I'm so disappointed! Getting a Kemper repaired.

When a single experience ruins your experience of a product. What happens when you need to get a Kemper Profiler repaired? The cost, the hassle, the attitude. Let me share my sad story. Also features UPS, who are even worse.

IG @JonWrightMusic (feel free to say hello)

[KOENEO_]

this channel is so underrated, with such high production quality you'd think this channel would have +100k subscribers

[barrylafratta]

my kemper is down, i am in new york. ibrought it to where i purchased it. they said kemper has all the parts and they will not distribute parts. because they want to do the repairs. after seeing your video. you probably saved me from a whole bunch of stress. i will move on from it.. i have a 11 rack . simple to use. nice looking unit . and cheaper /

[stevenesfield]

It sounds like you were very unlucky in this case. I've had to return my Kemper a few times, once before Brexit and twice since Brexit. The latter involved more paper work but other than the shipping cost I didn't have any issues with Customs or UPS. However, on the last repair ticket I was told by Kemper there was liquid on the circuit boards and that it was unrepairable. I was pretty concerned by this diagnosis as the kemper had been on my desk for over a year and I know I hadn't spilled anything on it so I asked for some pictures. Kemper support did send me pictures which appeared to show something on the boards, almost like moisture on a pane of glass.

They did offer me a replacement repaired unit, but that was £900 plus VAT so I declined and asked them to return it back to me.

When I got it back, it took it apart myself, cleaned what looked like some kind of oil off all the boards using IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) and after putting it back together it was working just fine and continues to do so nearly 2 years later ! I have bought a 2nd Kemper as I wouldn't trust the "repaired" one live. The only possible explanation I have for the liquid is that I used to vape in the room whilst recording and tracking using the Kemper, so its possible this may resulted in the residue on the boards, but it was odourless and oily so who knows !

[mammothaudioengineering]

Jon, I'm so sorry about your experience, that must have been a legit nightmare. I have also been hit by the incompetence of UPS at various points in my life, but I've never had to deal with Kemper, since well, I don't own their product. However, the luthier of my trust does and I know him well enough and his experience with them has been unpleasant, too.

He was very excited about their product and has tried it out and wanted to offer the Kemper in his shop. Upon contacting them, they tried to force him to buy a batch of them, not just two or three, but like over a dozen. Otherwise, he would not be getting them. Needless to say, he refrained from working with them. His situation, obviously, is absolutely incomparable to yours, however it does highlight to me that they aren't the most pleasant to work with.

Thanks for sharing your story, man. I hope it's all bridge under the water soon.

[lazymountain]

mate half of this the shipping, because the UK left the fucking EU, nothing to do with kemper

[GShockWatchFan.]

Dude, sorry you went through this. Thanks for sharing, if i ever go down the digital route i will go for Helix.

[jackbroad]

Wow!!! Sorry you had to go through that, Jon. My experience here in the USA has been much different. My Kemper was randomly restarting so I contacted their office in Germany. The forwarded my email the next day to Parker Coffer at their office in Colorado. I immediately shipped both my KPA and my Profiler Remote to him and it turned out that the KPA rack baseboard was failing. They were able to fix the baseboard quickly and ship it next day air so I was able to have it back in time for an important gig. Their customer service was excellent.

[chrisbyrneguitar]

It's funny you mention this because I have an issue with my Helix where the footswitches went dodgy. I contacted Line 6 and they said I had to go through their repair centre. I contacted their repair centre and they said I had to go through line a farce.

[hanovergreen]

Glad you are going the TONEX route. Best Regards and Best Wishes!

[ShawnCharles]

Man, you have some patience, I have a kemper stage, it’s fine for studio use but I stick to old fender amps for live gigs, I’ve been a victim of UPS in the past and refuse to use them, hearing your video, if mine goes wrong i won’t be sending it back, Kemper should have fixed yours for free, they go on about how tough their products are ! Now I’m not so sure . Great video, thanks for sharing and educating us all . The Uk customs and the EU basically punish us every day for brexit, which wasn’t our fault . Disgusting .

[gonsaloalmeida]

That's really a pain, and sorry to hear that Jon. I'm having a quite similar problem with the DSP Error, they are taking ages trying to fix it but nothing so far! They changed boards and loads of things and the DSP Error still there. I'm a kind of giving up of Kemper at the moment! So disappointed! 😞

[Stringtheorist]

Sadly Jon, I can only echo your sentiments after my recent experience with Kemper and UPS, to the point that I now have serious misgivings about investing in any further product from Kemper. I'm wondering what else I might get to replace my old (and no longer under warranty) Power Rack. I didn't care for the Axe-FX III, Quad Cortex or the Helix for live performance (I've tried them all).

[gerardlee]

UPS is a crock in the US also.

Sorry about the shit fest you went through and I gotta say that I'm really surprised to learn of Kempers "not my problem" attitude.

[Jriv]

Hi Jon, sorry to hear about your bad experience with the whole repair process with Kemper. I was looking for a video on resetting a used Kemper Rack which I just had repaired. Had similar costs to yours for replacing the main board except of course for the import fees, since I am based in the Netherlands. I must admit my experience with them was fast first through the chat on their website, the repair service took about a week, communication such as replies to emails, instructions, payment confirmation and repair status was never more than 2 days so a bit surprised to hear of the service you received. I'm not an expert on shipping processes or Brexit, but indeed Kemper should have some sort of FAQ document or instructions for when shipping outside the EU as well as a repair return label in their documentation. It also sounds like UPS took advantage of the situation. May I suggest you add to the title of your video a sort of "Warning on repairing a Kemper outside the EU" to help out other people. Looking at the bright side of things in the end you manged to get it back in working condition and with a new main board, so you can resell it at a good price if you wish to switch to another system.

[algorithmify]

how old was the unit? Did you gig a lot with it? Power head model I assume? It sound like the power amp failed, perhaps, or was it the DSP section?

[threeonamatchventura]

Had a similar experience with my 1972 Super Reverb repairs so poor treatment of customers isn’t just a digital amp problem.

[makoto]

Pretty late to commenting on this video, but I relate completely. I remember asking for some parts info regarding the front screen and the leds, only to be replied with a "send it in". I insisted since i work in electronic repairs and i could do it myself but nope, no info provided and they made it sound like replacing a screen and changing some smd leds is rocket science (they talked about replacing the whole front panel, which i find kinda ridiculous). Even so, I seriously considered sending it (i'm in south america so shipping would have been brutal), and i never did it because i feared something similar to what you describe would happen.

Most companies sell repair parts (or at least provide parts info) but not Kemper. So yeah, they're not great if you're not in the same country as them, so guess i'll just keep using the unit as it is until it dies, and then i'll try to fix it myself.

[ThesecitydaysUkblog]

What a nightmare, I'm not surprised you felt the need to air it. Really not the best aftercare and attitude, and like some has said aftercare is a valuable thing that needs to be done right. Sucks that you had to pay customs charges when their product was at fault too. Hope you have better luck in the future.

[JohannesLabusch]

Wow, what a nightmare. I hope your story gets shared far and wide. It seems like the only chance at holding companies accountable these days is to create PR nightmares for them. It's such a missed opportunity too, because if you really like a product, getting competent and unbureaucratic help in a crisis would even increase your loyalty and inspire you to recommend it more.

[Foghat]

A couple of my foot switches are starting to fail. My soldering skills are more than up to the challenge (assuming they are at fault) so I asked Kemper if they can send me some replacements but they insist on me sending my Kemper Stage to them. After watching your video I'll be tackling the job myself, so if there are any Kemper users out there that know what foot switches I need I'd appreciate some info. What a horror show!