Customer service @ Fanatec?

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I've been a Logitech customer for years due to great products and outstanding customer service on the few occasions where things have broken.
Now I'm considering upgrading my Logitech Momo wheel and the G27 felt like the obvious choice until I started looking more into the Fanatec wheels. My only concern is whether Fanatec has anywhere close to Logitechs level of customer service So my question is;
Has anyone experienced both companies customer services and care to share their experiences?

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, I couldn't find a thread about it. Feel free to link me there if so.

 

[Tom Moreno]

I've not had any dealings with Logitech CS, though I hear good things about them. From what I understand they are very much a large company CS department where if something goes wrong they just replace the unit and they tend to have a lot of people around to get back to your enquiries in a timely fashion. I've had a couple of issues with my Fanatec gear, one was cosmetic peeling of the alcantara grip on my CSR wheel and the other was difficulty getting the wheel to interface with my legacy MS Wheel pedals through the Fanatec adaptor. You will find that Fanatec's CS department is very small but dedicated. When they are dealing with high volumes you will find that your email takes a while to get read, but they do get around to it and, once they pick up your case, they have been excellent in expediting fixes. They sent me out spare leather parts for my wheel as soon as they were available so I didn't have to go without my wheel while sending it to them to be fixed, and although the MS pedal issue was a saga they sent me out a couple of adaptors to test before offering me a very attractive discount on purchasing a set of CSR Elite pedals. I was very happy with the way I was treated and the personal level of support I received from both Armin and Johannes more than made up for the initial wait to get a response from my enquiry. My issues, BTW, happened to be at the exact same time as they were releasing the CSR Elite wheel and these had a few well documented teething issues in the first batches.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

I´ve never had any problems with Fanatec in any way. Although i´ve read quite a lot but it´s like the usual, "people who are satisified won´t let other people know about it on the forums"

Thus you only hear the bad stuff.

If the budget was in the G27 area i would buy a G27 instead. If you want to be as fast as possible.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

@Tom: thanks for sharing your experiences, and thoroughly as well may I add, it's helping me decide!

@Hampus: Yeah I'm very aware of the happy customers being the silent majority, hence me asking for experiences here
Budget ain't an issue, it's just that judging by my previous experiences with Logitech I feel confident that buying a G27 will allow me years of use without sudden unexpected expenses to repair it (I treat my equipment very carefully so when things break it tends to be a faulty component).
Just want to hear from people who have had to deal with Fanatec CS so I can feel a little more confidence in them (not because it's bad, it's unknown territory for me) before I pay them €300 for a wheel.
I've heard nothing bad about them yet.

 

[Roadster-2]

No personal experience but their CS was well known to be exceptionally poor. Darin from Inside -Simracing joined them at one point in order to improve this but has since returned. They may well have already turned it around as I know they were making this a priority.
Just thought that it was worth mentioning as you may want to wait for a few more responses from users who have dealt with them recently.

 

[Charles Huffstetler]

well with the new wheel being released today expect service to be even slower by email Thier sever died 10 mins into the launch mega overload...should have seen that coming and had a preorder deal going weeks ago....

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

It's gonna be a month or three before I buy so let's hope it's sorted by then.

 

[Charles Huffstetler]

when you get one look for help at www.911wheel.com or www.f-wheel.com group forums and they seem to have the latest firmware or answers to questions

 

[Marian Zelenka]

I have dealt with them once and they responded quickly and sent me parts for clubsport pedals quickly via ups.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Thanks for the replies folks, the more the better

 

[Hampus Andersson]

@Hampus: Yeah I'm very aware of the happy customers being the silent majority, hence me asking for experiences here
Budget ain't an issue, it's just that judging by my previous experiences with Logitech I feel confident that buying a G27 will allow me years of use without sudden unexpected expenses to repair it (I treat my equipment very carefully so when things break it tends to be a faulty component).
Just want to hear from people who have had to deal with Fanatec CS so I can feel a little more confidence in them (not because it's bad, it's unknown territory for me) before I pay them €300 for a wheel.
I've heard nothing bad about them yet.

If budget isn´t an issue i would look at either Clubsport wheel or T500RS, they are another level feel-wise compared to G27 or GT3 wheel for example.

T500RS to me feels like it´s built like a tank, CSW i can´t speak on but it sure looks that way.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Yeah I just started looking at the T500RS today, seems a very good option but a bit expensive since I'd "have to" get both wheels (GT and F1) plus the shifter. Also, I have no rig/seat and I'm a bit sceptic to whether the clamp and my table will be able to cope with the force in that wheel.
Been trying to check out the Fanatec site all day but seems the launch of the new site and wheel was more popular than they anticipated ^^

 

[Kenny Duval]

You aren't the only one. The US site has popped up a couple times but you can't get any further than the initial page.

 

[Kenny Duval]

Success....finally.

 

[Justin McAleer]

just managed to get through the rig-ma-roll of registering, adding to cart and finaly and patiently ordering my csw base, formula rim and csp v2 pedals.
wow almost 1000 euro's

crazy error messages at every turn but finaly fot through and first timed the payment screen ihope

 

[Jordi Casademunt]

Well, my experience with customer service was actually pretty good.

One week after receiving my CSPs, one of the cables of the throttle sensor snapped so it stopped working. I sent a mail with a photo of the broken cable, and the next day they had already sent a replacement sensor for the throttle (plus a clutch sensor as a bonus).

So maybe I was lucky, and my problem didn't need any troubleshooting so it probably speeded up things a lot, but the response was quite fast.

 

[Nigel Atkins]

A couple of years ago Fanatec support sucked big time, 1 to 3 months for a reply was nothing.

But over the last 6 months i've contacted them for a replacement Load cell and a Code wheel sensor, on both occasions i got the spare parts with 7 days of contacting them and i didn't even have to show proof of perchance and a friend of mine got spare parts out of his warranty.

Logitech support is ok, but even if you just asking for a replacement pot is out of the question, even if your still in warranty.

 

[Kevin Watts]

My own personal experience with Fanatec has been excellent. Some people have said its got better in the last year but my good experience goes back to the original launch of the Porsche Wheel Turbo S quite some years ago. My pre and post sales questions were answered within 24 hours. Unfortunately I experienced a problem with my first wheel and emailed Fanatec and was pleasantly surprised to get a reply within 30 minutes that helped diagnose exactly what the problem was. I emailed back and within 20 minutes got a reply telling me not to worry that the tech support agent had already organised a replacement and wanted to confirm my address and not to bother sending the defective wheel back so I would not incur any extra expense. That to me is excellent service.

Yes I had a defective unit but you mention breakages with Logitech and I have too having previously had a Logitech Momo Force and G25. ALL mass produced electronics have a certain failure rate and it's those who have faults are the most vocal. That's not to say Fanatec have not had issues but I've read bad customer service stories about all the major manufacturers. Logitech make good wheels yet their mice and keyboards in my experience are not so good, Thrustmaster have had issues with their flagship T500 and have a really lousy customer care and reliability reputation for their flight sim gear. I wouldn't put too much stock in what ISR say either. Darin Gangi was hired by Fanatec then they parted in not so good terms and now he and the other ISR staff appear to want to put a negative spin on anything to do with Fanatec after raving about them before Darin joined Fanatec when they were sending them gear to review. Same goes for SimRaceWay a former primary sponsor who got plenty of airtime then that stopped and iRacing became their major sponsor now Darin hasn't got much good to say about them and out of all the sims that have their own forum, their former major sponsor does not.

You take a risk buying anything today, cars, tv's just do your own research and perhaps don't pay so much attention to those with an agenda....in fact take my advice with a pinch of salt too

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Thanks a ton for all the great answers! I now feel a lot more comfortable with buying from them (if their website ever start working )
I've not heard ISR say anything negative about Fanatec yet but then again I've merely been searching YouTube for reviews and stumbled upon theirs quite often, prob old reviews though.

 

[Tom Moreno]

Thanks a ton for all the great answers! I now feel a lot more comfortable with buying from them (if their website ever start working )
I've not heard ISR say anything negative about Fanatec yet but then again I've merely been searching YouTube for reviews and stumbled upon theirs quite often, prob old reviews though.

Lately Darrin from ISR has nothing but spite for anything Fanatec. He rails on their forums about how he would never trust any piece of their hardware for any racing that mattered implying that it's guaranteed to fail and ruin your race. The great shame of our hobby is that we're so niche that you can only operate by direct marketing in the modern world and there's very likely no shop anywhere where you could try out products before you buy them. Instead we are stuck having to purchase products blindly in order to audition them. There's got to be a better way.