Logitech is close to losing a customer...

[noel]

Logitech is really starting to piss me off.

First let me say that I've been using Logitech input devices for years and I've been extremely happy with them. I currently own and use a G7 mouse and a G15 keyboard on a daily basis.

The G15 is one of the best keyboards I've ever owned.

• I love the backlit keys -- admittedly more for looks than for the functionality
• I love the two USB ports on the keyboard -- they're a great place to attach a mouse, and why the Saitek Eclipse 2 doesn't include USB ports is beyond me
• I also really like that the LCD displays the artist, track and time information and allows me to adjust the volume, or change tracks in Itunes even if it's not the foreground application.
• I'm not a big G-key (macro key) user, and I'm not crazy about what they do to the size of the keyboard, but they're there if I ever need them so that's a good thing.

Vista came out over a week ago. Out of all the drivers in a computer, input drivers are likely the easiest to code as they really haven't changed a great deal in years and they don't have to perform as many advanced functions like say a graphics driver or an audio driver. Logitech was slightly late releasing their regular setpoint drivers, and to date there is no driver for the G15.

I've been following their website at least once per day, patiently waiting for them to release drivers for my keyboard so I can go back to being a happy customer. Unfortunately, events have transpired that has me pretty fucking pissed and seriously contemplating replacing all of my Logitech gear and never buying from them again.

This morning I was reading their user forums hoping for some word on a keyboard driver when I noticed a post that their very obviously outsourced forum customer service rep. was directing a user also looking for answers about the G15 to a different thread where said customer service representative had posted, but really given no information whatsoever. It kind of pissed me off and I decided to say so in my business voice, not flailing all over the place and cursing or being irrational.

While I was beginning to post it occurred to me that the Nvidia user community had threatened a class action lawsuit against Vista based on Nvidia advertising the 8800 as fully Vista supported when it clearly wasn't at Vista's release. Personally I thought that was a bit extreme, but at the same time reasonable for those people that bought the 8800 specifically to run Vista only to find that they could only run beta drivers. I then went to the Logitech 'Vista Experience' site to see if the G15 was still there as it had been all the way up until just after the release of Vista. That's what *really* pissed me off. They've now removed the G15 from the gaming page of their 'Vista Experience' site. I decided to use the threat of a class action lawsuit based on their false advertising in my post.

I made several points in my post:
1. The thread that the customer service representative was directing the user to contained no useful information.
2. I noticed the removal of the G15 from the Logitech 'Vista Experience' sit e, and perhaps we needed to put together a class action lawsuit against Logitech based on their false-advertising.
3. Having a clearly outsourced customer support representative spam every thread in the forum with how much Logitech appreciates us as customers != to customer service.
4. There was no good reason for Logitech to not be able to definitively say if the G15 would be supported under Vista, and to provide it's customers with a ballpark release date of the appropriate drivers.

This morning, when I again went to the site to check for new Vista drivers for my keyboard, I noticed that my post had been edited:

There's no useful information in that thread.

A few weeks ago the G15 was part of the Vista experience. Interesting that it no longer is.

I've been a loyal Logitech customer for some time now. It's not the lack of drivers that's causing me to question that, it's the lack of communication. I know how software projects work. At the very minimum, you should be able to provide us with a ballpark for how much longer we'll need to wait for Vista drivers.

The took out the stuff about the lawsuit, and my criticism of their customer service or lack thereof.

While I can see it as totally reasonable to edit out the lawsuit comment the fact that they edited out my criticism of their customer support really pissed me off because in my mind, and as someone who worked in a Customer Service field for 4.5 years, their customer service in this matter totally sucks.

I made another post to their forum which has yet to be edited:

I love how they edited the part of my post that alluded to the action the Nvidia user community took.

Message Edited by wiresepeed on 02-08-200709:20 AM
Actually, that's not all they edited out of my post...

Here's a hint, Logitech: If you don't like negative feedback about your customer service, fix your customer service. It's not your customers that are wrong.

I'm pretty pissed off right now. I would be satisfied, like I am with Nvidia, if they simply said, "we expect to have Vista drivers (or even beta drivers) available in X number of weeks" or even, "We regret to inform our users that we've decided not to support the G15's advanced functionality under the Windows Vista operating system". I don't think it's unreasonable, and I certainly don't think they should have trouble providing that information.

At this point, I'm waiting for MS/Razer to come out with the Reclusa and I'm debating replacing my G7 with a Death Adder or a Habu. I'm seriously considering blacklisting Logitech for all time, or until they come out with another product I absolutely have to have, whichever comes first.

[Winnow]

What issues are you having with the G15 and G7? Both are working fine for me in Vista. I upgraded XP to Vista and the G15 and G7 software came along for the ride without any conflicts. Macros work as does the setpoint SW for the mouse.

[noel]

G7 has no issues.

As you know I didn't upgrade, I clean installed.

The G15 will only control a media app if it's in the foreground. When I installed the XP drivers under Vista, if I had the LCD displaying the media controller screen, it was popping Itunes to the foreground every 15 seconds. Many users on the forum are complaining that their Macro keys no longer work.

Bear in mind, it's not the functionality that's pissing me off. It's the lack of communication from a Vendor who should have had their shit together a lot sooner.

[Midgen]

Im using my G15 on a 64bit Vista Ultimate install. I used the drivers and software for 64bit XP and ran the installer in XP compatibility mode with Admin rights. I havn't had a single problem.

However, I do not use the LCD at all (my keyboard is on a pullout drawer and I can't keep the LCD up.. no room). So I can't guarantee that the LCD works. I was able to map my favorite hotkeys. I use the Gkeys for movement. I mapped the cursor keys to the middle row of the GKeys for the default and use that for movement. I have in ever game I've played since the G15 came out.

But I too am pissed about them not making Vista drivers available. I installed 64 bit Vista on a new system, and this was the ONLY component I can't get an official Vista driver for.

They did release Setpoint for Vista, which is a good sign. Hopefull the posts on their forums are incorrect and they will eventually see the light (hopefully sooner than later).

[noel]

Thanks for the info. I've seen a couple of other people doing that on the forums as well.

This is just my way of looking at it but: Nvidia excluded, I'm not really looking to be running half-assed driver installs on my Vista box. The time for betas and fucking around ended on January 30th.

I'm also really pissed off that they actually pulled the G15 off of the 'Vista Experience' page without any word as to what that might mean.

[Winnow]

nVidia's inability to get a decent 8800 Vista driver is the biggest mistake of anyone's yet.

my 7800Gt works great but many people upgrading are buying 8800's for the DX10 support and can't be happy at all about crappy drivers. I don't see how nVidia blew off writing drivers for Vista for so long.

This may change my mind about buying an 8800 and open the door for ATi to impress me with their RV6xx cards.

[noel]

To be honest I have only three issues with the 8800 under Vista with the 100.59 beta driver:

1. When playing Rainbow Six - Vegas, occasionally I'll get graphical distortion and I'll need to exit the program and reboot the computer because it affects the OS as well.

2. The Windows Ultimate extra, Hold 'Em poker has text that constantly flickers.

3. After having established a Remote Desktop connection to my Vista box from another box, the monitor on the Vista box blanks itself out and will not come back on. Fortunately, the power button on the front of the PC gracefully shuts down Vista, and it's still accessible remotely if there's a dire need to connect to it.

All three of those issues are known issues on the Nvidia forums and in several of the enthusiast forums, so I expect they'll be fixed soon. I have no other issues with the 8800.

As I understand it, the bigger problem is the current state of SLI support. I haven't checked in a bit, but last I checked it was working, finally, but with some issues for some users.

The main difference between Nvidia and Logitech's approach is that Nvidia has steadily been cranking out beta drivers which have been steadily improving, and to some extent they've been announcing when those drivers would likely be available.

[Kelshara]

Not getting into this argument but.. it is a hell of a lot more difficult to get an app Vista compatible than you might think. I have no clue how the drivers work am talking full apps here. We are having SERIOUS issues with multiple things MS did to Vista. To the point where I am about ready to scream. In fact I think I might already have screamed but it is now a repressed memory.

Vista will be the bane of my existence.

[Truant]

Slightly off topic, so I apologize for that, but I'm curious as to whether Creative ever got their drivers together?