The question of bad customer support is of great importance to all who buy keyboards. I am actually surprised to read that your experience in talking to people is that Yamaha is the bad one and not Casio. I am a music store owner in southern California. I am familiar with all these models mentioned. I have either sold them when they were made or currently sell them if they are current models. Even though I do sell a few Casio models which I believe offer good value to end users, I have never had a good experience with their technical support. In fact, I have never once ever been able to talk with one! When I first got the WK1800 in I wanted to know something about it's operation. Four phone calls, left voice mail messages and no one ever called back. This is one of the reasons I stopped selling Casio several years ago, and because members of this forum liked the MZ2000 when it first came out, I decided to give them a try again. I currently sell 4 of their products which are good and well made, but I do have to say they are pretty far down my list of good customer service companies. Next, I would like to address the Yamaha service and support issue. In my thirty years of dealing with Yamaha and knowing all the technical support team member as well as product managers and sales managers, I have always received quick responses to my questions and problems over the years. I think the biggest gripe consumers have is calling Yamaha and being told all technicians are busy and you are given a case number and are told that a tech will get back to you within 24 hours. With sometimes so many calls coming in, the reason yamaha started this system was to assure you that when you call, you will talk to someone and not get a message machine. This, "front line" person has limited knowledge of the products and can sometimes answer a question, but when it is over his or her head, he must refer this to a senior tech person. I think this is where the problem often lies. When we have a question and are frustrated, we want an answer right now! and the last thing we whant to hear is that someone will have to call us back! Unless Yamaha and other companys can hire more tech support people, this will continue to be the case.
I have always told my customers that if they have a problem getting through, call me,it's why I consider myself a better dealer than some, and I will try to help or at least I can call Yamaha, and because I am a dealer who knows alot of people at Yamaha, I can always get to someone who can help within a matter a minutes(as long as everyone is not at a NAMM show!)
I agree with all the comments about the PSR2000. It is still a great value and a very dependable keyboard. I also sell the Ketron XD9 and it too is a top quality keyboard although it cost more with comparable features such as the vocal harmonizer.
My advice to you is to make sure you buy from a dealer who will go the extra mile for you if necessary. With competition the way it is today, we are all selling for very similar prices. Many members of this forum who have purchased things from me over the years know what it is like to have somone to call and either get an answer or be able to be told exactly what and who to go to in order to resolve a problem. When you look for the cheapest price, just make sure that their price includes the ability to help if things go bad after you buy. This is a topic I have talked about before and I don't want to offend anyone here but I think occassionaly it is worth bringing up because I think it's important to know how different manufactures work and how different music stores support customers.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California