I bought my Arturia Analog Factory from a daily deals site for musicians called Hello Music. I’m usually careful with sites and offers like those because often they just seem too good to be true. I always thought they held down prices by selling out of production stuff, refurbished / returned goods and so on, and you never know for sure what after-service and returns are going to be like. Still, I kept an eye on this site in particular because they seemed legit based on some basic background checks.

And so, one day a mic from MXL popped up and the deal was just too good to pass on. The site says that shipping can sometimes take up to three weeks depending on demand, but after less than a week the package showed up and the contents were brand new and flawless. This really helped build confidence in the service and since then I’ve bought guitars, drum machines and other stuff, all without any issues. Almost…

The Arturia controller turned out to be a different story.

Ever since it showed up there was trouble, first with the license installation and then with the actual physical hardware. Since I didn’t want to go through the hassle of having to return the hardware (I also didn’t want to part with it for a longer period), I got in touch with Arturia in France directly and tried to diagnose and fix the problem that way. Unfortunately, even though the Arturia team was very helpful and forthcoming, at the end there was no other option but to do a return.

One thing to keep in mind with Hello Music is that they are most likely not an authorized reseller of the product they carry. This means that some manufacturers will refuse to honor the manufacturer guarantee that you usually take for granted. To compensate for this, Hello Music offers their own 365 day return / exchange policy for any issue that would normally have been covered by the manufacturer.  Shipping is paid for and handled by them. I know this probably sets off alarm bells for some, but after giving up on resolving my issue with Arturia directly, I decided to take Hello Music up on their offer.

I got in touch with the Hello Music support team via email, described my issue and explained that I’d worked directly with the manufacturer but that they also agreed this was simply a dead unit. Within just a few hours Hello Music’s customer support got back, offered their apologies  and simply asked wether I wanted to drop off the goods at a shipping location, or schedule a pick-up. No hoops, no questions, just a straight up exchange. A short email conversation followed where we discussed how and when to ship the unit, but the support team always answered very promptly and friendly.

The Arturia controller has now been sent back and an exchange is on it’s way.

In the end I was happily surprised by Hello Music’s excellent customer support and attitude, and I wanted to give them a shout for an awesome service.

(And to answer your question, no I’m not in any way affiliated.)

Check them out: http://www.hellomusic.com/