This is my experience with Thrustmaster’s technical support & repair department.
From start to finish, it took nearly three months (though admittedly, half a month was my fault).
March 3, 2017: I first e-mailed explaining that my wheel would disconnect randomly, often multiple times per lap, making it impossible to race online, and difficult to enjoy racing offline, especially in endurance races. I said it had been doing this since before the warranty ran out, which is true, but of course that’s my fault for not getting on this sooner. I was poop-outta-luck.
March 7: I was told to upload a video to a specific website, and was given a password along with the link.
March 22: I sent the video. Dang Google Inbox didn’t send the response to my inbox, and put it as low priority, so I hadn’t seen the message till two weeks later. Back to regular Gmail for me.
March 30: It took over a week for them to watch the video and get back to me. As expected, their recommendation was to ship it to them for repair. I e-mailed back that day asking if I could have a friend deliver it to them, as it’s located in Montreal. I also asked for a breakdown of the most common repairs and the costs associated with them, along with warranty info.
April 3: I was told it had to be shipped, as they didn’t have a front desk. There goes $30. I was also told that the most common repairs are as follows, and that they come with a 3-month warranty.
- Main PCB: $48
- Motor: $67.20
- Power supply: $72
April 7: Sent the wheel through Canada Post. I did not receive any sort of e-mail confirmation through Thrustmaster until I asked them on April 13 to confirm that they had received it. I asked for a timeline and was basically told “they’ll get to it when they get to it”, but in nicer words.
May 10: OVER A MONTH LATER. I e-mailed them asking what the status was, as I hadn’t even received a quote. It felt like I was reminding them that they had my wheel.
May 11: What a coincidence, they get to me the day after I remind them they have my wheel. There’s no way this was coincidence. They actually forgot about me. I got my quote. $151. More than I was hoping for, but it’s better than buying a new wheel. Below are what they say were faulty. Not sure why quick release cable was listed twice. I accepted the cost.
$6.00 - XBOX QUICK RELEASE CABLE
$6.00 - TX RW XBOX ONE BOARD QUICK RELEASE CABLE
$79.20 - TX 458 MAIN PCB
$60 - Repair processing fee – 9900001 (includes shipping)
May 17: I received a money request through paypal. I paid it right away.
May 25: My wheel arrived in the mail. I used it for nearly two hours that night without any disconnects.
Overall, I’m satisfied with the repair, but the length of time it took just seems unacceptable. The whole thing took nearly THREE MONTHS, and that whole month it took from when they got my wheel to when they gave me the quote was just ridiculous. I give the experience 2 1/2 stars out of five due to this. They only get stars because the wheel works as it should’ve in the first place.
I realized after writing this post that there was a discrepancy in the Main PCB price. They had told me $48 by e-mail before sending it in and then changed it to $79.20 when I received my actual quote while it was in the shop. I e-mailed them asking why this was, and they said they’d reimburse me my $31,20 through PayPal, so in all it cost about $120 for repair and $30 to ship to them. Still better than buying a new one (as long as it lasts). I’ll up my star rating to 3 out of 5. 2 stars missing because of how long the process took still.