Is There Any Plan of Action?
Is fanatec gonna just keep raking in the orders while never fulfilling pre orders? I've seen them apologize for the covid delay ect. but are they really just gonna keep on doing business the way they are right now? I've got an estimate of August 7th now (instead of June 12th) and my worry is the by August they really mean October or whenever they end up bankrupt.
Comments
This company is no longer a legitimate business. It's a scam.
They make high-end products and distribute them to influencers and accelerate orders for people who complain in forums. Then, they take in a massive amount of orders they can't fulfill and have no plans to. It is a literal pyramid scheme.
I give them a couple more weeks before they start moderating these forums and deleting any negative messages.
Just curious, did you order from them recently? If so, did you cancel?
I got word from Dom today regarding the June 12 orders
“Unfortunately the large consignment of orders due to ship on the 12th did not go out, there were power outages and a lot of system downtime which did not help. I am told by the sales team that these orders should be shipping either today or tomorrow.
Best regards,
Dom “
I'm like you when I ordered on June 1st all the products said available June 5th. I assumed that is close to when they would be shipped. I actually ordered the v3 pedals just because of the availability date being a month ahead of the club sport load cell kit. I'm not an impatient person, but they have my money and even if they are unable to ship the products I would very much appreciate some damn communication.
I was literally quoted the same exact thing. Looks like we're just getting standard messages at this point.
For those who are constantly experiencing delays like I am experiencing, I would strongly recommend sending a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. At least for the US customers here. I sent to both and they get back to you pretty quick.
Here are the links to both:
https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/la-mirada/profile/steering-system/fanatec-north-america-1216-359244
OK, and then what though? Honest question I am not sure what this will achieve for us other than giving them more to worry about.
Fanatec needs to close the web shop and stop taking new orders until they have fulfilled all their current ones, just like Sim-Lab did in order to keep it under control. There's no other solution to this.
Fully agree.
I absolutely agree Jonathan. I actually liked how Sim-Lab did that. I ordered a bunch of stuff through them and there customer service is great. At least you had a real estimate of when you should expect your order. Or Fanatec could at least put “Back Order” on the products and have an option to sign up for updates as to when the item can be ordered again instead of giving people a false availability date. But with everything going on with everyone’s orders lately, it doesn’t hurt to let the BBB or FTC know what’s going on. Because it seems like nothing is really being done to fix our orders. It’s unfortunate but a reality. If we sat here and just complained on the forums without a third party stepping in, then don’t expect anything to actually be fixed.
Another shady business practice from Fanatec: Your warranty starts the day the order is placed. So these month long shipping delays are actually eating into your warranty.
How helps that the customer? It only helps for the few customers that were able to order. Most people that now post on the Fanatec forum would probably not be able to order anything and would all have posted message when can I order again or when is product back in stock.
Stopping orders like Simlab does also doesn’t work or only for a short time. Not able to order for a few months is also frustrating for the customer that want to order. When Orders open again they get a massive amount of orders at the same time resulting in a slow website and resulting in long non predictable lead times because they will have no clue how many orders will be made when they open again. Which will also not help and everything starts over again with to many orders to handle. In the past they would have closed orders again by now maybe even already after accepting only 1 week of orders.
But looks like they also found that out that closing will not help and are still accepting orders now but all with estimated availability dates and all dates are further in the future with bigger margins the later you order. You also see that if you order now you maybe get your items end of july or beginning of august with an estimated gap of 3 weeks. Probably if you order next week it will be estimated for end of August with an even bigger gap. Then still the question they can make their estimates planning. They also ask to not mail them to ask where you order is. They say all orders will be handled and we do not forget you. Also if an order is 1-5 days overtime they ask to not mail and say no order is forgotten and they are working on it. Even then things can go wrong or get delayed if you see some of the comments at their social media.
I also have orders open at Fanatec and Sim-lab and both estimated for mid Juli delivery. If one of them doesn’t make that date, I don’t really care. At least I was able to order and will get my wanted/needed products in they end, even if it’s six months later as with my DD1. Both are working hard to get everybody there ordered products, and have to deal with unexpected delays in production, sick people on the floor, shipping delays to get products to the warehouse, partial deliveries of only 100 bases/aluminum instead of 200, shipping delays to the customer etc...
Thrustmaster is sold out, Logitech is sold out or is double the price it was, Simucube is sold out, Heusinkveld pedals are sold out with never any date when in stock again. At one point there will be just a new batch and you as the customer need to hope you were in the right place at the right time to get a set of pedals. If you are not there in a few minutes after the batch went live the batch is already sold out. The waiting game starts over...
And you say that by experience or just because it is said so in your account. Cause the date in the account it is going to change (manually I think) when shipped and most probably you will not come back here, say ooops I was wrong and I was misinforming other users.
In their terms and conditions that NO ONE (but a handful of us are reading to know our rights) is reading, clearly states when the warranty starts.
If you are a US customer
Warranty
ENDOR AMERICA LLC, 8200 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 200, Beverly Hills, CA, 90211. U.S.A. guarantees that the purchased good were free of material and manufacturing flaws at the time of the transfer of the goods and that they have the guaranteed quality as described in the contract. Upon receipt, the customer must inspect the goods immediately for flaws, condition and/or quality. Any blatant flaws must be reported to us, in writing, within 10 days of their discovery the same is valid for any latent defects. Otherwise, the warranty for these defects is no longer applicable. The warranty is for 12 months after shipment.
https://fanatec.com/us-en/terms-conditions
If you are an EU customer or covered from the EU shop
7.2 For consumers the limitation period regarding warranty claims for used goods shall be one year from delivery of goods to the Client except for the restrictions in the following section.
https://fanatec.com/eu-en/terms-conditions
By used good it doesn't mean the 2nd hand bought from other but used as you have been using it.
Also from other members also it was advised that the dates changed after the shipping and reflected the correct one.
This is all because of manufacturing everything in China. Make the stuff in your own country. But you'll pay more, possibly not a lot more as China labour costs are rising.
I get the same issue from local UK cycle shop. Sold all the stock, China etc factories slowly reopening plus the 6 week sea shipping, so shop is short of stuff.
I've had excellent service in UK, my early May orders have been fine.
Look man, I'm just stating what I see in my account. Warranty expiration remains the same date as 1 year after purchase. Doesn't change when item is shipped or delivered. You think Fanatec manually changes all warranty expiration dates for all their orders? They barely have the manpower to fulfill all their customer service requests.
I have entered you what the T&C states.
Have also showed you what other users said from their experience.
Also check this thread
https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/2752/warranty-expiration-date#latest
You want to continue moaning and complaining, be my guest.
Just stated what we know and seen so far for other people with the same question as you.