Dreadful Customer Support

Bugs and Support
#1

Dreadful customer support not replying to several emails.
The support is slow and very shallow, just send you links for you to check 20 different possible causes. Troubleshooting should be done with a Live Chat with an expert, not just dumped on the customer.
Plenty of technical problems related to Bluetooth AND Ant+ connections, spindown calibration not working, ERG mode working on and off and finally log-in issues since one week now.

The only thing working perfectly is the monthly charge to my credit card.

As soon as I will find any kind of alternative I will drop this.

#2

It’s been said and resaid, spindown calibration should be done with your trainer app, not within Zwift.

What’s your trainer brand?

#3

I don’t understand your attitude. The fact that “it has been said and resaid”, if you mean it has been already discussed in several occasions, it is not a good reason to not complain. This is a feature I am paying for and does not work.
It’s like saying that the clock in a car does not work, and as a solution you are told to check the time on your phone. Seriously?
Besides, calibrating from the trainer app requires an additional step I would gladly avoid. Although not a deal breaker like the rest, it is worth mentioning.

My Trainer is a TACX and the model il Flux 2 Smart.

1 Like
#4

I agree with this - if something is knowingly broken then why leave the feature there for others to try and also fail at? why not just remove it?

Not everyone reads the forums and there is little to know help getting going once the game is downloaded and installed.

3 Likes
#5

Sorry if that sounded offensive, I didn’t mean to come that way.
I totally get that the feature is useless showing up in game when it doesn’t work.

What I meant is that you should look into calibrating your trainer with the Tacx app and it will give you the closest results.

Once again I apologize for coming across the wrong way, it wasn’t meant to

#6

The ability to do a spindown calibration in Zwift is not a requirement and is not available for all trainers (eg. for mine it never worked, but I never bothered). It’s difficult enough to ensure compatibility over multiple brands, different protocols and bugs of certain trainers. You can’t hold Zwift responsible for the basic funcionality of the trainer. And I am not so sure, if competitors would behave differently or if they are even able to provide the feature you are missing in Zwift.
Bad performance in ERG mode is also most likely the trainer’s fault (it sure is with mine) and it’s possible that Zwift can’t work around that.

#7

I really appreciate everyone taking the time to answer!
I would like to focus the discussion on the main topic which is: I have several problems, customer care is literally useless.
As a matter of fact every single time I ride there are delays/interruptions due to technical issues, incompatibility of hardware, connection issues and whatever else.
I end up having to interrupt my ride several times to reset the Bluetooth of my PC, reset the Bluetooth of my phone, reset my trainer, stop pedaling and restart to allow Erg Mode to switch off and on again.

The whole thing has become extremely frustrating and the customer support acknowledged that some problems were actually occurring and dumped on me a link to an article with a plethora of checks and tests.
I took the time to perform ALL of them and report back with a detailed email. Since then no reply even after a follow up a few days ago.

Customer Support should be able to follow you with a Live Chat (like many other companies are doing) and help you with the troubleshooting in your specific case. Dumping a list of checks and ignoring the reply is not in my definition of customer support.

They are busy because the pandemic increased their customers? I don’t care! Hire more people already!

I would gladly consider an alternative if there was one.

#8

Have you tried ANT+ instead of Bluetooth? I had tons of regular signal drops with Bluetooth too, switched over to ant+ on an extension USB cable so its right under my trainer and now very rarely have signal drops. Your environment may not be conducive for Bluetooth to work properly.

1 Like
#9

Mike, yes I tried.
With Ant+ I can’t even get all the sensors connected to begin with…
At least with BT I get an initial connection. By the way I have other BT devices in the house which work perfectly even at 5m distance.

The house is a single family place, the closest neighbor is >50m away. The only other BT devices in the room are keyboard and mouse, which emit significant EM signals only when used (so not when I’m riding).

#10

There are a lot of other threads about the tacx Flux not working well with zwift, have you tried other apps to see if the problems are reproduced? I think tacx has their own app, RGT has a free service too.

#11

Thanks I’ll have a look.
Do you know if Wahoo provides a better reliability?
I might even sell my trainer and get a Wahoo if that solves the problem.

#12

You also paid for the trainer app, and it does work - plus, it also checks for firmware updates for your trainer.

#13

I don’t think there’s anything particular about the Flux series vs Zwift.

#14

I have a friend who owns a Tacx Neo 2T and I have always owned Wahoo trainers.

Since Garmin bought Tacx, he told me the customer care has become absolutely disgusting. I personally never had issues with Wahoo and I am really happy of the Kickr v5 I just bought.

1 Like
#15

I had an issue with my Flux S last year, and support (through the Garmin channel) was pretty good. In general, North American customers have seen an improvement in support with the transition from Tacx to Garmin, and the opposite in Europe.

Note that the OP was complaining about Zwift support, however.

#16

I understand . The topic was “dreadful customer support” with an example . I am not sure you are looking for “excellent forum support” * (which you will get ) , but to help zwift and the zwift user base get better customer support .

On that subject I am with you. The support approach , which is not unique to zwift in any way of course its very similar experience to be had in many products . I detect and can see and know which ones are going to adopt it and probably best not for me to call it out as it could get a little bit non PC.

But yes I verify and confirm it is the standard support approach . Not really understand or engage with your problem , send you a bunch of things to research that might share some keywords (as if you dont know how to use google , duckduckgo or whatever search engine you use) . And then to top it off end with a "you are important to us , have a nice day and a lot of other insincere platitudes . Personally that winds the heck out of me because I have normally already verified and search on issues and only go to support when it needs asking . But then its worth remembering there are probably many more who don’t and this support might be a good first approach for them …

Having said that . Zwift NEVER seem to respond to follow up ( despite asking for you to get back after the first email) . It seems they might have some gap in there support solution that does not pick up and deal with a support request follow up . You can ask a question they will give you an answer if that answer doesnt work … thats it … game over . @ZwiftHQ IMO you need to step up , or dare I say it followup on that .

Do I know the solution , not sure , as good customer support takes investment . Perhaps the cost of that is not something zwift want to do as they appear to have plenty customers (right now ) . If you want a different type of support , more personal . Maybe you do need to look elsewhere or are prepared to pay for it … and then of course Zwift would have to offer a “fully supported” subscription. At the moment they dont do that . You really have to invest time yourself into self help … and way up the gains and loses and see if its worth it .

3 Likes
#17

Thanks Graham, you summarized much better than me what the situation is.
Agreed, 1:1 support is only for the best, but no support is for the ones who will eventually disappear if they don’t step up, as you say.

I apologize with everyone because I opened this thread without a real question or objective other than venting.
The frustration and the absence of a foreseeable solution pushed me to just post here.

Check Zwift Facebook profile, on the feedback page you will see 5 out of 5 stars based on 78 feedbacks but if you read the real feedback on the page most of the posts are along the line of mine.
This is not good faith and It’s not ok with me.

#18

Understand the frustrations with support when you have an issue that is not getting resolved. I have found this forum to be a great place to look for and get help.

If it is of any help with your issue, I notice you mention about BT on both your PC and your phone. I wonder if an app on your phone (Tacx) is also trying to connect with your trainer whilst it is paired with the PC.

I use ant+ with my Flux as it seems to be a better connection method. That said we use BT on my wife’s Flux S with no issues.

Hope you resolve your issue.

2 Likes
#19

Well that unfortunately is endemic issue plaguing social media / internet . The irony that you simply cannot trust ANY trust solutions , you really have to have your wits about you and risk assess those metrics probably as much or even more than the companies they purport to advise on .

There is no such thing as independence just varying degrees of dependency :crazy_face:

#20

Now it gets even worse.
I launched Zwift this morning and there is an update which I hoped could make things better.
Instead, now Zwift is not even launching anymore!

TOTAL GARBADGE!