TC Electronic Sucks

[Sharkman]

If anyone working for TC Electronics is reading this: Guys, you had plenty of opportunity to take the high road, and show everyone that you were a company that genuinely cares about its customers and its products. Instead, you chose not the low road, but the gutter. As a business owner, I just do not understand why any company would damage their reputation the way you did. And for what? Was the cost of one lousy pedal worth all the lost future sales?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have an MBA in marketing and I've been boggled by this whole saga. One big "How not to..." lesson.

[skipclone 1]

Ya, what an ambush-so much for the idea that someone with a reputation to protect will go the extra mile. These guys never even made it to the finish line. Even worse, I had one of their chorus pedals high on my want list-the key word being `had`.

[Larryz]

At least they came through with a refund and hopefully learned a lesson or two. May they conduct themselves with better customer service in the future...

[ovnilabs]

A link to this thread was posted over on Talkbass, and my reply there was:

 

"Funny, they treated me like crap and had obvious total disregard for me as a customer, and had no knowledge about the product I wanted help with, and refused to even consider servicing it. After I escalated the problem up to one of the top rungs in the company, they finally admitted the product was defective--but they still could not fix it."

 

IOW, this is normal operating procedure for TCE, and they are on my #### list pretty much permanently.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks for adding the testimonial!

 

Maybe, just maybe, as this snowballs, they will get the message.

[A String]

Thanks for chiming in, ovnilabs!

[Phloid]

I sympathize with the frustration involved in this experience. It looks like A-String will get their money back.

 

There are numerous companies that should be avoided. Yamaha/Steinberg is at the top of my list. One empowered guy taking over the reins with the wherewithal to make constructive changes might succeed but I doubt you can bully an entire company into submission with the tactics suggested in these types of threads. Instead the most you are likely to witness is a slow disintegration, and only if you have the time and interest in feeding the fire and watching its progress. That takes a lot of energy and time devoted to scorning something.

 

It seems that everyone is responsible for exponential sales and had plans to buy something of a given brand until the evil company was exposed. Seriously, it may be true but it comes off as disingenuous making the claim under these circumstances.

 

With everyone speaking from their computers people are in a constant state of informality. Often they are quick to revert to the slippery slope towards the lowest common denominator. However, once at the bottom it makes it that much more appalling for an employee of a company to stoop low enough to satisfy the bottom feeders.

 

In theory you justify giving something away that might generate more income as a result but smaller entities cannot afford this. They may not be able to afford to cultivate a decent staff. They probably do one or two things well but have a bunch of flaws in their system. It isn't as simple as generating a mob of haters to sculpt a monument. This often makes the "people" on the other side angry and less willing to acknowledge you.

 

 

[A String]

Okay, I was contacted by the Canadian rep who is now going to refer me to the local rep (in my city) and HE is the one who will supposedly arrange the return.

 

So, my original complaint has gone from the Canadian Rep, to the American Rep to the Danish Rep at head office, back to the American rep, back to the Canadian Rep and now to the local rep. It's done a full circle.

 

What's amazing to me is how much work was involved, just to get a refund. Add to this thread and the opened posts on Facebook, the hours of time I spent on the phone and the many emails that went back and forth and you really get an idea for how much work this was. I think most people would have just given up, kept the unit and written the money off. It is a shame to see a company operate this way. Think of how much money they'd owe me if I had been charging them for my time!

[picker]

And another company's reputation circles the bottom of the toilet on it's way to the sewer. Maybe the fact that they started producing the low price point stuff should have been a signal that bad times (and gear) were coming soon. Y'all know they had THE sexy chorus box at one time. Now, they're fertilizer merchants. Sad.

[A String]

Still waiting...

[Caevan O’Shite]

And I had hopes that my taking that to the TC Facebook 'page would net you some actual results...

[wraub]

Well, here's this:

 

TalkBass forum thread

 

 

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And so, what was once a humble grass fire begins to spread...

[A String]

Nice to see that it's spreading to other music forums! I may not get any results, but at least others will see how TC treats it's customers and think twice about buying anything.

[Dannyalcatraz]

What I hope is that they see this and turn their ship around- I hate it when good companies go bad.

[Winston Psmith]

What makes this such a poor example of Customer Service is that Tore from TC (remember him?) posted to this thread, seemingly on his own initiative, then vanished: There's no question that TC is already aware of this thread, even if it hasn't gone viral.

[Scott Fraser]

What makes this such a poor example of Customer Service is that Tore from TC (remember him?) posted to this thread, seemingly on his own initiative, then vanished: There's no question that TC is already aware of this thread, even if it hasn't gone viral.

 

Might could be there are so many other fires to put out in scores of other guitar forums that Tore just hasn't had time to get back to us. There could be hundreds, thousands even, of truly pissed off customers he's trying to placate.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Were THAT the case, the proper procedure is to have a press release of some kind- your happiness is important to us, we are currently overwhelmed, yada yada, yada. That buys you time and goodwill.

 

Of course, you actually have to be working on a solution...

[Caevan O’Shite]

For all we know, Tore got fired or jumped ship in the middle of that, too...

[A String]

Tore is the one that sent the request to head office a while back. He just messaged me, day before yesterday, saying that he was away on vacation and asked if it had been sorted out yet. I told him it had not, but he hasn't had a chance to respond yet (I assume because it's the weekend).

 

I'm not sure this is a "Tore" issue so much as a "TC Electronic abandoning a customer" issue.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Tore is the one that sent the request to head office a while back. He just messaged me, day before yesterday, saying that he was away on vacation and asked if it had been sorted out yet. I told him it had not, but he hasn't had a chance to respond yet (I assume because it's the weekend).

 

I'm not sure this is a "Tore" issue so much as a "TC Electronic abandoning a customer" issue.

 

Neither of which is very impressive, either way...

[A String]

Couldn't agree more Caev. After this piss poor treatment, I plan on making it my mission to spread the word and keep as many people from buying as possible. I know they assume that it will eventually blow over and they can go back to ripping people off, but they just made a life time enemy in me and I plan on keeping the word going for years.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its one thing to be shoddy to the Average Joe...but in your position in this gorganization...you've got a bully pulpit. You can hammer them on this as long as it takes.

 

Its kind of like if a gun maker pissed off an editor at Guns & Ammo magazine. Just dumb.

[Larryz]

Tore is the one that sent the request to head office a while back. He just messaged me, day before yesterday, saying that he was away on vacation and asked if it had been sorted out yet. I told him it had not, but he hasn't had a chance to respond yet (I assume because it's the weekend).

 

I'm not sure this is a "Tore" issue so much as a "TC Electronic abandoning a customer" issue.

 

Sounds like Tore is still keeping in touch with you...hope he can still be of help to you...

[skipclone 1]

The Tokyo Music Instrument Fair is coming in early November. If I see a TC rep I`ll let him know about this sordid mess if he doesn`t already. Another blow against the inept empire...

[A String]

Sounds like Tore is still keeping in touch with you...hope he can still be of help to you...

 

I suppose he is. Although that contact was once on July 19th and once on August 16th. That's it.

[Sharkman]

One thing is for sure: At the next NAMM show, whoever is working the TC booth better be able to handle a lot of scorn, derision, and verbal abuse.

[Winston Psmith]

One thing is for sure: At the next NAMM show, whoever is working the TC booth better be able to handle a lot of scorn, derision, and verbal abuse.

 

While I agree with the sentiment, as a naturally vindictive SOB, I'm not sure abusing the folks at the demo booth will have any real impact on the higher-ups. Unlike a lot of the small, boutique gear makers, who show up to represent their own products, I don't expect to see department heads from TC working the floor: Maybe I'm wrong about that.

 

I do think that asking embarrassing questions during their product demos is appropriate, and possibly educational. It might even be worthwhile to try to engage them, on some level. "Were you guys aware of this problem with . . .?" At least it raises the issue in way that's less likely to get you thrown out of the showroom, and once other visitors overhear you, well, they'll probably want an answer, too, before they commit to ordering a pile of products that are going to piss off their customers.

[A String]

So three more days have passed. No word from Tore, the Local rep or anyone at TC.

 

Eight months of getting the run around and we are still going.