Thrustmaster quality/service (or lack thereof)

I spent 2 years replacing springs (and a bungee cord) on a Tmaster T-2 wheel. When the new "Nascar Pro" wheel came out, I thought I'd give them another shot, hoping the quality had improved. It had not. About 6 months after purchasing a Nascar Pro wheel, my car (in N2) developed an occasional sudden jerk to the left. I completely uninstalled N2, patched back to the current version and the problem remained. Long story short, appears it's a bad steering pot in the wheel. Emailed Tmaster, four days to reply. Replied to their mail, still (3 days) and not heard back. I just finished a tech support call with Thrustmaster. The recording said wait times were from 15-25 minutes. MY wait time was about 50 minutes AND I pay for the call. After all this, the best they can do is an approx 2 week turnaround for repair. No refunds unless Curcuit City would take back something I've had for 6 months. (figure the odds) "There is no special treatment" was what I was told from Tmaster. Seems to me if I've spent two years fixing a product that was engineered poorly, gave your company another chance and got another lemon, you darn well owe me fantastic service. If you're considering buying a wheel, do yourself a favor and buy something else. Pay the extra money for a TSW. I've heard great things about them. I emailed them about wait times for new TSWs and heard back the next day. To say I'm disappointed in Tmaster is an understatement. To say I think their service is below par is a gross understatement. To say I believe the quality of their products is poor is being generous. These are my opinions and if you've had better luck, count your blessings. Guess I'll order a TSW (which is probably what I should have done to begin with), anyone want a good deal on a Nascar Pro wheel in a few weeks? -Kev nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

What he said. Every word, except I just received my TSW and it is light years ahead of anything TM has sold. Had 'em all, repaired 'em all and got suckered into buying 'em all. My garage is a TM graveyard. If I had bought a TSW to begin with it would have been half priced if you subtract the three $100+ versions of TM's toys that I bought and broke. The new Nascar Pro won't last long due to poor parts quality but it is a good concept poorly executed. The TSW has good on center feel that won't deteriorate over time like the TM bungee cords do because TSW uses quality springs and a bicycle chain-like connector betwween the springs. Gives me a woody whenever I hit a chicane on the edge<g>. If you spend a lot of your time on racing sims make a good economic decision and get a TSW. Support is great and you don't it need too!! YMMV but I doubt it. Always remember and never forget: "No matter where you go...there you are." Buckaroo Banzai Snip

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> If you're considering buying a wheel, do yourself a favor and > buy something else. Pay the extra money for a TSW. I've heard > great things about them. I emailed them about wait times for > new TSWs and heard back the next day. > To say I'm disappointed in Tmaster is an understatement. To say > I think their service is below par is a gross understatement. To say I > believe the quality of their products is poor is being generous. > These are my opinions and if you've had better luck, count your > blessings. > Guess I'll order a TSW (which is probably what I should have done > to begin with), anyone want a good deal on a Nascar Pro > wheel in a few weeks? > -Kev > nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

--

I can't believe you posted this today as I was pissed off earlier today too about Thrustmaster and was going to write something here too. I spent 45 minutes today (45 yesterday) trying to call them and never got through. I'm on the East coast and I called 1:00PM their time. How many calls could they be handling at that time? Expensive call and more importantly a waste of time. I need a steering pot NOW and also my gas pedal spring is broken and I'm using *** bands. It's looking sad. I actually love the wheel though. It has always worked great. I don't mind replacing the parts considering all the use it's had. But 2 weeks? I'm in big trouble. Anybody want to help us? PLEASE? Dave

I needed a new GP wheel and sent an email. They replied the next day and the wheel was couriered to New Zealand within a week - at no charge to me! Seems pretty good service to me...

> I needed a new GP wheel and sent an email. They replied the next day and the > wheel was couriered to New Zealand within a week - at no charge to me! > Seems pretty good service to me... Sure. But you're talking about sales. Of course that service is good. We're talking about support. I can't imagine the cost of a 50 minute tech call from New Zealand! -- -Kev nxs.net is my domain and kf-lan is my name.

I emailed them as well for replacement springs. Got a response 2 days later. Its 14 days and still no springs. Scott > I needed a new GP wheel and sent an email. They replied the next day and the > wheel was couriered to New Zealand within a week - at no charge to me! > Seems pretty good service to me... -- ************************************* * * * Scott B. Husted * * * * http://www.itw.com/~sbhusted * * * * * * * * ICQ# 4395450 * * * * PA-Scott on TEN * * * *************************************

Well these experiances are totally the reverse of mine! I have an original T1 (metal body) and have had 2 occasions to call for tech support. About a year after I bought it I got a new desk, and needed new "velcro" attachments. I called TM support, they took my address down and within a week I had 2 sets of "velcro" and an extra spring (just in case they said). About a year later I could not configure the wheel under Win95 so I called them back and was told I needed an adapter. Again I recieved it within a week. Both times there was no charge to me at all, and this was all shipped up to Canada. I have nothing bad to say about TM support and wish all companies were up to this standard. Of course all this was a while ago (a year?) so maybe things have changed, I hope not... >I spent 2 years replacing springs (and a bungee cord) >on a Tmaster T-2 wheel. When the new "Nascar Pro" wheel "snip snip"

I'm sorry to hear about the delays in answering calls/emails/etc. and I apologize on behalf of ThrustMaster. We probably sold more wheels in the last two weeks than most companies have sold in their existence. I don't offer that as an excuse, but as an attempt to provide some kind of perspective on what goes on around here - especially during the Christmas season. We do roughly 50% of our year's sales in the fourth quarter and therefore we get a lot of people calling with tech support questions this time of year. We've added more techs, more phone lines, more service people. We have people doing support that normally don't and we've tried to improve our processes in the way we give support. In spite of this, the call level has exceeded our expectations and it is difficult to train people in short notice and then let them go when the call level returns to normal. So, in the meantime, we appreciate your patience during this rough time. let me know what parts you need with your mailing address. Although this isn't a regular channel for support (and certainly won't work if I'm out of town, sick or fired) usually the parts requests that are sent to me go out in the mail that day - or the next at the latest. Thanks, Alan

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>I can't believe you posted this today as I was pissed off earlier today too >about Thrustmaster and was going to write something here too. I spent 45 >minutes today (45 yesterday) trying to call them and never got through. I'm >on the East coast and I called 1:00PM their time. How many calls could they >be handling at that time? Expensive call and more importantly a waste of >time. I need a steering pot NOW and also my gas pedal spring is broken and >I'm using *** bands. It's looking sad. I actually love the wheel though. >It has always worked great. I don't mind replacing the parts considering all >the use it's had. But 2 weeks? I'm in big trouble. Anybody want to help us? >PLEASE? >Dave

I just wanted to post to try to give this group a little perspective. I am the Customer Service Manager at ThrustMaster, Inc. Your satisfaction guarantees that I have a job. Actually it is more accurate to say that the satisfaction of the greatest number of ThrustMaster customers is guarantee's my employment. You did not specify how many springs you replaced in your T2. That was an acknowledged problem, but it was not a problem with 100% of our users. This group needs to realize that a) you actually represent a very small portion of the buying community b) you admit again and again that you use the daylights out of your products. This is not to say that we do not value this group. We do. You are the worst case scenario that we try to build our products to satisfy. Aside from the pot on your Nascar, what other quality issue did you run into? Some people have had problems with our springs, but I assure you, I get to see all of the numbers, how many we have sold versus how many springs I have shipped. That number is less than half of a percent. This group sees the problem more because they use the wheel more strenuously and consistently than the average user. We should have over designed the springs on the Nascar to accomodate this fact. I was pretty pissed off when we got the first call about broken Nascar springs. I thought we left that problem with the T2. Again, it is a small threshold problem, but one that frequents this group. I can only try to fix the problem and take care of the customer. As far as pots go. I have had exactly 15 requests for pots for the Nascar since we started selling it. I assure you that is a TINY number. Not even a hundredth of a percent of the total number of Nascar's we have sold. I am sorry that you had this problem, but that is why manufacturers offer a warranty. We will take care of you. 14 days should be an extreme estimate of the total time required to repair your wheel, I'll check with my group to make sure they are giving the right information. You have to ship it to us (6 days assuming ground shipment), we have to recieve it (1 day), repair it, (2 days as it waits in line) then we ship it to you (2 days because we ship back to you via air shipment). Total time: 10 days. We should quote 48 to 72 hour turnaround once we recieve it, then 2 days to get to you. If you ship it slow, it takes longer, if you ship it fast, it goes faster. As far as phone wait times. Our message quoted 15 to 25 minute waits but also told that hold times vary throughout the day and to be prepared for an extended wait. We have taken 9,000 phone calls since December 15th. We are doing our best to get everyone taken care of. We have mowed through 6,000 emails since then as well. Now I understand that you could say "Jeez, your product must suck" Well, 30 % of my phone calls are game setups, helping people get their products working in a game, that is typically documented either in our documentation or the game's documentation. Throw in the fact that Nascar2 is shipping with the need for the patches and we get quite stacked up. The rest is divided between joystick setup (using win95 control panel or Propanel), part/service requests, issues that aren't my problem, presales calls and general information calls. There is a balance required to make sense of a service organization. It does not make economic sense to hire 80 people for two months when 6 can take care of it by adding longer hold times for an extra month. The hold times reflected in our message are an accurate AVERAGE. Remember that averages are made up of big number and small numbers. Some people got through in 5 minutes on that day. I am sorry you got the losing number in the hold time lotto. I am striving to provide satisfactory venues of communication. We are striving to process email parts requests within 3 days of reciept. Add six more days to arrive by US Mail and you get 9 days. My guys should be quoting 7 to 10 days. I have one of my guys going through this thread and checking the status of each person who said they were still waiting. Why don't you (RAS in general) tell me what you think is good service. We used to pick up the phone in less than 10 minutes (we will get back to that as volume decreases), then we would ship the same day, or next day. I consider that to be EXCELLENT service. It may not be possible to keep up with the way we used to do business. We are shipping in volumes that boggle the mind. This is good for us, but can be bad for the long time customer who is used to the small business feeling that we had. No one in this industry has an 800 number, last time I did a poll, hold times were 15 minutes for all of them. It is easy to pick up the phone in 5 minutes when you only sell 25 units a month. I do mean it when I ask you to tell me what you expect. I have been contemplating putting in a voicemail box for parts requests. The part that takes the most time is answering the email to confirm that we have gotten your message. I don't think that is necessary. I want to just get your information, slap it into my database and know that it will get shipped in the next 3 days, maybe sooner. Do you need confirmation? Again, tell me what you think is reasonable. Please email me directly at let me know and I will check into it for you. We are not that far behind so 14 days seems ridiculous. Again, I apologize for any difficulties you may have had and hope that this message may give you some perspective. Thanks for your time, patience and support. Steven T.A. Carter Customer Service Manager ThrustMaster, Inc.

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> I spent 2 years replacing springs (and a bungee cord) > on a Tmaster T-2 wheel. When the new "Nascar Pro" wheel > came out, I thought I'd give them another shot, hoping > the quality had improved. It had not. > About 6 months after purchasing a Nascar Pro wheel, my car > (in N2) developed an occasional sudden jerk to the left. > I completely uninstalled N2, patched back to the current > version and the problem remained. > Long story short, appears it's a bad steering pot in the > wheel. > Emailed Tmaster, four days to reply. Replied to their mail, > still (3 days) and not heard back. > I just finished a tech support call with Thrustmaster. > The recording said wait times were from 15-25 minutes. > MY wait time was about 50 minutes AND I pay for the call. > After all this, the best they can do is an approx 2 week > turnaround for repair. No refunds unless Curcuit City would > take back something I've had for 6 months. (figure the odds) > "There is no special treatment" was what I was told from > Tmaster. > Seems to me if I've spent two years fixing a product that was > engineered poorly, gave your company another chance and got > another lemon, you darn well owe me fantastic service. > If you're considering buying a wheel, do yourself a favor and > buy something else. Pay the extra money for a TSW. I've heard > great things about them. I emailed them about wait times for > new TSWs and heard back the next day. > To say I'm disappointed in Tmaster is an understatement. To say > I think their service is below par is a gross understatement. To say I > believe the quality of their products is poor is being generous. > These are my opinions and if you've had better luck, count your > blessings. > Guess I'll order a TSW (which is probably what I should have done > to begin with), anyone want a good deal on a Nascar Pro > wheel in a few weeks? > -Kev > nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

I must say, my experience with TM service has been quite the opposite. I'm still driving with a T1 that I bought when Indycar came out! Yeah, I've replaced alot of springs and pots over the years. But I prefer the feel of the wheel over the T2 and Pro wheels that are out today. I purchased a T2 for my kid a while back. After a few monthes worth of usage, something went wrong in the steering shaft and required to be sent back to TM for repairs. When I called, thier tech shipped out a replacement unit BEFORE I sent mine in. 3 days later it was at my doorstep. Shipping out a replacement before the defective unit is received is almost unheard of. My T1 is better than 4 years old now, and TM never fails to send me the parts I need whenever I request them, at no charge. I have nothing but praise for them.

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>I spent 2 years replacing springs (and a bungee cord) >on a Tmaster T-2 wheel. When the new "Nascar Pro" wheel >came out, I thought I'd give them another shot, hoping >the quality had improved. It had not. >About 6 months after purchasing a Nascar Pro wheel, my car >(in N2) developed an occasional sudden jerk to the left. >I completely uninstalled N2, patched back to the current >version and the problem remained. >Long story short, appears it's a bad steering pot in the >wheel. >Emailed Tmaster, four days to reply. Replied to their mail, >still (3 days) and not heard back. >I just finished a tech support call with Thrustmaster. >The recording said wait times were from 15-25 minutes. >MY wait time was about 50 minutes AND I pay for the call. >After all this, the best they can do is an approx 2 week >turnaround for repair. No refunds unless Curcuit City would >take back something I've had for 6 months. (figure the odds) >"There is no special treatment" was what I was told from >Tmaster. >Seems to me if I've spent two years fixing a product that was >engineered poorly, gave your company another chance and got >another lemon, you darn well owe me fantastic service. >If you're considering buying a wheel, do yourself a favor and >buy something else. Pay the extra money for a TSW. I've heard >great things about them. I emailed them about wait times for >new TSWs and heard back the next day. >To say I'm disappointed in Tmaster is an understatement. To say >I think their service is below par is a gross understatement. To say I >believe the quality of their products is poor is being generous. >These are my opinions and if you've had better luck, count your >blessings. >Guess I'll order a TSW (which is probably what I should have done >to begin with), anyone want a good deal on a Nascar Pro >wheel in a few weeks? >-Kev >nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

*** Tim Wortman *** NASS '98 Series Director *** NASS '98 Homepage *** www.nasscar.com/n2.html

I didn't expect this and now I feel a little bad for complaining. Thanks Alan for the help and the explanation as to the support problems. It certainly made sense. I'm sure we all appreciate it very much. Thank You, Dave >I'm sorry to hear about the delays in answering calls/emails/etc. and I >apologize on behalf of ThrustMaster

Had a similar experience. After I had my T2 for about 4 months, both springs broke. I wrote them an e-mail, after three weeks had passed withough any sort of answer, I called them up. I was put on hold forever. A tech support guy finally came on the line, but he wasn't too bright. It took me forever to explain to him what I wanted : "I need some new pedal springs for my Thrustmaster T2." "Huh??" I do have to say that the springs arrived after a few days, and at no charge. However, a month or so later, I started having problems with the wheel. I couldn't calibrate it right anymore, it developed a mind of its own (suddenly pulling sharply to the left or right for no reason). I tried to clean everything, but that didn't help. Finally, the half of the interior (cord and some plastic parts) just flew apart. When I tried to call, I didn't get an answer. That was about a year ago. I saw a GP1 on sale, and bought it along with CH pedals. I havn't had any problems with them whatsoever, and the wheel was doing fine until recently.

It takes awhile I sent an email, and I got a response in a week, and got the springs, about 3 weeks later, of course I ordered the springs before I got the wheel cause everybody says that they broke, so I pre-ordered them, haven't had to use them yet though :)

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> I emailed them as well for replacement springs. Got a response 2 days > later. Its 14 days and still no springs. > Scott > > I needed a new GP wheel and sent an email. They replied the next day and the > > wheel was couriered to New Zealand within a week - at no charge to me! > > Seems pretty good service to me... > -- > ************************************* > * * > * Scott B. Husted * > * * > * http://www.itw.com/~sbhusted * > * * > * * > * * > * ICQ# 4395450 * > * * > * PA-Scott on TEN * > * * > *************************************

You've probably already tried it, but if you haven't, a shot of Radio Shack's Tuner Control Cleaner and Lubricant in the old steering pot may solve your problem, pronto! I had exactly the problem you describe, used the tuner lube on the pot and solved my problem in about five minutes. I had read about this product here on ras for several months before finally getting a can of it because I just couldn't believe solving the "pot problem" could be so simple. It was for me, and for less than ten bucks and five minutes it might just solve your problem, too, and if it doesn't you're not out much at all. BTW, I emailed TM about needing a new pot and got a completely new *wheel* sent second day air. Nice gesture but it wasn't what I needed, and this is when I made my visit to Radio Shack. Good Luck Jerry Morelock

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>I spent 2 years replacing springs (and a bungee cord) >on a Tmaster T-2 wheel. When the new "Nascar Pro" wheel >came out, I thought I'd give them another shot, hoping >the quality had improved. It had not. >About 6 months after purchasing a Nascar Pro wheel, my car >(in N2) developed an occasional sudden jerk to the left. >I completely uninstalled N2, patched back to the current >version and the problem remained. >Long story short, appears it's a bad steering pot in the >wheel. >Emailed Tmaster, four days to reply. Replied to their mail, >still (3 days) and not heard back. >I just finished a tech support call with Thrustmaster. >The recording said wait times were from 15-25 minutes. >MY wait time was about 50 minutes AND I pay for the call. >After all this, the best they can do is an approx 2 week >turnaround for repair. No refunds unless Curcuit City would >take back something I've had for 6 months. (figure the odds) >"There is no special treatment" was what I was told from >Tmaster. >Seems to me if I've spent two years fixing a product that was >engineered poorly, gave your company another chance and got >another lemon, you darn well owe me fantastic service. >If you're considering buying a wheel, do yourself a favor and >buy something else. Pay the extra money for a TSW. I've heard >great things about them. I emailed them about wait times for >new TSWs and heard back the next day. >To say I'm disappointed in Tmaster is an understatement. To say >I think their service is below par is a gross understatement. To say I >believe the quality of their products is poor is being generous. >These are my opinions and if you've had better luck, count your >blessings. >Guess I'll order a TSW (which is probably what I should have done >to begin with), anyone want a good deal on a Nascar Pro >wheel in a few weeks? >-Kev >nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

There has been several posts recently about Thrustmasters service and the quality of their wheels. Well,I have had my T2 for about 1 1/2 years. And have averaged 1-2 hours per night with it. Over that period of time,I have broken numerous springs,and worn out several pots. A simple email to Thrustmaster has always solved my problem. The replacement parts have always arrived within 1 week free of charge. For the price,you just can't beat a Thrustmaster. Regards, Joel Willstein

>I emailed them as well for replacement springs. Got a response 2 days >later. Its 14 days and still no springs. >Scott Ah, so the old Nascar Pro springs finally broke on ya. How are those wheel buttons holding out? Well, the good news is that Thrustmaster has redesigned the springs, at least that is what the support person said. It's supposed to be some kind of double coil design. The guy claimed that they would be the last set of springs that you would need. Unfortunately, they didn't have them in two weeks ago when I called for my second set. -- Kevin (Remove the "x-" prefix from my address in order to reply via email)

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>I just wanted to post to try to give this group a little perspective. I am >the Customer Service Manager at ThrustMaster, Inc. Your satisfaction >guarantees that I have a job. Actually it is more accurate to say that the >satisfaction of the greatest number of ThrustMaster customers is >guarantee's my employment. You did not specify how many springs you >replaced in your T2. That was an acknowledged problem, but it was not a >problem with 100% of our users. This group needs to realize that a) you >actually represent a very small portion of the buying community b) you >admit again and again that you use the daylights out of your products.

On the other hand, I imagine that people in this group are easier on their wheels than the typical consumer. More use, but not harse use. How long would your wheel last as a demo at a Circuit City for example. The wheel hasn't been out long enough to see the flood of broken springs that you will see. It seems that the springs break after about one month. This has happened to me twice, and both times, it was after exactly 30 days of use. I only race F1RS, and you have to be very gentle on the throttle in that game. The support person that I talked to said that you are supplying a new type of spring now for the Nascar Pro, so there must be some concern there about the spring problem. The other problem that shows up with the Nascar Pro is the wheel buttons. They stop functioning after a couple of weeks. Mine did, and I rarely press these buttons. People that have opened the wheel up mentioned rubbing in the column and poor attachment. I don't have a problem with your support department. In fact, I've always received superb service, and this is the reason why I continue to purchase your products after experiencing problems. It's your engineering and testing departments that need work. I can't imagine that the Nascar Pro was adequately tested as far as the spring and button problems are concerned. If you pop the cover off of the Nascar Pro Pedals and see the tremendous stress that the accelerator pedals are under, I'm suprised that they last longer than a week. The only reason that the brake springs don't break is because they're usually only pressed mildly and never fully depressed. A threshold problem. No way. I believe that you are up to your ears in broken spring problems. -- Kevin (Remove the "x-" prefix from my address in order to reply via email)

*snip* Actually, I asked about that. I asked if they could cross ship me a wheel and was flatly refused. Cross-shipping is not an uncommon practice. HDD manufacturers do it all the time. They take your credit card # as insurance against you not sending the defective unit back. That could have avoided this entire scenario. As it stands now, I'm without a controller for the first 2-3 races in the NORS98 series. -Kev -- nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

On Fri, 13 Feb 1998 19:33:49 -0500, "Jerry Morelock" *snip* Again, that's funny because I asked if there was a way to expidite the process. (Cross shipping, etc) and was flatly refused. "No special treatment." Perhaps I just got a tech who wasn't willing to work with me on it? -Kev nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username

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>>I just wanted to post to try to give this group a little perspective. I am >>the Customer Service Manager at ThrustMaster, Inc. Your satisfaction >>guarantees that I have a job. Actually it is more accurate to say that the >>satisfaction of the greatest number of ThrustMaster customers is >>guarantee's my employment. You did not specify how many springs you >>replaced in your T2. That was an acknowledged problem, but it was not a >>problem with 100% of our users. This group needs to realize that a) you >>actually represent a very small portion of the buying community b) you >>admit again and again that you use the daylights out of your products. >On the other hand, I imagine that people in this group are easier on their >wheels than the typical consumer. More use, but not harse use. How long >would your wheel last as a demo at a Circuit City for example. >>Some people have had problems with our springs, but I assure you, I get to >>see all of the numbers, how many we have sold versus how many springs I >>have shipped. That number is less than half of a percent. This group sees >The wheel hasn't been out long enough to see the flood of broken springs >that you will see. It seems that the springs break after about one month. >This has happened to me twice, and both times, it was after exactly 30 days >of use. I only race F1RS, and you have to be very gentle on the throttle in >that game. The support person that I talked to said that you are supplying >a new type of spring now for the Nascar Pro, so there must be some concern >there about the spring problem. The other problem that shows up with the >Nascar Pro is the wheel buttons. They stop functioning after a couple of >weeks. Mine did, and I rarely press these buttons. People that have opened >the wheel up mentioned rubbing in the column and poor attachment. >I don't have a problem with your support department. In fact, I've always >received superb service, and this is the reason why I continue to purchase >your products after experiencing problems. It's your engineering and >testing departments that need work. I can't imagine that the Nascar Pro was >adequately tested as far as the spring and button problems are concerned. >If you pop the cover off of the Nascar Pro Pedals and see the tremendous >stress that the accelerator pedals are under, I'm suprised that they last >longer than a week. The only reason that the brake springs don't break is >because they're usually only pressed mildly and never fully depressed. >>the problem more because they use the wheel more strenuously and >>consistently than the average user. We should have over designed the >>springs on the Nascar to accomodate this fact. I was pretty pissed off >>when we got the first call about broken Nascar springs. I thought we left >>that problem with the T2. Again, it is a small threshold problem, but one >A threshold problem. No way. I believe that you are up to your ears in >broken spring problems. >-- >Kevin >(Remove the "x-" prefix from my address in order to reply via email)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Just for clarification, different Kevin than posted the original. :) -Kev nxs.net is the domain and kf-lan is the username.

rustmaster.com> writes >let me know what parts you need with your mailing address. Now THAT'S customer support :) -- Dave Bowers

Hi all, > Had a similar experience. After I had my T2 for about 4 months, both > springs broke. I wrote them an e-mail, after three weeks had passed Yes, bad thing about TM's T2 is spring breaking. I broke my springs after 6months of use. I e-mailed TM asking for new springs. I got answer in a week or so saying that they'll ship some parts ASAP. I got new springs (much better ones) in 3 or 4 weeks for no charge and please note that I live in Europe. I did so 3 or 4 times now, no problems with sending and all for free. I wouldn't try to call overseas ;) I took my T2 apart last month. It was quite a lot of work (every damn ***was glued) taking almost the whole wheel apart. When I got the potentiometer out, I've opened it and cleaned it thoroughly (both inner and outer ring) applied some sewing machine oil and put it all back together. VOILA !!!! It's like new now. No jerking, very smooth control. Geez. I hope it doesn't happen to me :)) I also have one GP1, but it feels much cheaper then T2 (I am not saying that T2 doesn't feel cheap). I like driving with peddals, so I am sticking to T2 for now. I say it's a good wheel/price. And if you don't mind spending 2h/4months repairing it :) then go get one. I can't afford a wheel like TSW or even ECCI. I am not that big fan (and I can achieve quite good results with my wheel) :) Regards, Tadej Krevh

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> What he said. Every word, except I just received my TSW and it is > light > years ahead of anything TM has sold. Had 'em all, repaired 'em all and > got suckered into buying 'em all. My garage is a TM graveyard. If I > had > bought a TSW to begin with it would have been half priced if you > subtract the three $100+ versions of TM's toys that I bought and > broke. > The new Nascar Pro won't last long due to poor parts quality but it is > a > good concept poorly executed. > The TSW has good on center feel that won't deteriorate over > time like > the TM bungee cords do because TSW uses quality springs and a bicycle > chain-like connector betwween the springs. Gives me a woody whenever I > hit a chicane on the edge<g>. If you spend a lot of your time on > racing > sims make a good economic decision and get a TSW. Support is great and > you don't it need too!! > YMMV but I doubt it. > Always remember and never forget: "No matter where > you go...there you are." Buckaroo Banzai > Snip

I agree, I looked at TM types and decided the engineering was, well.... not good enough! The answer....... "Wallys World" check it out........ http://www.oz.net/~wottenad/photogal.htm#hawnt Regards Dave Hawnt (UK)