Fanatec support has been unhelpful and quite rude - need actual help!
My Fanatec CSW v2.5 (and WRC wheel) has started to exhibit what seems like intermittent connectivity issues which is making it impossible to race in iRacing. I opened a ticket 8 days ago and thus far the only "troubleshooting" I was asked to do was to tighten some screws around the wheel connection port and on the wheel itself (they were already properly torqued). This issue is very similar to the one posted below, and actually you can find dozens of threads with people having similar issues:
https://forum.fanatec.com/discussion/21479/wheels-losing-connection-or-freezing
So once I confirmed the screws are properly tight, they immediately replied with a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) and asked me to send it for repairs at my own cost. When I asked them why I was going to be charged and why they didn't offer more troubleshooting steps, they replied with a rhetorical/sarcastic question to make a point (about the fact that I acknowledge there is no longer a warranty).
So it seems like one of these things is happening:
1) This is such a common issue they don't even need to bother troubleshooting it. This is a manufacturing defect and once they heard the symptoms they immediately knew repairs would be needed. In a lot of industries this would be handled as a "recall" to address the defect at no cost to the customer. Repairing the defect at no cost or being transparent about the cost would be the approach that would give Fanatec higher marks in customer service.
2) The support team has no interest in troubleshooting to see what is actually happening and is trying to take shortcuts to close tickets, again at the cost of the customer. I'm surprised they didn't ask me to send over diagnostic logging data or something that would rule out whether its the base or the wheel or even the USB cable. This is why they want me to send everything and they will just charge me for replacement.
At this point I have no indication how much they would charge me to fix the issue so its a total gamble for me to blindly send it in for RMA. They could come back and tell me its going to be $1000US to fix. I might as well buy a different rig if that's the case.
If anyone has ideas about how I can properly troubleshoot this issue I'd be grateful. If its just the wheel I can purchase a new one and be back in the game!
Thanks for any and all help!
Comments
Unfortunately if it's out of warranty then you are lucky they are actually offering to repair it as they don't have to. If you send it in they shouldn't charge you anything until they've found out what's wrong and given you a quote to repair it, then it's up to you whether to proceed and authorize payment. I'm not looking forward to the days when my current Fanatec kit is out of warranty tbh because it seems that things do go wrong quite regularly.
I just had the same with a Thrustmaster base. Out of warranty; pay up.
They gave me a quote for the repair. I would of course cover shipping. It's more common than you think. Let alone, a real car... :)
Hi Reza,
I am sorry to hear about the hardware issue you're experiencing. I looked into your communication with Support. I have spoken to the support agent directly and there was certainly no intention to be rude, they simply wanted to make sure that you understood the situation about providing the original invoice. You were asking why potential hardware repairs would not be covered by us, and this is the reason.
Peter is also correct, the actual assessment of the hardware in our service centre is free, even when there is no warranty, the customer only covers the shipping costs (both ways). Once an assessment is made, the support can come back to you with a cost estimate for the repair.
You suggested that there is more that the agent could have done to troubleshoot before calling in the products. I have discussed this with the agent as well. Based on your description of the issue, it was determined to be clearly a connection issue between wheel and base. This is not something that would benefit from providing logs, and it is not possible to diagnose whether it is the wheel or the base with such logs (which is why both items must be sent in). It is also not a USB issue, because you described how it switched to Xbox mode while in iRacing, and this is only possible when there is a faulty connection between an Xbox-licensed wheel and a wheel base. So suggesting that you try a different USB port or cable would be an unnecessary troubleshooting step.
Unfortunately it is not possible to provide an estimate on the cost of the repair before the assessment is made. The number of spare parts required could vary significantly depending on the exact issue.
The standard support procedure has been followed correctly up to this point, and I assure you that the agents you have communicated with so far are not skipping steps.
[Fanatec Community Manager]