My DD1 wheel has been at the Australian service centre for 12 days - and not yet inspected!

Blue FerrariBlue Ferrari Member
in Wheel Bases (and Racing Wheels)

I received an email reply last night from Fanatec support in answer to my request for a status update. The unit was received on the 13th February and has not yet been examined! The mere fact you can't even have contact with the service centre, slows down the process as we all know. The frustrating fact you have to wait over night for one response drags things out and it is unacceptable service. It will be a month now since I have been able to use my products.

Apart from logging a complaint with the Australian Fair Trading Commission, who are investigating breaches, I have been looking at other options.

Interestingly, I am now looking at other options and brands to purchase products from going forward. I spoke with our local Simucube distributor who have informed me they will provide a loan wheel base or wheels if your unit needs to be serviced. After looking at reviews, both Simucube and Simagic have great offerings, including real Quick Release systems and high quality products. Simucube's HQ is based in Finland, but have a number of resellers licensed worldwide. Simagic on the other hand will leave service and sales to other resellers, which I'm not yet sure if this will be problematic. Simagic products are manufactured in China, as are Fanatec I believe.

Please do not put up with some of these arrogant Fanatec staff on this site in particular, who threaten to remove your posts or just simply don't reply, as it is not acceptable. My view is they should be sacked immediately.

I do hope Fanatec's CEO sees the light and restructures the organization into a customer centric product suppliers and take their customers seriously. Not all the staff should be criticized and many I speak to at the service centre are polite and doing their best. It is the culture that defines the organization and this one clearly needs transformation.

I haven't reached out to the CEO as I get the impression that he does not value customers and customer feedback based on the fact they don't have a customer experience/feedback program in place. Has anyone ever received a request for customer service feedback from Fanatec? I have not. I get the impression he feels we are privileged to use their products!

Comments

  • CARLES TRULLÀSCARLES TRULLÀS Member

    Hello Hans,

    I am in the same situation as you, I sent my DD1 on February 10th and I still have no news of fanatec support. I've sent you an email asking for some indication, but so far I haven't been answered. It is very frustrating to be in this situation after having spent so much money and not being able to use a product that is supposed to be high-end and should have a much more effective customer service...

    What you say about Simucube that they leave you a replacement unit in case of a breakdown seems very important and if the thing is not fixed well, I will demand the return of the money and i will change Simucube...

    greetings and thank you for sharing your feedback.


    Carles.

  • Blue FerrariBlue Ferrari Member

    Thanks Carles, you can find out who the local distributor in your region for Simucube is and get in contact to see if they too will offer a loan model if it needs repair. They have all their distributors listed by region on their website. I live in Australia and the distributor is called Hybrid Racing. Checkout Simagic too, as they are a little bit cheaper, so not sure of the reliability, which means they may have rushed to market like Fanatec, without proper R&D, robust software and testing standards.

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