Fanatec - an absolute nightmare

[Philmm]

The absolute worst customer service in the world!! Horrible. I had an issue with FANATEC's Podium Racing Wheel F1 with DD1 from the first day I got it, instead of taking ownership of their defective product and replacing it (which every other company in the world would do), I got the run around for 2 weeks before they ask that I ship it back to them for a repair that they will cover the cost of. WHATTT?!!! I am now at over 1 month of having spent over $5000 and NEVER even had a chance to use it once. NOT EVEN ONCE!!! All I was able to do is look at it. Absolute BS and they don't care. I was originally told by their dealer that it would only take a day or two for the repair to happen... LOL what a joke!!! I'm over a MONTH of waiting now. The dealer apparently has sent multiple emails to follow up and ask what is happening with the repair, and we are getting zero answers. I bet it will be another month before we hear anything back and I may get to use it. Their products are sub par, obviously, with many issues (check it out online, they are probably so backed up in repairs they can't even mange them).
If they can't even stand by their product and just replace it (the product didn't work out of the box, defective on day 1) how are they going to be after 1 year or 2 years of ownership?? Find an alternative to buy from. This company is a complete joke.

 

[Philmm]

***UPDATE*** - After 7 weeks!!! Yup, 7 weeks of waiting and arguing and being absolutely disgusted by this company's customer service, I finally have the product back in hand and able to use it. But guess what?? They forgot to include my USB cables I had sent in with the product, so I got it back and still wasn't able to use it right away. Another major disappointment after unboxing it for the second time.

 

[gnoshme]

Indeed. I didn't spend as much as you but have had an equally frustrating experience over the last month. Typically 3 day wait time for a response on an ongoing thread for me. Early on in the process I realized it wasn't going to end well, so bought a replacement for the broken part to continue simply fighting for a refund on the first purchase. As this was a CSL Elite wheel - that's only $170 + shipping and I would be apoplectic if the cost of the part made this not an option. They are going to refund my original purchase, but only because I was able to capture on video the SECOND wheel being broken by the base due to violent oscillations due to specific settings.

It's just bad through. I bought the spares offered to fix the first wheel and fixed the second one, but what arrived in that order (prepared for wheel 1) would NOT have been ENOUGH to fix wheel 1. No connector pin ribbon. Basically if I'd followed the process support had laid down for me, I'd still be trying to solve the problem 4 weeks later.

K

 

[Moxley6969]

@DomB_Fanatec

7 weeks turn around on a Day 1 failure......

 

[Harpo]

@DomB_Fanatec

7 weeks turn around on a Day 1 failure......

@DomB_Fanatec hasn't posted here since Nov 6, when he failed to help me. I had to BUY the parts to fix my brand new pedals.

It appears that Fanatec should be avoided at all costs, they have no interest in customer service whatsoever.

 

[Paul Mullins]

I had a failure of my BMW Clubsport wheel that was only *just* out of warranty by some months - it literally just stopped working mid-race.

I determined (with the use of my DSO) that the microcontroller had died. I was willing to purchase either another programmed IC and change it out myself or a complete main board but was told they weren't available despite the wheel being a current product.

Fanatec wiped their hands of me even thought I'd spent thousands of dollars with them on wheel bases, shifters, pedals and other steering wheels. I now had a wheel that was a $500 paperweight.

I was so pissed off, I spent some weeks writing my own code for a replacement micro and repaired my wheel.

I have since sold off all my Fanatec stuff and will NEVER buy anything from them again..!!

The stuff is pretty good when it's working but you're on your own when it fails outside of any warranty period.

 

[scoobysi]

This is sad to hear as I was thinking about getting a new Fanatec wheel to replace my old CSR. When I got my CSR I had a DOA and then a further failure very quickly but at that time (2012) I couldn’t fault their customer service as they sent me new wheels even before I’d returned their old ones.

 

[Moxley6969]

I was so pissed off, I spent some weeks writing my own code for a replacement micro and repaired my wheel.

Very interesting, Any details on that ?

@DomB_Fanatec hasn't posted here since Nov 6, when he failed to help me. I had to BUY the parts to fix my brand new pedals.

It appears that Fanatec should be avoided at all costs, they have no interest in customer service whatsoever.

Thats a shame, But I fail to understand how they would have made you Purchase parts on a new set of pedals. What was the reasoning on that one ?

 

[Sim Strata]

My experience has not been as bad as yours. I have had three warranty claims, all handled quickly enough. One of them was a GT3 wheel issue, I did not even discuss it with them, I just said "refund please" and they sent me the postage label same day.

I think Fanatec do have a quality issue. However, because of my experience I have decided...reluctantl;y...to stick with them and ordered a DD1 as opposed to dealing with some boutique supplier who probably won't be around in a couple of years with an OSW/Simucube. I really seriously hope I won't regret that.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

My experience has not been as bad as yours. I have had three warranty claims, all handled quickly enough. One of them was a GT3 wheel issue, I did not even discuss it with them, I just said "refund please" and they sent me the postage label same day.

I think Fanatec do have a quality issue. However, because of my experience I have decided...reluctantl;y...to stick with them and ordered a DD1 as opposed to dealing with some boutique supplier who probably won't be around in a couple of years with an OSW/Simucube. I really seriously hope I won't regret that.

Hope you like it.
BTW, not sure which boutique supplier you refer to, but Granite Devices, the company behind Simucube1 and 2 as well as servo drives for popular OSW builds, was in business since 2006.

 

[Fucitol]

You shouldn't even have to wait for repairs when receiving a DOA; I think they are obligated to replace it immediately as far as I know. Or you could send it back for a refund and order a new one.

Also, I haven't heard of any hardware problems at all with Simucube SC1 so they - Granite Devices - seems to be pretty reliable. They also predicted Fanatecs power supply issues that they've worked hard for to not suffer themselves.

 

[dud]

You shouldn't even have to wait for repairs when receiving a DOA; I think they are obligated to replace it immediately as far as I know.

Depends on the country or even state.

Fanatec will do the absolute minimum enforced by law in any given region.

 

[Mascot]

@DomB_Fanatec hasn't posted here since Nov 6, when he failed to help me. I had to BUY the parts to fix my brand new pedals.

It appears that Fanatec should be avoided at all costs, they have no interest in customer service whatsoever.

Maybe he no longer works for Fanatec. I'd have thought he'd have logged in during the past two months as part of his role. Seems like a long time not to.

 

[Moxley6969]

Maybe he no longer works for Fanatec. I'd have thought he'd have logged in during the past two months as part of his role. Seems like a long time not to.

Valid point. he might have had enough and pack up.

 

[gnoshme]

He was on a thread over on GTPlanet.net mid December.

 

[Philmm]

You shouldn't even have to wait for repairs when receiving a DOA; I think they are obligated to replace it immediately as far as I know. Or you could send it back for a refund and order a new one.

YESSSS!! Exactly what I kept saying to the dealer I bought it from, but he also wasn't helpful at all. He kept saying his hands were tied based on what Fanatec told him they would do. As the dealer of the product he had the responsibility to take ownership of it as well since he had my money, but sadly he didn't either. I was just a few days away from getting my lawyer involved before I got it back, which would have cost me some money, but at least I would have gotten all of my money back. Thank god this is over for now, I hopefully won't have to deal with them ever again.

 

[Mr Antony Myatt]

Interesting read. It's a shame to hear that as I've been eyeing up some expensive Fantatec goodies. I'm somewhat alarmed to read how bad the customer service is if the product is faulty. I would expect a lot better from a company that's regarded as highly as they are, their hardware isn't exactly cheap.

But then the flip side, we only hear on a forum when someone isn't happy. I'll certainly be a bit more weary on any future Fanatec purchases though.

 

[Noel Spence]

Interesting read. It's a shame to hear that as I've been eyeing up some expensive Fantatec goodies. I'm somewhat alarmed to read how bad the customer service is if the product is faulty. I would expect a lot better from a company that's regarded as highly as they are, their hardware isn't exactly cheap.

But then the flip side, we only hear on a forum when someone isn't happy. I'll certainly be a bit more weary on any future Fanatec purchases though.

have a look at this thread ,iwas one of the poor mugs who bought there almighty v1 wheel thanks to this guy ekretz i got the wheel going againhttps://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/fanatec-csw-csr-elite-modders-thread-update-february-2014.274631/

 

[maelstrom]

But then the flip side, we only hear on a forum when someone isn't happy. I'll certainly be a bit more weary on any future Fanatec purchases though.

If you haven't already done so, it's also worth reading this thread before buying Fanatec: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/fanatecs-reliability.175861/. There's a poll at the start and even though 54% of users have had no issues, the fact that 46% have is very concerning.

 

[MarkR]

Wow, I wish I had read this thread before buying a £2.5k DD2 setup from them. Back in 2015 I had already returned 2 x CSWv2 hubs for failure within 14 days and went back to Thrustmaster gear as a result. I thought they'd have got all this together with the DD wheels etc. I'm very much with the buyer beware group after my experience too.

My issues are minor in comparison but the support has been equally useless and mostly non-existent.

- UPS lost the table clamp as part of a 5 item delivery, it was scanned out for delivery at a depot 2 miles from my house but then vanished. It mysteriously turned up 4 days later. UPS will not investigate a missing parcel from a 'receiver' call, only Fanatec could ask them to investigate - except there was and still has been no response from Fanatec, it's just pure luck UPS found and since delivered the clamp which had quote 'gone to the wrong depot' - except the tracking scans disagree.

- On the Clubsport V2 wheel (PC & Xbox) the lower right-hand hex screw - essential for fitting the Podium Advanced Module - could not be removed, the supplied Allen key just span in the head. No metric or imperial Allen key we could find would move the damn thing. Fanatec support response 4 days later was 'it shouldn't be difficult to remove'! Luckily we already had removed it with a Torx driver that dripped, screw now replaced with a correctly sized one. For anyone without a whole bunch of tools lying around this could be a big problem. At £300 for the wheel, it isn't good enough to have quality issues like this.

- Damper for the Clubsport pedals doesn't fit. The Pedal Link Arm that connects the damper to the Clubsport pedals is 32mm wide, the damper itself is 30mm wide the gap in the pedal arm itself is 31mm. I don't have a precision lathe handy to remove the offending 1mm. No response at all from Fanatec. Building and repairing kit cars was less frustrating.

I have now got the setup working but am still considering whether to return the lot under the 14-day distance selling regulations, might be worth saving the headache in future if the wheelbase or anything else fails.