Here in the UK if you want to buy a new Ketron keyboard the only option is Ketron UK.
For the past couple of months I have had the cash waiting to purchase a Ketron SD9.
I contacted them to ask a few questions before purchase as I had had issues with one of the first SD7s that came out which I returned to them because of freezing and other problems.
They have not returned my emails or followed up my calls at all.
Below is a copy of the latest email I sent without the courtesy of a reply.
Please read this and let me know your views.
.................................................................
Dear Ketron Italy
I was excited about purchasing a Ketron SD9 because I think the live guitars and the launchpad and style creator features are fabulous.
As you are aware Ketron UK is the only available outlet here in England so I contacted them a couple of months ago to discuss a couple of points before purchase as I had previously returned one of the first SD7 keyboards because it kept freezing and making weird noises.
Below is a copy of the email I sent them a few days ago without even the courtesy of a reply.
......................................................................
Dear Ketron UK.

I am writing to you to say how disappointed and angry I am at the lack of response from your company.
As you are aware I have contacted you by way of several emails and by telephone calls to both to yourself (name witheld)
and also to (name witheld) over the past couple of months in respect of purchasing a Ketron SD9.

You have totally ignored my efforts to contact you (apart from one forwarded internal email) and not contacted me back.

If this was a complaint on my part and you ignored me it would be marginally easier to understand (not right.. but easier)
but I was trying to get information regarding buying one of your products.

Now to the reason this has happened and I can only assume one thing.

Because I returned one of the first SD7 keyboards to you because of numerous problems it seems to me you
do not want my custom.

If this is the case then you should have told me up front and not just ignored me for over two months.

The problems I had with the SD7 such as freezing up and other things were the justified reasons why I returned it
because as a gigging musician I could not rely on it.

The conversation we had at the time was that I loved the Ketron sound and I would wait until some time in the future
and repurchase a Ketron instrument.

Please don’t tell me that you have been very busy because we are talking months here not days.
If I ignored my business contacts the way you have ignored me I would not be getting any work.

I think people should know if they upset you by returning a product they should not try to buy another one.

I will reluctantly look elsewhere as you are the only source of purchase in the UK.

Regards.
.....................................................................

Making this public is probably the only way we can improve matters with Ketron.
I had the same experience after buying my MidjPro and making an enquiry.
It seems that Ketron worldwide are guilty of this behaviour so making our complaints public is the only thing we can do.
Ketron users in the USA are extremely fortunate that they have AJ to turn to. I do wish Ketron would learn from him.
I had the money ready for the SD9 or new Audya (if one was expected) and as Ketron are not interested, I bought a Genos instead.
Ketron's instruments are world leading once all the bugs have been removed but their customer relations are a disgrace and they don't deserve to sell their products.
It's a pity we don't have better consumer laws so we could force them to listen, and I would sue them without hesitation if need be.
Tony

I know I don't post here a lot but I do take a great interest in the forum and I am a bit suprised that nobody apart from Tony who has had a similar experience has commented.

I have bee a pro musician for many years and in that time I have purchased may thousands of pounds worth of equipment from many different companies and can hand on heart say I have never been treated this way before.

I wish that AJ was here in the UK as I do not think this would have happened.

Best wishes to all on Synthzone

I will now be entertaining my audiences with my new keyboard.... a Yamaha Genos.(my second choice)

So Ketron ... Thanks for nothing.

My impression is that Ketron products have never been officially available in Russia, looks like reaching everyone is not their top priority.

Why are you complaining? You have the money to spend and they don’t want to do a thing to sell you their product. Just move on. There are other keyboards.

mirza
I am complaining because Ketron have refused to communicate with me at all about my prospestive purchase.
It would be the polite thing to at least reply to me.
I know I have the money to buy another keyboard but I wanted to buy a Ketron SD9 .... Is that not what is discussed on this forum i.e. which make of keyboard we prefer?

JDX,
I have two close friends in the UK who played Yamaha keyboards for decades. After reading my rave reviews of my SD7s they both decided to purchase a SD7. The downfall was the lack of interest and lack of technical knowledge by the selling dealer in the UK. They finally gave up and traded the SD7s back to the dealer. Like I said in my PM to you, I would contact AJ and see if he can help.
Deane

Deane - passing on innacurate and defamatory hearsay on a public forum is both foolish and risky (for legal reasons). It can easily be proved that Ketron UK only ever had one SD7 traded back and that was by an elderly chap who could not get used to anything other than his old X1. We took it back against a brand new X1 (ketron Italy built it specially for him)

NOTE: last paragraph edited out as it is no longer in context (the reply to Deanes 'defamatory' bit) as Deane edited it out of his comments

Tonewheel Dude,

If my information is wrong then I was misinformed. You are probably correct in your statement about posting it. That said, as an owner of 2 Ketron SD7 keyboards, I too have experienced support issues with Ketron in general and if it had not been for AJ I would have been out of luck.


Deane

With regards to JDX post. There is always far more to situations like this than it appears.

Its difficult to please everyone - but the one who is displeased will always make more noise than the many who are happy.

Thats ok Deane, it happens. But AJ is your distributor - there should be no reason for support from them directly. In fact if you email them directly they simply forward the email to the local distributor...so you end up speaking with AJ anyway

Yes or no...
Did he do it, or did he not do it?

Fact is that Ketron is doing nothing at all to improve their reliabiliity as well as their support..
I don’t think the problem in the end is Ketron UK..
You can’t give support if you don’t get support from the main company...
The single source for all of this is Ketron Italy...

I don’t think this is the right place to have a customer relations discussion..
This however is the right place for complaints..
And if a dealer reads this, it may be a call for him to try and sattisfy a dissatisfied customer

you are of course correct. I have removed any comments relating to the case - thanks for the leveller.

A forum such as this is the only place you can have such a discussion when the manufactures and dealers refuse to communicate with people who have bought their products in good faith.

If Tonewheeldude can set something in motion where the communication starts, there will be many delighted Ketron users and would-be buyers but the first thing is to actually recognize that we have genuine grievances which are not being addressed. Ketron shouldn't need defending because they should be listening.
Tony

Tonewheeldude.

Your comment
"Its difficult to please everyone - but the one who is displeased will always make more noise than the many who are happy"
I find this a bit insulting.
I am not here to downcry Ketron products ... quite the opposite ..I love the Ketron sound.
In fact at least two people to my knowledge have bought Ketron products from yourself on my recommendation.

I was very patient with the SD7 considering the issues I had.
I also want to say that you and the people in Italy at the time of the SD7 problems did work very hard to sort them out but being a gigging musician I could not accept that a keyboard might freeze up at any time hence I returned it.
I do understand that the SD7 problems have now been resolved.

When I returned the SD7 my conversation with you was that I really hoped that in the future I would repurchase a Ketron from you ... my only issue being reliability.

When the SD9 came out I was excited to purchase one and after watching reviews etc after a few months without any adverse comments I decided to approach you again.

Regarding this current discussion my only issue is that Ketron UK (you) and Ketron Italy did not attempt to reply to any of my emails and calls over a long period.

I did after all only want to spend several thousand pounds with your company.

That and only that led me to post here because of my frustration.

This is the correct procedure for getting support for a Ketron instrument:
Ketron Support Thread

I understand that, and you are free to post anything you like, however I am not here in an official capacity and as pointed out by another forum member it would not be correct for me to comment. If you have a grievance, by all means make an official complaint to Ketron Italy. In addition, if you want to PM me I will give you the email address of the UK 'CEO' so you can email him directly.

I do not wish to make an official complaint .. I merely wanted a reason why you did not reply to my inquiries regarding purchasing the SD9.

The title of this thread is “ My recent bad experience with Ketron UK”

But you don’t want to make a complaint ? Really ?

Of course you are making a complaint but in the wrong place . That’s plain .

Just make your complaint through the proper channels and if you get no response or you don’t like the response , decide what you want to do next .

Best of luck . Worth.

I did air my complaint through what I thought was the proper channels .... I spoke to (name witheld) who said he was the head of Ketron UK on one of my phone calls and I emailed Ketron Italy. I don't know what more I could have done.
I only wanted to buy a keyboard.
It was mereley frustration that Ketron UK ignored my emails etc that led me to post here becuse I was getting no response from them or Italy.
An official complaint will not change things and I do not want to get any individual into trouble or disciplined so I have decided to move on.
As I said previously I now have a Genos (my 2nd choice) so I will leave it at that.
I am very sorry if any offence has been caused to anyone here by airing my frustration on this forum ... best wishes to you all.

There are times when people need to vent; need to talk about the poison they have stored inside. Synth Zone is a place that this can be done – we cannot all be a Don Mason. The best part is we do not have to agree or read the posts.

I did not read everything that was on JDX’s post; I felt his venting and moved on.

My thought; he needs to vent to hear himself -- so be it.
Life can be good, John C.

Hi JDX my post was not a criticism of you . Tone is not always easily detected when I post . You certainly have not caused any offence to me . Say what you like on this forum . Most of us are cool with whatever comes up however it comes up so long as it is well intentioned.

I was merely pointing out the irony of your thread title in respect of the post I quoted .

Glad you have moved on. But if you have not officially complained then you should .

Either way enjoy your Genos .

Thank you spalding.
I appreciate that.

Ketron better in the US?.....NOT!

On the reliability and ethics fronts, they're really at the bottom of the heap!

R.

Russ,
I wish you were wrong but unfortunately Ketron, as a company, just does not support it's customers and many of the dealers or not much better. I have used 2 Ketron SD7 keyboards for the past 3 years and have absolutely zero regrets about buying them. They are my "go to" gig keyboards even though I also own the new Genos.

That said, if AJ were not available to sort out issues and answer questions and provide support I would probably not buy Ketron products. I often wonder if Ketron Italy knows how vital he is to the USA market. I remember having an issue with a SD2 module and the dealer I think was in NJ or New York and would not even return phone calls. AJ stepped in and replaced the unit without charge after he read my post on this forum.

Deane

As my daddy used to say," He has a rough row to hoe".

Bernie

we all have our choices....

AJ needs to be cloned. We need one in every country that sells ketron. Support here in Australia is not good either.

No offense taken here. You are free to air your opinions and problems here.

Nigel,
Thanks for your Post and reinforcement. It would be a pity to not be able to share experiences on this wonderful Forum in fear of being monitored by the PC Police.
Ron, in Vero Beach, Florida

Thank you Nigel ... I appreciate that very much.

Although I said I have put this to bed now I would like to point out that Tonewheeldude has posted guidelines what to do if you have a problem with Ketron in your country.
I find this ironic becase I had followed his guidelines and contacted my countries distributor (him) and also complained to Ketron Italy and never got the courtesy of one reply.

Official complaint or just a complaint via email and telephone deserves at least a reply.
I would like an honest answer to why Ketron are reluctant to communicate with me regarding buying an SD9.

It’s amazing how you would even go back to this Company based on your prior experience. Gotta be honest, this is all on you.

You were in a relationship where you got treated badly and decided to go back for more.

I have heard enough about this Company’s keyboard issues and lack of support to never purchase from them. Then again, I too went back to bad relationships because they were hot but lacked substance. This Company’s keyboards and service reminds me of that hot woman who you know will cheat on you, take all your money and just disappoint the hell out of you in the end.

She will drain all your love, time, energy, and money.

Find another lover

Yeah, but.......



chas

Hi Steve.
In fairness to Ketron the past dealings I had with them regarding the SD7 were handled in a very professional manner.
The SD7 was not long out and there were some problems I encountered but Ketron at the time did try hard to sort things out but I needed a stable keyboard to gig with so did not have time to wait for them to iron everything out...They refunded me and we left it that I would hopefully be a customer again in the future.
I had heard good reports on the SD9 so I thought I would give it a try again with Ketron but it seems by the fact they have ignored my efforts to contact them they do not want my custom.
I would just like to know why.

Sounds like interest in a Ketron arranger is not a good idea...at least now.

Thankfully, most people realize that judging a complete range of products on one persons bad experience posted on the internet is not a great idea. After all it is not possible to know all the facts from a one sided discussion.

Ketrondude.

That implies I am saying something that isn't true which I am not.
I am not here to bad mouth Ketron products .. in fact if you read my posts I have praised them.
All I asked was a reason why you have ignored my enquiries about purchasing the SD9.
You could of course just reply to my emails and tell me why.

On the surface it does seem odd. Why would a company fail to respond to a customers request to spend a few thousand pounds/dollares with them? Is it because they are not interested in selling products...or is it some other reason?

I suggest you telephone Ketron UK if you want to discuss it further. This is certainly not the place for it.

I have heard many, many complaints here about these keyboards and Customer Service over the years on this Forum....I know nothing about them but have heard enough to make me not consider them. Not worth the risk

Tonewheeldude.
Please stop implying that I have behaved differently than any other customer apart from returning a faulty product.
The tone of your last comment implies I have done something wrong when I haven't.
And by the way I did phone and email Ketron UK as you know.

jdx,

Please check your PM.

Thanks,

Hi AJ.
I have replied to your pm.
Thank you ... A true gentleman.