MOTU 3 Month Warranty????

[DanielL]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

[billf]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

Did you bother to contact MOTU tech support? Hint: you just might find the support is much better than you anticipated. My brother had an 828 failure that occurred after the warranty period, and they took care of the problem quickly and much to his satisfaction.

OTOH, if you did contact them, what was their response?

[James Steele]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

Yeah... good thing it didn't affect you at all in the case that you're posting about, otherwise you'd really be upset I suppose. I know it's popular to bitch about MOTU here on this forum. I expected to hear how you didn't get covered and were out $600, but the post was about how you COULD have been out $600.

BTW, you wouldn't have been out $600. Generally people send them to MOTU, pay about $50 and get another unit.

[James Steele]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

Did you bother to contact MOTU tech support? Hint: you just might find the support is much better than you anticipated. My brother had an 828 failure that occurred after the warranty period, and they took care of the problem quickly and much to his satisfaction.

OTOH, if you did contact them, what was their response?

He didn't need to. His was replaced before it got to that point. This was just a pre-emptive complaint just to be on the safe side.

[1nput0utput]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

Did you bother to contact MOTU tech support? Hint: you just might find the support is much better than you anticipated. My brother had an 828 failure that occurred after the warranty period, and they took care of the problem quickly and much to his satisfaction.

OTOH, if you did contact them, what was their response?

He didn't need to. His was replaced before it got to that point. This was just a pre-emptive complaint just to be on the safe side.

+1

And to add something useful to this thread: MOTU's fee for non-warranty hardware repair or replacement is $79.95 for interfaces purchased from North American dealers. The fee may be different for units purchased outside North America.

[billf]

Just found out that my recently purchased (April 2008) 8Pre that mysteriously died is no longer covered under warranty. Fortunately, I purchased the unit on store financing. They gave me a new (replacement) unit. But what a shock, had I not purchased on store plan, I'd be out $600.

Why is MOTU's hardware so poorly supported? Come on, 90 day warranty???
This is the worst warranty in the industry.

Did you bother to contact MOTU tech support? Hint: you just might find the support is much better than you anticipated. My brother had an 828 failure that occurred after the warranty period, and they took care of the problem quickly and much to his satisfaction.

OTOH, if you did contact them, what was their response?

He didn't need to. His was replaced before it got to that point. This was just a pre-emptive complaint just to be on the safe side.

Of course, because if he had contacted tech support, he would have very likely received the same treatment my brother did, which was extremely customer friendly. Post-purchase support is one of the areas where MOTU does an excellent job for the most part.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I expected to hear how you didn't get covered and were out $600, but the post was about how you COULD have been out $600.

That's called Bitching ver 1.0 but you have to wait until version 1.1 to see any actual loss. That feature is usually lost in version 1.3 and while it is supposed to have been addressed in version 1.4, as of this writing, ver 1.7 still doesn't allow pre-rendered bitching.

I hope they fix this soon or I'm going to stop bitching altogether!

[1nput0utput]

Post-purchase support is one of the areas where MOTU does an excellent job for the most part.

Sure, just ask any handful of users here. Wait... No, don't do that.

[James Steele]

Actually I have to agree. From what I've seen and from what friends have told me, MOTU is actually VERY GOOD about taking care of people with defective hardware, even AFTER the warranty is over. And often times they will indeed just send you a replacement for the amount of the flat repair fee. The good news is that you would not have been out $600, I can promise you. Granted the downtime to send in and get a repaired/replacement unit is a hassle, but you'd probably be looking at a $80 issue (plus shipping?).

[BradLyons]

Agreed....there is the "WRITTEN" warranty, and then the "HEY, WE'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU" off the record warranty. What I mean is, many places will put forth the written policy to protect them, but that may not be the actual letter to the law when push comes to shove. Now, if someone is being a total jerk about it, throwing the authority around and trying to be pushy about it, it gives them an out if the so-choose... but that also allows them to say "hey Mister customer, this is out of warranty but we're going to take care of you". Then you walk away thinking, WOW...what great guys!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

FWIW, I order DP 6 on June 19. My credit card was charged on July 10 but no email notification of shipping. I called MOTU today and they admitted there was an error. They not only refunded my standard shipping but are shipping UPS Air (next day) and I'll have it tomorrow.

So I could bitch that they screwed up the order (even though my old card had expired and that caused a delay). Of I could bitch that once they did charge me they failed to ship.

But I choose to think that I saved $30 or so in shipping for overnight and have a better idea as to what to expect in DP 6 now that the reports have stared to flow.

I guess I have decided to stop bitching altogether.

Point is, MOTU is willing to make good in many cases. And my garden is even doing better as a result.

[James Steele]

I think as you point out Michael... it's all about attitude when dealing with companys. Ultimately we really are at their mercy. But I've found that if you approach it with an attitude of "Hey... I know you're a good company... is there anything you can do to help me out here?" rather than "I know my rights, dammit!" you will generally get a better outcome. Not always... but in general.

[BradLyons]

I think as you point out Michael... it's all about attitude when dealing with companys. Ultimately we really are at their mercy. But I've found that if you approach it with an attitude of "Hey... I know you're a good company... is there anything you can do to help me out here?" rather than "I know my rights, dammit!" you will generally get a better outcome. Not always... but in general.

I'll take it a step further (since we're talking my area of expertise here)..... if someone comes to me with a "you owe me this" kind of attitude or they feel "I owe them everything".....what's my motivation to really take care of them? What I mean is, business is a two-way street.... if you want to be treated respectful, you need to treat with respect. People are people, they are neither above nor below you..... no matter how much money one has, no matter what their credits are, etc.... they are still another person, treat them with respect. It makes it much easier to get things done when BOTH are on the same page, ya know? It's human nature that when someone rubs you the wrong way, it makes you least likely to assist them. And well, it makes their job harder.

[billf]

Post-purchase support is one of the areas where MOTU does an excellent job for the most part.

Sure, just ask any handful of users here. Wait... No, don't do that.

The deceiving thing about forums is that it only takes a handful of complainers to make it seem like a product or company is problematic to deal with. Add to that the low ball practice of competitors astroturfing forums, and it can completely ruin a product launch.

I'm not saying that's happening here, but given some of the non-specifics around the complaining, and low post counts of those who are most vocal, I have to wonder.

Astroturfing in American English is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising which seek to create the impression of being spontaneous "grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass AstroTurf.

The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think as you point out Michael... it's all about attitude when dealing with companys. Ultimately we really are at their mercy. But I've found that if you approach it with an attitude of "Hey... I know you're a good company... is there anything you can do to help me out here?" rather than "I know my rights, dammit!" you will generally get a better outcome. Not always... but in general.

Putting an even finer point on it, I also think it gets down to how you treat individuals, regardless of how you might be experiencing problems and stress from the program (product, etc) in question.

If you go in with guns blazing, you will get a defensive response. If you go in with understanding that these folks listen to dozens of horror stories a day (and that's basically their job) you might imagine that a friendly, understanding voice on the other end of the phone is most welcome. They will want to keep you on the phone longer and possibly avoid the next call from an irate troll.

I used to do customer service for the phone company many years ago and I know what it's like to be the guy listening to your complaints. My suggestion is breath, relax and assume the person is there to help you. If not, start climbing the ladder to supervisors and execs. But in cases like MOTU customer service, nice gets you a lot!