I wanted to share with you my experience with the Elektron support.

I bought a Machinedrum in April of this year. Sometime in late August, after a late-night tweak session one of the knobs on the MD broke off. The knob itself was made of cheap plastic.

I emailed support... 1 week passed and after emailing sales, I finally got a reply from someone named "DE". Explained the situation and right away got a reply: "We'll fix it but you're paying for parts and labor".

I decided to try and fix it myself - little crazy glue and viola! Well, it worked for all... 15 minutes and then it broke off again. At that point, I gave up and did a bit of research. On Elektron site they said that the first 100 or so units had a problem. this one was well out of the range, yet exhibited similar problem.

I complained to the head of Elektron and they offered to fix it for free but I would pay to ship it to California from East Cost. So far so good.

MD got to Cali in 5 days. No word from tech 2 weeks thereafter. Not a peep for another 2 weeks. I email support - "Hey, you guys got my MD? Any word?" - 2 days go by. MD Support: "Oh yeah, we got it ok. Our guy is working on it. But you know, it may take sometime since you tried to repair it yourself". --- ehh???? Excuse me? It's a simple friggin knob! It's 3-prong potentiometer! It's a total of 30 minutes of work, if that!!! WHTF!??? Well... I decided to wait.

Another 30 days go by... Not a f-n peep... Not even: "hey, we are going to be fixing it sometime in July of 2006, so just hang tight"

Well... I got pissed off and wrote to president of the Elektron:

quote:

To whom it may concern: It has been over 2 months since I sent my machinedrum for repairs. While I understand that you need time to fix the unit, I cannot understand how it can take over 2 months to fix a simple data entry knob! I am utterly disapointed in the level of responsiveness I had received from the Elektron support thus far. I am outraged that something so simple can take so long! I cannot even fathom the delay I would have if god forbid something serious happened to the unit and it required extensive repair. I cannot see how such a long delay can be warranted or even acceptable by any measure. I am sure you would feel just as upset if you were in my situation. I believe ample time has passed for you to fix the problem and send the unit back. I am expecting to receive my Machinedrum in a repaired condition by no later than 10/30/04. After that time you may keep the machinedrum, as I will be filing a charge dispute with my credit card company for the full amount. Furthermore, I will be sure to advise other potential buyers of your products through any means available about the level of service I had received from Elektron. In the strongest possible terms, I encourage you to reply with the status of my repair order and a time frame for me to receive the unit back repaired. Sincerely,

And reply from Elektron:

quote:

I am very sorry that this it taking such a long time. There are 2 reasons for this, 1. the problem, I quote our service tech: "Customer's MD with the broken 'D' Data Entry Knob - S/N xxxxxxxx. That last one might be a problem. If he "glued" the knob back, I may have to replace the entire rotary encoder assembly. I will let you know what I find out." I have not yet heard any news from our service tech regarding this. I will mail once again today and ask him. You wrote that it is a simple problem but I am afraid it is not. This was I believe discussed before the initial sending to the service tech. 2. our service tech has had personal problems and a tragic loss which I do NOT have any control over. I have not spread this out to the people who has got machines at his place for repair as I feel this is the last thing I want to drop as a reason for the time consumption. This is absolutely not a joke in any way but a tragic fact and I feel as upset as you because I cannot do anything about the situation. I have though been in contact with him and he is slowly starting again. I can assure you that I am as upset as you. I may be more frustrated though as there are some other machines over there which has not been worked on for some time now. That includes machines with warranty. I am very sorry that I havent mailed you before but I have had no contact with our service tech for quite some time. I will do my best to get a status and then I will mail you. Sincerely, DE Elektron Support

So, I dunno what to do. I don't got my MD for almost 3 months now and no indication when it is comming back.

And this is your $1300 drum machine support. Nice, eh?

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

Last edited by CynepMeH on Nov-01-2004 at 22:17

Firstly take responsibility for breaking it.. You should have sent it to them in the first place. Doesnt it void the warranty if you do anything to it yourself? But yeah their tech is kinda whack... I got a quick response to my question. But it was a answer along the lines of i dont know how to help you... On another note does your machinedrum have a lot of noise when you boost the signal?

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"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"

Frost, I take it you own MD, and I am sure you'd agree that their knobs are probably the crappiest, this side of $1250. As far as gluing goes, I made sure the glue did not touch any of the "vital/moving" parts - so, even after the knob was attached, the movement was unaffected.

As far as the warranty goes - I had a suspicion this was going to take ages, therefore, I tried to repair it myself.

Look, Elektron is not shy about charging $1250 for the MD. While it's a nice gizmo, I had certain expectations about the warranty at that price point. I'm sure it does not cost them anything to "partner" with more electronics specialists in US to have some sort of "redundancy", for emergency situations like this DE guy described. That's all I am saying. I just don't think that waiting for over 2 months for repair is justified.

To answer your question, no, I don't notice the noise. Did you try swapping the cables?

___________________
Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

Just thought I'd share an update, to be fair. I got my machinedrum back last friday. The tech fedexed it overnight and it is as good as new. Turned out that she (yes, she) was rather nice - tho, I never had issue with her, I was more angry at Elektron. However, they came through for me and even promissed to send a rack mount kit, absolutely free - as a "oops, we goofed" gift.

So, that's that. I guess I am happy, now that I got my MD back.

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Proud member of the "Filthy Zionist" coalition

hehe cool hmm is the Md worth buying ?

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David & Carr

Alter Ego Records A&R, Producer, DJ
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w :: myspace.com/davidandcarr
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The MD is by far my favorite piece of gear in my studio... Though I too believe i will soon be sending in mine for repair as my has a constant hum which really becomes aparent when eqing and compressing. But yes i do agree the knobs and buttons feel like crap I wish it hat pads like the korg micro kontrol or something and knobs like a waldorf.... But ohwell not everything is perfect... The sounds are amazing and is very editable..... It is not a 909 or 808 nor is it meant to be. It ia a completely different beast.... I love it...CynepMeH hit me up i wanna know if yours has noise aswell..... Try boosting the eq 6db at 5khz+ and see if you hear it....

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"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"