Razer : Screw Gamers !

Update : 

An update to the post below : I posted the same on this blog and Min Liang Tan’s (Razer CEO) FB page. The first post was promptly deleted, however I posted and a second time and tweeted. Min replied asking me to contact Support but got a better response on Twitter : John Wie reached out to me.

Consequently I was contacted by Razer Asia Support again in the morning offering me a more substantial discount on the Sabertooth (around 25%) or a replacement Onza or a credit note.

I decided to go after option 1 because : 1. I did not want a replacement Onza, run into the same problem again, which seems pretty common, 6 months down the line and go through the same support experience again ! 2. The credit note did not matter as the resellers that I purchased the Onza from have ceased to be official Razer resellers sometime around Feb,2013 (if I remember the month correctly) and therefore could not use the credit note to purchase any Razer product and they have no other controllers on their site (visit tirupati.net or overclockerszone)

It was not the ideal solution for me but I had no option. It sucks to have to pay a premium to upgrade from a faulty product for no fault of of mine in the first place. But it seems that was all the guy from Razer India (nice and helpful) had in his power to do.

I have also emailed John Wie and hope something comes out of this. I think they can definitely do better than this !

I’ve been a passionate Razer Cultist for the last couple of years and have always been impressed about the build quality of it’s products because of their fabulous build quality and futuristic features and have recommended the same to my friends… until the last week when I ran into the horrible state for support of my Razer Onza Tournament Edition game controller (still under warranty) started malfunctioning.

Reached out to Razer Support US only to be rebuffed that my controller was not original (Bought it on Ebay from a store who are the leading importer of Razer Products in India – Tirupati Enterprises, with a proper invoice and serial no.) and thus not eligible for an RMA.

It seems that Clause No. 4 for Razer warranty claims states that “Razer currently has no authorized resellers on Ebay or any other online auction sites.” Well in India, they do !

Razer India has been much more gracious. They said that the Onza was out of it’s product lifecycle and has been replaced by the Sabertooth and offered me two choices : Get a credit note from the store or wait till the month’s end and go for a Razer Sabertooth and pay the difference in price (Rs. 5700 tentatively, with a 10-15% discount). While this is appreciated this does not work for me on two counts.

1.  The credit note can only be used against the store I purchased it and they have no other controllers (from any other manufacturers) in stock.
2.  The difference in cost of the Razer Onza TE and the Sabertooth is more than the price of the Onza itself, meaning I will have to pay more than double the initial investment. Just to give you an idea of the cost of the Sabertooth, I can buy nearly 4 wired Microsoft XBOX controllers at that price. It’s really going to be difficult to explain to my wife and kid, why I, a casual gamer, would need to spend that much on a controller whose price nearly equals to around the price of a Playstation Portable.

I think the Sabertooth is a wonderful product and I would love to own it, but the terms of the exchange leave a lot to be desired on my part.

As I said, I am a casual gamer and I would love to just be happy to just have a controller as a replacement without having to pay anything extra than my initial investment.

I feel Razer gets us gamers (not everyone does, sadly) and I felt dejected and sad after dealing with support for more than a week I am not sure I would invest in Razer anymore ?