OP-Z Repair Saga

My OP-Z has the dodgy keyboard membrane problem chronically. It started by just happening occasionally - you’d get the odd double-trig when you pressed a key, and then gradually over time it got so bad it became pretty much unusable.

Unfortunately I bought it 2nd hand on eBay to save myself some money, and TE famously don’t honour warranties once something becomes 2nd hand, so they wouldn’t replace it and they explained I’d have to pay for the repair, but… as it was still technically under a warranty I’d have to wait for the current warranty to expire at the beginning of November before I could post it to them to replace the keyboard membrane. I found this quite annoying, that I had to wait for a warranty I couldn’t use to expire.

Anyway, so when November finally rolled around I contacted TE again and they told me that they now have a new third party service centre called SCS in Germany (https://www.servicecenter-siedler.de/en/) and that I should get in contact with them. So I contacted SCS to ask how much it would cost for them to replace the keyboard membrane. They said that I’d have to post it to them to give me a quote. Before I posted it I quizzed them as to whether they could replace the keyboard membrane and if they had the part in stock. They replied saying yes and that they had all the parts.

So SCS have had my OP-Z since about 7th November after a couple of chases from me get back to me on the 29th November saying “it turns out that the keyboard is not available yet, so I´m currently investigating with Teenage Engineering for spare part price and delivery time.”

Yes I do regret buying the OP-Z secondhand, but I’m just pissed-off at how things have gone and I really miss it… I really like the OP-Z and I want it fixed and back again. :frowning_face:

Before the keyboard got really bad I took it on a long train journey to the beach just by myself and basically spent the whole day making nice wonky ambient music. I do miss it.

To the site admin: Thanks for creating this SoapBox space. It seemed like the right kind of place to put this story.

Othytim

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An update…

I sent a complaint to TE on 3rd January, asking how I can get my OP-Z fixed if they have no spares and what’s going to happen.

They replied today (16/01/2020) apologising, saying I’ve had bad communication from TE and SCS, and that I should of been informed from the beginning of this process that the spare parts required were not actually available.

Under the circumstances they have decided to sell me a new OP-Z for the price that the repair would of cost if it were possible - about £140. SCS get to keep my old OP-Z for spare parts.

On the new OP-Z there will be a 1 year warranty, but it’ll only be for the keyboard membrane, which is the part I have bought. So fingers crossed my encoders don’t start popping out…

Really looking forward to getting back to using the OP-Z. This time with a keyboard that works!!!

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Hey and thanks for posting this!

How has your unit been doing since then?

Hi there, sorry for the slow reply.

Okay, well TE sent me a new OP-Z for the cost of repairing the one they couldn’t repair. Let’s call this new one number 2, as it’s my 2nd one.

Number 2 had a fault. The last 3 steps of 16 step buttons would not light up. It worked great, but the step button LEDs just wouldn’t light. (I think I might have posted here about it at the time? I was curious if anyone else had had it.) I returned number 2 to TE. They said they’d never seen this issue before.

TE sent number 3. Number 3 was severely banana-d. Really badly bent downwards in the middle. Also the screw heads visible under the bottom panel were really dug up, like someone had over tighten them maybe? TE saw my photos of how bent number 3 was and apologised, saying that I should return it, so I did.

TE sent number 4. Number 4 is only slightly bent down in the middle… it’s otherwise fine and I’m keeping it. As a gesture TE also sent me a lime green TE wrap/case thing, so that’s cool.

THE END

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My God… I have an OP-Z, cross fingers I have never to be in such a mess with TE… Anyway, at least you had an Op-Z working…

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Lmaoo what the hell TE get your shit together. I’m very glad to hear they are working with you tho!

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