This is bad BUT.. we need to be more understanding.
This is unacceptable and Im not gonna even touch on orders made from months ago that people may have not recieved because that's absurd but I will say what I know.
Obviously Fanatec is a very succesful company and these things shouldn't happen. But sometimes things can and will go wrong. This is one of those times. They didn't mess up with only one thing or two, they messed it all up.
But now let's remind why are we here? Because we all know that fanatec makes good products. Either you're a long time customer or buying your first set of pedals and a wheel, I think we can agree that from technical perspective, we have all heard good things about them.
Now that we've reminded ourselves that, let's try to be more understanding about the situation.
Here are the factors that affect the current situation the most from what I've concluded;
- Black Friday- 60k orders, website errors, false prices and multiple pricing glitches.
- Communication overload- thousands upon thousands of emails from unpatient and confused customers
- Poor preparation, not expecting the worst
- Shipping partner changes
When you manage to understand the cause of the underlying problem, you might start to understand the situation better. Now again, there are no excuses to such service and the customer should be recieving the neccesary communication and so on.. but it's just one of those times where the doodoo hit the fan.
So what has fanatec provided us in this chaos?
Little but barely enough information- They've said it in multiple forums, sites etc. that warehouse delays will be at least 4-7 days, not including the shipping. They have also said that they are actively working on the problem (problem being the copious amounts of orders) and are hoping to return to normal day to day sales in a week or two. (Unlikely but sure..)
"If you have such a huge backlog why continue selling?"
Good point! But this is business, and business doesn't just stop. No business isn't going to stop selling because he can't deliver right away. Eventually they will. If anything, they should raise their product prices by at least a dozen percent, since demand is that huge. That way people who don't care about money will still buy but it will cut down a lot of the orders.
But what should the customer, us do?
The best thing you can really do is... WAIT. Again, it is what it is and it isn't okay at all but in order for everyone to be happy and get what they ask for is just to let the iron cool down. Give it a week or two to process. Let them have a breather and give them a chance to fix the issue. It's christmas coming and people there really don't wanna be held up on christmas eve, so trust me, they are worrying twice as much as you. When iron is cool, is when you can handle it with bare hands. Meaning, once a week or two passes, would be the right time to ask for more questions. They will 100% update us on the progress and when they do finally get to the bottom of it, we'll know. And once they announce that they are back to day to day life and everything should be working as usual, shipments shipping withing 48hrs etc, is when you can get your answers and get a solution for your problems.
I am actually surprised that they haven't close their forums. And it's surprising that next to all that work they have time to even reply to some of us.
I also am waiting for my orders but after a bit of research i got my answers. No need to add to the pot and make it even soggier. I hope some of you will find comfort in my message and have a little more patience and understanding that, these things happen, they aren't ideal nor are they acceptable but when they do, we can help out by not making it worse but by understanding. When they give us timescales or estimates for the supposed day that it will be fixed, once the day arrives is when we demand out questions to be answered.
Comments
Don’t forget that Fanatec is doing a lot of stupid decisions, like this actual one here:
So the part of „waiting“ isn’t that easy when you read this at the forum, not as an official information. So the most part of what you writing here is unnecessary because they just acting customer unfriendly!
So I should wait… I order 12 sept (87 days ago) and NOTHING! Got Teo mails with the autosvript «We jave a lot to do so…»
And you think i should wait?
Worst costumerservice EVER!!!
Im still waiting for my order from 12th September!
You have managed to send it with wrong exportpapers, been returened to your warehouse and stayed there for 3 weeks before I got a mail, and latest the 13th nov your Madeleine from customer support said that my order will be escalated... Thats now 26 days ago! Get your act together and ship me my PAID items NOW!
Legal actions will be taken if this is not solved within 7 days! Terje Nybro Order 1785251
I'm sorry but no.
When you spend a large amount of money with a company you expect a certain level of service.
Fanatec only seem to have issues with anything when it comes to delivering items to people, yet no major issues exist when it comes to taking money from them (other than the paypal issue).
The "feel for fanatec" posts asking for understanding because they got busy during black friday simpy doesn't wash. If they cannot handle the volumes of business they need to stop running the promotions.
Posts on this forum and other social media outlets show this is a consistent failure on their part.
However the frustrating part is that the equipment is brilliant (once you get it) and until there is a credible console compatible competitor they will still have huge numbers of customers and nearly as many unhappy customers...
You do bring out a good point. I have to agree.
I agree with the OP...things went bad @Fanatec but the 'vocality' of some disgrunted customers goes far & beyond.
Take legal action because they cancelled the orders with clear pricing issues ?
Good luck....I think it's normal they fixed the glitch, espec. with people posting the pricing errors in fora so some/many (but not all) buyers exploited that error.
For sure there are customers with very legit issues that Fanatec should have solved yesterday...but these real cases get flooded by many many BS messages from buyers that can not read/understand the blog messages and current state of things.
They just keep adding crap to the neverending story.
They said things would be back to normal by end of the coming week...let's all take a chill pill and see what will happen.
And if you don't want to....just cancel your orders, ask for a refund and buy something else.....but be prepared to pay a premium ;)
I won't get mad. I'll just base my future purchasing decisions on how fanatec handles this. I septn $2,000. I knew nothing of this pricing error. I can't even tell in my cart if the error occured because of their screwy invoice system.
If fanatec wants to declare they don't want my business because of their mistake, ill go to other vendors. I've been a lifelong fanatec user, and this was a gift to myself to upgrade my full system. Would be a shame to make me a life long hater of the brand.
We need to start reaching out to businesses and teams, drivers involved with fanatec and let them know how the company is treating users.
Canceling all black Friday discounts because of one pricing error is not the right path for them to take. They either don't care, or are clueless on how to handle customer service. Admit your mistake, then make it right.
An alternate would be to reach out to regional business, and consumer advocate groups. If enough people complain it is quite possible a class action would be brought against Endor AG and Fanatec.
I have posted a number of times, as well as countless others, pleading for a simple explanation of shipping terms, availability, allocation of product to better understand when one might receive their fully paid for order. Most of which the response is the e-mail we are all to familiar with thanking us for our understanding and patience, which I find condescending at best if not flat out ingenious.
The bottom line for me is Fanatec accepted my full payment on Oct.21 for a product that was advertised as being available on Nov. 7 and has dropped the ball on a number of occasion since with nothing more than the aforementioned e-mail.
If others are as frustrated and disappointed in the lack of transparency and questionable business practices I encourage you to file with a consumer protection agency as I have, such as the Better Business Bureau in the USA for example, in your area.
Fanatec is not uncle mary pantys corner shop, is a great company. all other companys like IE amazon doesnt suffer from a single day of delay, so dont say nonsenses. We are waiting here close to a month all of us, so I think all the people are in the right and should ask for their products or their money back anyway possible.
BULL F'ing EXCREMENT!
The only one who needs to be more understanding is FAILTEC understanding they cannot continue to treat their customers this way!
There needs to be more LEGAL ACTION and CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS!!!!!
Well your message made me angrier. I understand that they have good products but they can't charge credit cards and delay delivery of item for more than 2 months and more. When I ordered my item, It says it "in stock" and should expect delivery in 4-7 days. Not delivering the item within this time frame is fraudulent.