My Axe FX III is back at the factory :(

I

Icarusuki

Member
I'm pretty frustrated with the support process at this point. If I'm lucky I will get the replacement unit next week, and out of the 6 weeks it will have been since I ordered the Axe FX III, UPS will have had it longer than I have.

I was told the best they can do is send out a replacement the day my unit arrived. It arrived today, and it appears no replacement got sent. My last two replies to support have gone unresponded. One from May 3rd, and one from today. Today I got an alert that my unit had arrived, and one requesting the replacement get shipped out, but no shipping confirmation, and no shipping notification.

My unit was bad out of the box; there wasn't even a concession for faster return shipping, when I asked about speeding up the process, and let them know it would impact the shows I have lined up.

I had a Matrix Power amp go bad out of the box a couple of years ago. They had a replacement unit in UPS's hands the next day. I was back up and running before the end of the week.

I'm surprised a company of this stature, with products of this tier, does not allow for cross-shipping of warranty replacements, especially on brand-new flagship products. Since the return tag they sent is ground shipping, and the replacement will be send ground, that's pretty much a guarantee of two weeks down time, for those of us on the west coast.

Is two weeks of down-time the expected outcome anytime something goes wrong under warranty?
 
Sorry for your troubles. These things happen...I know that's little consolation.

Without knowing the full story, and knowing FAS, I'm sure they're doing all they can to help you. I will say it cannot be their fault that you don't have a backup ready at any notice. Yes, 2 weeks down time is actually realistic considering...it took me 6 weeks to get a keyboard back for a simple ROM replacement.

All will be well.

R
 
this is not typical of FAS support. not sure what happened here, but it's usually best-in-class. maybe because the Axe3 is a new product there are some new challenges?

again, not sure at all. sorry this is happening.
 
electronpirate said:
I will say it cannot be their fault that you don't have a backup ready at any notice.
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Oh, I do have a back up. It's just that I am not in the tax bracket to have two or more Axe FX IIIs, so my backup is inferior (an Ax8), which I will be using rather than my other guitarist, who will now be using a much more inferior, old Boss product. The missing Axe FX will definitely have an impact, but will not "ruin" the shows.

It's annoying that the issue with the III wasn't obvious immediately, and I had sold off my Axe FX II before realizing the III needed to be sent back. Otherwise the timing of the III was perfect. I had a month off to get it up and running.
 
Agreed. Nice backup.

I still sympathize. It's not often these things go wrong with this company, but it sucks when it happens to you.

R
 
I'm in a similar boat. Bought the III & paid for 2 day shipping. It had a noisy fan among other issues & they issued an RMA & sent a shipping label to return it. They sent out a replacement the same day they received my original Axe but both the return shipping & the replacement were shipped ground so I was without the III for 2 weeks. I feel I wasted my money on the 2 day shipping & to add insult to injury, the replacement unit fan is noticeable noisier than the original unit!! Looks like it will be gone again for another 2 weeks at least! :mad::eek::oops:
 
chris said:
the ax8 is an amazing backup!
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Yeah, it's great. Though, I do use dual amps 90% of the time, so the Ax8 isn't a perfect replacement for me. But it is lightyears ahead of my other guitarist's Boss ME50 or whatever it is. That thing is so bad I got the AX8 for him use live (and for me as backup, hoping I would never need to use it as such.)


notalemming said:
I'm in a similar boat. Bought the III & paid for 2 day shipping. It had a noisy fan among other issues & they issued an RMA & sent a shipping label to return it. They sent out a replacement the same day they received my original Axe but both the return shipping & the replacement were shipped ground so I was without the III for 2 weeks. I feel I wasted my money on the 2 day shipping & to add insult to injury, the replacement unit fan is noticeable noisier than the original unit!! Looks like it will be gone again for another 2 weeks at least! :mad::eek::oops:
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That SUCKS. I hope I don't end up in your boat. Best of luck getting it resolved!
 
I'm sure the turnaround would be faster if the product wasn't still in a wait list scenario and they had stock on hand ready to ship. Bummer it was defective in the first place.
 
Hellbat said:
I'm sure the turnaround would be faster if the product wasn't still in a wait list scenario and they had stock on hand ready to ship. Bummer it was defective in the first place.
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This. If they dont physically have a unit available they cant dispatch it to you, and if they had units available there wouldnt be a wait list. Im 100% sure you'll get the next available unit.

On Cross shipping... Although Im n the UK I dont know of a single company that will do this. Every item Ive had to return out of the box has had to be physically back at the supplier before a replacement is shipped. This includes Roland and Korg as well as a Samsung TV. Its the norm - and I cant blame them even if they did have replacements to ship.. The chances of shipping a replacment only for he original item to not be returned is big unfortunately. Its annoying as hell but it is what it is.

Hang in there - theyll get you sorted.
 
paulmapp8306 said:
This. If they dont physically have a unit available they cant dispatch it to you, and if they had units available there wouldnt be a wait list. Im 100% sure you'll get the next available unit.

On Cross shipping... Although Im n the UK I dont know of a single company that will do this. Every item Ive had to return out of the box has had to be physically back at the supplier before a replacement is shipped. This includes Roland and Korg as well as a Samsung TV. Its the norm - and I cant blame them even if they did have replacements to ship.. The chances of shipping a replacment only for he original item to not be returned is big unfortunately. Its annoying as hell but it is what it is.

Hang in there - theyll get you sorted.
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A lot of companys would send you a new one before they have the RMA unit back, by simply blocking the amout for a new one on your creditcard, and when they have the faulty item back and have looked at it, they release the money. I can only suggest fractal to do this, if we start seing more rma´s on Fractal hardware.

But why not just pay for day to day UPS difference.
 
I sent mine back April 23rd

Same recommendation from service to ship out a new unit.

USPS received the new unit on May 1st

I’m expecting replacement AxeIII tomorrow.

So just over 2 weeks downtime
 
Seems the amount of returns are frequent, Wonder if its a Hardware(DSP) issue or something that Coding can fix? Maybe they are slowing things down to fix the issue, Since the amount of invitations have slowed down also....hmmm
 
yek said:
No. It’s the rollout of a new product. There will always be some issues that QC can not prevent. Often dissatisfied customers report online quickly which gives the illusion of *many* issues.
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Its true, but doesn't make it any easier to swallow or anticipate.
I'm on the wait list for 3 of these (in two different countries) I'm watching this forum for faulty products with real contemplation. Just what is the % return for faults on the III? Anybody know?
 
yek said:
No. It’s the rollout of a new product. There will always be some issues that QC can not prevent. Often dissatisfied customers report online quickly which gives the illusion of *many* issues.
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THIS.

Trust is earned, I will not trust the III in a live scenario for a year without the II as back-up.

The largest companies on earth, Apple and Microsoft, have issues with product launches, of course little Fractal does as well.
 
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