FM9 Purchase and incredible customer service from Mark Day

lscottk

Experienced
Just wanted to give a BIG thank you to Mark Day for some above and beyond customer service. My name came up on the FM9 Turbo wait list in December. I submitted my order the same day I received my invitation. Unfortunately my order went in just a day or two before the huge blizzard that blanketed the Eastern US. So I waited patiently until the weather cleared up enough for UPS to start moving packages across the country (I live in Washington State). Yesterday (Tuesday) I got an email from UPS saying that my FM9 would be delivered the following day between 12noon and 4pm. Well that's awesome! So I made sure to come home by noon so I'd be here to sign for the package. Wouldn't you know it, UPS decided to deliver the package at 10:21am, an hour and a half before I got home. I didn't want to take more time off work to be home to sign for the package, so I tried to contact UPS to have them hold the package at their local distribution center so that I could pick it up. Calling UPS was an utter shit show. It took me over an hour to get past the automated phone service. For some reason the automated service would not take my tracking number, and it wouldn't let me talk to a human unless it had my tracking number. After telling my tracking number a couple of dozen times and getting no where, I just started speaking nonsense. Think Captain Kirk confusing an android robot with faulty logic - you know, talking about purple roads made of marshmallows. I took some sort of perverse pleasure in using some small amount of UPS resources because they wouldn't let me talk to a real human. While I was talking gibberish I was writing an email to Fractal Support expressing my frustration and asking for help. Around the time that I sent my email to Fractal the UPS system mysteriously transferred me to a real human! I kid you not. And the real human told me that the only way I could have the package held for pickup was to ask the shipper (Fractal Audio) put it on hold for pickup. Bummer . . . because it was after 2pm here in Washington, which means that it was after 5pm in New Hampshire, so I'd have to wait until the next day to talk to Fractal.

And then, like a ray of sunshine in the midst of my Kafka/Star Trek mashup horror story, I saw that Fractal Support had sent me an email. It was from Mark Day. He told me that my email caught his eye, he had logged in to the UPS website and changed my package to hold at the local distribution center. At 6:30pm I went to the distribution center and I picked up my FM9!

You just have to love the service that you find at Fractal Audio. And it was Mark Day to boot. I am a long time customer, and expect to be one for life.

Thank you Mark Day for the great service, and the whole Fractal team for being such a great company with such awesome products. I'm very thankful!

Scott Kissel
 
Just wanted to give a BIG thank you to Mark Day for some above and beyond customer service. My name came up on the FM9 Turbo wait list in December. I submitted my order the same day I received my invitation. Unfortunately my order went in just a day or two before the huge blizzard that blanketed the Eastern US. So I waited patiently until the weather cleared up enough for UPS to start moving packages across the country (I live in Washington State). Yesterday (Tuesday) I got an email from UPS saying that my FM9 would be delivered the following day between 12noon and 4pm. Well that's awesome! So I made sure to come home by noon so I'd be here to sign for the package. Wouldn't you know it, UPS decided to deliver the package at 10:21am, an hour and a half before I got home. I didn't want to take more time off work to be home to sign for the package, so I tried to contact UPS to have them hold the package at their local distribution center so that I could pick it up. Calling UPS was an utter shit show. It took me over an hour to get past the automated phone service. For some reason the automated service would not take my tracking number, and it wouldn't let me talk to a human unless it had my tracking number. After telling my tracking number a couple of dozen times and getting no where, I just started speaking nonsense. Think Captain Kirk confusing an android robot with faulty logic - you know, talking about purple roads made of marshmallows. I took some sort of perverse pleasure in using some small amount of UPS resources because they wouldn't let me talk to a real human. While I was talking gibberish I was writing an email to Fractal Support expressing my frustration and asking for help. Around the time that I sent my email to Fractal the UPS system mysteriously transferred me to a real human! I kid you not. And the real human told me that the only way I could have the package held for pickup was to ask the shipper (Fractal Audio) put it on hold for pickup. Bummer . . . because it was after 2pm here in Washington, which means that it was after 5pm in New Hampshire, so I'd have to wait until the next day to talk to Fractal.

And then, like a ray of sunshine in the midst of my Kafka/Star Trek mashup horror story, I saw that Fractal Support had sent me an email. It was from Mark Day. He told me that my email caught his eye, he had logged in to the UPS website and changed my package to hold at the local distribution center. At 6:30pm I went to the distribution center and I picked up my FM9!

You just have to love the service that you find at Fractal Audio. And it was Mark Day to boot. I am a long time customer, and expect to be one for life.

Thank you Mark Day for the great service, and the whole Fractal team for being such a great company with such awesome products. I'm very thankful!

Scott Kissel
I was expecting a package from Fractal last Wednesday but was out of the country. I started working my way through the UPS system and ran into the same problem, all shipment changes must come from Fractal’s side, for our protection.

People know what is inside those boxes. For instance, when I picked up my shipment, the lady at the counter hollered “He’s here!” and the supervisor came out to find out who was receiving the Fractal box, which kind of freaked me out. It turned out that he had been in the music industry for years and had followed Fractal’s progress, so we had an interesting talk.

The short message is, if you need to change a delivery from Fractal, go straight to sales@fractalaudio.com.
 
I was expecting a package from Fractal last Wednesday but was out of the country. I started working my way through the UPS system and ran into the same problem, all shipment changes must come from Fractal’s side, for our protection.

People know what is inside those boxes. For instance, when I picked up my shipment, the lady at the counter hollered “He’s here!” and the supervisor came out to find out who was receiving the Fractal box, which kind of freaked me out. It turned out that he had been in the music industry for years and had followed Fractal’s progress, so we had an interesting talk.

The short message is, if you need to change a delivery from Fractal, go straight to sales@fractalaudio.com.
Fractal is also subject to lots of fraud, so I understand the need for caution. No problem on that score. UPS on the other hand, what a joke. Though the people at the distribution center were very nice and helpful. I just hate those automated phone systems, though. They're fine when they work, but how often does that happen?
 
Fractal is also subject to lots of fraud, so I understand the need for caution. No problem on that score. UPS on the other hand, what a joke. Though the people at the distribution center were very nice and helpful. I just hate those automated phone systems, though. They're fine when they work, but how often does that happen?
I definitely understand. That’s why going straight to Fractal is best, at least in this particular situation.

My FM3 invitation came when I was in Mexico and they halted the order because the IP address didn’t match my card’s address. I was … surprised but we talked back and forth and they released the shipment.

They are protective. It’s a great thing.
 
I definitely understand. That’s why going straight to Fractal is best, at least in this particular situation.

My FM3 invitation came when I was in Mexico and they halted the order because the IP address didn’t match my card’s address. I was … surprised but we talked back and forth and they released the shipment.

They are protective. It’s a great thing.
Maybe. Years ago, they also dropped a guitar I'd ordered off at a different business at a different address in the same business park. Somehow someone at that address even signed for it, not UPS's fault.

To their credit, when I saw the message that it'd been delivered, but it wasn't where I was, I called, got a human, and they had the driver go chase it and bring it to me. Not sure that would happen today.
 
Maybe. Years ago, they also dropped a guitar I'd ordered off at a different business at a different address in the same business park. Somehow someone at that address even signed for it, not UPS's fault.

To their credit, when I saw the message that it'd been delivered, but it wasn't where I was, I called, got a human, and they had the driver go chase it and bring it to me. Not sure that would happen today.
That was not Fractal you are talking about, it was UPS.
 
I had a very similar issue with UPS. All companies now use these automated systems to supposedly make it easier for the customer, but in reality, they just end up being a method of not having to provide any support at all.
 
Well, since we're calling out Fractal folks - I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Andrew B. The guy literally goes above and beyond and has patiently answered every one of my pre-sales, hair-brained gear questions despite how ridiculous my kit plan sounded. He's helped me with my purchases and in-person pickups and has never let an email go more than 24-hours without a response. Good guy and thanks for what you do fractal folks!

Oh, and related to the topic here, never lose sight of the fact that if you try to pronounce "UPS," it sounds very close to "oops."

...and then there's "FedUp..." That's a whole different can of frustration...
 
Mark is a real credit to Fractal Audio. Besides being responsible for turning a huge number of people on to FAS, he really is interested in a player getting the treatment he'd want for himself. It's good business, and Mark sure is good for the business! Well done, MD and the FAS team.
 
Mark is a real credit to Fractal Audio. Besides being responsible for turning a huge number of people on to FAS, he really is interested in a player getting the treatment he'd want for himself. It's good business, and Mark sure is good for the business! Well done, MD and the FAS team.
I couldn't agree with you more.
 
It took me over an hour to get past the automated phone service. For some reason the automated service would not take my tracking number, and it wouldn't let me talk to a human unless it had my tracking number.
This is the kind of bs I see all the time in online phone menus. Makes you wonder if anyone that matters at their companies tries to use their own system. It takes a lot of creativity to get around these stupid roadblocks. Glad Mark and the Fractal team are consistently professional and helpful.
 
This is the kind of bs I see all the time in online phone menus. Makes you wonder if anyone that matters at their companies tries to use their own system. It takes a lot of creativity to get around these stupid roadblocks. Glad Mark and the Fractal team are consistently professional and helpful.
I agree. Are they actually aware of what it is like to try to get help when the automated system is non-functional? My guess is that something was broken. I literally repeated the tracking number a couple of dozen times - slowly, fast, being extremely careful with my enunciation. It didn't matter how I said the tracking number, it was rejected. It was really frustrating. I knew that the tracking number I was using was correct because I could see on the UPS website that a delivery attempt occurred earlier in the day. I felt like I was in a Kafka novel. Or maybe Catch-22. I can't get help without a number. The system wouldn't accept the number so I couldn't get help. I'm very thankful that Fractal has such awesome service. Otherwise, I would likely still be waiting - or taking another whole day off work because UPS isn't reliable in showing up during their delivery window.
 
I’ve dealt with Mark quite a few times and he is such a great guy. I actually avidly watched his YouTube videos before I ever knew he was employed by Fractal. Then I got an email from him for support one day and was floored!

Also, an amazing guitar player.
 
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