Without the Nord :(

[kirsty]

Hi Evans

You will see from the above thread that it wasn't the easiest of experiences! I had a few bits of bad luck in the process which I hope would not apply to everyone.

Summary of my return experience...
1) 11 months into warranty, I contacted Gear 4 to pull it back in under warranty to sort out clicky keys.
2) Several calls to chase.. Gear4 gave me a conflicting amount of information on progress. First it was being looked at by them, then it was fixed and ready to send back to me, then it wasn't fixed and needed to go back to Nord for repair and at the 1 month not fixed mark I increased pressure on them to which they reluctantly sent me a Piano 3 as a loan board while Nord were awaiting parts to fix mine.
Gear4's policy is they have 60 days to sort it or you get a new board, and only a few days before the deadline I got a call to say it was fixed Hurrah!.
3) Only the loan Piano3 needed returning first. Their courier tried to collect it on a date I had specifically told them I was away. Then I had two couriers try and collect it the next day, the second of which I had to turn away as it had already been lifted (Gear 4 then rang me to demand an explanation as to why I was refusing to return their Piano 3!! WTF?)
4) They finally got their loan Piano3 back, so shipped my Stage2EX out... only they sent it to an old work address (address on file that they once sent a missing cable out to 4 yrs ago.. had asked them to delete this 2x before) Had to spend 2 days ringing DHL making sure that it didn't end up delivered to the banks post room where I wouldn't be able to get to it. Was eventually rerouted back to Gear 4 who had to resend to me, which took almost another week.
5) It was finally delivered to me .. switched it on, worked, keys fixed. HURRAH. Had lunch and went back to it, turned it on.. Flash Error!!!. wouldnt turn on. Back on the phone to Gear 4 and had to be picked up again 2 days later. (courier driver and me on 1st name terms by this point)
6) Gear 4 probably fed up of hearing about me and my board gave me 2x options. Wait for Nord to fix it (time unknown), or I can have a credit note towards buying whatever I wanted from store. I put the extra to and bought a Stage 3 HA88 which I am pleased to report is still working beautifully

So yes, not the best experience.

But in all as you say, The boards aren't cheap so even though its not a MAJOR problem it is rather annoying to play with rattly keys. So send it back, get it fixed, but keep on their backs at Gear 4, they dont seem to rush and appear rather incompetent at times you could say.

Good luck!

K

[Evans The Song]

Thank you Kirsty for such a detailed reply - it's very much appreciated. Plenty of food for thought there - I'm really torn about what to do, I obviously don't want to be without my Nord for as long as you were, especially as it might come back from repair with a whole different problem! It's become such a workhorse for me now that I'm almost tempted to live with it as it is and 'embrace the imperfection'. It's not an issue when I'm playing with my band because I don't hear the keys and I don't hear it with headphones on either. Another option I've been considering is buying a Nord Stage 3 Compact and a separate 88 key weighted keyboard, and MIDI-ing them up - a sort of best of both worlds keyboard wise, and bit lighter taking just the Compact to gigs. Would be nice to have the extra features on the Stage 3 too! Ironically, Gear 4 Music are doing a good deal on ('box opened for quality control inspections') Stage 3 Compacts at the moment. I'd then send my Stage 2 EX back for repair and (assuming it comes back in good working order!) either sell it or, if finances allow, keep it as a spare. Decisions, decisions....

[Evans The Song]

Sorry Kirsty - I spelt your name slightly wrong in the previous post. And then just noticied I can edit it - doh, I'm new here!

[kirsty]

I would very much hope my experience was a case of 'whats the worst that could happen'

That said if it was repaired inside a month I think you would be lucky so you would have to make provisions for being without it for a period.

Upgrades are always good too (although expensive )

[Ritchie333]

It was finally delivered to me .. switched it on, worked, keys fixed. HURRAH. Had lunch and went back to it, turned it on.. Flash Error!!!. wouldnt turn on.

Oh, I had that in the middle of a gig a few years back! Two songs into the set, the entire Stage Compact froze up with an OS error message. I then spent three minutes explaining to some dim-witted people that, no, I couldn't just "use the other keyboard" as it was just a signal generator, ran home to get my first generation Electro, and did the rest of the set on that. I got the Stage back home, plugged it into the PC, ran the last OS upgrade utility again, and the unit unfroze. Never had a problem since but I'm glad I didn't end up selling the Electro (as I always thought about but never quite got around to) I would have been totally screwed.

The problem is that I don't really want to trust a piece of equipment that I'm kind of dependent on for income (if I haven't got the gear, I can't do the gig!) with a courier and would rather either take it to and pick it up from the dealer directly, or just put up with it. My Stage's bottom D key has become "sticky" and doesn't seem to cover all the various velocity sounds compared to the other keys. Since this is only an issue on the piano sounds, which I usually trigger from a controller keyboard, it's not a deal-breaker.