Fair solution after service nightmare

[jazlover]

You can say whatever you want, but in my opinion, all of the Kronos devices have the very same problem with the keybed, but most people simply do not notice it because their usage pattern is different from mine (no piano playing or whatever).

This is absolutely not to distract from your post in any way. I feel visceral hurt when I read your post (and others) about having to return your Kronos. I have an 88. I am a jazz pianist where the pianos are where I am 85% of the time. I have never had issues with the keyboard (knock on wood) and I play complicated pieces with varied velocities.

Maybe some of the keyboard have the problem but they have just not manifested themselves yet. I am sorry for you guys but there are some good keyboards out there. I only post this for the record. I wish all owners the best. If I had to be separated from the kronos after getting her home, I would be upset.

[djcactus]

woah sweet deal! Sorry about the outrage but even I have put my foot in my mouth for you when i found out you get an x!

[Ojustaboo]

You can say whatever you want, but in my opinion, all of the Kronos devices have the very same problem with the keybed, but most people simply do not notice it because their usage pattern is different from mine (no piano playing or whatever).

This is absolutely not to distract from your post in any way. I feel visceral hurt when I read your post (and others) about having to return your Kronos. I have an 88. I am a jazz pianist where the pianos are where I am 85% of the time. I have never had issues with the keyboard (knock on wood) and I play complicated pieces with varied velocities.

Maybe some of the keyboard have the problem but they have just not manifested themselves yet. I am sorry for you guys but there are some good keyboards out there. I only post this for the record. I wish all owners the best. If I had to be separated from the kronos after getting her home, I would be upset.

Yep, I agree with you, some people on this forum (and elsewhere), have never had a problem with their Kronos 88's.

However, I get the impression that those that haven't had the problem have been extremely lucky rather than those that have had the problem being extremely unlucky.

People have tried different Kronos in different music stores, found the problem on all the ones they tried. Others have had problems on their 2nd and 3rd replacement machines. If it was a rare occurrence for the problem to happen, people wouldn't be getting it on their 2nd and 3rd machines.

Seems to me that it's far rarer to be in the lucky pool of people that never had the problem in the first place.

I do realise that people without problems don't tend to post on forums, even taking this into account, I stand by what I've just said.

And I know I'm repeating myself, but waiting over a year, ordering one, contacting Korg and asking them to check the contacts when they update my new machine and update the contacts if they are the old ones, then to find out I not only have the old contacts but also have the problem, in October 2012, direct from Korg, something is badly wrong somewhere.

Then there's DavidB who received the same assurances from Korg only to find his too had the note cuttoff problem, then his replacement ALSO had the problem.

Saxifragas Kronos has also been out for repair for the same problem.

Neither me or DavidB or Saxifraga joined this forum to complain about our keyboards, we were already members.

I thought we would be at the situation now where if anyone asked me if it was safe to by a Kronos, I could give a resounding yes.

Unfortunately entirely due to the way Korg has chosen to handle this, I cannot give anyone that certainty.

The Kronos is a superb machine. Korg UK taking just a week to get my replacement is very fast.

But it shouldn't have been sent out in the first place and some of the things Korg UK did, such as not being able to email me UPS docs and arrange for next day pick up, not going the extra mile and paying extra for Saturday delivery, even though the mistake was there's, leaves a lot to be desired.

Unlike some on this forum I have zero loyalty to Korg, I think the Kronos is the best thing out there but I thing some seriously bad design decisions were made that I've mentioned many times. If Roland or Yamaha brought out something better when I'm next looking, I am just as likely to buy their products as Korgs. In fact due to the way the keybed issue is still around in Oct 2012, I'm more likely to go with the competition.

Again its not because the problem occurred, its because of the contempt Korg has shown with dealing with it.

Not blaming Korg USA or Korg UK for this, more the head guys that dictate what they can and cant say.

We have Korg US techs etc saying pink contacts mean they are the pre upgraded versions, we have Korg UK saying the complete opposite, but we have zero official word on it and no one seems to have the authority to make such a statement.

We have people assured the pink contacts were upgraded but it turned out they weren't'

The cynic in me wonders whether the reason they wont say officially is because the people saying the contacts must be blue to indicate the upgraded ones are correct, hence if they officially said that, everyone (or a lot of people) with the pink ones would be demanding they're changed.

I can see no other logical reason why someone at Korg wont come out of the woodwork and put the issue to bed by saying some updated contacts are pink otherwise, it simply makes no sense. Maybe they like watching people run down their products and service on forums such as this?

I wouldn't even be surprised if Korg Japan has misled Korg UK by telling them they have updated contacts when they don't.

I really really hope I'm wrong, but from what I've now personally experienced, if I contact Korg and ask them a question about something, I don't believe a single word I'm told and they only have themselves to blame.

Make some official announcements and they could gain some credibility. But for every person on this forum who thinks they can do no wrong there's at least 100 people who have gone off Korg and say they'll never ever touch them again all due to how Korg handled this issue.

I can understand these problems happening a year ago (not that that excuses Korg for their silence on the matter), but a year later and people are still getting replacement machines also with the problem????

And that's the very short version of my rant.

[Mikeeee]

You can say whatever you want, but in my opinion, all of the Kronos devices have the very same problem with the keybed, but most people simply do not notice it because their usage pattern is different from mine (no piano playing or whatever).

This is absolutely not to distract from your post in any way. I feel visceral hurt when I read your post (and others) about having to return your Kronos. I have an 88. I am a jazz pianist where the pianos are where I am 85% of the time. I have never had issues with the keyboard (knock on wood) and I play complicated pieces with varied velocities.

Maybe some of the keyboard have the problem but they have just not manifested themselves yet. I am sorry for you guys but there are some good keyboards out there. I only post this for the record. I wish all owners the best. If I had to be separated from the kronos after getting her home, I would be upset.

Yep, I agree with you, some people on this forum (and elsewhere), have never had a problem with their Kronos 88's.

However, I get the impression that those that haven't had the problem have been extremely lucky rather than those that have had the problem being extremely unlucky.

People have tried different Kronos in different music stores, found the problem on all the ones they tried. Others have had problems on their 2nd and 3rd replacement machines. If it was a rare occurrence for the problem to happen, people wouldn't be getting it on their 2nd and 3rd machines.

Seems to me that it's far rarer to be in the lucky pool of people that never had the problem in the first place.

I do realise that people without problems don't tend to post on forums, even taking this into account, I stand by what I've just said.

And I know I'm repeating myself, but waiting over a year, ordering one, contacting Korg and asking them to check the contacts when they update my new machine and update the contacts if they are the old ones, then to find out I not only have the old contacts but also have the problem, in October 2012, direct from Korg, something is badly wrong somewhere.

Then there's DavidB who received the same assurances from Korg only to find his too had the note cuttoff problem, then his replacement ALSO had the problem.

Saxifragas Kronos has also been out for repair for the same problem.

Neither me or DavidB or Saxifraga joined this forum to complain about our keyboards, we were already members.

I thought we would be at the situation now where if anyone asked me if it was safe to by a Kronos, I could give a resounding yes.

Unfortunately entirely due to the way Korg has chosen to handle this, I cannot give anyone that certainty.

The Kronos is a superb machine. Korg UK taking just a week to get my replacement is very fast.

But it shouldn't have been sent out in the first place and some of the things Korg UK did, such as not being able to email me UPS docs and arrange for next day pick up, not going the extra mile and paying extra for Saturday delivery, even though the mistake was there's, leaves a lot to be desired.

Unlike some on this forum I have zero loyalty to Korg, I think the Kronos is the best thing out there but I thing some seriously bad design decisions were made that I've mentioned many times. If Roland or Yamaha brought out something better when I'm next looking, I am just as likely to buy their products as Korgs. In fact due to the way the keybed issue is still around in Oct 2012, I'm more likely to go with the competition.

Again its not because the problem occurred, its because of the contempt Korg has shown with dealing with it.

Not blaming Korg USA or Korg UK for this, more the head guys that dictate what they can and cant say.

We have Korg US techs etc saying pink contacts mean they are the pre upgraded versions, we have Korg UK saying the complete opposite, but we have zero official word on it and no one seems to have the authority to make such a statement.

We have people assured the pink contacts were upgraded but it turned out they weren't'

The cynic in me wonders whether the reason they wont say officially is because the people saying the contacts must be blue to indicate the upgraded ones are correct, hence if they officially said that, everyone (or a lot of people) with the pink ones would be demanding they're changed.

I can see no other logical reason why someone at Korg wont come out of the woodwork and put the issue to bed by saying some updated contacts are pink otherwise, it simply makes no sense. Maybe they like watching people run down their products and service on forums such as this?

I wouldn't even be surprised if Korg Japan has misled Korg UK by telling them they have updated contacts when they don't.

I really really hope I'm wrong, but from what I've now personally experienced, if I contact Korg and ask them a question about something, I don't believe a single word I'm told and they only have themselves to blame.

Make some official announcements and they could gain some credibility. But for every person on this forum who thinks they can do no wrong there's at least 100 people who have gone off Korg and say they'll never ever touch them again all due to how Korg handled this issue.

I can understand these problems happening a year ago (not that that excuses Korg for their silence on the matter), but a year later and people are still getting replacement machines also with the problem????

And that's the very short version of my rant.

+1

Thanks for the short version rant.
My troubles have just started with the Kronos73 which you will know about if you have read my other posts and like you I joined this forum long before I became aware of any problem with my Kronos.

One thing that is now worrying to me, hopefully unneccessary. is that the Korg agent Technician that will be checking my Kronos stated 4 days ago that he had never heard of the problem I have got.
I will keep you all informed.
regards,
Mikeeee.

[Ojustaboo]

Just 6 weeks ago on another forum, someone was discussing what synth/workstation to get, when someone mentioned the Kronos, he responded with

I was looking at the Korg Kronos but with all the horror stories about the RH3 keyboard, I wouldn't feel comfortable with my purchase.

Again, Korg could have put the lid on this a good 6 months ago now, but they have decided to just keep letting new purchases get pissed off and have to go through the returns process. Maybe if Korg had acted properly, the above guy (which I found after a very quick search, (I'm sure there's others) wouldn't be so put off.

Imagine if someone gets recommended to look at the Kronos and they look at the first few pages in this forum, me, you , Saxifraga, DavidB, not really going to encourage them to buy is it.

[danmusician]

What follows is a my reply to Ojustaboo last July as we discussed what Korg should do with Kronos stock already in the pipeline:

Ojustaboo wrote:
Fair enough.

I suspect they don't have any control over the retailers. But I would like retailers to stop sending out existing stock with the old problems still present.

That makes Korg look bad even if it's not technically their faul. Although it could be argued that the way to stop this would be Korg requesting all existing stock back, replacing it with new stock, and Korg themselves checking them and fixing where needed, before putting them back into the supply chain.

When I see some new users are still getting Kronos's from retailers and experiencing the keybed problem, solely due to old stock being sent ouot unchecked, that sort of thing doesn't give me the confidence to tell people they are fine to go ahead and buy now.

And as I've said before, while Korg might fix the problems free of charge, some people live no where near Korg repair centres and don't want to spend that sort of money only to be without their board for 2 -3 weeks while it's shipped back to them etc

No one now should be buying from any authorised retailer any Kronos with the known problems existing. if that was the case, then yes I would recommend one to anyone. But sadly there are still some (probably a very small amount, but still some) being sent out with known problems.


Hopefully the X version will solve this

I agree with your points. However, from a procedural stand point, I don't know how this could be carried out. Let's presume that the actual number of affected Kronoses is quite low. I'm a dealer with a dozen in stock. One or two of them MIGHT have the keybed issue. I can't very well open and test all 12, because I now have instruments in open boxes. Many consumers want to be the one to break that factory seal. So I go ahead and sell them as is and hope for the best.

The only other option is to say to the purchaser, oh, by the way, this new instrument you just gave me 3 grand for, well it might be defective, lets check it out first. How does that inspire customer confidence in the sale? And keep in mind, besides planting a seed of distrust in the product, the chances are quite high that the buyer will experience no issue.

I feel the pain of musicians buying this keyboard. I drove 2 hours to get my keybed fixed and then the shop had the wrong keystrips. (I had called in advance, checked if parts were in and made an appointment for the repair.) The guy was standup about it and drove 2 hrs to me when the correct parts came in.

Sometimes the attitude of posters on this board seems to be that Korg is trying to pull a fast one us, sell us crap and duck the responsibility for a fix. My interaction with the company has been the exact opposite. To me, they seem to be most interested in each user having a quality product and a quality experience. I truly believe they are doing their best to make that happen.

That's why guys like Dan-at-Korg visit this site to lend a helping hand when they can.

[SanderXpander]

I don't quite agree.

I think it would be fair to say that Korg grossly underestimated the scale of the problem. They would, as others have said, been able to close the lid on this virtually in the beginning if they had reacted appropriately. Like they did with the value dial - almost no potential buyer now knows/remembers that that was even ever an issue. They said they needed more time to investigate for this and I believe that. But that meant many more faulty Kronos got shipped.

I don't quite understand why it took to long to distribute a couple of updated key contacts. Even if they ran into the thousands, machines make those things BY the thousands. What they should have done was a blanket recall to fix all Kronos. Including the closed box ones in the shops. The dealer can reseal them, no problem. Put a sticker on it "updated key contacts, approved and inspected by Korg", or whatever. The point is that if people had had the feeling that the issue was quickly and definitively handled by Korg, there wouldn't be all this residual fear about buying one. Mine has a quite mild problem with just two or three keys, but it taking the distributor months just to receive some updated contacts is ridiculous. Ojustaboo receiving a faulty model after asking for an updated one is ridiculous. That he would even feel the need to ask is ridiculous, the thing has been on the market for nearly a year and a half, and the keybed problem has been known and acknowledged for close to a year!

This is, no matter how you turn it, a royal screw up by Korg. It doesn't inspire faith in the brand even with those who love their Kronos, let alone those looking to invest in a new multi thousand dollar workstation. The worst thing is that it is apparently STILL an issue.

EDIT:
I absolutely love my Kronos btw. I would be more evangelical about it if I weren't so embarrassed about those keybed issues.

[danmusician]

I don't quite agree.

I think it would be fair to say that Korg grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.

And yet, Mikeeee says that his Korg tech hadn't heard of the problem until 4 days ago. That tells me that this forum has grossly over exaggerated the problem.

And contrary to your position, Korg's response has inspired complete faith in the brand for me. It has been a stand up company that has stood behind it's products and made every effort to satisfy its customers.

It is sad that the issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention on this board. It has likely scared away some customers.

I think it would be most helpful if owners would contact Korg FIRST if they have a problem. Report to us AFTER its been resolved. There have been some threads recently where the owner has done a bit of handwringing here only to come back later and say that Korg made it right.

[SanderXpander]

That the tech hadn't heard of it tells me that either he's lying, new, or the information provided by Korg to him is terrible - it's not the customers who should inform the tech about this stuff, I hope you agree.

I'm not saying Korg isn't doing reasonably well on an individual basis. I'm saying they should never have decided to handle it on an individual basis, because exactly as you said, many owners come here first to complain when something is wrong with their three thousand dollar board. That is hurting them, as you can easily see from reactions across the internet, even other than this board. I think it's a very strange position to say people should go to Korg first instead of starting with complaining here. In principle you're right, but this is a known problem for Korg! They could have contained it! There is no need for those people to still be receiving Kronos with keybed problems! Yet even when an informed buyer specifically mentions the problem and asks for it to be checked, he receives an affected item.

I agree that it's a shame so many people online are giving the Kronos such a bad rep. I honestly love mine and already can't envision ever going back. I'm just saying it's Korg's own fault this is happening.

[Ojustaboo]

What follows is a my reply to Ojustaboo last July as we discussed what Korg should do with Kronos stock already in the pipeline:

At the time I was responding simply in the impression I got from the majority of Kronos owners on this forum.

I have no choice but repeat myself.

3 months later I purchased my own Kronos

It was a new 88 picked directly from Korg UKs warehouse on 1st October 2012 (I received it on the 4th October)

When I placed the order I stressed to the store that I didn't want one that's been hanging around for a while because of the keyboard problem hence they went out of their way to order a new one directly from Korg.

I emailed Korg and spoke to someone about the upgrade they were doing on the new Kronos that PMT Norwich had just ordered from them.

I asked them to check the contacts at time of doing the upgrade and if they had the old ones, to upgrade the contacts before it was sent out to me.

Korg UK said (in my own words so as not to quote their email but nothings exaggerated or added)

You don't have any need for concern, all our stock have the new upgrades

When I received it, on inspection sent Korg the following email on the 5th October 2012

My serial is 2865, someone on Karma Labs forum from the UK has 3249 that they brought before 10th June, I find it odd that new stock has a lower serial number.

You said that all your new stock had the newer contacts, in Korgforums.com it states that the upgraded contacts on the 88 note Kronos start at serial no 3600

On Korg forums it also states the older style contacts are pink and the newer ones are blue. if I shine a torch in the gaps of my keys, they are definitely pink.

I know this sounds a little whiny, I'm sorry I don't mean it to be, I also know some people with the old contacts had no problems.

I am really really happy with it so far, it's just that I paid what is a LOT of money to me to get a brand new Kronos 88 with the updated contacts and if you brought a brand new car which worked perfectly but turned out it wasn't brand new and wasn't what you ordered I suspect you wouldn't be 100% happy either.

I just want to triple check I have received what I paid for?

Korg responded that mine is the one they sent to PMT Norwich and it was fine.

10 days later the keybed problem showed its self after all the effort I'd put in to make sure I had one with the new contacts and all the assurances Korg gave me that it did.

So for the next 7 days I'm without my new £3700 machine.

This cant be compared to the people who waited months for a solution in the first place, this is October 2012, the problem was first being reported around September 2011, the fixes started to be applied in January 2012.

9 months later mine is direct from Korg, I asked them to check it, I was told it was fine, they had the back off in their support department while the upgrade was fixed, I still received one with the old contacts.

Had this been a shop stock one that had been hanging around for a few months, I wouldn't have such a complaint (although I did ask Korg to check the contacts were the new ones at time of upgrade) but to come directly from Korg 13 months after the problem materialised is unacceptable.


The amount of extra time it would take for the engineer to replace the contacts while they are doing the upgrade is next to nothing, the cost to Korg for the strips is pence (a bit like the tact switches, Korg sell them for £1.02 each, or depending on quantity, brought from digi-key, as low as 7p each)

While I understand what you said, for me to receive this board now is totally 100% unacceptable.

What makes it worse is I have the pink contacts and some have been told by Korg US that pink means the old style contacts, yet Korg UK say the opposite.

So one has been misinformed.

So while I'm finally happy, as no official announcement on the colour of the contacts has been made by korg, I honestly wont be surprised in the slightest if in 3 weeks time the problem manifests its self again and I shouldn't have to think like that after having spent this much money.

I can understand them not wanting to do a recall (although I think from a PR point of view it would have saved them thousands long term) but the cost and time involved in opening up any old stock from their warehouse and upgrading the contacts before they are dispatched to stores compared to pissing people like me off, is minuscule and inexcusable.

Tied with the fact that their warranties are non transferable (as is standard practice I know) if I was buying a second hand one with a SN under 3600, if it didn't have the blue contacts, I wouldn't want to buy it and I'm sure I'm not alone, they have also made some of the machines loose a LOT of value for the owner due to a problem that's not the owners fault.

They could have said the warranty isn't transferable with the exception of if the note cut-off happens. But they choose not to.

All the business reasons for not admitting how much of a problem this was fall into insignificance when the Kronos is mentioned on certain forums as a suggestion and others say they wouldn't touch Korg after the way they were dealt with regarding this issue and still others say they wont buy due to all the horror stories they hear.

The problem happened, that doesn't really bother me, unforeseen problems can happen with any new product. But as I and others have said time and time again, it's how a company deals with their customers when a problem happens that tells me how good the company really is, and in this area. Korg has failed badly.

I didn't even consider buying for months due to the keybed problem, but thought by now I was safe to go ahead. Turns out I was wrong

If I'm on this or one of the other piano/keyboard forums and someone mentions the Kronos and the keybed problem and someone else states that was ages ago etc, I will tell them exactly what I experienced this very month and say that from my experience you are still taking a gamble, and point out that Korg Uk and Korg US don't even agree about which ones have the problems (korg US saying pink contacts mean old, korg UK saying they don't). Doesn't look very good does it and it could all have been put to bed months ago.

ps, I agree with the above post from SanderXpander 100%

I think the RH3 is a better action (when it's working properly!) (October 2012)

The Korg Kronos is probably the best synthesizer in the world, however its release revealed many problems and unhappy customers. Following on from the initial problems, there are still problems with the keybeds (July 2012)

I was actually quite impressed with the RH3 ("Made in Japan") keybed but maybe that's me coming to it from the Stage rather than the RD700GX. Unfortunately, within literally seconds I was able to replicate the keybed cut-off error. (June 2012)

I get that its supposed to be the all singing all dancing eight wonder of the world, but Ive watched enough videos on youtube by disenchanted Kronos owners to know that a $200 discount is not going to compensate for Korg’s lack of quality control. Malfunctioning keybeds...(July 31st 2012)

The second one I get, one year after first ordering, and the keyboard still has the note cut-off and key bounce problems (28th April 2012)

Edit: spelling

[Ojustaboo]

It is sad that the issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention on this board. It has likely scared away some customers.

Report to us AFTER its been resolved. There have been some threads recently where the owner has done a bit of handwringing here only to come back later and say that Korg made it right.

If your referring to me, I stand 100% by my post and that it should never have happened in the first place and while a week turnaround is good, they could have done it in 3 days if they had wanted to.

You appear to be blaming the customer for people being put off buying Korg products. Customers report what they have experienced and if they experience bad service or buy bad products, the only people to blame are the people supplying the products/services.

[danmusician]

It is sad that the issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention on this board. It has likely scared away some customers.

Report to us AFTER its been resolved. There have been some threads recently where the owner has done a bit of handwringing here only to come back later and say that Korg made it right.

If your referring to me, I stand 100% by my post and that it should never have happened in the first place and while a week turnaround is good, they could have done it in 3 days if they had wanted to.

You appear to be blaming the customer for people being put off buying Korg products. Customers report what they have experienced and if they experience bad service or buy bad products, the only people to blame are the people supplying the products/services.

And yet you changed the title of your thread to more accurately reflect your Korg experience after Korg made it right. What about potential buyers who visited the forum, saw your original thread title, got spooked and left? I want to know what problems others may be having with their Kronoses. But there is at times a certain piling on of complaints on this board that do not accurately reflect the quality of the instrument. There are presumably many owners who don't even know this board exists. And happy customers tend not to post. So it can appear a problem is massive on this board when it in fact affects a small subgroup. Case in point, Mikeeee's tech never heard of the problem. My tech (an independent contractor who services many brands) told me not to believe everything I read on the Internet when I asked him if this was a widespread problem.

Don't misunderstand my point. You should have received a quality instrument out of the box. I'm sorry that you didn't. I'm glad Korg made it right.

[Saxifraga]

Just 6 weeks ago on another forum, someone was discussing what synth/workstation to get, when someone mentioned the Kronos, he responded with

I was looking at the Korg Kronos but with all the horror stories about the RH3 keyboard, I wouldn't feel comfortable with my purchase.

Again, Korg could have put the lid on this a good 6 months ago now, but they have decided to just keep letting new purchases get pissed off and have to go through the returns process. Maybe if Korg had acted properly, the above guy (which I found after a very quick search, (I'm sure there's others) wouldn't be so put off.

Imagine if someone gets recommended to look at the Kronos and they look at the first few pages in this forum, me, you , Saxifraga, DavidB, not really going to encourage them to buy is it.

I would encourage them to buy a Kronos 61 and a good external keybed from Fatar or such. Maybe I will get my machine back at the end of next week. Let´s hope everything will be fine in the end.

[Ojustaboo]

It is sad that the issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention on this board. It has likely scared away some customers.

Report to us AFTER its been resolved. There have been some threads recently where the owner has done a bit of handwringing here only to come back later and say that Korg made it right.

If your referring to me, I stand 100% by my post and that it should never have happened in the first place and while a week turnaround is good, they could have done it in 3 days if they had wanted to.

You appear to be blaming the customer for people being put off buying Korg products. Customers report what they have experienced and if they experience bad service or buy bad products, the only people to blame are the people supplying the products/services.

And yet you changed the title of your thread to more accurately reflect your Korg experience after Korg made it right. What about potential buyers who visited the forum, saw your original thread title, got spooked and left? I want to know what problems others may be having with their Kronoses. But there is at times a certain piling on of complaints on this board that do not accurately reflect the quality of the instrument. There are presumably many owners who don't even know this board exists. And happy customers tend not to post. So it can appear a problem is massive on this board when it in fact affects a small subgroup. Case in point, Mikeeee's tech never heard of the problem. My tech (an independent contractor who services many brands) told me not to believe everything I read on the Internet when I asked him if this was a widespread problem.

Don't misunderstand my point. You should have received a quality instrument out of the box. I'm sorry that you didn't. I'm glad Korg made it right.

I changed it only because some people requested I did so, and I was feeling extra nice on the day. Really I should have left it as it was as the original title was 100% true.

If people get put off by the title of my thread then maybe, just maybe if Korg hadn't done this in October 2012, my thread wouldn't have existed.

People have every right to read my experience and be very very wary.

[SanderXpander]

It is sad that the issue has received a disproportionate amount of attention on this board. It has likely scared away some customers.

Report to us AFTER its been resolved. There have been some threads recently where the owner has done a bit of handwringing here only to come back later and say that Korg made it right.

If your referring to me, I stand 100% by my post and that it should never have happened in the first place and while a week turnaround is good, they could have done it in 3 days if they had wanted to.

You appear to be blaming the customer for people being put off buying Korg products. Customers report what they have experienced and if they experience bad service or buy bad products, the only people to blame are the people supplying the products/services.

And yet you changed the title of your thread to more accurately reflect your Korg experience after Korg made it right. What about potential buyers who visited the forum, saw your original thread title, got spooked and left? I want to know what problems others may be having with their Kronoses. But there is at times a certain piling on of complaints on this board that do not accurately reflect the quality of the instrument. There are presumably many owners who don't even know this board exists. And happy customers tend not to post. So it can appear a problem is massive on this board when it in fact affects a small subgroup. Case in point, Mikeeee's tech never heard of the problem. My tech (an independent contractor who services many brands) told me not to believe everything I read on the Internet when I asked him if this was a widespread problem.

Don't misunderstand my point. You should have received a quality instrument out of the box. I'm sorry that you didn't. I'm glad Korg made it right.

Sorry but I honestly can't take the statement from that tech seriously (even considering it's hearsay to begin with). Even if he hasn't personally had any complaints from Kronos owners, he SHOULD HAVE HEARD FROM KORG about it. If not, either Korg's communication is terrible, or he is new or incompetent.

I know for a fact that it affected all but a very few of the Kronos sold in Holland. Several shops actually actively warned about it. Even assuming people who have no problems won't post here, I would suggest that only a small amount of people who DO have the problem do post. The fact remains that so many people end up here that the problem IS widespread, whether it affects all users or not.

I'm not saying Korg isn't trying to satisfy individual customers when they report a problem. I'm saying they KNOW about this issue and should have long taken measures to prevent any new users receiving a faulty product. This and only this is the right course of action for such a common product fault.