Over at the Irish Acts message board, I have been following a situation that is similar in some ways to the one I had with my PSR 2000. A member purchases a PA80. The PA80 is defective. He has shows to do. He cannot use the board in the state that it is in. He gets the dealer involved. The dealer initially balks a bit but eventually agrees to take care of the problem and get the board repaired or replaced. Initially, nothing else happens. He laments the problem on the forum. Other members agree with him and offer their support.

To this point, it almost appears that this customer has taken the script from me. Then his story takes a completely different turn. Korg not only contacts him privately, but they also have reps posting on the forum. They explain their difficulties in getting the situation squared away. Naturally, the forum users beat 'em up a little, and continue to offer the customer moral support on the forum, but Korg perserveres and continues to respond. Within 10 days of the purchase the customer is given a brand new, working PA80. The customer is very satisfied now and is happy that he stuck it out. I guess even 10 days is a long time when one is depending on a piece of equipment to use in a professional live act, but then again I waited for weeks and would likely STILL be waiting several weeks more and still counting had I decided to keep the PSR2000. He at least received plenty of attention from and interaction with Korg. In the end, there is a whole forum of users whose opinion of Korg service has just skyrocketed. Well done Korg. I know I said this already but, I suspect that the only way that I could have gotten as much attention from Yamaha would have been to post their styles on my website. I know they took care of Ryan and his situation and for that I applaud them, but that doesn't change the fact that they also dropped the ball squarely on my foot, as well as doing the same for other customers who STILL have no replacement chip or OS for their buggy PSR2000s.

Korg AJ

I just heard from Yamaha again, in response to another email I sent them (they always respond the same or next day). The USA people do not know why it is taking so long, but I was told the only bug that I have that will be corrected on the new chip is remembering the fingering mode.
They will not admit that the Karaoke Girl and Speedy Mouse settings are bugs. Instead they gave a work-around that must be saved to a User Memory. This is not satisfactory because you must manually set the Vocal/Harmony balance, so you can't simply toggle the effect on and off. If you do, the Main vocal won't be heard.
DonM

KORG USA is really supporting it's arranger market. Dedicated web site and all. Supporting forums for thier products and I know from first hand experience. I'm a proud owner of a PA80, loving the sounds and styles, for those that haven't demoed one with the 3.0 vers. O.S. you really need to evaluate it again. It offers the most features not to mention the best sounds from the triton processor. With the support that KORG is demonstrating it's a sure thing.

enjoying the PA80,

synth

[This message has been edited by synthmeister (edited 04-05-2002).]

Must have been something I said to 'em Don. Yamaha avoided me like the plague. They almost NEVER answered my emails. My dealer STILL isn't getting a lot of answers either. Maybe we just weren't talking to the right people, but I did use the addies that Yamaha gave me. I don't think I was beligerent toward them at all. On the contrary, I think I was a tad more agressive with Korg when there were delays on OS2 and later OS3 for the PA80, yet Malcolm Doak and another Korg rep ( whose name slips me at the moment ) stayed in contact with me and responded promptly to any correspondence I sent them. They also followed up afterward without being prompted. Maybe in the past Korg has or hasn't done a lot more than Yamaha in the area of customer service, particularly for its' arranger customers, but the way they have handled this and other recent incidents plus their interactive participation on the forums and their own websites lends greatly to the perception for those of us at Irish acts that there are miles of distance between the them and Yamaha.

One perplexing thing for me thing was that the service tech working on my 2000 seemed to find additional bugs or problems that I hadn't even noticed or reported. It appears that my 2000 was a total mess. It seems that some of the 2000s, even those that have the supposed exact same chip, have bugs or issues that other ones don't. Apparently mine was loaded with them. To be honest Don, I really don't trust Yamaha on this. In light of their recent actions, why should I ? It has been about 10 weeks now and my dealer still has no idea when he'll get a chip for the board, which he now owns again.
It's nice that Yamaha is talking to some of its' customers regularly, but talk won't get them a fixed up board. Where is the action ? I am wondering if the update is ever really gonna happen at all. Why the stall and delay? They KNOW there are problems...

My only regret in all of this when I finally packed it in with the 2000 was that the best workstation for my uses happened to be a ( gulp ) Yamaha. I wasn't going to sacrifice for the sake of spite, but I so strongly wish that I had felt as inspired by the Fantom or another board as I do the Motif. I wish you guys luck with your 2000s too. It has such great ptoential and bang for the buck. Perhaps if things had been different and mine had not been so flawed and Yamaha had shown a little more substance, I'd be looking at it in a completely different light and I'd have totally embraced the 2000.

Also enjoying the PA80.. This is why I'm still..
KORG AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 04-05-2002).]