Disapointed

Hi mod community,

this message to express my disappointment.
In june my modduo crashed, and I have still no way out.
I had very few help on the forum (see topic MODDUO stopped working ) , and finally I was asked to return my modduo. I returned it, postal service acknowledged delivery on 13th of august, but no news … and after asking several times, it comes out that the modduo is lost. Now we are 4 month later, the only answer I have from customer service is “we do our best to find it”.

I have several complaints :

  • modduo is bugged
    not small bugs that prevent use a function, or force the user to reboot… a bug that break the device : no more boot ! and mine stopped working during normal use : no shock, never used on stage…my case is not isolated : it appears that several people faced similar bugs (Mod duo does not boot (freeze on logo / mod duo screen) , MOD stuck at boot , Mod Duo stuck at splash screen (x64, Win10) )

  • moddevices does not put efforts in solving the bugs
    when I raised the problem, no question about how the bug appeared, what I was doing … nobody demonstrated that he cared about tracking a bug.

  • customer service is failing

I was an early customer, I pre-ordered a device of the first batch, really enthusiastic about the concept. I worked in a startup in the field of embedded linux, knowing all the difficulties, I was in a forgiving state of mind. But enough is enough, today I have the feeling of having been abused. I can’t afford seeing hundreds of € vanished, and I am sad today thinking the only solution left is saving money to buy a BOSS GT100 or Line6 Helix LT…

1 Like

Dear @gromit,

We are terribly sorry about what you have experienced.

This is absolutely not the customer experience that we strive to provide to our users. I will contact you directly with an immediate solution to your situation.

Could we have a bit more information about how this case is handled please (within the limit of privacy of course) ?

I think it is public matter of interest to the whole community to see how such a poor handling of issues could happen (as long as @gromit’s description is acurate, of course). I believe it’s the MOD team’s interest to be fully transparent here.

Thanks in advance,

Azza

2 Likes

to me, it’s a surprising tale, given my experiences with the MOD team. i’m not disputing @gromit’s account – i have no way of knowing what happened to him. however, as pointed out by @Azza, i believe transparency (on both sides) is valuable here.

open communication has always been one of the big strong points for me in this community; please let’s work on continuing and strengthening that!

4 Likes

Hi @Azza

Our standard procedure when we cannot troubleshoot the unit remotely (which is our first course of action), is to recall the user’s unit, run diagnostics, fix it if possible and send it back.

In this case, we had postal problems and did not receive the unit when it was sent. We spent a long time trying to find it, to no avail. I took some time to reply because I was hopeful we could track the unit down and did not want to send a message until I was 100% sure of what happened.

It’s the second time this happens to one of our users (that’s why we recommend always ensuring parcels sent to us and giving us a heads up once they are sent).

We have come to an agreement with @gromit on how to solve his situation. One of our most valuable assets is the continued trust and healthy relationship we have built with our community, and we will continue to do everything we can to preserve this.

4 Likes

Thanks for your answer !

Actually, when I wanted to send back my unit for the hardware noise issue, I looked at the insurance prices for sending from the UK to Germany. It was horribly expensive (about £50 if I remember well). So I preferred to repair the unit myself following your instructions.

That is the main problem with this business model : postal services are not very reliable.

For UK customers, it would be cool if you had a representative or a partner over here (Have you talked to the guys at Anderton’s ?)

2 Likes

interesting point, @Azza… and that’s one of the main reasons why i still tend to buy things from local brick-and-mortar stores even though prices are often lower online. it’s always good to be able to deal with any issues in person. and i just like to support local enterprise!

so it’s definitely a challenge for a company in one location, selling all over the world, to offer appropriate and effective support. implementing distributed support in various locations represents a significant increase in the complications of a company’s operations, and will always still leave some customers “adrift”, who don’t happen to live near a support location.

for me personally (even from Canada), the current MOD support plan has been both effective and appropriate. i did send my Duo back for the hardware noise fix – it was a bit expensive, but not unreasonably so. “unreasonably” is, of course, a very subjective thing! :wink:

I am very happy about the support I received from the MOD team so far !

The only thing I would like to have more feedback about it the problem of the software noise mentioned here : MOD Duo background noise level

2 Likes

yeah… me too, @Azza! there have been hints that it may be fixable with the new processor in the Duo X, which may also become available for the Duo. that will be one of the first things i assess when my X arrives!

1 Like

I would prefer a software fix to be honest…

the DUO folks will correct me if i’m wrong, but i believe it IS a software fix… an issue related to how the linux kernel buffers audio. however, it requires running a kernel beyond the capabilities of the current CPU, hence that hardware upgrade is necessary.

there’s also a hardware aspect to the noise problem with respect to the channel 1 input. this is addressed with some capacitor replacements, not related to the CPU.

neither is a complete solution on its own.

again, apologies to the MOD team if i’m speaking out of turn here – please clarify as required! :slight_smile:

1 Like

I’ve fixed the hardware problem myself already.

what I meant is that I wish there was a software fix that could be applied to the current hardware.

1 Like

sorry, @Azza… you did say that you already fixed the hardware problem, didn’t you!! oops…

Hey guys,

without diminishing @gromit s experience, i’d like to state that i found the customer service one of MODs strengths. But having that said, i also live in Germany.

So i guess the biggest problem is infrastructure here. It’s obvious that a small company can’t provide the same service in every country. Shipping fees and reliability are key.

@aspiers proposed in one thread to create a directory of MOD users “in your area”, so that emergency loans etc. are a possibility. Maybe we could expand on that thought and name a “Representative” in a country with some users who has experience with linux (software) and basic hardware-fixing skills. So users in that country could send the unit first to him to try to solve the problem before sending it to germany (last resort). Maybe a perk or incentive for the “rep” could be a free footswitch/plugin or something like that.

Also, seeing current mentions in magazines and press in general, the MOD could get a lot more traction in the future. Maybe finding “local dealers” won’t be a big issue then…

3 Likes

really like that idea of community/help related to location… i am from hamburg electronics/linux guy :smiley:

1 Like

Seems like the Moddevices team fixed the hardware but has not found a solution to the software (kernel) issues.

See also:

For me at this price a “no-go”.

Hi everyone

I am really sorry that this incident with @gromit has happened and I assure you we are taking the necessary measures internally so that similar things do not happen again.

We have always made efforts in order to please the customers but sometimes s*** happens.

On the bright side, this has forced us to stop a bit - even with everyone drowning with tasks - and put in place a proper support system and pipeline.

That said, from now on a better system is already in place, with a ticketing system and also a central person taking care of the requests.

Duo maintenance returns also are going to be done in a more structured manner in order to avoid problems with carriers.

As a side note, this restructuring will also force users to adopt a single communication channel when activating support, but I believe that this is even desirable.

I hope @gromit is satisfied with the solution we came up for his incident and also wish everyone keeps trusting on us.

My dearest wishes

10 Likes

thanks a lot, @gianfranco… these are important and excellent developments!

does that “single communication channel when activating support” exist yet? if so, what is it?

1 Like

Hi
yes I Am happy that this is solved, the incident is forgotten now,and trust is restored. I had forgotten how much working with the duo is addictive… really happy to have it back !

6 Likes

for the moment, support@moddevices.com

Emails arriving here now trigger an internal pipeline here.

We’re now configuring the ticketing systems in order to provide a better tracking method for each issue.

3 Likes