Hi, I’ve just stumbled across this forum. I’d like to ask other members what your experiences are with TE support. My OP-1 is dead, I’ve tried all the fixes online but it refuses to charge, power up or do anything really. It also needs two new buttons on the keypad.
On the 18th June I contacted TE support online. A few days later I received the generic reply with some suggestions which I’d already tried. I chased them on the 24th and finally on the 29th June I received an email asking me to complete a return form online which I did. I’ve heard nothing yet.
I know it’s holiday season but the slow response is disappointing.
Sadly, their customer support has been less than ideal for a long time. I chalk it up to them actually being a design/engineering company rather than a musical instrument company. They got lucky with the OP-1 and they didn’t realize the level of customer interaction that was required. For example - this forum - is user run and developed. AFAIK there is no “official” channel other then sending an email and hoping whomever drew the “customer support for the day” job has time to email you back.
P.S - I love my OP-1 and would replace the one I have (since 2012) if it ever stopped working…if they ever come back in stock…
@mrclean said:
…I chalk it up to them actually being a design/engineering company rather than a musical instrument company. They got lucky with the OP-1 and they didn’t realize the level of customer interaction that was required. For example - this forum - is user run and developed. AFAIK there is no “official” channel other then sending an email and hoping whomever drew the “customer support for the day” job has time to email you back.
Probably this. It’s a shame though. It’s almost as they are too stubborn to realize the negative spin things like bad customer service can create. Or maybe they don’t care that much - they seem to be putting a lot of focus on other things such as IKEA and the stuff they did for the Chinese market.
@mrclean said:
…I chalk it up to them actually being a design/engineering company rather than a musical instrument company. They got lucky with the OP-1 and they didn’t realize the level of customer interaction that was required. For example - this forum - is user run and developed. AFAIK there is no “official” channel other then sending an email and hoping whomever drew the “customer support for the day” job has time to email you back.
Probably this. It’s a shame though. It’s almost as they are too stubborn to realize the negative spin things like bad customer service can create. Or maybe they don’t care that much - they seem to be putting a lot of focus on other things such as IKEA and the stuff they did for the Chinese market.
How much focus? I only ask because outside of the initial teaser vid for the speakers and teaser pics for the IKEA collab, I’ve seen nothing.
@Derne_Hahl Well, first of all I’m thinking they’ve spent a lot of time designing those things. And when it comes to IKEA I’m sure there’s been a lot of (and still is) talking/planning etc between the two of them - working with such a big company I’m sure you go all in with as much resources you can spare - and considering they’re not due to hit the market until 2019 (in the fall if I remember correctly) it looks like they’re doing just that (I’ve seen and heard about press meetings and such). I’m guessing the same kind of thinking goes on with the Chinese thing, but I haven’t seen anything more than what you’re referring to. So, that’s my theory, anyway. And let’s not forget the OP-Z… Busy, busy there as well.
@punji Exactly. That’s what I was thinking when I wrote “…too stubborn to realize…”. But maybe they don’t consider this their real business in the long run. Maybe they’re more into working with other companies. You don’t need the kind of customer service we’re talking about for that. Who knows what kind of long term goals they have set up for their company.
I sent a video to TE support showing all the steps necessary to reproduce an annoying bug on OP-1. The guy from support was very happy with the video and promised me to forward it to developers. Some months later I asked him about the progress. The guy hardly managed to catch up the topic and asked me to send the video again. I did. Then the guy left TE and some months later I contacted to a new person on support sending the video again (I suspected they wouldn’t find the original one :)). The support was very happy with the video again. Some months later I asked about the progress, the support said that developers were working on it. Some months later (which passed in silence on support side, of course) I wrote a new mail just to let them know that I got a bit disappointed
The issue still present on OP-1, and still no feedback. I sent the first mail with the video 1.5 year ago.
I was waiting for a pair of replacement rubber feet to be sent (I already paid it 3 weeks ago) and had no news so I sent them a email two days ago. The answer was very fast and then sent it right away. My bet is they’re particularly overwhelmed at the moment, probably because of the imminent launch of the OP-Z…
Thanks for the replies. I’ve been on holiday but before I left I finally got an RMA authorisation to send it back to them which I did. They’ve acknowledged receipt of my dud OP-1 and confirmed it’s the DSP board that’s broken but they don’t have any in stock (which I knew).
I’ve asked them:
Why are there so many DSP boards failing on OP1s? The internet is full of stories about this.
What causes the DSP board to fail?
When will you have the DSP boards in stock?
No reply.
I’ve never dealt with a company this poor before. Elektron support in the UK is dire but TE take things to another level altogether. Never again. I won’t touch any of their products from now on. They’re a total disgrace.
Why are there so many DSP boards failing on OP1s? The internet is full of stories about this.
We don’t share our statistics, but we have OP-1’s on the field that was manufactured 2011 that still runs fine.
In general we’ve had very little issues with DSP boards.
The main issue here has been long lead-times for some components causing a shortage on this specific spare-part.
We’ve been catching up this backlog lately though. Thanks for your understanding.
• What causes the DSP board to fail?
This could be anything from incorrectly plugging line-out to a phantom powered microphone input to the unit simply running firmware from 2012 that at rare cases caused the filesystem to require an upgrade.
• When will you have the DSP boards in stock?
We’re expecting the next batch in the beginning of August.
Please get back if you have any further questions.
I’m now at the point of giving up with T.E. I don’t have any faith that they’ll ever fix my OP-1. I’ve emailed them today to ask for a replacement or send it back to me and I’ll flog it on ebay. I’ve wasted far too much time with them.
I find any alliance between this lot and Ikea laughable. They can’t support the relatively low numbers of niche products they currently have in the field so how the hell will they cope with Ikea volumes?
