Fanatec Warranty Revised

i believe future buyers of Fanatec Products should be aware of recent warranty changes for there wheels.
in North America ( US and Canada ) and Australia the warranty has been reduced from 24 Months to 12 Months.
i do not know exactly when this has taken place but it is of importance as this depreciates the value of the wheel.

Whst about wheels bought last year? Am I expired?

reference?

miahallen

reference?

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Guarantee paragraph here on their NA site, last line:

We guarantee our products for a maximum duration time of 12 months after shipment.

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http://us.fanatec.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=19

First of all big thanks to novadave for the timely heads-up.
@ Fanatec: Classy move, let your customers break the news for you.
Next move I anticipate are paid Out-of-Warranty service packs for their other products.

EDIT UPDATE, This actually seems to have been snuck into place more than a few days ago, from the Fanatec blog:

Submitted by Savoury on Fri, 01/18/2013 - 17:54.
"It's a 2 year warranty in the EU but 12 months for the US/Canada and Australia.
Not sure if/when that changed, I always thought US/Canadian customers had a 2 year warranty as well."

Scroll down to lower portion of this page:

http://www.911wheel.de/?q=node/9496

...and GTP member RacerXX referred to it on post #8507 on this page of the Fanatec Announcements thread:

...and I now realize that my subsequent post advising him that the warranty was 2 years was based on erroneous assumption as no FORMAL announcement has YET to be made by Fanatec.

Mayaman

Whst about wheels bought last year? Am I expired?

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I wonder if this would be even legally possible.
Though it's hard to make a case, because you don't have any evidence it was 2 years warranty last year by the time you bought it. Fanatec is handy and doesn't ship paper with the warranty's terms and conditions with their products (as far as I can recall).

Not sure what warranty laws apply given it's a German company and they officially sell to other regions (countries).
If you buy a SONY product in the U.S., Sony of America handles the warranty. You live in Japan then Sony of Japan handles their customers. So on and so forth... I'm sure or at least I would bet with decent odds, the warranties are not exactly the same due to different consumer laws that may be in play depending where you live on this planet.

So the quandary at play: "so I bought $1200 worth of a product with the warranty at the time being X, now it's changing to Y retroactively??? Or...does this apply to new purchases moving forward??

I hope it's the later...

FMW

Not sure what warranty laws apply given it's a German company and they officially sell to other regions (countries).
If you buy a SONY product in the U.S., Sony of America handles the warranty. You live in Japan then Sony of Japan handles their customers. So on and so forth... I'm sure or at least I would bet with decent odds, the warranties are not exactly the same due to different consumer laws that may be in play depending where you live on this planet.

So the quandary at play: "so I bought $1200 worth of a product with the warranty at the time being X, now it's changing to Y retroactively??? Or...does this apply to new purchases moving forward??

I hope it's the later...

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@ FMW the big question here is when did Fanatec change the NA warranty period from 2 to 1 year, and why no formal announcement? What entity executes the warranty in what market is not the issue at hand.

No comment on the retro-active aspect (as it applies to product purchased prior to the change), because I am not up on the consumer laws for that.

Fanatec's recently opened AU store states 1 year warranty in FAQ section.
Fanatec's Japan store does not have any warranty info in Japanese or English FAQ section for some reason.

LogiForce

Though it's hard to make a case, because you don't have any evidence it was 2 years warranty last year by the time you bought it. Fanatec is handy and doesn't ship paper with the warranty's terms and conditions with their products (as far as I can recall).

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LOL, the PDF Invoices, Sales/Purchase-related emails, and box literature pack-ins make no reference anywhere to warranty period for the stuff we just checked here. I don't know enough about the law to state not providing warranty terms in the sales documentation is side-stepping something. Bit peculiar though, all my other electronics products have literature pack-ins with stating warranty period & terms.

I do have an email from the Fanatec tech support confirming that the warranty period for a wheel purchased last fall late spring '11 does have a 2 year warranty in the USA.

JogoAsobi

@ FMW the big question here is when did they change it from 2 to 1 year, and why no formal announcement? What entity executes the warranty in what market is not the issue at hand.

No comment on the retro-active aspect (as it applies to product purchased prior to the change), because I am not up on the consumer laws for that.

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Very true regarding when it changed and for that matter why? Very curious indeed.

On a bright note, it's good to hear items purchased last fall carry the two year still. Well, at least for you Hold on to that email! 👍

Thomas needs to update his blog then: (in the FAQ section)



To my knowledge, at least on the old site... This was the only place the warranty was mentioned in an official capacity.

FMW

Very true regarding when it changed and for that matter why? Very curious indeed.

On a bright note, it's good to hear items purchased last fall carry the two year still. Well, at least for you Hold on to that email! 👍

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I stand corrected, it was purchased new late spring '11, after I refused a 4th RMA replacement. I do have an email confirming the serial number of that wheel has a 2 year warranty. I will edit my preceding post.

According to Google cache, it had already changed to 12 months when the page was cached on Jan. 15th, 2013...

For those who don't know about this site... you can look up cached websites and browse them. It might help the peeps look at the old website and all.
Though I am off to bed now I just wanted to share. So happy hunting.

The Internet Archive: http://archive.org/web/web.php

JogoAsobi

...and GTP member RacerXX referred to it on post #8507 on this page of the Fanatec Announcements thread:

...and I now realize that my subsequent post advising him that the warranty was 2 years was based on erroneous assumption as no FORMAL announcement has YET to be made by Fanatec.

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Thanks for looking into it and posting about it, appreciated. Not all would then post as you did above.

I believe the warranties were revised starting this year. I was about to buy a CSR Elite last month, but then they ran out. :-( I had checked the warranty at the time and it was 2 years then. The end of last week I placed a PREorder for the CSR Elite, the next batch was shown due 2-5-13. Lo and behold it is part way to me now, to arrive this Friday. Easy order process, fast, no hassles. But I did notice when I read their site last week that the warranty was now 1 year instead of two. They also base it on shipped dates. So my ship date was 1-28-13 and my warranty started then apparently although I do not yet have the device.

I am really not a warranty kind of person. I treat things with respect and with mechanical sympathy. If I hear a funny noise I get it resolved. I don't ignore it thinking "oh i have a warranty I will just run this thing hard like a rental car". And of course I like to have spare parts available such as belts and motors and whatever else comes to mind for devices such as these. While I'm in there, even before something breaks I often hop it up or at least figure out how the darn thing works.

If Fanatec carried and made available more spare parts I think this could help the users and brand image. I mean the belts are not very expensive and the Mabuchi motors might be even cheaper than the belts! This is judging by buying belts from the belt manufacturer and looking over generic Mabuchi motor prices. I'm pretty handy though and am good at hunting down parts. Those whose skill set doesn't include aspects like that might feel more stress with tricky enthusiast devices. So I can certainly understand the curiousity. Just remember that the World economy is going through stress and changes and some wheel companies like Logitech might be pulling out. So if Fanatec needs to make some changes for the long run, that is pretty important I'd say. I also like their service plan revisions from what I have read so far.

RacerXX

If Fanatec carried and made available more spare parts I think this could help the users and brand image. I mean the belts are not very expensive and the Mabuchi motors might be even cheaper than the belts! This is judging by buying belts from the belt manufacturer and looking over generic Mabuchi motor prices.

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Can you please tell us where you purchased the belts? People honestly would like to know.

You've stated you called Gates and they sent you to a distributor. Who? Where? What is their number? Do they have a website? This info would be helpful to other people.

Top tip American Express doubles warranties for 99% of electronic consumer products. No idea what level of membership you need but I have gold rewards and I asked If this applied to Fanatec products and they said yes. 4yr warranty tastes goooood...

ALL of this is no surprise to me, that's for sure. In fact, the puzzle seems to be coming together.

paskowitz

Top tip American Express doubles warranties for 99% of electronic consumer products. No idea what level of membership you need but I have gold rewards and I asked If this applied to Fanatec products and they said yes. 4yr warranty tastes goooood...

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thanks for the tip.
that is an excellent idea. i have never thought about it as i have never needed to use it on any other electronic device i own.💡

AGP5000

ALL of this is no surprise to me, that's for sure. In fact, the puzzle seems to be coming together.

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Are you able to put some of that puzzle together for us?

AGP5000

ALL of this is no surprise to me, that's for sure. In fact, the puzzle seems to be coming together.

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I think this could be the downfall for Fanatec. I mean, who in his right mind spends 599 on a CSR E or even more for a CSW with 1 year warranty?
I wouldn't want to have to put down that much for a product without some proper insurance. Cause even though I reckon (as an uninformed buyer) that the product will last, I want to feel secure that the product will be fixed/replaced in case of issues.
I would even go as far as saying that I would never buy a product above 100 euros/usd that only has 1 year warranty. 100-500 euro/usd needs at least 2 years and anything above that price range would need 3 years or more.
Warranty is also a way for a company to let the buyers know the trust they have in the quality and durability of a product. (ie. harddrive warranties of 5 years on (almost) all drives)

Let's hope for Fanatec and their customer's sake that there won't be a thread in the near future similar to this one: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=272735

Their financials are available for all to see providing you understand German.
They are listed on German stock exchange.

kikie

Let's hope for Fanatec and their customer's sake that there won't be a thread in the near future similar to this one: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=272735

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Read my first post on page 1 there. I already voiced my concerns about the many repairs/returns. Now with the warranty drop (drop in trust in their products)... I dunno. I am having bad feelings at least.

LogiForce

Read my first post on page 1 there. I already voiced my concerns about the many repairs/returns. Now with the warranty drop (drop in trust in their products)... I dunno. I am having bad feelings at least.

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Because you already voiced your concerns, I'm not allowed to post what I want to post?

LogiForce

Read my first post on page 1 there. I already voiced my concerns about the many repairs/returns. Now with the warranty drop (drop in trust in their products)... I dunno. I am having bad feelings at least.

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You are not alone!

I purchased a CSR with the intent of upgrading to Clubsport once I no longer need Xbox support (I don't think I am moving to the next xbox). Now with this info, and the high rate of failure on the motors, I need to re-consider that decision.

Thomas via iRacing Forums about 5 minutes ago:

"We still give 2 years in Europe and 1 year in the US.

We used to have longer warranty in the US than the competition but it did not really help us to sell more units so we adapted to the market environment. That's it.
If the competition will start offering longer warranty periods then we will might change our strategy again.

If there is a defective then it occurs in the first months of usage anyway. And of course we will still help everybody to fix his product even long time after his warranty is expired. Every customer is important for us so that we will not leave anybody unhappy. (Except Michael Main who is still upset that we did not choose his company to be our service center in the USA and now is bashing us wherever he can - build up your own mind how professional that makes him look like) "


Classy last comment Thomas. Professionals do not publicly bash another professional. Speculation is fine, but a public bash, childish

AGP5000

Thomas via iRacing Forums about 5 minutes ago:

"We still give 2 years in Europe and 1 year in the US.

We used to have longer warranty in the US than the competition but it did not really help us to sell more units so we adapted to the market environment. That's it.
If the competition will start offering longer warranty periods then we will might change our strategy again.

If there is a defective then it occurs in the first months of usage anyway. And of course we will still help everybody to fix his product even long time after his warranty is expired. Every customer is important for us so that we will not leave anybody unhappy. (Except Michael Main who is still upset that we did not choose his company to be our service center in the USA and now is bashing us wherever he can - build up your own mind how professional that makes him look like) "

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Who is the competition with one year warranty? Thrustmaster has 2 year warranty last time I checked, unless that changed.

Fanatec no longer offers their low-end gear driven wheel (Carerra) which was their closest direct competing product with Logitech wheel's market niche.

Reducing the waranty to one year in the US, probably won't help Fanatec to sell more units either.

Logitech & thrustmaster have a 1 year hardware warranty on the G27 & T500 respectively

I just looked it up via the product webpage on both LG & TM's sites. So, to match the market is actually right on in the US. EU has a law for 2 year product warranty on electronics, as I am sure some have stated here.

AGP5000

Logitech & thrustmaster have a 1 year hardware warranty on the G27 & T500 respectively

I just looked it up via the product webpage on both LG & TM's sites. So, to match the market is actually right on in the US. EU has a law for 2 year product warranty on electronics, as I am sure some have stated here.

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Don't know where you got the Thrustmaster info from, but I just called their NA support line at 1-866-889-5036, their tech rep. just confirmed the warranty period from date of purchase in NA as 2 years. I had him double-check that.

Be advised that several retailers have incorrect warranty descriptions for the T500 because they have never updated their online product descriptions after Thrustmaster made changes to the policy.