Is Fanatec winding down? What's going on?
I've been a customer for many years now. Had my ups and downs with some hardware but always had fairly reasonable response times and useful conversations through customer support.
I received my DD Extreme the other week and immediately found the OLED display to be faulty (No brightness). I submitted a ticket and waited. The site stated within 7 days but it took 12 for me to receive a response. The response itself was the equivalent to turn it off/turn it on again.
I've received faulty hardware from the get go and they then ask that I check screws, check for bent pins, check this, check that. All the sort of checks that should be done. No offer to put it right, just a script thrown at me via copy and paste to put me on hold for another week (or whatever).
Based on that first response I have zero confidence in this company now. They are absolutely scrambling to get orders out the door and take money while hiding behind excuses. There's absolutely no excuse for quality control and customer service going down the toilet. Sure, a warehouse can get backed up but you hire more staff and get your house in order.
It made me wonder. Is there something bigger maybe going on? Is there maybe financial issues or other? The big brands often throw money and resources at this sort of issue to get over the hurdles, but for whatever reason Fanatec don't seen able to.
I've requested a refund now. I have absolutely no hope of resolving this issue with the scripted responses that I'll get so I've put in a request both through Fanatec (likely 12 days again before I get a response) and also Paypal who I carried out the initial transaction with. Oh joy, I've also got UPS to deal with for the import fees!
I truly hope things aren't as bleak as they seem, but I do think that the purse string holders at Fanatec need to loosen them a bit and hire some staff to deal with the issues being faced. It's a farce.
Comments
Following this forum since October 2023 because I preordered DD Extreme back then. Unfortunately the posts like yours keep still coming. That's the reason I didn't went with Fanatec and picked another brand. No support is a no-go for me. Especially for such expensive items.
Hope they will finally make it through this black hole this year and maybe next year will be attractive again. I still think they can make a good hardware and make our racing hobby experience even better.
I am a new customer at fanatec and did my order back in November 2023. Until today no package received and also no feedback on my requests.
For me it is finally clear, that I will cancel my order and try to get my money back - luckily I did the payment with paypal.
My decision is not only based on the fact, that I have to wait four month for my order. It is rather the fact, that if I have a technical issue with the products, that there is no support as well. This way worse than to wait a longer time for my order.
And if I read the forum, there are many technical issues with this products at the moment.
Really wish the parties concerned would step up and solve the multitude of issues in this company with a hands on approach. Do they need a leadership change?
I have a HUGE "eco-system" of Fanatec products that I'm quite fond of. I don't want to have to convert them to work with competitors wheel bases if this company ceases to exist.
Fanatec feels like Boeing aircraft company of the sim racing industry right now. Hope they don't go down in flames.
New to Fanatec I was going to make myself a nice big ecosystem with them. Unfortunately, I'm one of those who received a DD+ that was out of order, and I'm being pushed around without any consideration.
I'm furious and disappointed, and unless there's a miracle I don't think I'll be staying with them in the future.
For me, Fanatec used to be the great SIM racing company ... and I was delighted to be able to buy their equipment and even advertise it on the YT Twitch network ... but now it's a never-ending downfall ...
Indeed, a radical change of management ... might be the solution to turn the corner that this company has clearly failed to do, and finally move on to something more professional.
I placed an order in October 2023, but unfortunately, the items were sent to the wrong address. One of the packages was returned due to an insufficient address, while the other four packages appeared to be delivered by USPS several days later after a neighbor who knows me gave me the packages. I wrote to them to explain the issue on November 8, 2023. They responded on November 17, stating, "We have informed our warehouse to reship the missing parcel as soon as possible to the following address." Then, on December 22, 2023, they replied, "Thanks for reaching out to Fanatec. We want to sincerely apologize for the delayed reply! Our warehouse has been instructed to reship the returned wheel rim to the following address."
On February 2, 2024, they replied again, "Thank you for your message! I would like to confirm that our warehouse has now confirmed the return of the ClubSport Wheel Rim R330. Moreover, the on-site staff has been instructed to re-ship this parcel at the earliest convenience. Once the new tracking becomes available, it will additionally be added to your customer account."
Finally, on March 19, 2024, they sent the package, but unfortunately, it was delivered to the wrong address once again, and USPS returned it due to an insufficient address on March 22, 2023. I don't know what is happening with these people. I am very frustrated because I need the rim to use with the other product that are now useless.
Bought clubsport DD, 12 hours in it got bricked, sent a support ticket with videos, forum posts, reddit posts basically putting them against the wall with all the info and a 12 line long of things i "tried" to do to fix it. After 12 days got a message with return label, no questions asked, received a invoice that im getting a new one, and that its getting prepared for shipping. Should have it at my door this week. If all goes well it will be a 4 week RMA process, with the initial answer taking most of time. It looks like in Europe they aren't doing that bad.
Their value certainly seems to be winding down; their stock has lost over 70% of its value in the last year.