MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

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daniel.sneed
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by daniel.sneed »

Just for fun, my very old Motu 828 classic is still functional!
Lays in a rack with external TC preamps, for some location tracking.
dAn Shakin' all over! :unicorn:
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by SmartDoc48 »

DcSoundOp wrote: Fri Jan 27, 2017 8:16 am I learned a valuable lesson recently in trying to repair my ~10 year old 896mk3 - call MOTU first! Details and the rest of the story are in the video!

https://youtu.be/7YtAt49W0qU
NOT TRUE. My experience is exactly the opposite. They refused to repair my 896 MK3 Hybrid.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by stubbsonic »

SmartDoc48 wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 10:58 am NOT TRUE. My experience is exactly the opposite. They refused to repair my 896 MK3 Hybrid.
If there is no repair department, and they tell you they don't do repairs, is that really a "refusal"?

Your saying they "refuse to repair" sounds like they have a repair department but are just denying you access to it.

I know it is a subtle difference, but that's like saying:

"I went to a barber. He refused to perform heart surgery." The refusal really isn't takeaway in that story.

We get it. You feel like you got burned. You want others to feel that burn.
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Tonsil
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by Tonsil »

Unfortunately, none of this is true any more. I’m not sure when MOTU changed their tune, but the fact is they don’t support their products at all if they’re out of warranty. They will not repair them, even at cost. They will not refer you to someone that can repair them. This, coupled with the fact that their products are unreliable is why I am not going to support them any more. It’s a shame, I have five of their interfaces and was poised to purchase more.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by stubbsonic »

Ok.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by James Steele »

Tonsil wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:06 am Unfortunately, none of this is true any more. I’m not sure when MOTU changed their tune, but the fact is they don’t support their products at all if they’re out of warranty. They will not repair them, even at cost. They will not refer you to someone that can repair them. This, coupled with the fact that their products are unreliable is why I am not going to support them any more. It’s a shame, I have five of their interfaces and was poised to purchase more.
Don't know what to say. They have no in house repair department. I'm sure S&S which I hear is the company that makes the interfaces for MOTU probably can't or won't repair the old interfaces either.

Honestly, techs that can do that kind of work are few and far between these days and as the gear just gets cheaper and cheaper often times they are manufactured in such a way as to make repairs extremely difficult if not impossible. I can tell you, I live in a pretty big city and if one of my old MOTU interfaces died, I'd be hard pressed to know where to take it. The guys (or gals) that might have the skillset to do that... well, I think they're hard pressed to make a decent living focusing on repairing old musical instruments or interfaces.

Just recently, the display on my Ensoniq EPS16+ module died. I love that unit. Bought it brand new in 1990 I believe. Has a SCSI hard drive attached. I set it up with macros and made a custom patch list that allowed me to navigate all through the directories on the hard drive and load whatever instrument I wanted to hands free from DP without ever touching the front panel. And I adore the MIAMI BRASS instrument in that thing. My point is I drove that thing all the way to AZ from San Diego, CA to a tech that I knew from when he used to live out here. Luckily it coincided with a business trip I had in the same state so he was only about 2 hours out of my way. He also modded and repairs (if needed) a couple of vintage Marshall JMP heads I own. I shudder to think how difficult it's going to be eventually to find people who will even know how to work on tube gear in a few more years. I took it out there, because he's pretty much my only hope. He's fixed things that nobody else could. He revived and rebuild the voice modules for my ancient Roland MKS-30 synth module. I'm glad I still have that thing. I digress.

There's always a possibility that MOTU didn't refer you to someone who could repair it because they don't KNOW of anyone who can repair it. Individuals with the necessary skills are making better money elsewhere in the economy these days. Would be nice if they gave out schematics but maybe they can't. Maybe S&S owns the rights to it or whatever? I know that many techs have to go on certain websites and obtain technically "illegal" bootlegged unauthorized schematics that may have been "leaked" by an insider for certain gear. Might be that the tech I know might be able to obtain such a schematic. I'll have to ask him next time I talk to him regarding the status of my EPS16+ which I pray to God he can fix. If he can, I'm going to buy and have him install an internal mod that uses a allows a modern SD card to mimic a SCSI drive as my big fear is one day that SCSI drive just isn't going to spin up anymore and floppies are simply unthinkable.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by Tonsil »

I'm not talking about repairing vintage gear. I have my share of venerable equipment. If any of it dies, I would be sad but not surprised. What I am saying is that most musical gear companies understand that a reputation is important. They generally will try to help you succeed with their products, because they know that builds loyalty and grows their consumer base through positive experiences. MOTU used to be that kind of company. The fact that a product from their current line, which they still sell, died after only three years? I would think they'd try and do at least something to keep me as a customer. I would hope that they'd like to inspect the faulty unit to be able to improve the reliability of the design. My point is that they don't care.

On a happy note, my PreSonus Quantum 4848 interface that I purchased to replace the defective 24Ai is working very well thus far.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by stubbsonic »

Tonsil wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:03 am My point is that they don't care.
Your point is purely a presumption.

Many of us agree that it would be ideal if MOTU had a better system for taking care of out-of-warranty failures. But we have described in detail the likely reasons why that did not occur. For you to assume that these people don't take pride in their work or their products is perhaps just indulging your frustration and trying to cast some decent folks as the villains in your little story. We've all been there, I suppose, but I'll suggest that continually venting bile is probably not very healthy or constructive.

It's good news that you have an interface now that is working for you. Hopefully, you did some research to determine that PreSonus has an excellent quality/reliability track record and an amazing repair department. If down the road if you have troubles, I hope you will come onto this thread and report how well/not-well you are treated by PreSonus.

My RME story (as compared to my recent M4 story) makes me think my next interface (if I never need one) will be an RME. But if my budget requires me to consider other options, MOTU will still be on the short list.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by mikehalloran »

MOTU now warranties hardware for 2 years. In addition, one can no longer find older drivers for current gear or any drivers for older gear.

Would it be nice if their old exchange program still existed? How about the availability of old drivers? What about schematics and parts lists? Hell yes to everything — but they no longer do (or never did with schematics/parts). Though a few of us saw the warning signs and talked about it here… Well, it never occurred to me to archive the old drivers —oops! Anyone?

Companies make decisions based on many factors but the driving one is usually to keep the doors open. They really want people to buy the gear they’re making now. Support for anything not current costs money and lots of it. I’d rather they stay in business than shut down.

Welcome to the new normal. Pissing and moaning isn’t going to change this, frustrating as it may be.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by stubbsonic »

We were talking about how they couldn't release schematics as that might make the process of stealing their designs too easy.

It could be cool if they had a program whereby-- if within warranty they replace. If 1-2 years out of warranty they provide a deeply discounted replacement/exchange (they can figure out what that number would be). There may be reasons why such a program would be problematic. I don't really have a head for business, I think.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by mikehalloran »

stubbsonic wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:39 pm We were talking about how they couldn't release schematics as that might make the process of stealing their designs too easy.

It could be cool if they had a program whereby-- if within warranty they replace. If 1-2 years out of warranty they provide a deeply discounted replacement/exchange (they can figure out what that number would be).
They used to have exactly that and it cost $99 — as long as parts were still available, of course.
There may be reasons why such a program would be problematic…

My understanding is that this was handled by a 3rd party through MOTU. My guess is that company either went out of business or no longer does this work because it isn't profitable. A third possibility is that MOTU could see this as offering support for older hardware when the rest of the web site is screaming, WE DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE. There is overhead involved—no way around it—and new sales can be hurt.

There's a business opportunity for a shop or company to offer MOTU approved repairs and pay a license fee for the privilege. They would have access to schematics and parts lists, of course. Whether this would be profitable or in MOTU's best interests is not a question I could answer—other than it isn't happening (yet?).
I don't really have a head for business, I think.
Don't sell yourself short. The manufacturing business is different, that's all. Certain problems and conditions exist in that business that we're not exposed to.

I had a lot of jobs in many industries on my way to becoming a semi-retired music industry executive. Doesn't mean I'm smarter, just that I know a thing or two about a thing or two.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by James Steele »

Tonsil wrote:I'm not talking about repairing vintage gear. I have my share of venerable equipment. If any of it dies, I would be sad but not surprised.
“Vintage” gear can often be easier to repair than new gear as with the new gear everything is smaller and integrated on circuit boards and microprocessors. My tech friend always asks how new something is, because newer can mean less likely he can repair it.
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Re: MOTU's ridiculously good out-of-warranty repair program!

Post by stubbsonic »

James Steele wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 5:27 pm
Tonsil wrote:I'm not talking about repairing vintage gear. I have my share of venerable equipment. If any of it dies, I would be sad but not surprised.
“Vintage” gear can often be easier to repair than new gear as with the new gear everything is smaller and integrated on circuit boards and microprocessors. My tech friend always asks how new something is, because newer can mean less likely he can repair it.
It blows my mind how a clever repair person can find a little chip that failed and they think, "I can probably substitute this other chip I have in my spare parts. Might as well try it, because otherwise it's a doorstop." That level of repair person is rare, I think.
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