Fender Rumble 100 v3- Blown components and Warranty issues

#21
rodak said:
I would seriously consider going to your local store for your next gear purchase, even if it costs a bit more than GC. I very much prefer to patronize the local Mom & Pop shop when possible, as long as the price difference isn't extraordinary.
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Im my case it was a huge difference
BIGEJ2 said:
Summary:

- Amp blew up;
- Two stores told you to call Fender;
- Fender told you to take it to an authorized service center;
- You instead tore the guy on the phone a new one;
- Fender sends you a brand new amp;
- You join a public forum to complain about how poorly Fender treated you.

Seems logical. :confused:
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Ok...well if you were in my position- both local stores couldn't do anything for me even thought it was under warranty, what would you have done?

Fender did not treat me poorly, but as a consumer I have to advocate for my self. I even offered to ship them my amp and pay for it my self if I had to. When it came down to it, I had to put my foot down. Fender is the best brand in basses I can think of ( I bet many of you can think of a better brand), and I expect exceptional service from them. I made this post because I found nothing related to my issue and I figure if someone else goes through the same thing they're not alone...that's all.
 
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#22
drbeanz456 said:
Yes I agree. I m glad they replaced it too, I just wish I didn't have to bee a jerk about it :/ . I knew from the start that because it's a solid state made over seas it would have to get replaced. No one I know in my area will deal with solid state amps. I love solid state stuff, I have no problem with Fender making a solid stat amp, its how they make amazing amps for cheap!
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I just hate to see what dumping all of these electronics is doing to our environment.
 
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#23
Years ago I bought a brand new SWR Baby Blue combo amp. It had issues with hum. SWR said send it to us for repair. I ended up talking to some guy named "Steve" I think, to see if they'd be OK with me sending in just the amp to avoid shipping charges. He said yea and admitted the first production run had a grounding issue and needed one ground wire from the input jack to a ground pad on the circuit board (or something similar to that). As we talked he became comfortable with my electronic tech skills and told me I could just do the ground mod myself and he'd consider it a warranty repair. The amp work great after that and still had the full warranty.

Boy, those days are GONE!
 
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#24
Repairing surface mount capacitors is difficult. It is less expensive for Fender to replace the amp outright for the warranty remedy. Depending upon how expensive the amp is, either the entire amp motherboard is replaced and the amp is resold as a refurb, or the entire amp is just trashed.

The concept of “warranty reserve” takes the losses of both actions into account, and the product’s cost accounting and pricing reflects it. That’s where the “cost of quality” comes into play. Good Product Management means holding your Contract Manufacturers to the appropriate quality standard that makes the product’s overall loaded cost as low as possible.

Disclaimer: a 40+ year career in telecommunications product management.
 
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#25
laklandplayer said:
I just hate to see what dumping all of these electronics is doing to our environment.
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My day job is selling components to Amp Companies throughout the world, The fact that a couple of penny ceramic SMD caps would break an amp due to a bad solder trace/whatever is just sad..
A bright spot is that Recycling efforts are growing all the time, precious metals are being reclaimed, It's big business therefore innovation & progress is being made.
 
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#26
For context, we've been a Fender gold level service center for 30 years. We also are under contract with and provide service for Pro-Coverage (Assurion). None of this should have happened. To me it sounds like the Boutique shop had no business taking your amp. Fender doesn't take general warranty repairs. I can't say it never happens because I don't work at a music store nor have I ever tried as a civilian but I've never heard of it happening. Guitar Center should have helped you. Was the amp under Fender Warranty or out of it? Guitar Center takes in and out of warranty repairs and sends them to a central repair depot in Utah I think. It's not unusual though to talk to people at GC who don't know their own policies. I run into this occasionally when trying to obtain copies of sales receipts, something they do all the time but every now and them some clients get a sales clod who says, "We CAN'T do that." and then I have to call and speak to a manger who usually says, "Why did you get told that? We do that all the time."

Fender, whom I like a a company would have a LOT more service centers if warranty reimbursement rates weren't half of most shop rates and more like a third of shop rates for shops on the coasts.

You mean they don't fix anything solid state? Or that Fender won't let them fix solid state under warranty? Fender's policy is to sway just about everything that retails for less than $3-4 hundred tube or SS.
 
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#27
Warranty support is the responsibility of the warranty issuer, in this case Fender. This is typically done as you said

drbeanz456 said:
I called Fender and they told me I should go to an authorized dealer 1hr 45min away.
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You chose an alternate route. Not to be a tool here or anything, but seriously, you are complaining about a short little drive? 1hr 45 minutes is a casual drive across Houston Metro. I go much further for a Saturday gig when I get them...

Simply put, you are upset because you don't want to toss the amp in the car and take a nice weekend drive to drop it off at the authorized repair center. Fine. Box it up and pay to ship it there then. I am honestly a bit surprised that Fender made a special edition just for Guitar Center, but okay whatever...

Had you gotten up and made the drive in the first place, you would have had a change of scenery, chances are a nice little drive, and a LOT less headache.
 
#28
portpc said:
My day job is selling components to Amp Companies throughout the world, The fact that a couple of penny ceramic SMD caps would break an amp due to a bad solder trace/whatever is just sad..
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As an engineer who designs amps for a living, I don't think the ceramic caps were the cause of the problem nor was it due to bad solder or trace or whatever. There are other faults that can cause collateral damage and based on my knowledge of this part I think that's the case here.

A small number of parts will fail, that's the nature of any multi-part assembly. When this happens, especially on a dense PCB, sometimes it's less expensive to replace the PCB than to repair it. When the entire product failure rate is very low, and the cost is not very high, it's sometimes less expensive (and quicker) to replace the few failures than to go through the expense and hassle of warranty service. I think this is the case here based on what I see. This doesn't mean the amp is not repairable, but it may be better for customer service in the few instances just to replace.

My experience with Fender is that they take customer service very seriously, but that means that the customer needs to understand and follow the proper procedure. It's worth understanding this before going down the path of complaining about something that wasn't the company's fault.
 
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#29
drbeanz456 said:
Ok...well if you were in my position- both local stores couldn't do anything for me even thought it was under warranty, what would you have done?
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Fender's warranty is pretty clear. You have the responsibility to get the amp to the service center and back. I would have called Fender, got the address and phone number of the closest authorized service center and made arrangements to get the amp there. I certainly would have not thrown a fit on the phone and then lambast the company on a public forum after admitting that they went well above and beyond to make you happy.

https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/...fier 2 Year Limited Warranty REV JAN 2017.pdf

"All transportation, insurance and freight charges associated with warranty service and repairs on Fender/Squier amplifier products are the responsibility of the purchaser."
 
#31
Big Hoss said:
You chose an alternate route. Not to be a tool here or anything, but seriously, you are complaining about a short little drive? 1hr 45 minutes is a casual drive across Houston Metro. I go much further for a Saturday gig when I get them...

Simply put, you are upset because you don't want to toss the amp in the car and take a nice weekend drive to drop it off at the authorized repair center. Fine. Box it up and pay to ship it there then. I am honestly a bit surprised that Fender made a special edition just for Guitar Center, but okay whatever...

Had you gotten up and made the drive in the first place, you would have had a change of scenery, chances are a nice little drive, and a LOT less headache.
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Yea I didn't want to go drive to the middle of no where to get warranty service done. I mean it made no sense in my mind why both stores 15min away couldn't do it, I choose that rout...idk people are so hung up on how i went about this...
 
#32
BIGEJ2 said:
Fender's warranty is pretty clear. You have the responsibility to get the amp to the service center and back. I would have called Fender, got the address and phone number of the closest authorized service center and made arrangements to get the amp there. I certainly would have not thrown a fit on the phone and then lambast the company on a public forum after admitting that they went well above and beyond to make you happy.

https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10002/Fender-Squier Brands Amplifier 2 Year Limited Warranty REV JAN 2017.pdf

"All transportation, insurance and freight charges associated with warranty service and repairs on Fender/Squier amplifier products are the responsibility of the purchaser."
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yea I know that. That is exactly what I did. Im not lambasting Fender they went above an beyond, I'm just trying to be as objectives as I can be about this whole thing.
 
#37
drbeanz456 said:
I m glad they replaced it too, I just wish I didn't have to bee a jerk about it :/
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Acting the way that you did was your choice.

drbeanz456 said:
Yea I didn't want to go drive to the middle of no where to get warranty service done. I mean it made no sense in my mind why both stores 15min away couldn't do it, I choose that rout...idk people are so hung up on how i went about this...
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Because the local boutique store and GC are authorized SALES outlets and the place further away is an authorized SERVICE center. Your insistence on ignoring the difference as well as the clearly defined and simple to follow procedure because you feel that reality is inconvenient is, again, your choice.

Peace to you on whatever path you choose :thumbsup:
 
#38
:whistle:
All around the circuit board
The juice chased the traces
The musician thought it was fun..till

Pop goes the capacitor

Everyone sing along !!

Thought it be simple
To do a warranty exchange
Drove around for hours

This doesn't happen cause
Capacitors don't fail...but

Pop !! goes the capacitor
 
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