Korg Customer Support in Canada Stinks!

T-Rex · Post by **T-Rex** » Thu May 05, 2011 5:31 am

Like most of you here, I'm a big fan of Korg products, I've owned: Korg Triton, Triton Studio, Korg Kaoss.. and I currently have an M3, R3, MS2000, Electribe ER / EA, Korg Kaoss 2... you get the picture.

I'm posting this here because I know that some Korg reps post on this forum, I would like to hear what they think about it.

I recently bought a second hand Electribe ESX that was damaged during shipping (some of the LEDs fell off).
So I decided to contact Korg Canada customer service which are represented here by JAM Industries. Possibly the worst bunch of people in North America.

I had contacted JAM Industries before, and in most cases I never got a reply. But this time they really outdid themselves!

..so I get a reply with an RMA# request form in PDF format, and the lady tells me to fill out the form and mail it to them. So I did.
A week goes by and I don't hear back.
When I asked them about it, the lady says they never got it and that I should try to fax it to them instead. So I did.
Next day I ask if they got it, the lady says nope.

So then I emailed the lady all the required info and asked her, could you please send that RMA#... nothing.

Finally I took the PDF file and Photoshopped the text on the form and emailed it back to her.
I finally got a reply.

"It is $65.00/hour for labour + $55.00 for an estimate. If the estimate is refused,
You will be charged the $55.00. If it is approved, the $55.00 is included in the amount of the estimate."

In my email I had explained that the sequencer LEDs (labeled 1 2 3 4...) were missing (they don't light up).
So I asked the lady, is there any chance that you could forward my email to a technician just to get an idea if this would be an easy fix or a costly one... NOTHING.

I did the same thing with Nikon regarding my camera, and they were EXTREMELY helpful.

Anyway, since I was using the ESX more and more I decided to send it in and hope for the best.

A week later I got the Estimate.
It was $126.35 for a change of PCB + $90 for labour + taxes.
Total: $244.48

I emailed the guy (Julien) and asked if the estimate was included (just to make sure that there weren't any extra charges).
To which Julien writes: it's $244.48 + shipping + taxes on shipping.

So I asked him why shipping charges weren't reflected in the invoice.
Julien replies: "do you know someone who can make shipping for free?"

I answered yes: MOTU, IKEA, Apple, to name of few.. those are companies I actually dealt with, all of which had excellent customer service.
A couple of hours later I get a call from the guy. He asks me if I want to repair it or not.

I obviously decided that it was too much, and that I would just get them to ship the ESX back to me.
He took my credit card info and charged me for the estimate and shipping!

And here's the best part!!
I got the ESX back today.
IT WAS STILL DISASSEMBLED!!

To Korg:
- is this the kind of service that Canadian customers should expect?
- who's going to assemble my Korg ESX back?

I could honestly say that this is by far THE WORST customer service I have dealt with!

at least they were nice enough to give me back the knobs and screws
(assuming they're all there)

tim from texas · Post by **tim from texas** » Thu May 05, 2011 6:40 am

wow that REALLy sucks... it sounds more like a 3rd party than korg... thats worth talking to korg directly about though not necessarily for them to help you with YOUR issue but to lessen the likely hood that it happens to someone else..

vEddY · Post by **vEddY** » Thu May 05, 2011 11:12 am

Holy crap.

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Thu May 05, 2011 12:37 pm

P-E · Post by **P-E** » Thu May 05, 2011 1:12 pm

tpantano · Post by **tpantano** » Thu May 05, 2011 4:22 pm

Bowmoney · Post by **Bowmoney** » Thu May 05, 2011 5:14 pm

i am fairly certain that is illegal...if you paid by credit card, you should be able to levy something against them via the credit card, claiming that you were charged and returned a non-working item...that's fraud man...you can't break someone's stuff and then charge them to unbreak it....

Sam CA · Post by **Sam CA** » Thu May 05, 2011 10:29 pm

Damn!!!

Aciphecs · Post by **Aciphecs** » Fri May 06, 2011 12:06 am

I feel for you man. I would be seeing red too

Not right!

Bowmoney · Post by **Bowmoney** » Fri May 06, 2011 12:56 am

looking at the pics though it looks like they only unscrewed everything...so as long as you have screws...get a small screwdriver and put it back together at least...i mean it should not be that hard...really lame of them, but you should be able to lego it back together

insanitor · Post by **insanitor** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:47 am

I'm glad they didn't do this to me at the place where my mechanic works... Gee, this must be a joke!

T-Rex · Post by **T-Rex** » Fri May 06, 2011 2:26 am

Thanks guys, I'm still very upset about it..

Bowmoney wrote:looking at the pics though it looks like they only unscrewed everything...so as long as you have screws...get a small screwdriver and put it back together at least...i mean it should not be that hard...really lame of them, but you should be able to lego it back together

I think you're missing the point.
Put yourself in my shoes for a minute,
How would you like it if you paid close to $90 to get a lego set..

I sent a functional unit that had one problem, I got a bunch of parts.. I haven't tried to hook it up to see if it still works or not, I don't want to deal with a short-circuit on top of this..

I sent the unit to Korg Canada, because I thought :
a) they would have qualified technicians who would pinpoint the problem and let me know if it's fixable or not.
They must have fixed ESX units before, and they must have known that damaged LEDs would require a change of PCB but they still made me send it.

b) they would have access to Korg parts and won't overcharge me for them.

c) that I could trust them, after all they represent Korg. I mean they're the official Korg service centre in Canada.

Hell I could have taken my chances with a local technician..
it might have cost less.. or at least I would have gotten the unit in one piece!

Sam CA · Post by **Sam CA** » Fri May 06, 2011 2:44 am

T-Rex wrote:
I think you're missing the point.
Put yourself in my shoes for a minute,
How would you like it if you paid close to $90 to get a lego set..

T-Rex,
This is unheard of. It must've been such an unpleasant moment when you opened the box. I know chances of them commenting on this thread is slim to none, but I would just forward this to them anyway.
They owe you a big fat apology after they give you a full refund. I wonder if this happens to every single unit sent to them (similar circumstances)?

neotechtonics · Post by **neotechtonics** » Fri May 06, 2011 5:26 am

I dont know about the rights of the consumer in Canada but in South Africa we have a dedicated government run consumer complaints commision (we have alot of rights based on our extensive constitution)

One of the 8 Consumer Rights as recognized by the United Nations is “The Right to Redress” – a consumer’s right to a remedy if a company/service provider does not engage fairly and appropriately in the market place. Today there are many organisations in South Africa that exist to ensure that a consumer’s Right to Redress is promoted and protected. Some exist by statute, others are voluntary Ombuds schemes, and others are industry associations. All provide a free service to consumers who cannot get a satisfactory remedy from the company/provider concerned. They look at both sides of the story and obtain redress for a consumer where they are of the view that the company/provider has not acted correctly.

you should look into any organisation that might fight on behalf of you for your rights as a consumer. I'm not sure what industry your dilemma would fall under, but there should be an ombudsman or something similar???

hope they formally apologise for the gross inconvenience to you and refund you in full!

EDIT: a couple links u might wanna check out

http://www.consumer.ca/1625
http://www.consumer.ca/1657

FatStratCat · Post by **FatStratCat** » Fri May 06, 2011 6:25 am

In the US we have a saying " The squeaky wheel gets the grease"

This was NOT Korg Canada BTW, you sent it to a licensed Korg affiliate, who has a subsidiary, http://www.eriksonmusic.com/. dealing with all KORG product issues. You are probably out of luck on the money end.

But IF this is truly a legit complaint, Send your message to Korg.com and websites sites EVERYWHERE, tweet it, facebook it, hit every forum you can, don't shut up about it.

JAM industries is a HUGE corporation that Korg licenses to handle their repair stuff. Very common. Not every company has good CS.

Korg may not know that JAM has a sub corp that sucks if no one tells them.

On the other side of the coin,

I always call a company before sending my equipment to them because months can go by and you (we) are just another number to a big company, and no one works for free. Second hand units have NO warranty.

Me? I would have called Korg second.

I would have asked here first.

I hope you get the unit fixed or some resolution, but you are about 5 layers deep in corporate BS.

At least - mess with them by calling your CC company saying it is a bogus charge and disputing it. Make them earn the time they spent unscrewing your ESX and not putting it back together in every way you can.