Im going to try to hide my anger as best as i can and be as polite as possible in hopes that Kemper will provide a better solution for me as a paying customer. This post is not to to tarnish the reputation of Kemper and their company but it is simply a public outcry as the result of my communications with tech support that has been full of disappointment and lies. The dealer i bought this from and Kemper seems to not want to take responsibility for the faulty unit.
I recently bought Kemper last week abroad and when i came back i had less than a day to set it up for my gig. However i encountered a problem that resulted in me canceling my gig. The save feature didnt work as it should causing midi crash so if i saved 5 presets and tried to recall them through my midi foot controller it would crash and the presets would disappear and i wouldnt be able to load them.
I posted in the forum for help and no one could figure it out so i contacted support and after almost a week we found out the cause of the problem was because my clock didnt work and i had a defective clock chip. The clock not working caused every preset i save to be saved with the same timestamp and therefore causing a crash.
So i was given the instruction to open up the unit and either change the battery or resolder the quartz chip. No offer was made to simply return the item and have it replaced or fixed. i decided ill try to save everyone the trouble and got an engineer friend to come and help me with it.
We replaced the battery and found that wasnt the cause of the problem. So we proceeded to try and resolder the chip as instructed. As i was tring to remove the front panel completely to get a better soldering angle and view the red/pink cable broke because it was so fragile. I hv removed these types of cable in computers before but this was simply too fragile and broke upon a little pull (if you dont believe me you're welcome to try it yourself).
So the tech support person i dealt with said the whole front panel needed to be replaced because of it. He wrote this
"Hello Alex,
the price of the front panel is 245,07 EUR and DHL shipping is 46,00 EUR.
This is a reduced price reflecting the defective clock.
Best regards,
Burkhard"
I had felt quite cheated at this point as a customer because i thought 'i bought a defective unit, then was asked to fix it myself...and when things went wrong i hv to pay another 25 percent of the price??'. If u bought clothings or cars be it cheap or expensive noone would tell you 'the clothing is ripped so sew it yourself' or 'the brake in the new car you bought didnt work but here's the instruction on how to fix that, do so at your own risk'....I merely followed instructions with consideration to save everyone the trouble. Nevertheless, i agreed at this price after asking they take into consideration that warranty is in place and the unit already was faulty and it wasnt because i was trying to mod it. So Burkhard confirmed that yes they already took that into consideration. I agreed to pay and waited for the bill.
However, 2 days later i received this :
"Dear Joshua,
the price for the complete frontpanel (which colour you need?) is 469,38
EUR,
Shipping with DHL is 46,00 EUR (Standard)
Please note that shipping from Germany to Indonesia needs around 2-3 weeks.
When you are interested, I'll prepare a Proforma Invoice and after payment
is visible on our
account, we will send out this spare part.
Please advise.
Best regards,
Katja Ambrass
Sales Administration"
I mentioned that that wasnt the price agreed on and i got this as a reply :
"Yes, I know.
But the Frontpanel board you need have everything: Potentiometer, Display, the metal plate (black or white), LED’s, cable and so on.
We checked it together this morning with our engineer. The price I gave you before was only the panel (without anything)
Best regards,
Katja Ambrass
Sales Administration"
Also:
"Dear Joshua,
please note that in general all customer has to return defective units to the dealer where they bought it.
The reason is, that you will lose your warranty when you try to repair it by yourself and you broke something.
Normally we make no exception at this point.
Following your situation, I can offer you a discount of 100 EUR.
Unfortunately this is all we can offer you.
Best regards,
Katja Ambrass
Sales Administration"
I thought, wait a minute, thats another half of what i paid for a supposedly perfect working Kemper and wasnt i instructed to fix the problem myself? There was even an instruction to 'solder the quartz chip' and when that didnt work to 'solder the neighboring chip next to it'...i mean what kind of scam is this?
My dealer is not sure of their options on this matter and Kemper is offering me a non logical expensive solution...i am hoping this does not reflect on Mr. Kemper's principle of doing business. I truly feel cheated in this matter.
Mr. Kemper if you are reading this, i hv the utmost respect in the product and new technology of the profiling amp and i actually got rid of my Axe Fx and amps for your product. But shouldnt customers given a faulty unit be replaced with a new one or at least fixed for free? Ive dealt with Suhr guitars and they completely did everything free and lived up to their 'Warranty' promise...that is the level of professionalism i expected from Kemper.
I really hope that this plea is heard and i am given a better solution...my email is [email protected].
Thank you very much.
c'mon.... It must be something more not yet told, this is a very collaborative customer service to a user that damaged his unit voiding the Warranty. In this optic it does make sense, instruct him to do something that the producer itself would not do? No way....
