Harmonix & RockBand....A cautionary tale!!

[Fonzie]

We got the kids RockBand this past Christmas. Got it a couple weeks after it first came out. Drums went bad within 2 months. 360 won't recognize the drums when they're plugged in, and there's no power to them. Wife got online to research problem, called Harmonix.....They shipped us a box to send drums back in. We had new drum kit within couple weeks at no expense to us. At the time, I thought "WOW....Great product support!" Glad to see they're taking care of customers who bought the first ones that may have some bugs to work out

Drums are doing the same thing again now.....3-4 months later.....but this time they won't fix them. They say our choices are to pay them for repair, buy new pair, or shop around & see if we can find used pair cheaper. NICE tech support/Customer service. The fact that they are now just selling the drum kits by themselves in stores tells you they know there's a problem with that particular piece of equipment. I guess they just decided to try & make more money off their crappy product, rather than standing by it & making it right as it should've been to begin with!

When I took them in to ship that first time, the UPS guy asked me as soon as I walked through the door with my sealed box "What'cha got there......RockBand drums???" I asked him how he knew that, and he said they'd been getting a LOT of them in lately, so he knew the box well.

Same thing when we got them back a couple weeks later. I happened to be home when the FedEx guy delivered. As I was signing for them, same conversation "What'cha got......RockBand drums???" He'd been delivering quite a few of them as well, and knew the box, just like UPS.

So if the product is that defective that the shipping guys know what's in unmarked boxes........I'd say there's a definite problem that needs to be addressed. Just because we were the guinea pigs and bought one of the first systems to hit the shelves doesn't mean I feel like putting up with their buggy product & poor support!!

Anyone else having similar problems/issues???

 

[WWJD]

I bought my brother's kids the full rockband for Christmas. have not heard of any problems. they jam out too. They keep messaging me about how the beat all these levels and add more songs and junk. I guess it is thier escape when homework is done. hopefully you get decent resolution somehow. Do they have a year warrenty on them at all?

 

[omslaw]

I got RockBand for the 360 back in April for my birthday. LOL - my kids picked it out...wonder why

Anyway, no problems with the drums or guitar yet. I did notice that the drum kits are being sold separately. Like you, I could only think of one reason why they would be doing that. Again, so far, no probs...

Our Guitar Hero guitar did bite the dust, though

I need to get another one so we can have 2 guitars again. Although, my Son has mastered GH III using the standard wireless controller! Go figure!

 

[99'busa]

i havent heard of anything.

Omar, thats crazy your son has mastered that with the reg. controller

 

[SHADiGUY1]

i have it for my ps3 no problems since it came out on the otherhand a friend of mine guitar broke.

 

[omslaw]

Omar, thats crazy your son has mastered that with the reg. controller

Tell me about it!  He's only 10 and he figured out which buttons do what.  He plays it on expert with the regular, wireless controller!

He also kicks my azz on Halo 3... I don't stand a chance against him.

 

[mikeled86]

ok heres the deal the makers of rockband know they made a crap item all pieces are bad except the mic the bass paddle breaks all time had two, the strum bar breaks on the guitar all the time. The release for rock band two will be better they said that is there biggest issue and the are working hard to make better stuff next time around. guitar hero is coming out with a new game called guitar hero world tour and the drums look sweet the guitar is going to have a feature so you can tap like a real bass guitar and its going to have 84 songs on it.

 

[HRHDi]

Our drum set is doing just fine...now the guitar is a little flaky, but it gets a lot of use. Luckily we have a GHII guitar as well.