Sure hope the CS DD is the last wheelbase I will ever need/want
There certainly are others that have had a worse experience than I. I thought reading all the posts complaining of one thing or another was mostly exacerbated, my apologies to those people.
Promises of contact from customer support, lack of replies to questions in the forum, and lack of transparency in what order status actually means and couple all that with when a post from a Fanatec representative like the CS DD has shipped I feel is a bit condescending at a minimum.
I have been a loyal Fanatec customer for 15 years+ and I really hope the CS DD is the last wheelbase I will need to buy as this experience is as bad as those that warned us of what it could be.
It is apparent to me that asking for the basic question of when can I expect my gear is too much of a task. how is in stock inventory allocated when one item is out of stock, or terms such as IN PROGRESS is assigned for days turning into weeks.
Comments
I totally agree with you, David. I'm currently happy with my CSL DD 8Nm with McLaren v2 wheel. There have been a couple of deals that have been attractive to me during this Black Friday sale, but I won't allow myself to give any more of my money to this company. I feel like I'd be rewarding them for their terrible customer service and sloppy business practices, and I have no intention of subjecting myself to situations like the horror stories experienced by so many on these forums.
From shady business practices like immediately charging your payment method and holding that money instead of charging you when the product is in stock and actually ships (like most reputable businesses), to the inability or unwillingness to provide even a basic level of customer support (Fanatec's motto seems to be "when the going gets tough, we turn our phones off!)...from questionable Quality Control measures and high levels of RMA requests particularly for CSL products, to software development practices that can probably be described as amateur at best (how many drivers in a row have we had now which have been rushed out to fix broken features from the previous driver, only to find that the new driver has broken something else??) It's a wonder to me how they've stayed in business as long as they have. Equally wondrous is why anyone, knowing all this, would still willingly hand over their money to them.
Buying new gear from Fanatec would be consigning myself to having to deal with the headaches and hassle of everything I've listed above, and I simply can not justify it any more. Especially not when there are so many other viable competitors on the market.
(Had to break that up into two separate posts otherwise it wouldn't post... which reminds me to add "woefully outdated website and forum software" to the list of things!)
This is my first time getting equipment from them... and my first time joining the sim community... Im on the same boat as David with the exact same dates. This is kinda sad to be honest very ugly taste for my first buy :/ Im also scared of the following:
All of these are things I should not worry about when spending $2k. Honestly it does not matter if its two thousand or ten dollars, you should not worry about any of this when you buy something.
I don't usually buy the first batch of ANYTHING. Look what happened to all the EXPENSIVE 4000 series Nvidia cards with melting connectors. However I think Fanatec gained a lot of experience first with the Podium DD's. Then took a step backwards with the carbon fiber shafts on the CSL's Don't care how trick carbon fiber is, doesn't belong there getting twisted and pulled on.
When the CS DD was announced with the aluminum shaft and passive cooling, didn't take me too long to snap one up (Oct 14th). Get it shipped and offer up the QR1 adapter and I'll be happy.
This is the update I got after days and days....
Hello Cristian,
Thanks for your message. Our sincerest apologies for the delay, currently we receive more inquiries than usual.
I totally understand your frustration and want to apologize for this situation. This was not the experience we want our customers to have.
Moreover, I would like to inform you that your order is currently stuck in our system due to techncial difficulites. We would like to sincerely apoloigze for any inconvenience caused by this delay.
Our IT team is working hard and with priority to resolve this issue and assure that your parcels can be handed over to the courier at the earliest convenience.
Once the transfer of the order data to our on site warehouse staff has been completed you will of course be informed accordingly. I really wish I could do more for you at this time.
We kindly ask for your understanding.
Thank you and have a nice day!
^ ^ ^
Speechless
As we can see these are complete lies... Just be honest, you gain so much by being honest! With all this hazle and in the process of building my SIM RIG, I went ahead and ordered the ClubSport Handbrake V1.5. (two days ago or so) It has already been shipped (with no tracking number), now I get the part is available in the warehouse, but wow it did not get stuck in the system... Like come on, we have a bunch of developers around these forums. We are not going to eat these lies... Be honest!