Bass Pedal breaks, more than 1 replacement necessary

[slipquicksand]

I did post this in another thread, but I figure I would try to give this subject its own thread for anyone else who runs into this problem as well.

I had the bass pedal breaking problem tonight. I sent this to EA games, and I will just let the email explain the situation. For all of you who have had your bass pedal break it is going to happen again. The reason being is it is a simple matter of the materials being used on the pedal. I will let the email I sent speak for itself.....here it is.

My name is Jorge ****, and I have recently purchased the Rock Band Special Edition unit with drums, guitar, microphone and game and the other accessories that accompany this product.

I live in Denver Colorado and I do play drums in 3 bands within this city on a real drumset, not the rockband drumset. I have had the Rock Band drumset unit for 2 days and the drum pedal on the game has already cracked down the center of the foot board and broken. I have called your support number and explained my problem to them, and I have requested that they send me 3 pedals instead of 1 replacement. The reason I have requested this is because if EA games sends me only 1 replacement pedal it is going to break and then need to be replaced again. Thus again I am going to go through the same issue of not being able to enjoy my game and not have a replacement pedal when the next one breaks, and then call and wait for you guys to send me a new one, which to me is unacceptable and makes me even more upset with this game. I know the pedal will break again because it is made of a flimsy plastic that does not support a human being stepping down on plastic where the pressure point is right in the middle of the pedal where the spring presses against it. The manager on the phone hung up on me. He told me that he was only able to send 1 pedal to me which is unacceptable. He hung up on me because I would not accept that he would not send me 3 pedals. I do not want to have to wait for the next pedal to break and then call again to have another replacement sent to me only to have my game become this intermittent issue in my life.

The day I bought the game (2 days ago) I was so excited to have a game that catered to drummers. It worked great, except for the flimsy design on the bass pedal. The drum pads are made of rubber and will probably last for a while, but the drum pedal is not going to last long with the way it is designed and the materials that are used to make it. I am extremely upset and I would like to have the 3 pedals sent to me so I don't have to wait for another pedal the next time it breaks. I don't think that this is an unreasonable request since I spent $183 with tax to play a game that I was very excited about. Now it is essentially a paper weight in my living room, unusable and upsetting to look at.

I am going to send this message and hope that someone actually sees and understands what I am trying to say.

Also, I am very upset that your customer support person was unable to fulfill my request and hung up on me due to my persistence of wanting to just have the backup pieces so I can play this game that I am very excited to play, but now cannot.

The support person I had was Kathy ********, and she was great, but her supervisor is the one that hung up on me and refused to fulfill my request, I did not get his name, he did not give it to me. To me that is the poorest customer service that I have ever experienced. This game just came out and your phone support people have completely let me down and disappointed me to the fullest extent that they could. I almost wish that I had never paid for the game because I almost feel like I am wasting my time and that someone is just going to read this and then never help me.

What do I have to do to get 3 bass pedals until EA games realizes that the pedal board needs to be made of metal instead of plastic for it to last and work for everyone from your average person who has never played drums to someone who is a professional drummer like myself.

Please help me with this problem, and this must be forwarded to your supervisor or someone next in command after them. PLEASE HELP me with this matter, what do I have to do to get 3 pedals, or better yet, a pedal with a metal footboard, or even cheaper, the same pedal that you use now with a thin metal backing under the plastic foot pedal that will prevent it from breaking as easily.

Thank you for your help, but please, I need a supervisor or higher on this matter. You can reach me through my email which is ***************** or by phone at ************



SOOOOOO that is what has happened to me tonight. Like the email says, the problem with the footboard is that it is made of a shotty plastic. Even if you get a new pedal, it is only going to break again, that spring presses right in the middle of the board and your foot is easily going to break that plastic board if you step on it many hundred times in just a couple of days. I was playing on the expert mode because that is the only way I could actually keep up with the game. If I try to play it on easy or medium, the drums are to broken down and what I actually hear on the song does not actually apply to what I am playing on the game. It IS a great game, the pedal just has to be reworked, that is it. I just hope they don't dismiss me again because they have to give the same scripted answers that they are trained to give. I should know, I quit working customer service to become a full time musician.

[emkillrocks]

Dude you rock! I totally agree with you! I have had this game for 2 days. I am intermediate at drums, but still I have been in bands and I was used to a professional set as well. The second day i played with it, the footboard cracked in half because the pressure point is right in the middle. Please EA Fulfill his request and send me 3 new foot pedals also. Or better yet, FIX THIS PROBLEM!

[Adlogo]

Man my pedal broke as well, no responce to my e-mails yet :(

[Zeus974]

wow, you made 2 threads regarding this issue? :cool: however I do agree with you, he shouldn't have hung up. Like I said in your other post. If and when you do get another pedal, go to home depot and have them cut 2 pieces for the underside of the pedal for re-inforcement.

[Xervai]

You musicians! You keep breaking them because you play it too much like a real instrument and not like a cheap peripheral :p

But honestly, yes they are cheap as hell and really the quality of the entire set (MAYBE sans the mic) is pretty shotty. What are they going to do? Make another special edition bundle 4 months down the line that has completely different instruments (quality terms) just like the PSP, DS, GBA, PS2.

Thats what they do, get the product out, make money, make it better. I certainly don't want to buy all the instruments again. I hope 60 days is enough to ask for all new instruments if they even remotely start to get worn.

[Pellakin]

I agree with you that they should be a little higher quality.

I also sympathize with you to the extent that you were hung up on - though not being on the call, it's impossible for me to judge whether the CS sup. felt threatened, etc.

I disagree, however, with the contention that customers deserve to have multiple replacements sent to them to anticipate the inevitable breakdown of multiple pedals.

In a land of fairy tales and cool mountain streams flowing with ice cold lager...it's a reasonable expectation.

But reality doesn't work that way. There's no way they could sustain a business model if they sent triple replacements to every person with an issue.

It's a bit like buying a new car and expecting Ford to provide you with 12 full replacement tires to replace the ones you KNOW are going to get worn and lose tread eventually, needing to be replaced. They cover problems that crop up under terms of the Warranty, just like Harmonix is. Yeah, the scope is different, but the business principle is the same.

Premium services sometimes provide amenities above and beyond what is expected - but you pay more for having extra "extras" around.

Anyway, it'd be great if this kind of service WERE possible at the same price point, but there's simply no way they could do that.

Ultimately, the solution on Harmonix's end is to make the pedals sturdier somehow. Our only solution as consumers is to use the system they have set up to replace them and provide them feedback to improve their product.

[fairysausage]

oh please.... that is a pretty unreasonable request.

I demand you to send me 5 new guitars because they will start double strumming in only 6 hours of play!! And i want to play for 30 hours in a row!

WHAT!? HOW DARE YOU HANG UP ON ME!?!?

Seriously... wtf? If i was a business owner i'd hang up on you too if you keep INSISTING. I'd be polite, but if you keep saying oh i will not take 1, i want 3!!! yeah im gonna hang up. How do we know you're not gonna sell them on e-bay for a profit, or whatever? We arn't gonna send you free **** for no reason.

Instead of having them send you replacement upon replacement, how about stating your concearns for the product, and then having them FIX the problem? Sending you 3, 5, 10 pedals isnt going to fix anything, they are still gonna suck and break. Why not wait for them to make a new pedal or fix the problem. Get a refund if you must and cannot wait.

I agree the quality is LOW and they should have done better, but that doesn't mean you can just ask for whatever you want. The customer is NOT always right.

I'm sure everyones pedal hasn't broken. I know mine hasn't.

ok thats MY rant.

[naki5]

It has been 3 days, since I got the game. Last night the bass pedal broken on my brother with a distinct snap while we were singing on a world tour. I hope I do not have to wait too long to get another pedal.

[AdamBomb629]

Dude, it is ridiculous that you request 3 pedals. If everyone called and asked for 3, that's nuts! What? Do you think people should just have extra Rock Band instruments around JUST IN CASE?

[mmorgan184]

Try this: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9625#9625

I just did it to my snapped pedal, and boy does it feel great now.

[rasehead]

hey, check this out, cool stuff

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=11012&highlight=bass+pedal

[Zanaflex]

Dude, you seriously think you have a argument asking for 3 pedals instead of one? C'mon if you have play in 3 bands, you are probably older then most and have to have a brain in that head of yours.

Think about it! Thats like you being a heavy typist, buying a new laptop and asking the maker of it send you 3 laptops because you know you will break the keyboards.

Its like buying a car, and telling your insurance company that they should give you 3 cars because you know you will crash them.

While I agree that the pedal should have probably been made with metal. You probably should have returned it as soon as you saw it. You're a drummer, I am sure you know what makes a good bass pedal.

I know your mad/frustrated. But try to think before making requests like this. Maybe next time I go to the bank, I will ask them to give me 300 extra dollars becuase I know I will spend the 100 in my pocket.

[Ultrace]

Having been a call center supervisor before, all I'm going to ask is, were you willing to get off the phone without the three pedals? The supervisor had his limitations and I wouldn't have sent you three pedals, either. But if you absolutely refused to take no for an answer (which your post indicates), then I would have eventually hung up on you too. Was there any warning? Did he indicate he would have to terminate the call, at which point you said not without your three pedals? How he intoned it or handled it I don't know, but you set yourself up for failure with the request in the first place.

I definitely think there is a possible problem with the pedals given the threads we've seen, but demanding three (not even two?!) pedals for a contingency is unreasonable.

[albinousrex]

why woudl you put a poll as to how good this thread is? is just shows how much you fail.

[ImUrDaddy]

Having been a call center supervisor before, all I'm going to ask is, were you willing to get off the phone without the three pedals? The supervisor had his limitations and I wouldn't have sent you three pedals, either. But if you absolutely refused to take no for an answer (which your post indicates), then I would have eventually hung up on you too. Was there any warning? Did he indicate he would have to terminate the call, at which point you said not without your three pedals? How he intoned it or handled it I don't know, but you set yourself up for failure with the request in the first place.

I definitely think there is a possible problem with the pedals given the threads we've seen, but demanding three (not even two?!) pedals for a contingency is unreasonable.

I beleive it is completely resonable and for that fact, EA/Harmoix should be much more proactive in their letting people know about these hardware issues.

You can't compare this to car tires, guitars or anything else. If you bought a car with defective tires, they don't just give you new ones, they give you FIXED new ones. ditto with any other product. Until they get a better pedal design, they should be giving them away like candy at a parade!

Well I was one of the first browsers on this forum and joined months ago anticipating this game since July. (I had it pre-ordered as soon as I could) There was a vibe in the air about the broken guitars (Which mine broke after 6 hours of play) and now the drum pedal breaking after about 10 hours is simply not acceptable. The design of the product is severly flawed. Any decent drummer is going to break the pedal playing on hard or expert within a matter of days and if EA cannot supply a replacement pedal fast enough then I beleive he was very justified in asking for three pedals. They are dirt cheap to build for EA/Harmonix and until they do FIX the problem they have to repair quickly. It can't take longer to repair it than it does to break it.

I have been on HARMONIX's side quite a few times when these rumers started flying pre-production, but now that we see what is going on, my tone is changing. I love the game and everything about it, but they have some MAJOR hardware defects that they should be dealing with much better than they are.

[Zanaflex]

I am still going to disagree with you on almost all your points.... BUT, what I do agree with is this. I would think HMX had real drummers test out the drums. Most drummers in ROCK songs (hence the name rock band) really like to beat on the bass. I mean c'mon when you're into, your going to want to stomp, hit, go nuts (what I think of as a great time!).

Most of the threads I see of the pedal breaking are from drummers. In my "band" our drummer has never played real drums before, so he is focusing on the screen. Not getting stomping the bass, because he is just trying to pass the song (cause we will flip him massive ammounts of **** if he does not:). What I am trying to say, is that why on earth would HMX send something out that can break with so much ease. And most of the people that are breaking them are the people that actually know what they are doing....