Something I've noticed is the difference in customer support between companies.
Am interested in hearing other experiences, especially the good ones.
My experiences:
- Fabfilter, very good support
- Uhe, very good support
- Spectrasonics, good support
- Melda, great support
- Hofa, great support
- Valhalla, great support
- Presonus, okay support
- Slate, okay support
- Steinberg, very poor support
- McDsp, extremely bad support
Customer support
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 91 posts since 5 Mar, 2015
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Robert Randolph Robert Randolph https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7328 - KVRAF
- 2225 posts since 25 May, 2003 from Saint Petersburg, Florida
First time I've heard someone say that mcdsp has bad support. Curious what the story behind that is.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 91 posts since 5 Mar, 2015
Interesting to hear Robert. I've contacted them a few times over the last couple of years.
Their plugins used to crash Logic and later Studio One (eventually confirmed by McDsp).
Their responses where always one liners, not really reading the original request. Also they don't let their users know when there are known problems or when there is an update. It takes ages to download their 5gb installer (their download site is slow) only to find out after installing there was no update.
I love their plugins (have been using them for over 15 years) but their customer support stops me from buying stuff from them.
Their plugins used to crash Logic and later Studio One (eventually confirmed by McDsp).
Their responses where always one liners, not really reading the original request. Also they don't let their users know when there are known problems or when there is an update. It takes ages to download their 5gb installer (their download site is slow) only to find out after installing there was no update.
I love their plugins (have been using them for over 15 years) but their customer support stops me from buying stuff from them.
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Robert Randolph Robert Randolph https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7328
- KVRAF
- 2225 posts since 25 May, 2003 from Saint Petersburg, Florida
Did you call them?webhamster wrote:Interesting to hear Robert. I've contacted them a few times over the last couple of years.
Their plugins used to crash Logic and later Studio One (eventually confirmed by McDsp).
Their responses where always one liners, not really reading the original request. Also they don't let their users know when there are known problems or when there is an update. It takes ages to download their 5gb installer (their download site is slow) only to find out after installing there was no update.
I love their plugins (have been using them for over 15 years) but their customer support stops me from buying stuff from them.
I also feel like you're conflating support and development. I agree that their development practices are kinda wonky, but their support is pretty universally liked.
It is a bit of a grey area though, for sure. The product you provide and how you provide it relates directly to the customer's experience, however then we would need a name for the process of 'getting support' directly.
Either way, the only company I've received consistently AWFUL support from is Native Instruments. I will never purchase a product from them again no matter what.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 91 posts since 5 Mar, 2015
No I didn't call them, maybe that would be a different experience. I don't think crashes are part of plugin development.
I do notice myself preferring to buy products from companies that communicate with their customers. Creates a lot of trust.
I do notice myself preferring to buy products from companies that communicate with their customers. Creates a lot of trust.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 91 posts since 5 Mar, 2015
It is not my intention to badmouth anyone. If anything I wanted to describe the great experience I had with Uhe, Hofa, etc. However some companies really have poor customer support and I wish I'd known upfront about some companies, would have saved me a lot of time and money.
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- KVRAF
- 35439 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
I think the most important thing is this:
For example, i had 2 good cases of support on the Steinberg support, and one really bad one. What should i say now, that Steinberg support sucks? Or that it's good? That's the problem with such lists. Apart from that, it also seems a bit weird to have such a list on a site which actually lives from the industry. Without the companies which advertise here, and pay this site and the webspace, you wouldn't even be able to say that their support is bad publically. And i wonder about the point too, because, as i quoted:
You don't always get the same support employee on the line. Sometimes companies are quite busy, and because of their size, are not able to give support in time, or at all. Sometimes you, as someone asking for support, are not giving the right, or enough information, so it's difficult to help. Or, it depends on your own attitude, whether the support is good or not in your eyes.VitaminD wrote:your mileage may vary
For example, i had 2 good cases of support on the Steinberg support, and one really bad one. What should i say now, that Steinberg support sucks? Or that it's good? That's the problem with such lists. Apart from that, it also seems a bit weird to have such a list on a site which actually lives from the industry. Without the companies which advertise here, and pay this site and the webspace, you wouldn't even be able to say that their support is bad publically. And i wonder about the point too, because, as i quoted:
VitaminD wrote:your mileage may vary
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- KVRAF
- 3508 posts since 12 May, 2011
In 7 years of buying plugins I've had to call support twice - once to Waves for an authorisation problem (answered and solved in 24 hours) and once to EastWest about a delivery of a Voices of Passion dvd, also answered satisfactorily within 24 hours.
I can't get Waves Central to work, but I'll worry about that when I want to buy another Waves plugin. And my copy of Arturia's Prophet doesn't like me - tried it on 3 different machines and 3 OSs (Win7 Home & Ultimate and 8.1) and all I get are hanging notes.
My tuppence worth.
I can't get Waves Central to work, but I'll worry about that when I want to buy another Waves plugin. And my copy of Arturia's Prophet doesn't like me - tried it on 3 different machines and 3 OSs (Win7 Home & Ultimate and 8.1) and all I get are hanging notes.
My tuppence worth.
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- KVRist
- 211 posts since 25 Sep, 2019
Try Impact Sound Works.
Recently I bought a library from them which claimed to have both 16bit and 24bit samples on the manual sent by them.
After buying I realized there was 24bit samples on it. So I contacted them and after a week they simply replied with:
"The manual is incorrect for Essentials - there is only one set of samples for Essentials and those are 16 bit!
Sorry for the inconvenience!
-Taylor"
lovely isnt?
Recently I bought a library from them which claimed to have both 16bit and 24bit samples on the manual sent by them.
After buying I realized there was 24bit samples on it. So I contacted them and after a week they simply replied with:
"The manual is incorrect for Essentials - there is only one set of samples for Essentials and those are 16 bit!
Sorry for the inconvenience!
-Taylor"
lovely isnt?
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- KVRian
- 938 posts since 29 May, 2011 from Germany
Excellent support:
Dmitry Sches, Sinevibes, Cytomic, TAL, Sugar Bytes, u-he, Valhalla, Zynaptiq.
I don´t mind being told that some feature request won´t be implemented, what I appreciate is swift, helpful, personal replies that don´t come out of a customer service phrase-generator, and if I have a follow-up question, I´d like a follow-up reply.
The latter is where quite a few developers fail in my experience, they´ll suggest a reinstall or whatever and when being told "that doesn´t fix it"... dead silence.
Then there´s developers whose friendly replies, however, don´t make up for their unwillingness to fix bugs ("Yeah, sorry my premium Kontakt library crashes your ASIO driver, but remember it works if you move the modwheel before playing the first note, so..."... yeah, so, please fix the bug anyway, mate!).
Dmitry Sches, Sinevibes, Cytomic, TAL, Sugar Bytes, u-he, Valhalla, Zynaptiq.
I don´t mind being told that some feature request won´t be implemented, what I appreciate is swift, helpful, personal replies that don´t come out of a customer service phrase-generator, and if I have a follow-up question, I´d like a follow-up reply.
The latter is where quite a few developers fail in my experience, they´ll suggest a reinstall or whatever and when being told "that doesn´t fix it"... dead silence.
Then there´s developers whose friendly replies, however, don´t make up for their unwillingness to fix bugs ("Yeah, sorry my premium Kontakt library crashes your ASIO driver, but remember it works if you move the modwheel before playing the first note, so..."... yeah, so, please fix the bug anyway, mate!).
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- KVRAF
- 2677 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Waves - best support in industry without any doubt. Not only do they respond almost immediately, they actually work with you even to the point of helping you out via remote session. They also fix any bugs really fast, in a week or two, sometimes even in days. Also they have fastest license transfers I have ever come upon by any dev.
No signature here!
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- KVRAF
- 2255 posts since 16 May, 2004 from Soviet Union
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- Banned
- 4491 posts since 8 Jul, 2008 from UK
One small clue, awesome support
Jbridge , awesome support
Tone2, awesome
Image line, awesome
Novation / Focusrite, awful
Steinberg, awful
Jbridge , awesome support
Tone2, awesome
Image line, awesome
Novation / Focusrite, awful
Steinberg, awful
Don't trust those with words of weakness, they are the most aggressive
