New KLE61 DOA, returned and warranty claim rejected

[michnet76]

G'day all... Figured I'd reach out and see if anyone else has had any similar experiences....

So I purchased a KeyLab Essential 61 through an Australian music shop's eBay store about 6 weeks back. I went through eBay instead of their own website as I had a coupon with a decent discount. The keyboard arrived later in the week. The packaging all looked fine.

I took it home and excitingly unboxed it after dinner, set it up on my bench, plugged in the laptop and fired up Gig Performer to give it a test run. Straight away I noticed a number of keys didn't trigger, some keys triggering double notes. Some had to be pressed a few times or with more velocity to trigger a note. The faders and rotary knobs didn't appear to be working, the LCD panel was blank.

So I tried a few different USB cables, which all made no difference. I then plugged it into my old MacBook and tried it with Mainstage to see if it was anything to do with the other laptop. Exactly the same results.

So back to my windows laptop, I checked the keyboards firmware and did an update. After rebooting it it started doing some real funky stuff; button lights flashing randomly, random notes being triggered while not even touching the thing. In Analog Labs the various control faders and knobs where going moving chaotically on there own.

So all this messing around took an hour or two, I eventually gave up and went to bed. The next morning I got up... Tried it one more time and no change so boxed it back up and emailed the shop I bought it from asking to return it as it was DOA.

They replied later in the day and said they need to request an RMA from the importer (Arturia Australia) to send it back directly to them. This took about a week to get the authorization. So I finally send it back and wait another week for a response, only to be told the warranty claim has been rejected due to clear evidence of liquid damage.

I was quite shocked by that. I didn't have any liquid anywhere near it... Maybe the odd drop off saliva or maybe some sweat (summer here and it was a warm evening). Nothing more than would typically land on a keyboard during a gig anyway.

So the music shop I'm dealing with said they would try and talk to the importer again, this has been ongoing for the past couple weeks now. Supposedly the manager of the store is now talking to the importer to try and get a solution.

I asked for photos showing what they consider liquid damage but have yet to receive them despite asking numerous times.

I ended up buying a MkII 61 key controller in the meantime and that has been working flawlessly. But this whole experience has left a sour taste in my mouth with Arturia and this music shop... Some one somewhere is doing the dodgy here and it's looking more like I'm going to be the loser in all this.

Thank you if you've managed to read through all this!  Just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience with their Arturia products.

[MajorFubar]

Here in England the course of action would be clear: legally, the dispute is always between the customer and original vendor. It's legally of no concern where the vendor sourced the products from, the vendor is obliged to replace / repair / refund in the event of a no-fault warranty claim. Your country has first-class after-sales service chiselled into your statutory law including the best statutory warranties in the world, so I'm pretty certain, even without knowing the intricacies of Australian law, that your dispute is also with the vendor, not with the importer.

Having got the vendor to accept their liability, I suspect the problem is then going to be that the vendor will dispute that this is a no-fault claim. i.e.: as sure as night follows day, I can anticipate they will say the water damage was caused by you. I'm not sure how you disprove it. But equally, I don't know how they can prove it was you: they can only prove the water damage exists (which I note you said they still have not).

A threat to see them in small-claims court usually settles matters in your favour albeit unamicably, seeing they won't want the negative publicity, hassle or costs.