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So I bought a Saitek Cyborg Keyboard this weekend. It's pretty cool - very high-tech - but has one major flaw: if I press the 'a' key quickly after pressing the spacebar... such as any decent typist will do three times in this sentence already, it effectively does the combination of a Ctrl-F Ctrl-A Ctrl-S, which typically pops up at least one dialog box and highlights everything... which if you're really quick results in it all getting deleted by your next character.
Resetting the keyboard didn't help. Switching operating systems (dual boot) didn't help. Removing the drivers doesn't help. It's not a fully functional keyboard.
So I wrote Saitek support. Both direct (email) and by forum. After a full business day, they hadn't responded on either one. I checked the manual for support; it tells you to call the number on the Technical Support Sheet included in the product packaging... but there wasn't one. So I called Corporate US... and got their tech support number. For your reference, it is: 310 972-9930.
That doesn't actually help much. After about eight minutes on hold, "Tony" picked up. He was about as close to rude as you can get without actually saying much unpleasant, but his end analysis (despite two operating systems being involved) was that I need to contact the manufacturer of my system for new USB drivers because, get this, We're not compatible with the generic Microsoft USB drivers..
Let's ignore for the moment that it claims to be compatible with Windows XP and Vista on this page.
Ummmm... this machine is only five months old. Asus has never released custom USB drivers for it, plus everything works with these drivers. I have hard drives, cameras, phones, optical mice, iPods. All work. None-the-less, Tony was clear that the Cyborg keyboard is not compatible with the generic Microsoft USB drivers, and that I should contact the maker of my PC for updated drivers.
And the problem also occurs on my five-year-old Toshiba laptop! But "Tony" was not to be discouraged. It's clearly a generic driver issue, he's positive. Didn't even want to try it on the other computer.
I tried calling corporate back and was told by the pleasant but apparently completely unempowered receptionist that there were no supervisors/managers/escalation paths available for this, the only one being out of the office. (This was around 4pm their time.) But I could leave her (Maline Griffith?) a voice mail.
So the bottom line is, Saitek isn't interested in supporting their keyboard or helping it work with your system. For your own good, stay away.
Update: I got in touch with someone at the U.S. H.Q.... and learned that the company was recently sold. Technical support has been outsourced to a third-party (who doesn't apparently care, if my call was any indication.) And the U.S. corporate office (e.g. "inside sales" and such) is being closed at the end of this month. Still more reason to avoid buying a Saitek right now. |