Regarding the lack of an Official Statement from Harmonix...

[mattitude]

Okay, so at this point, it's pretty obvious that everybody and their grandma's equipment is defective... be it a busted strum bar or whammy bar, or a bass pedal snapped in half, or dozens of other problems...

What are everybody's thoughts on Harmonix's apparent silence on this issue thus far? The game's been out a week now, and I haven't heard of ANYBODY getting a flawless package. Literally everyone's instruments are broken. And I find it hard to believe that they weren't aware that they were sending out faulty equipment. Lord knows they had plenty of time to test and perfect it.

So why no official word? Why no apology, at the absolute very least? To me, the lack of coming forth and admitting that you totally @#%ed up, at this point, is an insult. Throw us a bone. Let us know where we stand. If EA is so backed up with tens of thousands of requests for new instruments that we won't get ours for six months, or whatever the case may be, for the love of God, just come out and say it. We gave you a buttload of our money, you owe us that much.

And for the record, I'm fully aware that Harmonix didn't make the instruments. I know it isn't completely their fault. But it's THEIR game, THEIR baby. We're on THEIR website for THEIR game, and we're dissatisfied. THEY owe us an explanation, and they owed it to us a week ago.

Hey Harmonix. Where's my damn new and improved guitar, and when do I get my $100 back?

[Qweets]

No doubt, I'm really tired of all the silence come out and tell us something.. this is BS

[dorito31561]

What good would an official statement be? Warranty replacement can go perfectly smooth for mr smith but take weeks or months for mr jones. My point is a blanket statement like that wastes the company's time and money that they could be spending fixing our stuff and honestly I would rather have them not say a word until they are confident the new set is ready. Oh and as far as everyone having broken items... Would you come online and post in a support forum if your set was fine? Or would you rather be playing rock band?

[SoberScott]

An official statement would atleast let us now they acknowledge the problem and care enough to let us know they are working on it. Juts how much time and money would that take that it would hinder the replacement process. It wouldn;t even come from the same department. PR and Tech Support are two different things last I checked.

If you didn't recieve a check from work. Or your car was at the shop for an extended period of time would you be happy if they didn't update you on the situation? Especially if you had already paid for parts for the car?

[Raviolis]

im feeling the same way you are my guitar broke the same nite i got it at a midnite launch and i love the game i love the drums and i hope they dont break too *prays* and you can tell harmonix loves this game and they want it to be great too, you can get that vibe off any interview or the demo tours.


but they do need to come out and let people know whats up even a very sorry we are aware of the problems and will fix them all even tho they already are fixing them with the replacement plan BUT they need to let us know also if its a new designed guitar cus i havent sent mine in im waiting on forum readers to say if their replacements break too.

on this midnite launch my mom came as well and bought one for my nephew for xmas, im really worried hes gonna have broken stuff inside too after a hour which is kinda butt :confused:

[Bjorn]

Okay, so at this point, it's pretty obvious that everybody and their grandma's equipment is defective... be it a busted strum bar or whammy bar, or a bass pedal snapped in half, or dozens of other problems...

What are everybody's thoughts on Harmonix's apparent silence on this issue thus far? The game's been out a week now, and I haven't heard of ANYBODY getting a flawless package. Literally everyone's instruments are broken. And I find it hard to believe that they weren't aware that they were sending out faulty equipment. Lord knows they had plenty of time to test and perfect it.

So why no official word? Why no apology, at the absolute very least? To me, the lack of coming forth and admitting that you totally @#%ed up, at this point, is an insult. Throw us a bone. Let us know where we stand. If EA is so backed up with tens of thousands of requests for new instruments that we won't get ours for six months, or whatever the case may be, for the love of God, just come out and say it. We gave you a buttload of our money, you owe us that much.

And for the record, I'm fully aware that Harmonix didn't make the instruments. I know it isn't completely their fault. But it's THEIR game, THEIR baby. We're on THEIR website for THEIR game, and we're dissatisfied. THEY owe us an explanation, and they owed it to us a week ago.

Hey Harmonix. Where's my damn new and improved guitar, and when do I get my $100 back?

While a seemingly large chunk of people who bought Rock Band do have defective equipment, I think it's a bit extreme to say that everybody got faulty gear. I did get a broken guitar with a sticky yellow button that won't turn off, so I'm not trying to downplay the broken equipment, since I myself am quite pissed off about this, but I've actaully seen lots of posts in the other forums of people who are quite happy with non-defective equipment. I have to wonder just how widespread this problem is. Did it happen to a few hundred people? Or maybe a few thousand people? What is the percentage of total sales to faulty equipment? 10%? Less?

What gets my goat is, even if it happened to only one person, that still doesn't give them the right to not acknowledge it, especially in the Tech Support forums. A little "We're working hard to correct this problem, please be patient" would be appricated. Instead we get a vague warranty page that mentions a "small fee" to be witheld from your credit card, which turns out to be $100, and no mention of when we should expect the replacement to arrive. On top of that, we have no guarantee that the new equipment will be any better, and no word at all on what EA/MTV games/Harmonix are doing to correct this problem. I agree that they should let us in on the situation so we know what's going on. Do they have the replacements now, or are they manufacturing them as we speak? Do they have an overwhelming demand for replacements, or is it just a few hundred people? Are we getting the new part this week? Next week? Next year? When? And does the replacement equipment come with a 60 warranty also? Please, just fill us in, so we know we're more than just $$$ to them.

[ilikecheetos]

just return it to the store. you still get your usual 30 days with the store. dont let the only return it to the company fool you guys.

[MysteryMan]

I too am incredibly disappointed by this silence. My guitar has already broken and I want some kind of assurance that my next guitar won't do the exact same thing.

[Qweets]

"what would it be?" I want them to come out and tell us WHY the instruments have these flaws in the first place? Did they rush for holiday demand? or what... I would just like an answer on why we got this kind of bad quality..

[Will-san]

What is weird is that there was a statement here for like 10 mins earlier today. and now it is gone.

[Qweets]

hmm wonder if anyone like took a screencap or copied it?

[Senkoy]

There was? What did it say exactly, do you remember?

[Brane Ded]

It was a picture of the packaging people loading the Rock Band boxes with instruments from a bin labeled "DEFECTIVE" and John Riccitiello sitting in the background counting a big wad of cash.

[Qweets]

lol that'd be funny

[Will-san]

I don't remember verbatim but basically it said that they were working on the computability issue and we would hear more in a few days. but that they read all the posts and know how up set everyone is. it was encouraging because there was no PR BS talk or trying to blame anyone else. It was vague but a much more human that all the "open standard" nonsense we were getting before.

it then went on to say they had had a problem with an early batch of guitars and that if you had a bad one you should go through support to get it replaced and that all the guitars in later shipments were fixed.

it was from hmxSean who said he was in Pheonix and would post more when he got back. As I was replying to the post I got an error message and then the thread was gone.

I hope the post was deleted because it was too early or too vague and not because something hmxSean said wasn't really true.

any way fingers crossed

[wolfgang187]

They don't come out with a response because very obviously they don't care. Us early adopters are taking care of their problem for them by fixing the guitars ourselves in the case of the strum. (my strum is broken and in order to play I have to open it up and apply the rubber band fix at least once a day). I can play the game now that I fixed it myself, but I've also voided my warranty.

Just like they wanted me to.

Seriously, how many broken controllers are they now not responsible to replace? I'd image a great deal. Why don't they come out with a response? Because the longer they wait the more voided warranties there will be, saving them money. Period.

[mattitude]

I posted this same topic in the main RB forum and it got locked. Somebody else told me his similar topic was immediately locked as well.

Does this strike anyone else as a little... Orwellian?

Maybe that's a little strong, but you know what I mean.

[Jaacar]

An official reply = fuel for a lawsuit. That's why you won't see one.

Just like no official release date for other countries. If they give one, they have to stick to it (well, they don't have to but it looks really really bad if you keep delaying a product that is already on the market in some areas).