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geekhack Marketplace => Vendor Forums => CM Storm => Topic started by: rootwyrm on Tue, 28 May 2013, 19:00:08
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I am really aggravated at this point with Cooler Master.
My QuickFire Rapid has been a nightmare from day one, requiring three attempts just to get one working one. Yes, that's right, 2 keyboards were unacceptable right out of the box and went right back to CM from the vendor as defective. The one I accepted finally has pads that have so little grip I couldn't use the legs from day one unless I want it sliding everywhere. Stabilizers have more rattle and ping than a can of rocks. USB cable won't even come close to staying in the channel. And the list goes on. Frankly, this keyboard is so low quality I should have rejected it. But I decided - foolishly it turns out - to give it a chance.
Well hey, fast forward three months and I've got an abruptly broken switch, a key that registers only sometimes and when it feels like it, the tell-tale Left Alt problems that point to the defective manufacturing that was allegedly corrected. Yes, you heard that right, three months. I certainly don't abuse the keyboard - I've pretty much babied it.
And what I'm hearing from customer service is "oh, well, we'll do an advance RMA but only if you open a regular RMA, then call us, jump through more hoops, and pay shipping back to us." This is despite me having already registered the other keyboards, with receipts, showing the nice long chain of defects out of the box.
And no, I don't have any objections to the hold - I very much object to being told to spend a third of the price of the keyboard to ship it back after 3 months, and cross my fingers that it's not another round of defective products.
Want to know how many other manufacturers haven't paid shipping both ways on something that died that quickly and was that problematic? Exactly zero, so don't tell me it's "standard." And it is not a short or inauspicious list - Seagate, WDC, HGST, Motorola, IBM, HP, Lenovo, Netgear, Supermicro, SteelSeries, Creative Labs, XFX, Intel, AMD, Allied Telesis, Crucial and Corsair have all stepped up when obviously defective from the factory parts made it into the field.
And because I foolishly recommended this keyboard to an awful lot of people, yes, there are over 20 people who are going to justifiably blame me when their keyboard inevitably fails since it was from the same batch. After I recommended it as a sturdy and reliable mechanical keyboard. So I have that to look forward to as well now.
So who the heck do I need to talk to at Cooler Master to actually get this sorted instead of hearing recitations of excuses and insincere apologies?
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Does your state have a lemon clause?
Cheers,
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You've RMA'd through all of those companies? Insert something about common denominator.
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you could pm their new forum rep
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I have a feeling that we are dealing with an exceptional case of OCD here...
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WDC made me pay for return shipping last time I RMA'd an HDD that failed within a week (I made a big stink about it and they made an exception). I stupidly bought it from Zip Zoom Fly because it was a few bucks cheaper than Newegg, missed their 10 day return policy because of weekends (failure happened on a Friday evening, when the RMA dept re-opened Monday I was outside of the return window and ZipZoomFly refused to RMA the HDD), and I was forced to deal with WDC directly.
Biggest mistake ever, ZipZoomFly's customer service was the worst I've ever encountered, and I had to jump through hoops with WDC to avoid tacking $15 to the price of my new HDD, not to mention the lost time and productivity in dealing with the situation. Moral of the story: ALWAYS pay a few bucks more for Newegg's phenomenal customer service and solid return policies. Lesser companies have ****ty return policies, don't care about the customer, just the sale, and this includes many of the manufacturers.
Good luck getting your keyboard fixed, but maybe you should take heed to esoomenona's comment; with your claimed history of RMAs, and your description of the issues you had with the first 2 boards, it sounds like maybe your standards are too high, and that you possibly claim normal features as defects because they aren't up to your high standards. Now that something actually did break and you have a valid RMA claim, isn't it possible that the RMA department is looking at you like the boy who cried wolf?
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I had a bad experience with my keyboard and they really weren't helpful at customer service getting me a replacement. I threw mine out, took the hit financially, and i won't be giving Cooler Master anymore of my money and i am telling people not to buy from them. They can't be trusted to do the right thing.
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Just on being responsive Rajiv seems to be quick whereas Carter is essentially non existant. That's based on my very brief experience at GH thus far.
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Rajiv stepped in, and Carter moved aside, that's why. Prior to Rajiv's arrival, Carter was much more active/involved.
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Yes, and Rajiv's job isn't to handle special cases as much as to direct people to where the special cases go. I don't expect or want his job to be handling the special cases - his job should be interacting in a positive way. Sometimes that means pointing folks to neat new hardware, sometimes it means pointing them to the appropriate persons.
And the trolls and haters should possibly bear in mind the names up there. Maybe consider I've been building semi-professionally for 23 years and actually professionally for 20 of them. And nobody has ever equaled the reliability and stability of systems I've designed and built. Oh, and maybe take the hint that I handle a lot of hardware and a lot of expensive hardware. Yes, I have built more 'boutique' systems than you, and no it wasn't some junk thrown together for bling Failcon Northworst. There are now over 500 systems in the wild built based on my design and specifications (http://www.rootwyrm.com/reference/babydragon-ii-hardware-compatibility-list/). So yes, I just might know how things work.
Frankly, if it failed at the 6 month point? I wouldn't care about return shipping. Three months? Yeah, I mad.
But I would still care about a system this broken - there are more convenient and functional ways to do advance RMAs which are automated! Gasp. I mean really. It's 2013. Arranging an advance RMA over website should NOT require 2+ phone calls just to find out you need to make another.
And if the email contact has this knowledge - which I reasonably presume they do - then why didn't they give it out in the first place? What, is copying and pasting information relevant to the question no longer useful somehow? I don't care if it's a canned answer as long as A) it's an answer B) it's the correct answer and not the answer to another question.
And since there's a substantial question as to whether or not the keyboard will pass basic QC (you know, all keys clicking, registering, not waiting 3 seconds, not catching on fire - such a complex suite I subject it to.) I don't think it's at all unreasonable for CM to respond the same way other manufacturers do when something fails prematurely and abruptly.
The good ones want it back to find out why. Several of them have me sending defects direct to engineering because support is clueless and engineering wants to know how and why. Others cover it as a way of apology since it was their hardware and they're owning up to the mistake/failure. It's not a blame game - sometimes there is no explanation! It's about getting the bad junk out of the channel and making good on working products and good customer service.
And so far I'm just not experiencing either. Three phone calls just to find out I'm expected to fork over around $20 to ship it back when they could have said that in the email. Yeah, not seeing either at all.
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I had a bad experience with my keyboard and they really weren't helpful at customer service getting me a replacement. I threw mine out, took the hit financially, and i won't be giving Cooler Master anymore of my money and i am telling people not to buy from them. They can't be trusted to do the right thing.
Yeah. This thread has been here all week and I've heard nothing. And it's not even remotely hard to track me down. (I'm inaccessible, not unreachable. It's actually very easy to reach me.)
I've turned it over to Amazon customer service at this point. Checked the reviews, and wouldn't you know it, people are still reporting it with the supposedly fixed Left Alt defect.
Here (http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-Rapid-Mechanical/product-reviews/B0068INSUM/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R16G2AUSE3GFBJ) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/RPDSFT9LQIGTQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007VDLVD4&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/RCNAJD4EUW8W5/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007VDLVD4&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R246RYR0KZB8NI/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0068INSUM&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) FOR JUST MAY ALONE.
Liar, liar, pants on fire...
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yeah I'd just return to amazon at this point. What's the point in having a vendor forum and then not responding when people have issues?
I'm definitely second thinking ordering directly from CM if this is their usual level of CS. Its really too bad the TK White only sells direct from them, god forbid I ever have problems with it.
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I ordered mine from the cmstore directly. it took 3 rma's to get one that had a working left alt. the one I have now works fine. but It basically took 6 months to get a working keyboard.
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because your sexy when you dance and sing, they cant get enough from you :D
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yeah I'd just return to amazon at this point. What's the point in having a vendor forum and then not responding when people have issues?
I'm definitely second thinking ordering directly from CM if this is their usual level of CS. Its really too bad the TK White only sells direct from them, god forbid I ever have problems with it.
Yeah, here's the winning one.
Over a week after Amazon takes it back and I change my review to 1 star based on the customer service experience, they post saying that they can't find any record of me in their system at all.
Uh, yeah.. I registered 3 different serial numbers in a one month period and then talked to three different departments just to find out the process, and decided to not waste my time further.
And this thread has been here for how long now, with STILL NO RESPONSE from any CM rep. Not privately, not publicly. You would be well advised to steer well clear of Cooler Master if you're expecting a keyboard with a warranty that will last more than a few months. Because they've made it quite clear they offer neither.
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Bring Carter back.
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Bring Carter back.
Carter's job is to market the stuff - convince people to buy it. Not to make things right when their process is completely borked. Should he have input into it? Yes.
But Cooler Master clearly doesn't want to fix what's broken in this process, or acknowledge they're still shipping defective merchandise claiming they've fixed it. (Amazon didn't even hesitate and said the problem was common with these keyboards.) Which basically tells me that when it breaks, that's that. Either buy a new one or spend at least the purchase price just shipping it back and forth, even though they know they're shipping bad parts.
That's extremely, extremely disappointing. I was hoping very much to be able to write up a positive review once I had a good one. Now? Well, I certainly won't be bothering with the QuickFire XT no matter who's actually making it.
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Bring Carter back.
Carter's job is to market the stuff - convince people to buy it. Not to make things right when their process is completely borked. Should he have input into it? Yes.
But Cooler Master clearly doesn't want to fix what's broken in this process, or acknowledge they're still shipping defective merchandise claiming they've fixed it. (Amazon didn't even hesitate and said the problem was common with these keyboards.) Which basically tells me that when it breaks, that's that. Either buy a new one or spend at least the purchase price just shipping it back and forth, even though they know they're shipping bad parts.
That's extremely, extremely disappointing. I was hoping very much to be able to write up a positive review once I had a good one. Now? Well, I certainly won't be bothering with the QuickFire XT no matter who's actually making it.
While this is partially true, I am on the product development side more so than marketing. I am very saddened to see you had such a poor experience with our product. I apologize as I have been in Taiwan & traveling an incredible amount since the start of the year. This has made it a little tough to be in touch with the GH community here, but I am doing my best to change this!
We are starting to compile quite a bit of user complaints on our CS support. This is unacceptable and rest assured we will do our best to improve and stream line the process.
I really do offer my sincerest apologies and hope we can some how right this wrong in the future.
Cheers! (I'm Back)
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Welcome back Carter!
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rootwyrm
I also had customer service problems recently, so now my opinion on Cooler Master has changed. I'm really mad also and Carter knows it now.
I still like Carter and want to do business with him, but I'm having second thoughts because I know that if there's any problem, CM won't care a damn and you're screwed. I really don't know what to do. Am interested in CM products because they have rare key switch colors and a generally nice build, but for a lower price could always buy the same switch during a group buy and build my own.
I had a bad experience with my keyboard and they really weren't helpful at customer service getting me a replacement. I threw mine out, took the hit financially, and i won't be giving Cooler Master anymore of my money and i am telling people not to buy from them. They can't be trusted to do the right thing.
Yeah. This thread has been here all week and I've heard nothing. And it's not even remotely hard to track me down. (I'm inaccessible, not unreachable. It's actually very easy to reach me.)
I've turned it over to Amazon customer service at this point. Checked the reviews, and wouldn't you know it, people are still reporting it with the supposedly fixed Left Alt defect.
Here (http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-Rapid-Mechanical/product-reviews/B0068INSUM/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R16G2AUSE3GFBJ) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/RPDSFT9LQIGTQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007VDLVD4&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/RCNAJD4EUW8W5/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B007VDLVD4&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) and here (http://www.amazon.com/review/R246RYR0KZB8NI/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0068INSUM&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=) FOR JUST MAY ALONE.
Liar, liar, pants on fire...
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I tried to get a replacement controller for a Quickfire Rapid and Cooler Master denied it.
I tried to get a replacement controller and top frame for a Filco that was out of warranty and they mailed me a top panel, a controller, a keyboard opening tool, a keycap remover, 4 keycaps, and instructions on how to replace the parts. The first top panel got returned to them for some reason, so they sent another and wrote a message on it to keep it at the post office and to call me if there was any problems and not to sent it back to them.
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I tried to get a replacement controller for a Quickfire Rapid and Cooler Master denied it.
I tried to get a replacement controller and top frame for a Filco that was out of warranty and they mailed me a top panel, a controller, a keyboard opening tool, a keycap remover, 4 keycaps, and instructions on how to replace the parts. The first top panel got returned to them for some reason, so they sent another and wrote a message on it to keep it at the post office and to call me if there was any problems and not to sent it back to them.
Wow, where did you get the keyboard from for that level of service or did you contact Filco directly?