Don't expect much from current Fractal support. I sent my FC12 back week before last when the three lower left switches started freezing. After consulting the forum it appeared that they come loose after a while and they had resorted to hot gluing them. Although I had sent back this same unit a week after I got it with similar issues. Looking at the inside nothing was glued, but pulling the cable and then reseating that would temporarily fix the issue. Contacted support and they issued me an RMA and told me to send it back. I had to pay shipping there but they said since it was the second time they'd fix it for free and pay return shipping. OK, that's fair...
Now I could have just bought a glue gun and tried fixing it myself but I figured, well, cost of shipping vs. buying a glue gun and messing with it. They didn't offer any instructions or guidance, and I was a little afraid there might be some trick to it. Of course by the time I bought a box and shipped it wound up costing me 50 bucks. But I thought, "Hey, if it's something else like the cable I might as well put it in their hands and make sure."
Big, big mistake.
When you get your shipping instructions the first thing they tell you is that if you are at a different address than the one you ordered from make sure to send the new address. So in a mylar envelope, in big bold 28 point letters on top of the unit, marked with NEW ADDRESS is my current address. Along with the whole email trail where I went through all my diagnostic steps, including reseating the cable.
Got the notice they received it, and got another notice pretty quick that it was fixed and being shipped. Cool.
Or maybe not.
First issue was that when I saw the UPS label info it had my old address on it. The one I ordered from originally. All that trouble to provide my new one, and I can only assume they lost it. If they even looked at it to begin with. Now I will say, that in this regard they are no worse than UPS, who also had issues with getting my new address on record when I generated the label. But they can blame it on a a bloated, inflexible, complex IT system manned by offshore contractors. I don't think Fractal has anything that cumbersome to deal with. So I fired off an email, and they did get it corrected. However instead of getting my unit on Saturday, it moved back to Wednesday. So it wasn't really that quick after all.
So I get it back, and everything's milk and cookies, live happily ever after...
Not quite.
Didn't really get much chance to give it a workout until today, but a few minutes into the current workflow the same footswitches freeze up again. So I pull the thing apart to see what they did. And what I find is that there is now glue on the plugs going on the the mainboard, but absolutely none on the plugs going to the footswitches. The top row has a mounting bracket across the top that presses against them - I assume that keeps those in place a bit better. But I go ahead and reseat the offending footswitch plug and it starts working again.
So all that, and they didn't even fix the issue. What a let down.
I did email them back today, but I'm thinking that if they offer to fix it I'm going to just take a shot at it myself. Even if there is a trick to it it's still better than trusting them again. If it doesn't work out I guess I just unload it, suck it up, and wait for Black Friday to see if RJM has any deals on a Mastermind. Sure not buying another FC. Frankly, the first support experience with that initial defect didn't exactly leave a great taste in my mouth either,
Because you can have a superior product but if you don't back it up a corresponding level of service after the fact then it's not really all that superior in the end. I'm sure if Metallica or Def Leppard have an issue they get it fixed, toot sweet. But the backbone of any kind of product like this are the people who it really hurts to go without a unit for a week and then have it come back not fixed.
This just indicates to me that support there is broken. Or at least in a less than optimal state. And if Cliff is smart he'll fix that before adding the next new wizzbang feature. There are all kinds of companies out there that get bested by ones with inferior products. Because if the service is way better, or they are less expensive, or both word will eventually get out. I've been happy with my Axes II and III,, and the FM3 has been OK so far. But I'm a little concerned about whether I ought to unload it i now given that I need it currently and I don't know that I can depend on the support organization for a satisfactory outcome any more.
