Official Bag Has Damaged My Kemper... Very Angry!!

    Sorry to hear that there has been another breakage. Kemper were excellent in replacing my bag and KPA as it was damaged. They also sent me a DI box for the trouble which was a bonus. The first thing I did with the new bag was take off the shoulder strap! I have other pieces of equipment that I carry via shoulder strap whilst carrying the Kemper bag via the handles, so not a problem for me.

    I contacted support, Their first response was to go back to the seller.


    I made them aware that there where more cases of the same issue, made clear that i was very hasitant to use a replaced version of the same strap, and asked them for their position on whether a replacement would be safe to use. Underneath their reply:


    "My colleague has replied.
    "It is very unfortunate that the bag that you bought is having this issue and we apologise for the inconveniences.
    Although the chance that this happens is very small, we cannot guarantee that it will not happen.
    In such a case the broken bag has to be send to us so we can return it to the manufacturer.
    You will then receive a replacement."


    I certainly have my thoughts on this response...which i shared with them.
    Maybe here its better to stay away from my opnion on the matter :)

    Quote from Job Posthuma

    "My colleague has replied.


    "It is very unfortunate that the bag that you bought is having this issue and we apologise for the inconveniences.
    Although the chance that this happens is very small, we cannot guarantee that it will not happen.
    In such a case the broken bag has to be send to us so we can return it to the manufacturer.
    You will then receive a replacement."

    I don't know about you lads, but I'm a bit disappointed if that is indeed their response to this. That's not what I call good customer support.
    It's their "official" bag after all.
    I could close my shop if I gave replies like this to my customers...

    Quote from RookGarner

    I don't know about you lads, but I'm a bit disappointed if that is indeed their response to this. That's not what I call good customer support.It's their "official" bag after all.
    I could close my shop if I gave replies like this to my customers...

    The same here, although I am against sharing details of private correspondence.
    Nobody can 100% predict what can happen, but after first reported damage that happened to this bag, due to flimsy clip, I would go to the manufacturer of this bag and demand to use better clips.
    Kemper Profiler is built like a tank and on the opposite the official bag that carries it uses 0.10E clips.
    Temporary solution to secure the connection would be using able ties as shown on the picture. Even the tiniest stand load of 8kg, 34mm ones up to 18kg.


    [Blocked Image: https://s29.postimg.org/b5u5wu7af/secure1.jpg]

    Quote from RookGarner

    I don't know about you lads, but I'm a bit disappointed if that is indeed their response to this. That's not what I call good customer support.
    It's their "official" bag after all.
    I could close my shop if I gave replies like this to my customers...

    what would you expect?

    Get in touch with Profiler online support team here

    Quote from G String

    what would you expect?


    [EDIT]Nevermind,[EDIT]


    in the other case, you gave a free DI box - which seemed appropriate and very nicely handled to me.
    I think the least I would offer is to take the bag back on my shipping expense plus replace it and offer a free check-up of his profiler... I would also make sure with the manufacturer of that bag that this won't happen to others. It's the official Kemper bag after all...

    Quote from RookGarner

    As the lad wrote: "I contacted support, Their first response was to go back to the seller." - Well, he's a customer who bought a $1,799 profiler (best case price) from you plus the official Kemper bag which is supposed to carry the profiler safely.


    Now, if that piece of equipment has some sort of flawed construction or piece that causes it to break under normal use (e.g. carrying it on the shoulder), the answer more or less "my colleague told you to contact the manufacturer" is not really what I would consider stellar customer support.
    The least I would do for my customer is to take the bag back (with a free shipping label back and forth) and replace it without hesitation, then contact the manufacturer myself and see what's the deal (that's not really the responsibility of the customer) as well as a free check-up of his profiler along with a free fix should there be any cosmetic or technical malfunctions due to the fall.


    In the other case, you gave a free DI box - which seemed appropriate and very nicely handled to me.


    In some countries (mine included) the point of contact is ALWAYS the seller for this kind of stuff. That's just how it is with ANY product. Keep in mind that it's the seller, not the manufacturer that kemper asked to contact directly - of course!


    (I only advised to contact support as well, to make them aware of the problem, so they can keep track of how often this happens - some people prefer to fix it themselves, in which case the information never reaches the Kemper company).


    Keep in mind that the kemper was not damaged in this incident - luckily, and by chance of course.


    Can they guarantee that it never will happen again, for a product they're not directly responsible for? No. They can't guarantee that the kemper itself will never malfunction either - that's just the real world.



    What the Kemper company CAN do is update the design, impose stricter requirements on the bag manufacturer etc etc. This is undoubtedly a crapshoot, because the amount of kemper bags made is probably a very very small fraction of the bags manufactured for all customers by that manufacturer. Furthermore, the manufacturer likely buys the metal parts from subsuppliers, which are similarly difficult to impose requirements on. Depending on the magnitude of the problem (how many buckles crap out), the solution could be to change manufacturer.

    Firstly, our return policy here is also that if somebody has an issue they must send it to us first for a warranty repair. I understand that upsets some people but you must also understand that we can't just send out a free item anytime somebody says there is a problem. That opens you up to some serious abuse. By getting it back you can both verify it's defective and also then see what the precise issue is. That's actually a pretty standard return policy across this industry (and we've checked).


    Secondly, we can't 100% guarantee that any issue won't resurface. Not too long ago I had somebody return a cable, but wanted an absolute guarantee that his new cable would last longer than the current one (which was over a year, I believe). Since it was the same cable made by the same factory, I can't really guarantee anything, especially without knowing how the customer is using it. If a cable is just sitting somewhere untouched, it should last a really long time. If it's getting plugged in, yanked, packed up, and banged around over and over again, there's not much I can guarantee. Kemper can't say for absolute certain that this issue won't happen again because they would give you a bag out of stock made by the same people and it's not like they have an ultra-scientific testing facility to measure every bag's intangibles.


    Lastly, when a customer comes looking for a return I often start by asking if it's possible for them to return it where they purchased it. We do this for several reasons:


    1. If from a brick & mortar store, they can be assisted much quicker and the reseller takes up the return with us
    2. There may be an established relationship with that retailer and perhaps the retailer would like to provide top service to keep their customer happy, beyond what we can do
    3. The retailer may already have a return policy it falls under. If not, we then handle it internally under warranty.
    4. Postage. The customer has to send the item back to us, which they are not always keen on doing. A retailer may help them more than our policy allows, and we usually advise our resellers to collect defective items and send back once or twice a year to save on postage.


    I don't think Kemper's response was unreasonable, but I've also dealt with people who feel like they've gotten screwed like the OP and are upset. It's a tough place for both to be in. I don't think Kemper is trying to jerk anybody around.


    Hope that shines a little light into what Kemper may not come right out and say, and hopefully the OP gets a functional bag.

    To be clear: i do believe Kemper would make sure that i get a new strap, and i would understand that they redirect me to the seller for that.....In the case they have confidence that the replacement is reliable.


    I didnt get that confidence from their reply, so to me its not clear if they trust that strap themselves.
    Im not even gonna swap it i think, i believe i have an old sportsbag laying around with a good strap...gonna use that.


    Anyway...if Kemper is ever gonna produce parachutes...ill pass :)

    Quote from Job Posthuma

    To be clear: i do believe Kemper would make sure that i get a new strap, and i would understand that they redirect me to the seller for that.....In the case they have confidence that the replacement is reliable.


    I didnt get that confidence from their reply, so to me its not clear if they trust that strap themselves.
    Im not even gonna swap it i think, i believe i have an old sportsbag laying around with a good strap...gonna use that.


    Anyway...if Kemper is ever gonna produce parachutes...ill pass :)

    Secure your strap anyway by cable ties, in the way that I proposed you because the clips in new strap can be reliable, but the "ear" to which the clip holds may also be made of same material as broken clip.

    Quote from Job Posthuma

    I didnt get that confidence from their reply, so to me its not clear if they trust that strap themselves.

    Yeah, but it's a "no-win" from their side, right?
    If they say "no, we can't guarantee it", then... Well, that's the situation you're in now.


    If they say "yes, we can guarantee it" - well, they have no knowledge, data or anything to back that up. It would essentially be lying. Maybe there's a bad batch of these buckles from the original buckle manufacturer (three steps up the supply chain), and no way to trace the batch (ie. which products they go into).


    I understand the frustration, I just don't think there's anything anybody can do about it.

    Quote from Michael_dk

    Yeah, but it's a "no-win" from their side, right?If they say "no, we can't guarantee it", then... Well, that's the situation you're in now.


    If they say "yes, we can guarantee it" - well, they have no knowledge, data or anything to back that up. It would essentially be lying. Maybe there's a bad batch of these buckles from the original buckle manufacturer (three steps up the supply chain), and no way to trace the batch (ie. which products they go into).


    I understand the frustration, I just don't think there's anything anybody can do about it.

    Nobody can assure that a part won't fail in future. That's for sure. So for me a statement "we can't guarantee it won't happen again" is obvious and not needed in that context, even more - in "extreme cases" it an be read as protection statement - if it broke 2nd time, see? we didn't guarantee it won't happen again... But I'm sure that was not intention of customer support, more like language barrier or unintentional statement.


    If @Job Posthuma 's Kemper was damaged, that would be hard case. But in this situation, I think he should get free replacement strap (or bag if it was also damaged) and secure new strap anyway as shown on post 66.


    Depending on quality measures applied by the company producing the bag, they could dig in records to find what supplier was responsible for faulty batch. Anyway I think it might have been not even a batch, but single clips where material in this particular place which broke, was just weaker.


    The case of Kemper leds dying might have been similar. They've got reports on leds dying, checked which batch of Profilers are affected and change electronic parts accordingly.

    I had some parts of the case (primarily seams like those holding the velcro onto the handle) failing, so Kemper sent me a new one (Kemper support is great). Now it looks like I have 2 Kempers when I show up (I use the second one to carry the remote, cables, etc.)!


    However, if I had it to do over again I wouldn't buy this case. The quality is nowhere near the quality of the Kemper itself, even though it demands a premium price. Too bad Mono or some other better quality partner wasn't chosen.

    Looks like parts/bags made in China. Or the favorite 'assembled in' or the other favorite 'we have the most strict oversight of quality there...'


    I wouldn't use bags for anything except carrying clothes or wires. Amp heads, gear belongs in nice well made boxes.