DD Pro GT Wheel Broken, Concerning RMA Process

Chris Ekerson

Hopfully posting here will get some attention of Fanatec. My wife got me a DD Pro kit for Christmas. By time I opened it it was already past the 15 day return period, and any issue fell under their 1 year warranty. After less than a week of use the yellow joystick stopped working. I immediately went through the process to start a warranty claim. Continued to use the wheel as everything else works. Each correspondence I get takes about 1 week. I added everything including the original invoice to my Fanatec account so that they could process an RMA. I was told I needed to i needed to add the serial number and invoice (again), and was told that they would honor the warranty "in good faith" as I was not the original purchaser (my wife was). Ive tried reaching out to local support (USA) and nothing. The only way to get any support at all is to email correspond with someone in Germany. The entire process from initial claim to just receiving an RMA number and instructions on where to send it has taken over 3 weeks. Needless to say, I am a little apprehensive to send in the wheel knowing I will likely not get it returned for a long time. Ive contemplated buying a different wheel just to have in the mean time, but man, I dont know if I want to buy products from Fanatec anymore knowing this is how they treat their customers. Honestly, if I could at this point I would just return everything and go with another company. I know this a common theme here, but I though it is important to put on on their forum so hopfully they will adjust their practices in the future...

BTW... when my Logitech wheel stopped working under warranty they just shipped a new one. I think this RMA process is a tactic used to dissuade people from starting warranty claims which is really crappy.