Corsair K95 LED keyboard faulty RMA - advice welcome

[Calgar117]

Hey All

I'll keep this short but my Corsair K95 LED's have started to burn out and at an alarming rate, no change has been made to the keyboards environment and i also understand this is a well documented issue against it.

now i have raised an RMA directly with Corsair but i am expected to pay the carriage costs to them.

which i am not too happy about my problem is as it's a well documented issue with this type of keyboard i feel i shouldn't be responsible for this as it isnt wear an tear nor is it a rare or isolated problem..

i am probably going to try and ask for a minimum i be reimbursed for any carriage costs. a better but very unlikely scenario i ask if they can replace for the RGB range even if its graded as i understand this range doesnt suffer the same fault. id just not want to go through the hassle of an rma and end up with the LEDs burning out over the next few months rince repeat.

its over 6 months old which is annoying and unfortunately not bought via Ocuk

 

[DarrenMcGregor]

This exact problem happened with my K70 LED's months after purchase, I was so shocked because I had been using a logitech membrane keyboard for 2/3 years with no problems prior.

 

[spoffle]

Asking for them to replace with the RGB range isn't an unreasonable request, as they changed the housing of the LEDs specifically to address the problem of LEDs dying due to ESD.

They should be at the very least covering the return as the reason they are dying is due to a manufacturing oversight anyway.

 

[welshdragon]

Isn't the retailer obliged to sort it out inside the 1st 12 months?

 

[Make]

Wear an antistatic wristband connected to your case whilst typing...

Sorry, a bad joke. I hope you get it sorted.

 

[Calgar117]

Got some great news

been liaising with corsair and after a simple email to them highlighting the problem etc they authorized a replacement K95 RGB model as a goodwill very chuffed with this outcome as i was expecting it to be a troublesome request.

so all in all cant fault corsair's RMA service in my experience so far arrived quickly gave me no false expectations and arrived sooner than they specified.

 

[Upgrade]

And how's the K95 RGB? I was thinking of getting one soon.

 

[Greybeard]

Got some great news

been liaising with corsair and after a simple email to them highlighting the problem etc they authorized a replacement K95 RGB model as a goodwill very chuffed with this outcome as i was expecting it to be a troublesome request.

so all in all cant fault corsair's RMA service in my experience so far arrived quickly gave me no false expectations and arrived sooner than they specified.

That's such a good news, that is an awesome replacement

Glad to hear that we were able to sort it out for you with a much better solution. Enjoy your new K95

 

[Calgar117]

Thanks.

The product is great but i am having software issues with my RGB unit i have updated the firmware but essentially the software reports malfunction and my caps lock indicator lights and some controls stop responding.

i can cope with it but would hope a software update at some point will address these issues

 

[Greybeard]

Thanks.

The product is great but i am having software issues with my RGB unit i have updated the firmware but essentially the software reports malfunction and my caps lock indicator lights and some controls stop responding.

i can cope with it but would hope a software update at some point will address these issues

There's a new version of CUE that's coming out soon that will address issues that we're currently seeing in the field.

 

[Doctor McNinja]

There's a new version of CUE that's coming out soon that will address issues that we're currently seeing in the field.

I've just had an LED die on my K95. I purchased the keyboard directly from Corsair about ten months ago and I would like to RMA it. Is it true that the RGB version of the K95 doesn't suffer from the same issue with LED's dying?

 

[Doogles]

Got some great news

been liaising with corsair and after a simple email to them highlighting the problem etc they authorized a replacement K95 RGB model as a goodwill very chuffed with this outcome as i was expecting it to be a troublesome request.

so all in all cant fault corsair's RMA service in my experience so far arrived quickly gave me no false expectations and arrived sooner than they specified.

That is brilliant news, so glad you got a nice outcome like this. Looks like you have a half working keyboard now as well as a nice shiny new one.

 

[Greybeard]

I've just had an LED die on my K95. I purchased the keyboard directly from Corsair about ten months ago and I would like to RMA it. Is it true that the RGB version of the K95 doesn't suffer from the same issue with LED's dying?

Yes, the RGB version is far more resistant to ESD (electrostatic discharge) due to the LEDs are directly mounted onto the PCB.

 

[darket]

Yes, the RGB version is far more resistant to ESD (electrostatic discharge) due to the LEDs are directly mounted onto the PCB.

Wow thats better than my experience of corsair, I'm on my 6th YES 6th k95, apparently the last one i've been sent is a 'special' batch of non rgb k95's that has the led problem fixed.

Lies. Total and utter lies.

I will never buy a corsair product again, after 2 years of returning the same rubbish keyboard all they did was send me yet another rubbish keyboard that will do exactly the same thing. I haven't even bothered to take it out of the box. I can't even sell it for gods sakes !

However as a form of compensation they sent me a tacky rgb mouse , wow thanks corsair, its just what i always wanted...

Sorry to rant on , but i've always praised corsair support but this keyboard saga left me feeling lied to and fed up, Even your product development manager lied to me about the Led problem.

And no offence ment Greybeard but you coming on here and saying on multiple occasions that the non rgb keyboards were flawed makes me even angrier about the whole thing.

Maybe you should tell that to the management and tell them to stop lying about the issue or have some consistency in your bloody company and at least tow the same line and lie about it !

 

[Greybeard]

None taken, you are in the right to bring up your personal feedback, good or bad, in which to me in this case is unacceptable. I would feel the same way if I had to send my hardware back 6 times to be replaced for the same exact problem. I'm very sorry to hear that you have to endure that process multiple times expecting to get a replacement that won't have the same problem from the previous one.

What's not clear to me is why you even got to the point of doing 6 RMAs. We should have taken a more firm recourse during the 2nd (latest 3rd) RMA to get the matter resolved. I will discuss this whole experience with our customer service team and see if we can come up with a better solution to rectify this whole ordeal. If you have your ticket #, send it to me so I can use it as a reference.

And no offence ment Greybeard but you coming on here and saying on multiple occasions that the non rgb keyboards were flawed makes me even angrier about the whole thing.

Just to be clear on this, none of the Corsair reps (including PM) said anything about the non-RGB being flawed. All we've been saying is the RGB LEDs are designed differently from the non-RGB variant for two reasons:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/september/corsairk70rgb

1.)RGB is now possible since the light emitted by the diode shines through the lens and emits a similar effect to the previous 3mm single-color LED model.

2.)With the RGB LED directly mounted onto the PCB, reliability is also gained by reducing the chances of ESD (electric static discharge) occurring, the leading cause of LED failure on keyboards.

So technically, all KBs with LEDs are prone to ESD, but because of the way the LEDs are mounted onto the PCB with our RGB variant, that makes the RGB KBs more resistant to ESD.

to be fair, we know that there are non-RGB users out there that have NEVER had an issue with their unit since the point of ownership. It's unfortunate that you had a string of bad units and I am really sorry that you had deal with it. Multiple LED failures should have never happened to begin with, hence I'll do whatever I can to provide you a more reasonable solution.

 

[darket]

to be fair, we know that there are non-RGB users out there that NEVER had an issue with their unit ever since they've owned it. It's unfortunate that you had string of bad units and I am really sorry about it, that should have never happened to begin with. I'll do whatever I can to provide you a more reasonable solution.

The ticket number is 6557050 , As you can see they offered to refund all my shipping costs, but i didn't reply, i was so angry at the whole situation that i couldn't bare to re-visit it all over again.

And i'm sorry Greybeard, this isn't a personal attack on you. What you have to remember is that this all started off with a K90 Keyboard which i loved, until it started repeating key inputs, it has since turned into a string of failed K95 replacements firstly from the retailer then rma's from Corsair, all with the same issues, i don't believe i'm that unlucky.

I appreciate corsair tried to rectify the situation but all they did was send me out another K95, i was horrified when it arrived, when they said they we sending me a revised K95 i thought it was going to be the RGB (Its still sitting in its shipping box and sealed, i can't bring myself to touch it if i'm being honest) , i even said i'd be happy with the K70 (non rgb) which was a cheaper alternative in a earlier Rma but i didnt hear a thing. I have friends with K70's that have never had a single issue.

To put it into perspective as a stop gap I've since been using a cheap and nasty led cooler master keyboard, in all honesty its rubbish , its tacky, the build quality is poor, the keys feel nasty, however .. non of its Leds have failed and it's reliable and as such it was worth every penny i spent on it.

I don't want money from corsair, i don't want free gifts, i just want a reliable keyboard that will last a couple of years that i can have some confidence in.

 

[darket]

Thanks for replying to my ticket Greybeard

 

[Greybeard]

Thanks for replying to my ticket Greybeard

No problem at all I'll make sure that we handle your request properly from this point on.

 

[Mercutio]

The ticket number is 6557050 , As you can see they offered to refund all my shipping costs, but i didn't reply, i was so angry at the whole situation that i couldn't bare to re-visit it all over again.

And i'm sorry Greybeard, this isn't a personal attack on you. What you have to remember is that this all started off with a K90 Keyboard which i loved, until it started repeating key inputs, it has since turned into a string of failed K95 replacements firstly from the retailer then rma's from Corsair, all with the same issues, i don't believe i'm that unlucky.

I appreciate corsair tried to rectify the situation but all they did was send me out another K95, i was horrified when it arrived, when they said they we sending me a revised K95 i thought it was going to be the RGB (Its still sitting in its shipping box and sealed, i can't bring myself to touch it if i'm being honest) , i even said i'd be happy with the K70 (non rgb) which was a cheaper alternative in a earlier Rma but i didnt hear a thing. I have friends with K70's that have never had a single issue.

To put it into perspective as a stop gap I've since been using a cheap and nasty led cooler master keyboard, in all honesty its rubbish , its tacky, the build quality is poor, the keys feel nasty, however .. non of its Leds have failed and it's reliable and as such it was worth every penny i spent on it.

I don't want money from corsair, i don't want free gifts, i just want a reliable keyboard that will last a couple of years that i can have some confidence in.

In the nicest way, I would perhaps point out that you could/should have taken a bit of a stand early doors or make a slightly more special plea for a better solution (long before anger issues made you unable to face further dealings with it).

In pretty much every case, there's loads more for a company to loose having someone badmouthing their products. For any issues with any company, dig out some company details and write to them or look up their main support forum. If that doesn't, work get it all out of your system (in a well written way) on a bad amazon review and link them that. It usually works wonders.

Most recently had issue with a creative headset, belonged to the missus, she broke the wee USB receiver. I wanted a cheapish (like £25) replacement bit of plastic+electronics, they couldn't so I kicked up a fuss. A couple of days later a call from Singapore and there's a completely new headset+receiver being shipped...

Folks definitely need to learn how to complain effectively

With greybeard here and the offers/etc from corsair to fix it I'm certainly going to keep em in mind (as there's a mech keyboard purchase in the near future)

 

[Calgar117]

with the above comments i can fully understand darket


because i've worked for various retailers i kind of know the steps to follow and all i did was send a polite email highlighting the issue and highlighting my concern over another K95 going faulty so i respectfully requested a K70 RGB as a graded unit.

and they did one step further they offered me the K95 which i am using whilst has its software faults, its no deal breaker and i am chuffed to peices .

all in all i know to always approach in the correct manner and it's good companies like corsair dont just give in to the angry customers but to customers with genuine concerns.

so hats off to corsair in my experience because in theory they could have forced another k95 unit.