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Review on ๐ŸŽง SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wired Gaming Headset: Detachable Clearcast Mic, Lightweight Design, PC/PS4/Xbox/Switch/Lite Compatibility โ€“ Enhance Your Gaming Experience! by Chris Chincuanco

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Poor product and customer service

So I just bought this a few weeks ago and was so excited as it was my first exposure to wireless headsets. I also did some research and decided between Razer, Steelseries and Logitech. Most review sites raved about the Steelseries Arctis 7's superb audio quality. Guess what? The sound sucks. Fresh out of the box, I updated the Steelseries Engine 3 software and patched the headset, but the soundstage in my ears was shifted about 30 degrees to the left. This means everything I hear in my ears seems to be coming from the left. Sometimes there was nothing on the right. Whether I was listening to music or playing games, the audio was shifted to the left. I've tried tweaking various settings in Engine 3 to no avail. So I did what any sane person would do - I contacted Steelseris Customer Support on September 30th, 2018. Any response from them takes around 2-3 business days. Despite the slow replies, the customer service representative didn't seem to know why the problem occurred. He only offered 2 options. First he told me to reset the hardware using the magic button hidden in the left earcup. I had to remove the padding, find one of those iPhone styluses, and then press and hold the button for a specific amount of time, after which the headset should restart. There are no instructions anywhere so I just had to hope it worked. (This works if you find you need to reconnect the headset to the included USB receiver.) After re-pairing the receiver, the problem improved by about 5 degrees, but the soundstage was still shifted to the left. With smaller volumes the problem becomes more obvious. The customer service rep's next decision was to go straight to the RMA process. After asking me to send a receipt, they agreed to return the goods conditionally if I send proof (screenshot) of the destroyed product ie break off the left handset and show the serial number. What I did on October 14th. It is now October 16th and my response was that my RMA was declined - WITH NO EXPLANATION OF WHY. So let's recap - Steelseries sold me a product that had a strange problem, it took 2 weeks to correspond with me, approved the RMA of my purchase and after I destroyed it they continued to scam me and said me the RMA that did this got rejected. Take this as a lesson learned - DO NOT BUY YOUR PRODUCTS. WONK. MALFUNCTION. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. AND WILL SCREW THEM COMPLETELY FOR NO REASON.

Pros
  • Few competitors
Cons
  • Unreliable