Brand New Fractal Looked Refurbished

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MistaGuitah

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Has anyone bought something brand new from Fractal but received a refurbished or returned item? I got one with a damaged outside box that looks like it had been shipped twice, an inside box that was sloppily retaped and you can see the old tape cut, and the inside plastic all wrinkled and sloppily covering the unit. I don't see how they could mistakenly send a refurbished/used/returned item like this.
 
MIght want to let them know. Even the B-stock Axe FX III I bought was packaged like new, retail. It's not impossible to think they'd resell a returned unit, but from my experience with them, they wouldn't pass it off as new, or they'd certainly make sure it was packaged as new. Someone probably called an audible. The owner does seem to want to know about this stuff when it happens. If you start a tread on their forum, he'll see it.
 
I would not be to happy about receiving someone else’s sloppy seconds.
 
Yeah i would have to agree
You paid “x” for new, then thats what you should get.
 
It came with an inspection tag, and that's something I haven't seen on any new unit I bought from Fractal prior to the AxeFX III and FM3. I suspect it may be someone's return. I bought it with a Black Friday deal, but brand new. It would bother me if they decided to send me a return just because I bought it with a holiday discount.
 
I’d make a thread on the official forums about it. The head of that company hates hearing about stuff like this and will likely tear somebody a new asshole over it and get you helped out.
 
TheGreatGreen said:
I’d make a thread on the official forums about it. The head of that company hates hearing about stuff like this and will likely tear somebody a new asshole over it and get you helped out.
Click to expand...
Well, I have to hear back from them first because there's also a small possible they might have just been really, really sloppy packaging a new unit. That would be bad also but a different story.
 
Well, there was a QC tag on it, which I haven't seen before, and I've bought from Fractal multiple times before. Like I said, I want to hear back from them first before I make any judgements because they've always been good about taking care of stuff from my experience.
 
RESOLVED: So I called Fractal and left a message, and about 30 seconds later my phone rings. They were very quick to call me back. I had sent an email yesterday but saw a notice on their sales site that they're using a different email due to problems with sales@fractalaudio.com.
Anyway, this is what he explained about their process, and it's similar to what Studio 289 described. They receive the double-boxed item, open it, remove the contents and QC check, then repackage and send. He said that they were really busy on Black Friday and that may explain the sloppy packaging. They confirmed it's a new item and not returned or refurbished so that's good.
 
Good to hear, fyi every fractal processor I've bought had a qc tag on it...
 
Sounds like the behavior of Musicians Friend. Not once, but twice did I buy “new” items off their site (had a 15% off coupon or wouldn’t have even bothered to begin with) and they came drop shipped from Guitar Center and were clearly customer returns. Most recently, it was a Mesa pedal with finger print smudges all over it and a Duracell inside. Now, I’m not that much of a stickler but to happen a couple of times tells me that’s regular behavior for them.
 
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Fractal has some great customer service! I remember when the power supply went down on my FM3 when I had it. They were quick to get it repaired for me at a local place to my area. I was back up and running in a couple of days.
 
Fractal customer service story-

I waited 15 years to afford an AxeFX, ordered it and anxiously awaited the holidays to pass before receiving it. My buddy and I prank each other all the time and I should have paid more attention when FractalAudioSales@gmail.com sent me an email telling me there was a shipping mix-up and someone else was going to get my unit and that I’d have to wait about 5 months before I got mine.

I immediately go to the FAS forum to ask if anyone had heard of them doing something like that before and I don’t think a minute had passed before they stepped in. I can’t remember the exact order of events, but at some point I received the same e-mail at my work email address. FAS and myself were both thinking there was a hack somewhere along the way, exposing their customers e-mails and order history, as well as somehow getting my work email address.

I called our IT guy to look into it and FAS’ IT reached out to me, Matt reached out to me as did Mark Day. Before 10 minutes had passed I had confirmation via Mark that the unit was on it’s way to me and not to be worried about that, but we were all still at a loss with how the info was given out and working on both sides to figure that out.

9pm rolls around, my buddy sends me a text-

“What’s up? You get your AxeFX yet?”

”No, dude, the fucking day I had involving that….” then reiterate the whole story and how FAS was investigating it, how my company was investigating it and there had to have been a serious breach somewhere along the way.

“Oh fuck, dude, it was just a prank. I thought you’d see the email and call me all upset about not getting your AxeFX”

”DUDE! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?!! WHY THE FUCK WOULD I CALL YOU AT 8AM WHEN YOU DON’T EVEN WAKE UP UNTIL FUCKING 5PM!!! HOW WOULD YOU HELP ME GET MY AXEFX ON TIME?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?! DUDE!!! YOU’RE A FUCKING IDIOT! YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER FOR REAL?!?! MY FUCKING WORK E-MAIL?!?! OUR IT GUY IS PULLING HIS HAIR OUT TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS SHIT AND SO IS FRACTAL’S!”

I was so pissed off at him and in over 20 years, I’ve never been mad at this dude once.

Immediately went to Fractal to let them know it was a stupid prank. Cliff wasn’t too pleased, to say the least.

So I paid the motherfucker back by getting my CFO in on it and told him she was suspending me until she could figure out if I could keep my job or not due to “allowing my email address to be used for pranks”. I told him she didn’t believe me that it was a prank and he had to call her up to explain it. She is an extremely intimidating woman when she wants to be, she used to be a consulate in Mexico for the government and was in the armed services for years, she’s a master at playing dumb and then unleashing the fooking fury.

He was nearly in tears by the time she was done with him. I kept it going for 2 years until an incident occurred in my marriage and she actually showed up to offer any kind of help she could, met him in person and then we finally told him. Fuckin’ prick.

But even while FAS was trying to figure out WTF was up, they made sure I was taken care of first and foremost. Emails, PM’s, phone calls, they were on it.
 
I'm not a customer, but by all accounts cliff takes care of his.

He seems really legit.
 
DanTravis62 said:
I'm not a customer, but by all accounts cliff takes care of his.

He seems really legit.
Click to expand...

Last year he almost fired someone for gluing a USB connector in sloppily.

Old school New England work ethic and customer service. (though people cry like bitches whenever he busts balls because he’s “being mean”)
 
RevDrucifer said:
Fractal customer service story-

I waited 15 years to afford an AxeFX, ordered it and anxiously awaited the holidays to pass before receiving it. My buddy and I prank each other all the time and I should have paid more attention when FractalAudioSales@gmail.com sent me an email telling me there was a shipping mix-up and someone else was going to get my unit and that I’d have to wait about 5 months before I got mine.

I immediately go to the FAS forum to ask if anyone had heard of them doing something like that before and I don’t think a minute had passed before they stepped in. I can’t remember the exact order of events, but at some point I received the same e-mail at my work email address. FAS and myself were both thinking there was a hack somewhere along the way, exposing their customers e-mails and order history, as well as somehow getting my work email address.

I called our IT guy to look into it and FAS’ IT reached out to me, Matt reached out to me as did Mark Day. Before 10 minutes had passed I had confirmation via Mark that the unit was on it’s way to me and not to be worried about that, but we were all still at a loss with how the info was given out and working on both sides to figure that out.

9pm rolls around, my buddy sends me a text-

“What’s up? You get your AxeFX yet?”

”No, dude, the fucking day I had involving that….” then reiterate the whole story and how FAS was investigating it, how my company was investigating it and there had to have been a serious breach somewhere along the way.

“Oh fuck, dude, it was just a prank. I thought you’d see the email and call me all upset about not getting your AxeFX”

”DUDE! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?!! WHY THE FUCK WOULD I CALL YOU AT 8AM WHEN YOU DON’T EVEN WAKE UP UNTIL FUCKING 5PM!!! HOW WOULD YOU HELP ME GET MY AXEFX ON TIME?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?! DUDE!!! YOU’RE A FUCKING IDIOT! YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKER FOR REAL?!?! MY FUCKING WORK E-MAIL?!?! OUR IT GUY IS PULLING HIS HAIR OUT TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS SHIT AND SO IS FRACTAL’S!”

I was so pissed off at him and in over 20 years, I’ve never been mad at this dude once.

Immediately went to Fractal to let them know it was a stupid prank. Cliff wasn’t too pleased, to say the least.

So I paid the motherfucker back by getting my CFO in on it and told him she was suspending me until she could figure out if I could keep my job or not due to “allowing my email address to be used for pranks”. I told him she didn’t believe me that it was a prank and he had to call her up to explain it. She is an extremely intimidating woman when she wants to be, she used to be a consulate in Mexico for the government and was in the armed services for years, she’s a master at playing dumb and then unleashing the fooking fury.

He was nearly in tears by the time she was done with him. I kept it going for 2 years until an incident occurred in my marriage and she actually showed up to offer any kind of help she could, met him in person and then we finally told him. Fuckin’ prick.

But even while FAS was trying to figure out WTF was up, they made sure I was taken care of first and foremost. Emails, PM’s, phone calls, they were on it.
Click to expand...
That prank was fuckin epic.
 
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