Got my Nord Stage B-Stock but the wheel is dead

[Schorsch]

Nord does not carry out repairs either. Nord has authorised service centres, which are usually its distribution partners in the respective country and serve as contact points for official repair services. However, how can you be sure that the repair/maintenance/modification was carried out by such an authorised service centre and not by another company or person, or in the worst case, even by a layman and not a specialist company?

As long as you don't know for sure, it's not only unfair but also negligent to blame Nord for this.

I completely understand your frustration, but please be fair and objective, especially since you probably don't know exactly who is responsible for the rubbish you received.

[anotherscott]

Having nothing to do with Nord...

I'd say that "b-stock" can be anything from cosmetic blemish from the factory, to minimally used (e.g. sold to a customer who returned it within the initial return period), to returned for an issue and then repaired. If taken back by a dealer, they may know nothing more about it than what they can see with their eyes and can discover with a minimal evaluation. Like, does it power up and make sounds. I would not count on them checking every knob, button, and slider; or evaluating every function, if they even know how. They're certainly not going to open it up and check the insides.

In return for the somewhat unknown provenance of a b-stock, the buyer gets a significant discount, usually the same return window as on a new unit, and usually the same warranty as on a new unit. It may have no issues of significance; or even if it has issues, they may be fixable easily and/or free of charge. It can be a good deal. But if you want a unit that you are sure will be as new, the obvious answer is to buy a new unit and not a b-stock.

[cgrafx]

Missing some points like the "repair" was sloppy and garbage and didn't work and left a screw out and one loose. That's Nord quality? Argue about the path or means but the quality of the repair was total junk.

It wasn't repaired. The soldered wires were done that way from the factory when it was originally built.

Missing and lose screws happen for reasons other than somebody messing with a keyboard. Screws come loose in shipping. connectors can also come loose in shipping. guessing the connector was not seated properly when originally built and came loose like the screws did.

Your remedy for these issues are to live with what you have received or send it back.

I understand your concerns particularly given the cost of the Nord, but these things happen across all manufacturers regardless of price.

[davlippo7]

The only way to know for sure would be to open more than one unit to compare how it's attached. Wires are not typically soldered directly to the board because then you can't remove the board in the future. Also makes the assembly require more expertise than to just plug'n'play as all workers do. They don't pull out soldering guns and heat up boards on the final assembly line. It does look aftermarket and you can see where the board as it heated up left a discoloration around the solder point. I think the rep said it used to be a ribbon cable but mine is (3) wires as you can see. I know for certain someone knows what's going on and that's the one Nord repair guy.

They told me a few things directly that appeared to be presented as the facts:

1) Nord only uses (1) repair guy for all of the US he's the man or "the factory repair man" literally one person
2) This board came directly from Nord to the dealer as "B-Stock" and I understand there are a lot of them
3) They keep detailed records of each serial number & associated repairs that were made to each board
4) They said something like I received should have never left the repair center in the condition it was in probably an oversight lucky me
5) Still up for debate but they all are supposed to be restored to factory specs not sure if this includes hand soldering parts together as a shortcut to removing the board and putting it back to original specs.
6) They took this very seriously & do not want such boards in circulation. Had everything been secured professionally, even if they had repaired it, that would have been fine had they disclosed that information such as simply stating "Factory Refurbished Unit". I understand that this was not a meant to be a "B-Stock" (less concern over a refurbished) however it slipped through the cracks.

[davlippo7]

I wasn't really trying to be mean to Nord but in 40 years I've bought a lot of synths and if there was an issue most companies were all over making amends. I got the feeling the dealer and Nord were more like whatever passing it back and forth and I still only got offered a replacement "B-Stock" that I'm not able to inspect until I go through all the trouble to box and return mine and wait for delivery. I should at minimum be able to have both side by side for a day for comparison because what If I prefer the one I have?

Musician's Friend was unbelievably fantastic shipped me a second Muse never asked for the other one back. Nord is more like "we're in control" you do as we tell you and because I went public only then did they take it seriously because then it has impacts. Well no duh you should have handled it immediately which the seller was quick to send the Nord rep I'm sure because he probably know nothing about these "Refurbished" units.

They are indeed technically refurbished they are not "B-Stock". IF this happened to you then you might see it differently. Just because I so happened to be skilled at instrument repair doing it for 30 years who know how many other reburnished units went out and nobody knows it's refurbished because it was never discovered or not until years later.

The warranty is just standard coverage they didn't offer me an extended warranty or additional discount or a pedal or credit or anything extra for my many hours doing their job remotely. I realistically have probably 5 hour on this project including repair time and parts. If they do offer something I will mention it but other manufacturer's are better about helping. Moog was the best. Korg on the PA5x buttons took 6 months to get replacements hard to deal with. Ketron shipped out a part immediately. Yamaha has been good about shipping me parts. Arturia also sent me a new controller board no questions asked.

If anything good comes from this if anyone else has a similar issue I'd bet my keyboard they will jump on it with additional compensation. I assume Nord corporate policy apparently very stingy it would seem allows for nothing for customer inconveniences such as this.

Does Nord lack for money? I don't think they do, not even close so even sending a brand new unit once you consider the cost of a brand new unit is probably only $1,000 they still made most of their money back. It's not a big deal so why make it a big deal as if the company will fail it we exchanged one new unit for a "B-Stock" unit. It's just so stupid IMO. This way I don't have to worry about what's wrong with the next unit.

So is that totally unreasonable to expect a new versus a "B-Stock" for all this trouble? So you'd just be cool with whatever they tell you to do?

I don't think Nord offered to do anything nice, special, extra, "for your troubles" etc. just typical business as usual and stingy IMO and I think in fact ungrateful for me being a brand new Nord consumer. We all know they don't care about us personally but when there's an issue I mean come on man! Who would want to join Nord nation if they act like this?

[maxpiano]

As a customer you have no direct relationship with Nord (same as any other non-local brand) but with your country distributor and/or reseller and are responsible for managing any technical issue you have and are the ones you should apply or present your complaints to.

From https://www.nordkeyboards.com/support/

Warranty and maintenance are managed by our authorized distributors. For the quickest and most efficient technical support for your product, please get in touch with the distributor in your country or contact your point of purchase. They will assist you in resolving any technical issues that you may have.

and by opening your Nord to inspect it yourself you may have voided your warranty, btw (but also about this, you have to ask to you reseller/distributor as rules may vary by country)

[cphollis]

Who did you buy the repaired unit from?

[anotherscott]

As a customer you have no direct relationship with Nord (same as any other non-local brand) but with your country distributor

Related to that, some bigger companies actually have subsidiaries or related dedicated entities in other countries, who handle the distribution and support issues there. For instance, in the U.S., things like warranty issues are handled by Yamaha USA, Korg USA, Roland Corporation US. But smaller companies like Nord don't have divisions everywhere. So in the U.S., Nord distribution and service issues are handled by a company called American Music and Sound, who similarly are the U.S. presence for Studiologic, Waldorf, Modal, Focusrite, among others.

[davlippo7]

Yes that's them American Music & Sound he's the manager and essentially nothing to do with Nord besides handle such problems and not well.

Could be that if the gear is that good in most cases and then when something unusual happens they assume they are being scammed and so they have no idea how to respond (except very legalistically) but we know they are swimming in money so to be so stingy and greedy is very sad.

There's no bending over backwards to show love for customers or going the extra mile it's just do as we say and that's it. That's very poor customer service and proves they don't care about customers. My posts should be raving over their exceptionalism except there isn't any.

It's just how I feel, obviously Nord users who never had an issue don't relate whatsoever.

There's no Nord accommodations, no gratefulness shown, no embarrassment or remorse, no sincere apologies etc. and it was ironic because they sort of ask me "what will it take" and I made some reasonable suggestions and all they said was NO!, do as I tell you. So why ask me what will it take if all you know you are going to do is send me another "B-Stock" with no idea what's wrong with it after mine has been returned. No that's BS!

The acting as if they were being nice was superficial and narcissistic I never bought it from the US Nord rep. You should accommodate and compromise simple as that. The days of the customer being right are long gone companies think they are Gods but not all of them.

I'm a business owner and engineer and several times I produced a final set of plans and the client said "I want a refund". The work was already done and I gave them a refund and they already had the product in hand. That's how it goes and that's how it's done right no matter how much I didn't like it. I wasn't asking for a free keyboard but new would be nice and fair without me worrying about the condition of it. It costs Nord a few pennies and we all know it. Nothing to it whatsoever just do the right thing.

They have the records on this unit and who knows the (1) designated repair guy could also be covering his own ass saying I didn't do that. Not like they would ever tell or admit it either way. I agree something so trivial could have been instantly resolved in seconds but they refused to my offer. I even offered to simply receive their Triple Pedal 2 which lists for $400 but we all know that costs Nord about $40 to manufacture. It's a MIDI pedal. The ass said no he couldn't do that either. What a moron. He's giving Nord a great big black eye and he doesn't even work for Nord it's some American Music & Sound company he manages. I reached out to Nord overseas so we'll see what happens.

Corporate Nord might be a smaller company but I've seen Nords all over the planet in mass quantities. They aren't hard up for work and if I can refund in my business living paycheck to paycheck and lose thousands and still survive this jerk can accommodate easily but doesn't want to. I'm just a little nobody but at least I can tell my story on forums. Should someone single person representing all of the US be calling the shots for Nord who doesn't even work for them?

[maxpiano]

As a customer you have no direct relationship with Nord (same as any other non-local brand) but with your country distributor

Related to that, some bigger companies actually have subsidiaries or related dedicated entities in other countries, who handle the distribution and support issues there. For instance, in the U.S., things like warranty issues are handled by Yamaha USA, Korg USA, Roland Corporation US. But smaller companies like Nord don't have divisions everywhere. So in the U.S., Nord distribution and service issues are handled by a company called American Music and Sound, who similarly are the U.S. presence for Studiologic, Waldorf, Modal, Focusrite, among others.

Yes, we also have Yamaha Italy and Roland Italy, where the subsidiary plays the role of the "country distributor" but even in this case the concept is the same: local customers need to refer to local distributor/subsidiary as primary point of contact, the difference is just that a subsidiary has arguably a closer relationship with the "mothership", compared to a more generic multi-brand distributor.