing on the Xbox, so never really needing it since my Logi stuff worked fine on PC & PS3). 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.

Thanks for any community response. (Anyone in the community want to do Fanatec's job for them and send me their functional H-shifter to replace mine? :) )
Click to expand...
I have sent at least 10 emails in the last year to e-support@fanatec.com and have always got a personal reply back within 24 hrs. They have been outstanding from day one for me. Try that address..
 
gslooney, the fact is that only a small fraction of customer issues ever end up on the net for us to see. Any way you want to look at numbers (most of it is just inference, because we have no access to hard data), Fanatec isn't a huge business and they seem to generate an inordinate amount of complaints.

Zebra, that's the email I used initially, as it's the one their web site directs you to use.

Fuzzy, insidesimracing was the first place I posted this same thread I believe, as it's supposedly frequented by their new US rep. Never received a reply from Darin there.
 

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