All you get from fanatec is poor customer service!

ricerracer · Sep 5, 2018

This happened to my friends (three of them) and now me.

Friend A: Wheel base started making rattling noises and smell of burnt rubber could be smelt. He contacted Fanatec within its warranty.

They tried to make him pay for shipping (which legally they should cover)
They tried to make him pay for repairs (which legally they should cover)

Friend B & C: Brought the new McLaren GT3 rim, both had software issues where they would have to press a button 2 or 3 times before it was read.

They tried to make him pay for shipping (which legally they should cover)
They tried to make him pay for repairs (which legally they should cover)
They were very slow in responding.

Now the same is being done to me. I just warn everyone who is thinking of buying there new DDW do not do it. Get an OSW from simracing bay, they know what good customer service means. Besides, the OSW is better.

ricerracer · Sep 8, 2018

Well I have not been on this forum for long, and Oh My! The Drama. I am surprised this post has not been locked or deleted? Is this place lawless?

Anyway, here is my two cents, I have been studying law for 5 years in England, I am guessing racingenthusiast (RE) is from the UK also because he mentioned citezens advice.

I feel people are on RE back because he seems a little aggressive in his approach this could be due to his frustration at the service he is getting. From what I read+email that he has posted, fanatec; from the LAWS point of view are in the wrong. They are dealing with this in the wrong way as they are going against simple warranty terms which is heavily guarded by the law to protect customers. If RE has enough evidence i.e. emails. Then I can only see this going one way, he will get his money back. As retails disputes are very one sided and side with the costumer, especially in such a case like this.

I am surprised with the stance that fanatec have taken, not only have they destroyed future customs with RE, but they will also lose out on the refund. If fanatec are certain that its his fault they still have to collect the item free of charge, service it, gather evidence that its his fault and then charge him for repairs or send it back to him. That way they followed warranty laws and retails disputes will not be able to get him a refund.

The way fanatec are going about it, as I said before is surprising and they will lose out on money

Mascot · Sep 8, 2018

OP, when did you first report this to Fanatec?

Fat-Alfie · Sep 8, 2018

ricerracer said:
I am surprised with the stance that fanatec have taken, not only have they destroyed future customs with RE...

Sounds like a lucky escape for Fanatec, if that is the case

paracletus · Sep 8, 2018

Reliability does appear to be a problem with some of their products.
Got my wheel fixed though a few years back, without charge.

LoeVG · Sep 8, 2018

Am I the only one who saw the video of the BMW wheel being used on an OSW? Fanatec states, that their products are only to be used on there own products and not 3rd party hardware. (RE) fails to show us evidence of the two BMW wheels he claims to have in possession hence why he fail to show us credibility in this case.

LoeVG · Sep 8, 2018

7.3 The aforementioned limitations of liability and the restrictions of limitation periods do not apply

to a product, which was not used, in accordance with its usual application, for building construction and which was the cause of the building's defectiveness,
to claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses by the Client.
If the Seller has fraudulently concealed the defect.

ricerracer · Sep 8, 2018

LoeVG said:
7.3 The aforementioned limitations of liability and the restrictions of limitation periods do not apply

to a product, which was not used, in accordance with its usual application, for building construction and which was the cause of the building's defectiveness,

to claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses by the Client.

If the Seller has fraudulently concealed the defect.

Urm think he stated many times he has two rims one converted for osw the other he uses on his fanatec wheel base

LoeVG · Sep 8, 2018

@ricerracer , You've studied law, right? Then you shouldn't believe what you hear until you see evidence...

ricerracer · Sep 8, 2018

LoeVG said:
@ricerracer , You've studied law, right? Then you shouldn't believe what you hear until you see evidence...

Yes but the onus is on fanatec. Whether his story is true or not true, they must comply with the warranty. He does not have to prove or disapprove anything.

Deleted member 197115 · Sep 8, 2018

Jeremy Ford said:
Ha, I could say the same thing. I didn't say it's the same wheel rim I said it looks like the same wheel from the video and picture you posted along with fair reasoning. Sorry, it does look like the same wheel what more can I say.

But if you really want to quash doubt from the thread, record and post a video within the next few minutes showing both wheels next to each other. I'm pretty sure this will help with your warranty claim with Fanatec.

racingenthusiast said:
yea sure just let me get NO LIFE first, then I'll do this right away. Anyway i am taking legal action against them by claiming a retail dispute via my bank. I will have a forced full refund within a month. So GG to them.

If it smells like fish...

With shifter it was the same, guy just flipped the shifter he got essentially free for a profit, again claiming "oh, it's just another one, I have two"

LoeVG · Sep 8, 2018

What @Andrew_WOT said. Hence my lack of trust towards (RE)

Jeremy Ford · Sep 8, 2018

ricerracer said:
Urm think he stated many times he has two rims one converted for osw the other he uses on his fanatec wheel base

If you follow my posts going back in this thread you'll see I mention the BMW rim in his video shows it wasn't converted as the OSW motor side has a special kit installed to enable the attachment of unmodified Fanatec wheel rims. Secondly the wheel in the video, and one in his picture showing the damage both have the original badge removed. They basically look identical which is why their is some scepticism at this point about ever being two wheels other than the claim, as his own visual evidence suggests otherwise.

I further suggested he posted a quick video showing both his rims together to quash this doubt for his own good. Which he declined as a waste of his time, yet RE continues to engage with responding to other messages later on. Wasting his valuable time further, and actually it would have been much quicker just to post a video for the 10 minutes it would have taken to record on a phone and upload to YouTube.

ricerracer · Sep 8, 2018

Jeremy Ford said:
If you follow my posts going back in this thread you'll see I mention the BMW rim in his video shows it wasn't converted as the OSW motor side has a special kit installed to enable the attachment of unmodified Fanatec wheel rims. Secondly the wheel in the video, and one in his picture showing the damage both have the original badge removed. They basically look identical which is why their is some scepticism at this point about ever being two wheels.

Well lawfully it can not be improved, and personally I do not really care haha. This thread is becoming silly.

LoeVG · Sep 8, 2018

Improved or Proved?

ricerracer · Sep 8, 2018

LoeVG said:
What @Andrew_WOT said. Hence my lack of trust towards (RE)

Well he never responded, I gave him every chance, so in the end retails disputes got my money back. But yea believe what you want haha

Furnace Inferno · Sep 8, 2018

Let me get this straight:

Tuesday - You make your first post about the wheel “just breaking”

Wednesday - Suddenly Fanatec are terrible and everyone should avoid

Friday - You have supposedly contacted both Citizens Advice and your bank already and initiated a chargeback.

Like I said forgive me for finding that hard to believe given that it’s not the first time you’ve done so and the speed at which you’ve done it.

Let me also point out that regardless of whether your claim is truthful the bank will always side with the customer whereupon the onus is on the seller to prove they have abided by the regulations and it is in fact the customers fault.

Secondly once you have been issued with a refund that item is no longer your property meaning the act of selling it is in fact handling of stolen goods. Whilst it’s up to the seller/retailer to retrieve those goods (meaning either a prepaid label or refunding postage cost, not literally coming to your door) you cannot then sell that item unless they explicitly say you can keep it because they don’t want it.

Them saying they aren’t going to be able to honour the warranty as they believe you’ve broken the terms and conditions of that warranty is not the same thing as saying they don’t want it back and Dom has said they want to get it back in so they can see what’s happened.

Now you can keep disagreeing with my posts (like you did when I tried to help you with a problem rather than just saying it didn’t work so I could suggest something else!) and think it’s something you can keep getting away with but these things do eventually catch up to people when they gain the ire of the wrong people who are dedicated to pursuing such matters.

Anyway, do as you wish because you clearly don’t care what any of us have to say, sorry we didn’t jump on the bandwagon in agreement.