Nothing from Support. Support now Suspended....New buyers Beware.

Had issues now with my Handbrake, always had little issues with it, but put up with it due to firmware updates etc....Recently its completely stopped working.

Went back to old drivers and still nothing.

I actually bought another 3.5 jack incase it was that...nothing dead handbrake. Opened up with support weeks ago and still have not got back...not even an email to state we will be with you soon.


I have over £2000 of equipment bought from Fanatec and never experienced this kind of silence from any company. I was told last year to be cautious of this company due to poor Support and low and behold this now happens.

Yes they maybe busy..but a simple email saying im in a queue would be nice.

They have now suspended all Support due to high influx (that doesnt look good at all on hardware)


Very close to opening a dispute with my Credit card/Bank over this, which is a shame.

So i now have a 10k motion sim rig and i need a workaround for a handbrake ie a button.


Usually would never say this but beware of support before buying Fanatec products.

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Comments

  • I have to agree with you, i was one of the customers that was slated for calling out fanatec last year when the csl DD came out and boy did i get slated, I can’t count how many people gave me grief over this, after all of that i have been getting rid of my fanatec equipment slowly over the past year, and after looking into the financial records that they have posted on the internet, and the fact that the amount of items on the site that are pre-order with a long order span, i have to say that its not acceptable behaviour for a company who charge premium prices and state one you place an order you can’t change it even if it’s not left the warehouse, and comments like if you don’t like the service shop some where else, and that was a comment from customer service, I decided that fanatec was a company that had grown to fast and had gotten to big for their boots, so with that in mind i have been forced to go with other company’s and i have to say i wont be missing fanatec.

  • I have ordered Fanatec stuff almost 2 weeks ago and 0 feedback from them. A considerable order of base+wheels+pedals etc, and it really saddens me, I have tried to get info on it through their support, and literal 0.

    They can come up with any excuse they want, the fact that they are such a big company with such a bad support, isn't justifiable by high influx, its as simple as that. It's just a badly managed company, either you like it or not. I regret buying from them, now it is what it is, mainly because I've modified all my rig for Fanatec, and reverting now is more costly than waiting for this shit.

  • Dominic BrennanDominic Brennan Member, Administrator

    Hi Jamie,

    I'm sorry to hear about your handbrake.

    I checked your account - if you did attempt to open a ticket some time ago, it looks like it did not get through.

    The only ticket on your account is the one created on 30/04. You were sent an automated reply on the same day to acknowledge the receipt of your ticket. You definitely received this automated response because you replied to it on 7/05.

    Unfortunately the team is currently handling a significant backlog of tickets and it is taking on average 10 days to receive a reply. Your open ticket is indeed in a queue and you should receive a reply soon.

    I apologise for the inconvenience. We are addressing the service situation and it is improving.


    [Fanatec Community Manager]

  • 10 days? I have been waiting for 3 weeks, if I don't get an answer this week, I will open a dispute on Paypal. It is unacceptable!

  • Dominic BrennanDominic Brennan Member, Administrator

    Hi Alberto,

    We sent you a reply on 28/04 and 01/05. If you did not see these messages, please check your spam folder.


    [Fanatec Community Manager]

  • When did you open your ticket?


    I opened the ticket on 04/30, I received an automatic reply and I hope the ticket is really open.


    But now I have not received any response from support to solve my problem.


    is inadmissible !!!


    Support must respond immediately, this is bad publicity for Fanatec


  • I opened a dispute in March as i had strange issues then,but i heard that it may be down to driver problems. I was away from home for a month and came back to more issues,hence why i sent one away again 10 days ago.

    Apparently they never received the one in March so hear only just now by a Mod in this forum,at least my one form 10 days ago is in a queue.


    Ye im really annoyed with all this...I have a 10k motion sim sitting here and i am now thinking of purchasing a Handbrake from another company if this doesnt get look into soon.


    Shocking from a company this big....Especially since the Pandemic in the way that Sim racing has taken off.

    I could have purchased Simcube or other companies products,but went with a full Fanatec setup.

    In fairness all my other products seem to be fine atm...but the handbrake issue is a big one for me as i play Dirt Rally a lot.


    What gives me concern is that fanatec Support has an extremely high numbers of people with issues now....and they have delayed feedback and help its that bad.

  • Opened one in March which i just found out never went through.....Opened one on the 30/4/22 ....still no answer.

  • lee spinkslee spinks Member
    edited May 2022

    Well I’m stunned that its taking 10 days for ticket response, although that dose not seem to be the collective community opinion, there’s only 2 reasons for a inadequate response time like this a wholly inadequate amount of staff dedicated to the customer service area which I don’t believe or the other reason which is the most worrisome factor is the amount of issues that are arising around brand new technology that people have had to sit and wait for due to poor allocation of stock and having to pre order, and or the just in time stocking of items, which was blatantly obvious at the start of the cls DD clock ups, also you will notice that fanatec never never say sorry or offer at any time of compensation, mostly its all the computer system error, having worked for Microsoft and Sony i can say that computers don’t make error’s, the errors are mainly confined to the variable between the chair and keyboard, still I personally think its time to teach fanatec a lesson and not pre order anything and move away from them to another company, as a side note you will also notice most top end sim racers don’t use fanatec, they might own a DD1 or 2 but as a whole they don’t use Fanatec.


  • LOL i not had a ticket response.

    I just found out off an Admin Member in here that its in a queue.


    Shocking stuff tbh

  • I'm sorry guys, again is a pain to read all these comments reporting a very bad situation.

    I'm only into 2-3 hours of use of the DD Pro despite having it from months, and so far I'm quite impressed for the good, can't stress enough that a proper and solid rig makes all the difference in the world.

    Topic-wise....I really don't understand, and this is quite a strong feeling, Fanatec's silence.

    I mean, there is the blog section, used for new announcement and statement about a specific situation...there is no better "place" to make a statement about the situation, their's efforts to fix it all and yes, a line of apology for all that have forked tremendous amounts of money and now are sitting with nothing, not even a word.

    IT would make a difference, pratically? No of course, things are going like this at the moment and who knows for how long....but it would make a lot of difference for the brand perception, a public aknowledgment by the company would be highly appreciated.

    We all want solutions, fast, I know...but when this situation is paired with a deafening silence it's even worse.

    We all are human, and behavior makes a huge difference.

    "Hey, we are sorry about this...we assure that ....it will take time ....etc etc....We apologize ....".

    We don't need much, really, and after all we all depend on the company's capability to handle the situation.

    Pair this silence with frustration and the disaster is served, moving to something else.

    So, again, I can't help myself about this total lack of communication, a very simple message on the blog, there's no need for details...it's not our job to manage a company and there are people for this....but a message...few lines....come on!.

    And I'm writing this as a happy customer with no issues.................still ...... (finger crossed)...........holy water..............(vodoo dolls around me).

    Hold on guys!

    Ciao!

  • My apologies, you are right Dominic. It was my mistake, I thought it was a copy of the first email.

    Thank you very much for helping!

  • I'm so close to cancel my order its just unbelievable.

    I just feel completely robbed by Fanatec.

  • I have a support ticket open for a wrong temperature read of my DD2 and - just as @Dominic Brennan said - got a "ticket received"-mail back right away that stated it currently can take 10 days for staff to get back to me. It took 11 "working days", but the answer helped me partially.

    All contact I had with Fanatec before (back cover of my CSW v2.5 got sticky from UV light exposure, and a sales question regarding black friday) were answered super quickly and 100% satisfactory. One time within 3 hours.


    At least from my perspective, I absolutely believe that the Fanatec support is currently going through a busy post-holiday backlog phase.

  • There should be different processes for stupid tickets like "where is my order" and important tickets like "I received my order and the product is defect"

    I received a DD2 and it is defect after 3h of gaming, It has to be changed, but I am waiting for my answer.. and waiting..


    I mean, we spend a lot of our fu**ing and 10 days is way WAY to long.

  • +1 for this sentiment of Alberto. It’s 100 percent on the head.

    @Rene, I cannot agree with this sentiment 3 weeks waiting for support to even tell you one thing is beyond an epic fail. A few times is fine but now it’s the norm for every support ticket at the moment. Customer support is going downhill, proven by the fact that there is no longer a hotline that you can even call anymore. Their mailbox has been full a few times already and not even emails were getting through.

    All companies have to deal with holiday periods and after but at least they will COMMUNICATE with their customer offer something for the trouble or simply apo….for real. This is poor planning on one side and arrogance on another sidestroke fanatec. Customers should never be left stranded like this, worse is that the silence of fanatec proves exactly that they don’t care……at least that will be the assumption that stranded customers will make.

  • Hi there!

    Well, sorry, but I don't have this 'point of view' ...about the 'post-holidays backlog'....it doensn't add up....not at all. 😉

    My idea? 100% honest and 'fair'? First of all, I want Fanatec to be successfull and to prosper as a company, simply because I'm a customer and in my total interest things have to go this way...new products, offers, supports and so on.

    Having that clarified...my thoughts:

    • new product CSL DD (and DD Pro later on) announced and launched...good, very good...let's be honest, many of us wanted for so long a product like that, not to mention console-only gamers
    • first wave of units, checked one by one maybe and sent to selected people a.k.a. youtubers, influencers...whatever....things are going like that in these 'modern times'...no?
    • orders were flowing, a lot, well over Fanatec's expectations......and that means....
    • yes....production, production, production...push push push go go go......
    • QC goes down the drain as a consequence...it's pretty obvious to me....
    • CS same as before....and so totally unable to handle even a 'standard' situation....we have to keep in mind the amount of new units going everywhere...
    • as a result.....a semi-disaster, brand-wise.
    • this outcome is largely due to the unbearable silence from the company itself....yes they're busy, heads down, trying to manage this s***twave but hey....when I was a kid you should've published an apology or a message in newspapers or tv announcements.....today there is no excuse.....they have the website, the blog, youtube channel, whatever.

    HAving said that I would love, and I mean REALLY, Fanatec stating: "No dear (?) customer, you're completely wrong, nothing like what you wrote here. You're totally wrong. bla bla bla.!" Something, to say the least.

    Silence?

    So, no and no and no again Rene....no holiday backlog for me. 😉

    (I'm going to check if my DD Pro is still functioning....you know, after all my public rants...) 🤣

    Have a lovely day, ciao!

  • Another +1 for Alberto! Everything you said is totally right and logical.

    Why can’t the fanatec guys and girls in some office somewhere put their heads together and decide „we have to tell our customers SOMETHING!!! Instead it takes a few customers using their own heads individually to point out what is the right and logical thing for fanatec to do. An apology or some kind of statement would help future customers know their risks and current customers to manage expectations.

  • I have to say +2 two the last two posters, i have been watching fanatec in great detail for the last year and a half, having spent many thousands of pounds on hardware, and as a whole its mostly been very good, but after studying the tax and financial records that endor have posted on the internet and been affected first hand, with the CSL DD first wave complete disaster and the follow on of alleged computer errors and blaming the pandemic, and comments from fanatec like “if you don’t like it shop some where else” and the total lack of basic customer service and customer support and information i have been at a total loss with this brand, i have not suffered any equipment failures like a lot of others but i made a decision some time ago that this brand was stretched way to far with the advent of the csl DD and not informing the customer base that they were discontinue the cls elite base and pedals, in favour of the cls dd, this was the final straw, for me the customer service is the most important thing a company can do, so as a few of the regular posters here will know i have sold most of my fanatec hardware and the last of it will be gone on Saturday, but i do have to say that this all started not when the pandemic hit it was when endor decided to branch out into the real life racing world with bmw and a few other areas that I don’t think they were ready for this shows in the financial and shareholder information.


    just my two cents….. although i am sad to be leaving the ecosystem.

  • All Fanatec should've and should do is just post an apology to customers and explain what is going on. Just blaming it on high influx isn't very friendly to real customers, that gives 0 inside to customers that eventually believed in the brand.

  • Hi Lee....yes I know you're 'moving away', and I'd say your choice makes sense.

    My choice is to stay with console at the moment, well I'll always stays on consoles for gaming....maybe adding a PC for simracing only in the future (my only reason is to have my personal 3 display setup one day!), and when this will happen Fanatec will not be the choice, no way. I like a lot Simucube, if I had a pc now I'd rather choose Simucube, end of the story.

    But I still play on consoles and even with a pc I like to play things like GT7 or Forza on consoles and, at the moment, the only DD choice is Fanatec.

    So I wish that my DD Pro unit will not fail and serve me as it should, for years, and that the decision to drop it will be mine and only mine because I want to try something else and not because desperate for the unit to be faulty, useless, and so on.

    I'm not selling my CSL ELite PS4, I'll keep it as a "backup" plan (I'm selling the old and gold CSL Elite LC pedal., beautiful piece of kit indeed).

    Fanatec trust with this new products and especially with their behaviour with customers is completely gone, and I'm like you, meaning a customer with no equipment failures so far, since 2017.

    So I really hope that the company will keep up with all the 'unfinished businness'.

    I probably wrote this in another post....maybe something similar....can you imagine a GT World Challenge race weekend....then you have to setup all the virtual esports race ....with rigs, pc and stuff....and Fanatec's being forced to use CSL DD or DD Pro's, picked randomly from new batches freshly arrived from China and on the way to us, final users.....but before that, a proper professional run-test.

    I'm just wondering what will gonna happen........based on the last months trend.......well.... I'll leave you doing the math.

    Ciao! 😉

  • Gotta love the arguments of Alberto, well a lot of statements of fact there. I like the point about if they were forced to run unchecked equipment. Thing is even the replacement they sent me has pretty much the same issue as the first. Two grainy feedback units in a row.

    They got a second chance to make sure that what I received was working 100 percent and they still failed. What does this tell us?

    if only fanatec would listen and do the right thing.😔

  • Yes I totally understand Alberto,

    i am lucky enough to be able to swap across to another system simucube,

    but i was super disappointed when the issues started when fanatec started having issue with the distribution of the cls dd, up to that point I really loved my cls elite base and those really good csl pedal set with the load cell and you could add dampeners, as soon a i saw the new pedal set, “by this i mean those fugly super cheap tin ones being sold with the cls dd,” i was wtf are those that looks like something thrusmaster would bring to the table, not my fanatec !!!

    And when a company is so far up its own ass, thinking that because they had made a really good name and reputation for them self’s and ignoring customers.

    and only paying attention to the share holders and the big cash bucket’s in sim/real life corporate company’s then i have been in the businesses to see the writing on the wall, as much as I can’t fault the equipment i have had in the past, and love, I can’t in put my trust in fanatec after sitting and watching them, Alberto as you said they have many many ways to reassure the customer base but they seem to think it dose not matter what we think,

    if you have time you may want to take a look at these two sites :)

  • Hi Lee!

    Later today I'll have a look at your linked informations.....me & Finance-related stuff are like water & oil but just for curiosity, yes I can do it! 😅

    And yes, looking at the blog section and seeing the last message being about the price increase and not a word to assess the current situation...well... there's not much to comment, isn't it?.

    Ciao!

  • Really getting annoyed now with all this.


    Waited 12 days for them to get back to me,then it happened and email.....stating,try a different driver.

    As expected it didn't work as id tried older drivers for my handbrake issue.


    Then since that 1 email on Tuesday....Silence.


    You would think that once they start speaking to you you would move forward....but absolute silence.


    So i'm very close now to opening a dispute with my bank for them to look into it.


    Sad thing is is that i have a number of people involved in my project build as in high bloggers,Youtubers etc....im very very close to explaining the issues im having with this company now.....and its going to make it way around the community.

  • Well guys i feel your pain, as of now I’m no longer a fantec owner, due to the total lack of customer service and attitude towards the customer base, which makes me sad, considering how good they once were, i have now sold up completely I’m now a simucube through and through i wish you all the best of luck.


  • Ye exactly my thoughts now.


    Sitting here with 2k worth of Fanatec gear and am now going to list it on ebay and start buying Simucube from now on.

    Its not just the Handbrake issue with no RMA offered or even proper help but its incase my Direct Drive or GT3 Porche Wheel gets issues and they do this all over again.


    Gonna have to start writing up reviews on the SimRacing Forums soon regarding all this.


    They really have messed up in all this with the Support Problems.

  • lee spinkslee spinks Member
    edited May 2022

    I would like to thank fanatec this arrived this morning.


  • Your experience with fanatec was a blessing in disguise 😂

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