I need to vent…
The last thing I thought I would ever have to do is go onto a manufacturer’s forum and rant about its customer service, but unfortunately I don’t know what else to do in this scenario.
I bought a new Keylab 61 back in May 2015. Upon opening the box, the keybed was defective, so I emailed support and they were very timely in their response to fix my issue, sending me a new keybed with instructions on how to install it. Received the keybed within a week – installed it. No problems there.
Within a week of turning on my Keylab, I began noticing ghost midi notes all over the place. These were coming from the drum pads, infrequently, but occurring nonetheless. I opened a ticket with support more for the sake of documenting this issue than anything else as it’s always a good idea to get formally acquainted with support for stuff like this. Due to the fact that I was in the middle of a project when first noticing the issue, I simply turned off all functionality of the drum pads in the MCC for the next month until I concluded said project. When it was over, I went back to trying to use the keyboard and drum pads again and noticed that the issue was still there, so I emailed support, sent them a midi monitoring report, and support got back to me saying that they thought it was indeed a hardware defect and the unit should be replaced.
This was on July 27th. Support requested my sales receipt, address etc. I immediately sent the requested information back to them, then I wait. One week……two weeks. Nothing. In those two weeks, I sent two follow-up emails asking about the status of this particular ticket (not opening a new case, simply replying to the email thread to which the information was requested)….no response.
On August 10th, 15 days after not hearing anything after sending the requested information, I decide to open another ticket and reference the case that has gone idle and ask that someone get in touch with me regarding my keyboard. I get a response the next day asking me to only keep one case open and to send them a Midi Monitoring report (this had already been done on the 27th).
Now I realize that being a manufacturer like Arturia means that at any given moment, there are lots of support tickets open, so keeping track of cases can be difficult. I send him the requested information again (this was the same staff member who handled the case before) and state that I would like to get this fixed as soon as possible and that this has been frustrating.
He puts me in touch with the dept that handles repair. The first email I get from this particular department asks if this is an issue regarding the keybed and if so that it could be remedied as soon as possible. I inform him that this is not related to the keybed and that this is a hardware defect. I attach the midi monitoring reports again and he concludes that this is, in fact, a hardware defect (thanks).
He emails me back and states that they can offer me a B-stock unit for $303. I immediately respond and state that my unit is under warranty and that his suggestion of offering me a B-stock is incorrect. He then requests my address and sales receipt, information that has now been sent 3 times over, but I send it again with a proverbial smile.
In my response, I also include the reference numbers of the two cases I opened previously regarding the defect (one in May within a week of using the unit and the other at the end of July that ended up going “cold”) to illustrate how long this issue has been outstanding (and, in an ideal world of customer service, for him to want to get this issue resolved asap….after all, this was supposed to be a new, fully functioning keyboard out of the box).
He requested that I send the unit back to a distribution center on my own dime for diagnostics and repair. It would be sent back to me free of charge by them after repair and diagnostic is complete.
This was August 18th, and quite frankly I have become very frustrated with support at this juncture, so I respond back by saying that with the amount of time that has elapsed since this issue occurred, I was curious as to how long this repair would take. Given my experience thus far, I believe this to be an honest inquisition, and while I’m not expecting an exact timeframe, at the very least it would be nice to have an acknowledgement that this would be looked at in a timely manner. I also go on to state that I did not agree with having to go out of pocket for shipping this back to the distribution center given that this was an issue with the unit right out of the box. My keybed was defective right out of the box. Did I have to pay for the shipment of the keybed? No, I didn’t. How is this any different?
I also go on to state that if this is going to drag out much longer, what would be my options to as far as getting a refund for this keyboard and getting out of this experience altogether. Cut my loses. This is obviously frustration coming out in a situation where no one has even come close to getting this “right.” Sometimes just a slight acknowledgement with a consumer can go a long way.
A week goes by….nothing. I send an email saying that I’m frustrated, etc. No response. Another week goes by…nothing. On August 31st, I email him again stating that if I don’t hear back this week, I’m going to open another case.
So here we are – September 2nd. Almost 4 months since I first opened a case regarding this defect on May 12th. Opening another case is the LAST thing I want to do here. It’s essentially like starting over from step 1.
I just needed to vent my frustration, man. Maybe this is a cautionary tale? Hold your fully functioning Keylab 61’s near and dear to your heart, b/c God forbid that something happens to it. You’ll eat the red pill and end up in the vortex of clusterfucked customer service.
