Elektron's US Support Slow/Sucks

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

As you can tell from the title, this is a little rant about Elektron’s support. Your experience may be different, but mine is real and frustrating.

Back story, I’ve owned many Elektron machines since 2013 and you could say that at times, I’ve been a fanboy. Their machines are great!

But their support is pretty bad. Their online support has gotten better, at least you can get a reply within a few days. However the new online support is detached from the main Elektron site and I find it harder to track tickets and I sense they struggle to track them too (based on the number of times I’ve had to repeat my problem).

But my rant comes from recent events with a newly purchased Analog Heat MK2. It has displayed a weird glitch since purchase but it took about 7 weeks for Elektron support to decide that it needed to be returned (it took that long going back and forth with their support).

It’s been in repair for 5 weeks now and it’s been (almost) radio silence. I’ve kept chasing and after several emails I am told it’s in a queue to be repaired. No ETA, nothing.

For a product that was bought new and had issues, I would hope a straight swap would be the decent thing to do here. But no.

FYI, this is with the US support, maybe it’s better in Europe?

In comparison Squarp repaired my Hermod last year. They covered shipping, replaced the 8 month old unit and returned it to west coast USA in under a week.

With Elektron they even tried to get me to pay for shipping costs. Fuck off!

My patience has clearly run out.

Rant over.

:zipper_mouth_face:

9 Likes
#2

I have the same experience with their support. A couple years back I got reply’s to my tickets. But in the last year I filed a couple of tickets for various devices and never got a single answer back. I stopped filing tickets, because of that.

1 Like
#3

i think very few smaller companies have the money (or have dedicated the money) for stellar support… it is considered a necessary evil. Often this is the case with companies founded by and primarily run by ‘eggheads’/engineers…

#4

After making a ticket and sending a few emails back and forth my OTmk2 got fixed in a week. I payed for shipping to Sweden.

I had a positive experience with Elektron support.

4 Likes
#5

I‘m sorry for you.
I have only great experience so far

5 Likes
#6

aren’t they Swedish?

#7

Yes, because I live in Berlin I hoped for a local repair but there is no workshop at Elektron Berlin. So I had to send the parcel to the workshop in Sweden.

#8

I was in Europe and always dealt with Swedish HQ. Had 3 boxes repaired - 2 of them were through the retailer and took around 4-6 weeks and the other was done direct an took 2 weeks.
They’ve always been stellar for me - that’s a shame you’ve not had the same experience.

It must be different in the US because I would have gone straight to the retailer to exchange the product.

#9

Have had a few experiences with Elektron Support. Nothing but stellar in quality. Only Swedish office, though. The people working there have the right stuff.

#10

Sorry to hear that. So far I have had great support with Elektron. Have you tried deferent forms of communication? Email, phone etc? I live in the States and have always contacted the main office in Sweden

#11

I’ve had similar slow response times from their US support. I’m under the impression that it’s just 2 people, one of which is also a sales rep that goes to trade shows. They always come through in the end, but their communication could be greatly improved. Maybe they just need more staff.

1 Like
#12

Hello!

This is a known issue and does need more attention. However, we won’t try to defend it here in this discussion. The support team is very much aware of the problem. We also hope to be better at communicating in the future.

David@Elektron

19 Likes
#13

Thanks for all the replies. I have heard the line “it’s a known issue and were working on it” for about the last 4 years. If I had access to my old support tickets I could probably screenshot that - ha!

I would have returned it to the retailer but as the original back and forth with support took 6/7 weeks to determine it was a fault my 30 days were long gone. I did suggest that however and was told it had to go back to HQ.

Perhaps the US team is only 2 / 3 people. That would explain the speed and lack of comms. BUT these are not cheap products and Elektron is regarded as a premium manufacturer.

I’ve messaged them again to escalate things.

I just want my hardware back so I can start making music with it.

I still am a fanboy regardless :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

5 Likes
#14

how long would one expect a repair to take from the uk? i’ve been putting off sorting out a minor problem with my octatrack cause I really don’t want to be without it for months. I use it every day and would miss it a lot

#15

i don’t know about hardware repair, what i can say is that i submitted a bunch of support tickets over the years. the experience was really good and responsive until 2019, (when they introduced the new support user interface?).

last year :
one time i never got a response.
one time i got a response 9 days after.
one of the subject really seem to be a bug and i have to re-ask on and on to have a status until today!

in 2020 :
still 1 tickets going on without any response after 12 days.

EDIT : i am from France, so i think i hit the swedish support?

#16

My post is a few above and I’m in the UK. Probably depends on quite a few variables. I sent an OT back on 9th Jan to Juno records and has been fixed and returned them and I got word yesterday they are shipping it back.

1 Like
#17

Unacceptable. Sounds like Abstrakt instruments. Nobody available for support, but available to crunch out new products.

#19

I’ve dealt with both the Swedish and US support teams, and had the opposite reaction, with exceptionally good support. Some of the best I’ve experienced actually, in my 40 long years of buying synths. Maybe I got lucky.

1 Like
#20

… on Chocolate Milkshakes!!!

JK
Sorry for your bad experience. I’ve had quick responses to questions and support tickets so far knocks on wood for those who knock on wood

They are also much cooler than most. “Sure we’ll send you the parts instead but it will void your warranty” me - Yesssss!!! Thanks for being human rather than a robot following the company rules!

#21

There is also the factor that the quality of support one gets, to a certain extent depends upon how and in what manner, one reaches out. While a solid support employee always does their best to help, the material you work with influences the quality you can provide.

This is more a philosophical statement and not a comment that implies anyone here didn’t do their best to get their case heard. I wouldn’t know and would never imply that I did.

1 Like