Fanatec Reviews

I recently purchased the Sim racing setup from Fanatec. Fanatec is an amazing company. I received updates about my order and when I sent an email with a question, I received a prompt response. I was most impressed with the packaging. I had around 15 separate boxes. Each box was packaged with the item in its original box, then into a shipping box.
Very easy to set up the Sim. Purchases the Clubsport shifter, CSL pedals and load cell kit,NASCAR podium wheel rim, CSL DD 5Nm as well as all of the clamps to each product. One day of racing and everything is working great!

Fanatec is an exceptionally poor company. Low value for money. Their hardware engineers are probably ok, but the owners/leadership are appalling and most likely luddites creaming profit for their yachts. Their website is designed and built by people who clearly don't understand technology. It is slow and cumbersome and buggy. The software for their products is out of the 1990's. Their actual products are full of defects and it only take 5 mins on Google to see a litany of issues that are NEVER addressed. Their customer service is pretty much non-existent. With other manufacturers now providing direct drive products, it is only a matter of time before fanatec goes down and it will be good riddance.

Fanatec CS has been spot on.
I broke my pedal when plugging in the loadcell csl pedal. Took video and CS team sorted postage to repair centre, pedal not fixable, replacement set sent out. Great kit, well impressed with the dd pro.

Even when product is under warranty they expect you to pay 30 euro for some new button caps. For something that should not break in the first place not even after 10 years of abuse. You would expect a lot more from a so called Podium product.

No more Fanatec for me, just unacceptable they do so difficult about something that costs them 10 cent to make and 1 euro to deliver a bit of service.

But no they like to spent all the money on use emails back and forward to customer support wasting a lot of money instead of helping the customer. A lot of other companies do this a lot better and already send you a replacement product after your first mail.

Wow!

I wish I would have read these reviews beforehand. I understand that things can take time but their support team basically gives zero Fs about the customers. I have the new basic CSL pedals there's a defect on their end. All they do is clearly provide copy & paste comments, which is just lazy. I asked specific questions and none were answered. Now I'm waiting on a shipping label and still have yet to receive updates on any questions I previously asked.

Things take time within all companies but it's like they literally only have 1 support associate and everything else is automated through a poorly built bot system. Also, their ticketing system and all support are via e-mail as if using Zendesk or Salesforce is out of the question.

-_-

They choose UPS as their delivery provider who can't manage a simple delivery of their items so I would avoid Fanatec for this reason.

Their products are good but as soon as you need help expect a 4-6 month wait time, a cable to my clutch broke 4 months ago they have stopped answering me, it is about 3 centimetres long and cost 10 euro, I have to wait so long time to get so small of a cable

I've just built my 7th Fanatec based rig, first 6 no issues, 7th rig one part was faulty and now they seem to be doing the hardest they can to not help me. This is the terrible after service and my trust is being rapidly eroded. I do hope they see this and do the right thing, I just spent £2000 and I need their help. David

My second update to my initial review. Now from 3 to 4 stars. Since the beginning of this year Fanatec has really substantially improved their customer support with very quick email responses and also quick repair or replacement shipping. I am very happy now with all my Fanatec equipment working.

I have an issue with the QR connection between the wheel and the base. Fanatec know that their design is flawed and so refuse to fix as they would need to regularly replace the palstic QR. Plenty of forums with people complaining about same issue. They simply tell you to buy their new quick release system as and when they chose to release it. According to fanatec it is normal for it to be sloppy and clunk when you change direction, even though it makes wheel unusable and only happened after a year of use. I wish I could share the full emails as its clear they dont care, it makes you feel very bad to be conned with a faulty product that you spent over 1k euro on, and for the supplier to sit back and laugh at you... even told me to have a sunny day after telling me they wouldn't honor their warranty!

Also, is covid still an excuse for taking weeks and weeks to respond to an email? I understand shipping issues are ongoing, but emails have been running fine throughout, and over 2 years is enough time to sort out email support staffing!

Bought the CSL Elite Pedals.
Pedals had a deadzone at the beginning and at the end of the travel. Sent an email with videos, showing the problem. But they always said everything was alright.
After 2 weeks exchanging emails, they accepted to create an RMA. After 1 month waiting with no feedback, they refunded me without even sending an email.
I was a Fanatec client, since day 0. (Wireless porsche wheel)

Very poor customer service. They made a mistake on the 5 packages that I was supposed to receive. Obviously, Canada Post send it to the Sender. Impossible to contact Fanatec to have any explanation (chat, phone, mail, social network).

Furthermore, I paid 150$ of delivery charges + 120$ of canadian taxes. 2 months since the order, I have not received anything.

Canadian fellers, avoid ordering on Fanatec and go through resellers. I don't doubt Fanatec products which is paradoxical. I Hope that things will get better...

I ordered the CSL DD and V3 pedals. I got them early, but that didn't matter. Both are missing hardware. Not a big deal with the pedals. I was able to just get what I need at the hardware store. The wheel base was missing the usb cable and t-nuts. I don't know what size t-nut I need so I can't order it. Their customer support hasn't gotten back to me after 5 days. It is very frustrating spending this kind of money on something and not getting any support at all. I would defiantly shop somewhere else if you can.

Fantastic product when it works… If you need support… Ask for help in the forum or Facebook groups with owners of fanatic equipment. Impossible to get trough on the phone. You won’t get any reply with help trough email….

I had to write a review after been so worried reading so many bad reviews here.
I’ve placed a big order from Fanatec website on 4th of March 2022. One of the items was on pre order for 14th Match. Just before checking out, a note saying that they would only process the order when all items ready for shipment (fair play).
On the 10th of March I received an email from Fanatec about the order status changing to “warehouse processing“. Awesome!!! So excited!!!
On the 14th of March I logged in my Fanatec account the take a look on my order status and I notice no changes. Here is when I start getting worried. I did the same on the following days and on Wednesday the 16th I decided do some research and when I checked trustpilot website I got really nervous!!!
I wrote an email to Fanatec customer service about my order once still there was no changes on the orders status.
Short after sending the email I received an email from UPS with a tracking number.
Fanatec customer service replied my email on 18th of March saying that the order was already dispatched.
After that was easy to follow everything on UPS tracking system. A small delay clearing the import charges and I received everything on 23rd of March.
A long waiting but totally worth it. Feel sorry to hear that many people have bad experiences but I’m very happy with my purchase and quality of the product!!!!
I decided to write this review because I believe when you have a good experience you always tell some people, but when you have a bad one you want the world to hear about it!!!
Thank you Fanatec!!!