(Long rant ahead, but it was a long time coming...)
@DomB_Fanatec (I'd tag Thomas Jackermeier if he had a RD account)
Dear Fanatec,
Why did you treat me this way? I considered myself amazingly lucky almost 10 months ago. It was the Fanatec Advent Calendar auction and I had, to my surprise, just won the first prize discount: A new Fanatec CSW v2.5 and BMW GT2 Rim combo at 50% off. Two months before this, I had just survived one of the worst hurricanes ever recorded (Hurricane Irma), but my trusty G27 wasn't so fortunate (Our house and my family are all OK, just some water damage to several possessions and a broken window or two...we were extremely lucky compared to others). So I bought the discounted wheel and eagerly spent a month awaiting arrival (I live outside their distribution network, so it had to arrive here by shipping barge...more on that later).
So I finally receive the items around Christmas along with also discounted Fanatec V3 inverted pedals (which have been rock solid so far, for the record). The wheel worked perfectly for a few minutes of use until the BMW LCD screen starts glitching out (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #1). I contact Fanatec support and they ask for a video showing the problem. After seeing it, they asked me to send in both the wheel and the CSW base for inspection. Imagine waiting for the wheel of your dreams and only after a day or so with it, you gotta send it away? Not cool. Anyways I send it through the same shipping company we use to receive items bought in US online stores. After two weeks of waiting for it to get back to their repair center in California, they write me to say both the wheel and the base check out fine, the screen is functioning normally. Ok...maybe whatever knocked loose found its way back during shipping? Anyways, I told them I don't want the BMW rim back and I'll pay the price difference for an upgrade to the Porsche 918 rim. I received everything another month later (2 months actually as I was away receiving treatment for a medical issue). Everything worked great...Porsche rim is functioning perfectly to this day.
Meanwhile, jumping back to last November when I ordered the pedals, I also ordered the CSL McLaren GT3 Rim. Oh boy where do I begin?
So after the well known 2 month delay in shipping those 1st pre-orders, I finally, around early May, got my hands on this wheel I had been looking forward to for nearly half a year. After updating the firmware as suggested by Fanatec, I tried the wheel out. Right away, the 7 way "funky-switch" was malfunctioning (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #2)...if I turn it continuously in one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, it will look like LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT etc. In other words, I couldn't adjust any settings by turning the knob...if I adjust Force Feedback for example, it would go 100, 90, 100, 90...over and over. So, I talk to Fanatec support again and record a video in advance. They said to send it in. I said NO, because I don't want to wait for another month due to my location, so they said they'll send a replacement funkyswitch and instructions on how to repair it. I receive it in about a week (it's small and light, so sending it by plane is reasonably cheap). That didn't fix it. So now they said it's a Main board issue so they suggest sending it in, as replacing the board is a little trickier. I asked for a discount/credit for having had to replace 2 Fanatec wheels that were broken from the start all within the space of a few months. They refused, but instead offered to ship the replacement right away before receiving the defective one. I figured "what choice do I have?"...so I agreed and sent it in (Let's call this "McLaren #1"). It's July at this point and my summer vacation had just started. I decided I'd use the defective one until I went on a trip in August, so that I wouldn't spend time at home without a working GT3 style rim (Feeling wise, this was my favorite rim thus far and I love GTE and modern open wheelers).
I ship it off in mid August and received the replacement wheel shortly thereafter (I have to send the defective product to receive the replacement according to the shipping company). Let's call this new wheel "McLaren #2". I checked the funkyswitch first: it works! All is well I thought, and fired up Automobilista and Assetto Corsa that night. All seemed well except I had one or two incidents where I could have sworn I pressed the shifter and it didn't shift. I figured, it was user error and dismissed it. Next day I do a few more practice sessions in Automobilista and more and more, the car would miss 1 click of the downshift paddle. Then it would miss two clicks. Then 3 and 4...by the end of the night it would miss almost every downshift click. I tried other sims...same thing. I go to the control panel and it's confirmed: the shifter is indeed faulty (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #3)! I search for this issue online and it turns out several people have had this shifting issue (both RD and reddit users). I contact Fanatec support (again with a video...) and they, once again, ask me to send in for a replacement. I said to the sales manager that you need to send me the replacement first after all this trouble I've been through with these Fanatec wheels. She refused, but said once a show her a shipping receipt that I sent the defect, they'll ship immediately. She initiates the RMA protocol...here we go again.
Angry and frustrated, I send a private message to Dominic Brennan, Fanatec's newly appointed Community Manager, to seek assistance with this issue on the Fanatec community forum. I said that, as much as I like the McLaren wheel, I can't keep exchanging defects for more defects and would like a credit so I can by something else...namely the Fanatec H-shifter and/or the handbrake. This was September 9th. On September 10th I noticed a shipping notice from Fedex in my email (Dated Sept 5; guess it slipped by me). Apparently as timing would have it, Fanatec's repair center had just recently received McLaren #1 and thought that was McLaren #2, so they shipped McLaren #3! So here was another Mclaren wheel on its way to me...third time's a charm, right? (Please note: at no time prior to this did I blast Fanatec for their defective track record...kept waiting for this to be made right)
Today, I finally receive McLaren #3 on my lunch break. I didn't open the box until I got home an hour ago. I look inside, and I notice the Xbox button caps are in the little baggie they include, which was odd as the other wheels were not like that. I pull out the wheel...it was McLaren #1! The stickers were still on it exactly where I had left them. I figured "Hey, this one didn't have the shifting issue...so if they fixed the main board issue with the funkyswitch, this one will be golden!"....I plug it in. THE FUNKYSWITCH IS STILL ******* BROKEN!!!! They had my wheel and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO IT AT THE REPAIR CENTER. Let's call this DEFECTIVE WHEEL #4 (Even though it's technically #2)!
So here we are...4 broken wheels and a Fanatec "fanboy" with now a lot less patience and trust in your ability to provide a reliable product. I tried really hard to keep all of this private and hoped for a private resolution...but after no response from Dominic (if even to say "I received your message but we shipped your replacement already"), plus receiving what was in essence 3 consecutive broken wheels from the service center, I give up. I really wanted a Fanatec DD1 or DD2 in the future, but if this is what your quality control is like, then I'll take my money elsewhere.
Fanatec, why did you treat me this way?
@DomB_Fanatec (I'd tag Thomas Jackermeier if he had a RD account)
Dear Fanatec,
Why did you treat me this way? I considered myself amazingly lucky almost 10 months ago. It was the Fanatec Advent Calendar auction and I had, to my surprise, just won the first prize discount: A new Fanatec CSW v2.5 and BMW GT2 Rim combo at 50% off. Two months before this, I had just survived one of the worst hurricanes ever recorded (Hurricane Irma), but my trusty G27 wasn't so fortunate (Our house and my family are all OK, just some water damage to several possessions and a broken window or two...we were extremely lucky compared to others). So I bought the discounted wheel and eagerly spent a month awaiting arrival (I live outside their distribution network, so it had to arrive here by shipping barge...more on that later).
So I finally receive the items around Christmas along with also discounted Fanatec V3 inverted pedals (which have been rock solid so far, for the record). The wheel worked perfectly for a few minutes of use until the BMW LCD screen starts glitching out (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #1). I contact Fanatec support and they ask for a video showing the problem. After seeing it, they asked me to send in both the wheel and the CSW base for inspection. Imagine waiting for the wheel of your dreams and only after a day or so with it, you gotta send it away? Not cool. Anyways I send it through the same shipping company we use to receive items bought in US online stores. After two weeks of waiting for it to get back to their repair center in California, they write me to say both the wheel and the base check out fine, the screen is functioning normally. Ok...maybe whatever knocked loose found its way back during shipping? Anyways, I told them I don't want the BMW rim back and I'll pay the price difference for an upgrade to the Porsche 918 rim. I received everything another month later (2 months actually as I was away receiving treatment for a medical issue). Everything worked great...Porsche rim is functioning perfectly to this day.
Meanwhile, jumping back to last November when I ordered the pedals, I also ordered the CSL McLaren GT3 Rim. Oh boy where do I begin?
So after the well known 2 month delay in shipping those 1st pre-orders, I finally, around early May, got my hands on this wheel I had been looking forward to for nearly half a year. After updating the firmware as suggested by Fanatec, I tried the wheel out. Right away, the 7 way "funky-switch" was malfunctioning (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #2)...if I turn it continuously in one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, it will look like LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT etc. In other words, I couldn't adjust any settings by turning the knob...if I adjust Force Feedback for example, it would go 100, 90, 100, 90...over and over. So, I talk to Fanatec support again and record a video in advance. They said to send it in. I said NO, because I don't want to wait for another month due to my location, so they said they'll send a replacement funkyswitch and instructions on how to repair it. I receive it in about a week (it's small and light, so sending it by plane is reasonably cheap). That didn't fix it. So now they said it's a Main board issue so they suggest sending it in, as replacing the board is a little trickier. I asked for a discount/credit for having had to replace 2 Fanatec wheels that were broken from the start all within the space of a few months. They refused, but instead offered to ship the replacement right away before receiving the defective one. I figured "what choice do I have?"...so I agreed and sent it in (Let's call this "McLaren #1"). It's July at this point and my summer vacation had just started. I decided I'd use the defective one until I went on a trip in August, so that I wouldn't spend time at home without a working GT3 style rim (Feeling wise, this was my favorite rim thus far and I love GTE and modern open wheelers).
I ship it off in mid August and received the replacement wheel shortly thereafter (I have to send the defective product to receive the replacement according to the shipping company). Let's call this new wheel "McLaren #2". I checked the funkyswitch first: it works! All is well I thought, and fired up Automobilista and Assetto Corsa that night. All seemed well except I had one or two incidents where I could have sworn I pressed the shifter and it didn't shift. I figured, it was user error and dismissed it. Next day I do a few more practice sessions in Automobilista and more and more, the car would miss 1 click of the downshift paddle. Then it would miss two clicks. Then 3 and 4...by the end of the night it would miss almost every downshift click. I tried other sims...same thing. I go to the control panel and it's confirmed: the shifter is indeed faulty (DEFECTIVE WHEEL #3)! I search for this issue online and it turns out several people have had this shifting issue (both RD and reddit users). I contact Fanatec support (again with a video...) and they, once again, ask me to send in for a replacement. I said to the sales manager that you need to send me the replacement first after all this trouble I've been through with these Fanatec wheels. She refused, but said once a show her a shipping receipt that I sent the defect, they'll ship immediately. She initiates the RMA protocol...here we go again.
Angry and frustrated, I send a private message to Dominic Brennan, Fanatec's newly appointed Community Manager, to seek assistance with this issue on the Fanatec community forum. I said that, as much as I like the McLaren wheel, I can't keep exchanging defects for more defects and would like a credit so I can by something else...namely the Fanatec H-shifter and/or the handbrake. This was September 9th. On September 10th I noticed a shipping notice from Fedex in my email (Dated Sept 5; guess it slipped by me). Apparently as timing would have it, Fanatec's repair center had just recently received McLaren #1 and thought that was McLaren #2, so they shipped McLaren #3! So here was another Mclaren wheel on its way to me...third time's a charm, right? (Please note: at no time prior to this did I blast Fanatec for their defective track record...kept waiting for this to be made right)
Today, I finally receive McLaren #3 on my lunch break. I didn't open the box until I got home an hour ago. I look inside, and I notice the Xbox button caps are in the little baggie they include, which was odd as the other wheels were not like that. I pull out the wheel...it was McLaren #1! The stickers were still on it exactly where I had left them. I figured "Hey, this one didn't have the shifting issue...so if they fixed the main board issue with the funkyswitch, this one will be golden!"....I plug it in. THE FUNKYSWITCH IS STILL ******* BROKEN!!!! They had my wheel and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO IT AT THE REPAIR CENTER. Let's call this DEFECTIVE WHEEL #4 (Even though it's technically #2)!
So here we are...4 broken wheels and a Fanatec "fanboy" with now a lot less patience and trust in your ability to provide a reliable product. I tried really hard to keep all of this private and hoped for a private resolution...but after no response from Dominic (if even to say "I received your message but we shipped your replacement already"), plus receiving what was in essence 3 consecutive broken wheels from the service center, I give up. I really wanted a Fanatec DD1 or DD2 in the future, but if this is what your quality control is like, then I'll take my money elsewhere.
Fanatec, why did you treat me this way?
