There is an official office in Los Angeles I believe where they do servicing. Probably cheaper than shipping to Sweden which I’ve heard is about 150$ from the states
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Why should I have to pay any shipping?
It came out of their factory defective and I have to pay $55 in shipping?
Astonishing.
You would think they’d have an East Coast office being that we are closest to Europe.
I own 6 of their machines. 6!
$8000USD.
You would think they could send me a label.
Nope.
I don’t treat my customers or clients like this. I have a UPS account specifically to send my clients labels as a professional courtesy.
Elektron is skanky.
But their gear is great!!!
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Never said I thought you should pay for shipping was more mentioning that there is an official office in Los Angeles so there’s nothing fishy about having to send it there. Especially since sending it to Sweden would be much more of a hassle and cost you more money which you are already upset about paying.
Shouldn’t cost me anything more than the hassle I’ve already experienced man.
There are laws against this type of shady business practice, which is why I filed a complaint with NY State Department of Consumer Protection.
You can’t sell defective equipment and then make the consumer pay for it.
It’s in their hands now. I’ll just wait and see how these guys handle it. They’ll probably charge me return shipping too. Lol
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Word to anyone reading this:
Do not trust that it will “fix itself”.
Box it back up carefully and return it to your retailer.
Waiting is costing me 2 months plus $100 in shipping.
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That’s what I was getting at, you’ve already had enough hassle.
There are definitely laws against selling defective products.
Im gonna mention a little story of mine. Years back I bought an iPod classic from Apple directly. When it came the headphone jack was messed up and the volume in the left headphone was significantly lower. Contacted apple and was forced to pay shipping if I wanted my unit replaced because they didn’t recognize the issue as a product defect. They also sent me a refurbished unit rather than a new one. Was incredibly unhappy about the whole experience and like you filed a report with the business bureau.
Not sure where I was going with this but I hope moving forward you get a new unit and hopefully some Elektron extras for the hassle.
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Believe it or not, the only thing I can do, because of what a shady company they are, is buy another one.
I guess I’ll sell the one being repaired when - and if - it comes back. Who knows. Maybe they’ll “lose it” out of spite. They obviously don’t give a crap.
This new one will immediately go back if the buttons aren’t mounted right.
I HATE this company’s business practice but I do like their gear.
New one should be here Saturday .
Hey Elektron: thanks for nothing.
Have you tried getting advocation from your consumer rights body?
I don’t know anything about consumer rights over there in the states, but here in Australia consumer rights are strong, and strongly advocated by our ACCC body. And if you reported your issue within the first month it would be honoured for a full refund (without any restocking) despite not being physically returned in the month. All you need are records that it was reported. Even here on this forum is proof enough.
Beyond that, all transport during warranty would be covered by the retailer, or Elektrons distributor.
In the last 6 months I was reminded of this during two purchases of epically defective synths (not Elektron).
The manufacturer wanted to send out multiple boards, expecting “me” to do the repairs. Then the distributor wanted me to pay for shipping it to them! But the retailer dropped the ACCC verse on my rights and I ended up with a completely new synth!
Which also F^<ked Up after a week.
So, I got a full refund.
What I learned was (over here) the issue over repair, shipping, replacement has nothing to do with the manufacturer. It’s entirely the responsibility of the wholesaler/distributor.
I felt a bit sorry for everyone involved, but the guys at the shop reckon that it’s all claimed back from the insurance. So no one loses money in the end; just time.
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Yes, I filed a formal complaint with New York State, Department of Consumer Protection.
The Los Angeles address of Elektron is the distributor as far as their voicemail stated - because they don’t answer the phone.
I’m also lodging a formal complain with the distribution network connected to AMS, Zzounds and a few other retailers.
I wonder why Elektron US isn’t just swapping it out for you.
I’m in Europe and had my Digitakt crashing a lot with error messages on the screen. I didn’t buy from Elektron directly but I did open a ticket before returning it to the retailer. They responded to the ticket by sending me a label and once they got my unit they sent me a new one including a free shirt.
Elektron US should/could do the same.
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I don’t have insight into this specific case. The support organisation still differs a bit between US and Europe but we are working to get it more streamlined. In Europe retailer has a larger responsibility than in the US and this can cause some complications. The normal procedure in Europe is that the retailer handles all warranty issues, for 1-3 years. In the US it ranges from only a couple of days to 3 years depending on the retailer. Our three-year factory warranty is worldwide and will cover issues when the retailer doesn’t, for example in case of second-hand units or when retailers warranty has expired. In these cases, we share the shipping cost with the customer. The customer covers the shipping here and we will cover the return shipping.
In this case, it’s a DOA(dead on arrival) and a retailer would in most part of the world replace or arrange the repair. This is not the case with some US retailers which is why it may look unfair sometimes. I agree that you should have received a label in this case, but since this is not the standard procedure I can also understand if this was missed. This is one of the things that we are working on. I would suggest that you reply to the support ticket and ask for a label.
/Olle
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I went back and forth with support and after I provided videos they issued an RMA.
I was told to ship it to CA at my own expense and time. I was told then to put together an email with 7-8 different items and to email Elektron. I did this. They replied with an email asking for me to reply to them with everything that I had just emailed to them but with the addition of the ticket number.
So, I spent $57, about 3-4 hours of my time packing and schlepping and emailing.
I have no response to this second email or a reply from support regarding these concerns.
And, because I bought the Digitakt for a reason, not for fancy, I had to buy another one to replace the defective one. So I now have $1500 into Digitakts.
I just bought an Octatrack MKII for $1350.
An Analog Keys for $1350
A Rytm MKI for $1000
Two A4 for $2000.
And I got the MIDDLE FINGER from both Zzounds and Elektron.
Amazing!!! 
Maybe you can “shame” them a bit publicly on Twitter or Facebook. I think in this case the one stepping up to the plate should be the retailer. Specially if you bought all your gear from them. They made enough profit on you to send someone to repair it in your studio.
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a “Green List / Black List” of reputable retailers works in a number of professions I’m involved with.
Especially when it comes to international transactions.
It rewards the retailer on the green list, and those on the black list occasionally improve their practices to get on the green list.
I have learned that Elektron knows that these Digitakts have this problem but that their business plan was not to recall these defective Digitakts, but instead, to replace these defective units as they surfaced with the customer paying one half of the shipping. So, they knew/know that there are defective units out here and they have chosen to burden the customer with this hassle AND the cost of shipping.
Astonishing.
They should have recalled these units or just had an “easy swap” program.
Instead, they chose “shady”.
it would be great to hear where you got this information.
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In writing and voicemail.
They know there is a problem but they don’t know which serial numbers.
I was then told that they will replace the unit outright, the downside being that the customer would have to pay the shipping one way.
That’s pretty shady.
They should send a label to customers who got these defective units.
And they should be prioritized for quick turn around.
I worked for LL Bean for almost a decade, so I know a bit about manufacturing issues and customer service ( I did work on the corporate customer side of LL Bean Japan) and this is how a good manufacturer treats the valued customer. It shouldn’t be a game of gotcha.
Arctos Private Equity Partner bought a 28% share of Elektron in 2016 with the option to own 47% 2017.
I can’t seem to find the actually amounts of money invested … being private equity and all.
However, the LA office employs 5 and generates $250k a year. Not sure how the accounting is done in terms of USA merchandise sales, but that’s not a lot.
Hmm.
The founders definitely took a well earned payday. Well earned, indeed.
Thing is, once you get outside investors involved, and especially “barbarians at the gate” types, sometimes the mission becomes misaligned. One owner is committed to the vision, another to profit. This happened at LL Bean when I worked for them. They have sorted it out now but it took some time.
It looks like the infusion of cash allowed them to do some things that they may have been wanting to do, but were too poor to implement. They needed a cash infusion. Or perhaps just liquidity. Who knows. I can’t find the details.
I think the MKII line is fabulous. I own the OT2 and it is some beautiful kit. Much much better experience than the MKI - totally classed up the line.
I know a lot of people feel it wasn’t much of an upgrade overall but the new boxes are in a whole other class.
With all of this said, if all of their USA sales are included in that $250k, Elektronauts are a very small crowd.
Once you grasp “Elektron”, there isn’t any turning back.
They should feel the same passion for their customers. Anyone who buys an Elektron and sticks with it, is fairly unique.
I called Daking Audio one afternoon to find out about the differences between the early run micpre/EQ and the more recent models. I actually got Geoff on the phone and we got into a 3 hour conversation about a small format summing mixer. Totally won me over. I will always own my Dakings. I feel a loyalty.
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Every person I encountered on the Internet that had a problem with their unit was taken care of, I don’t know of a single case where the customer was left with a defective unit. This makes no sense.
And I can’t see why you don’t return a piece of hardware if it doesn’t work properly.
Sticky button can happen at the very beginning when a button is not exactly centered, but if you play with your instrument you’ll se that it tends to get better until it totally disappear.
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True, had a couple stuck buttons on my DT which were fixed after a couple of months. It was a stressful experience though and not a good first taste of Elektron products.
Fast forward to yesterday, I unpacked my brand new A4 MK2 and besides a major hardware flaw (faulty trig LED) there are 4 (four) sticky buttons. They’ll be probably fixed after some use, but this is a very expensive instrument which should work flawlessly. I don’t understand why sticky buttons are considered normal for these premium devices.
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