KVR Audio

angelonyc · Post by **angelonyc** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 3:58 pm

I bought Sampletank 3 and ARC in 2014.. Last month, my computer died, so I replaced it.. So far 4 phone call messages, and 3 'website ticket requests' for links to download Sampletank 3. data.. I'm a registered user.. NO RESPONSE..

I used one of my 10 authorizations, to download the app, but no library links with it.. App works, but no library data.. Last nite, I clicked on a link thinking perhaps that would bring me to what I need..

PRESTO I receive an email, wanting to know why I didn't finish buying an unrelated library..

Before you buy a product, make sure there is a legitimate email address, (not a website form), and a phone number someone answers... Only voice mail for contact, non of which phone calls are returned..

POOR customer service.... After they got a few hundred dollars, they don't care about supporting you.

Peter - IK Multimedia · Tue Nov 10, 2015 4:10 pm

Our support team handles many requests, and we have multiple offices in different countries, and they certainly do care. Please PM your ticket number (or if you did not use the support system, what email did you enter for yourself on the contact page) and I'll see what is going on.

Also, when did you contact IK? You'll typically get a response to a support ticket within 24 hours and during business hours for a technical support request and the contact page states "Thank you for contacting IK Multimedia. You will receive an email regarding your question within a few days." upon submission but it usually is faster than that. I'm sure someone will assist you.

Your SampleTank 3 sound library downloads should be available to you in your IK User Area under "My Products" if that helps.

Thank you.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 4:24 pm

angelonyc wrote:I bought Sampletank 3 and ARC in 2014.. Last month, my computer died, so I replaced it.. So far 4 phone call messages, and 3 'website ticket requests' for links to download Sampletank 3. data.. I'm a registered user.. NO RESPONSE..

I used one of my 10 authorizations, to download the app, but no library links with it.. App works, but no library data.. Last nite, I clicked on a link thinking perhaps that would bring me to what I need..

PRESTO I receive an email, wanting to know why I didn't finish buying an unrelated library..

Before you buy a product, make sure there is a legitimate email address, (not a website form), and a phone number someone answers... Only voice mail for contact, non of which phone calls are returned..

POOR customer service.... After they got a few hundred dollars, they don't care about supporting you.

IKM is an interesting company in that you only get ~6 months (180 days) to download the sample content. After that, you must buy a token to re-download the content. Are you sure you are not outside of that 6 month window?

dsan@mail.com · Post by **dsan@mail.com** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 4:31 pm

^^^^^ For that reason, anytime I buy an IKM library, I back up the sounds to multiple locations. This issue has been debated very often - the IKM download policy.

Actually, this has become my practice with just about every library I buy.

Hope you get it resolved.

rasmusklump · Post by **rasmusklump** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:13 pm

I for one don't buy anything at all from that company for that reason

Peter - IK Multimedia · Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:34 pm

rasmusklump wrote:I for one don't buy anything at all from that company for that reason

Because you don't back up your libraries as strongly suggested in the email you get which alerts you to the time frame in which you should download your purchased libraries and that you should definitely back them up? OK. Thanks for letting us know.

This is, as explained in the past, due to offering a high-availability, secure and high-performance download solution which is far from free (yet even the redownload credit - which unlocks ALL of your sound libraries with one credit - is cheaper than online backup solutions if you specifically choose not to back up your libraries locally). Instead of hosting it in the basement of a one-man shop or (as actually suggested by some) using an "unlimited" shared hosting plan or other cheapo/crap-o solution.

Also, if you have special circumstances where you have backed up your libraries or something similar yet you run into unforeseeable issues the IK support team is available to hear your case/request. Thank you.

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:59 pm

XLN Audio does a good job and doesn't charge extra to re-download.. I wish IKM would do the same.

braj · Post by **braj** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:34 pm

VitaminD wrote:XLN Audio does a good job and doesn't charge extra to re-download.. I wish IKM would do the same.

+1 I don't believe storage or bandwidth is as expensive as it was when IK started thier current policy, it may have made financial sense then, but I think offering a solution like XLN is the better business decision now, IK may not think so, but this is a huge thorn in many people's paws and does cost them business.

braj · Post by **braj** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:38 pm

I don't use XLN, but I do use S1's internal package system, and it is so nice to be able to browse your library of owned content and download only what you need. IK might even find they save on bandwidth if they did this, they could break up their big libraries and people could just download what they need from the libraries they own as necessary. I have a ton of electric pianos and other stuff from Presonus that I just don't usually need, it is nice to save the disk space and just leave it off my system. So it isn't just cost, but convenience, and modernity really.

bungle · Post by **bungle** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:32 pm

Peter - IK Multimedia wrote:
rasmusklump wrote:I for one don't buy anything at all from that company for that reason
Because you don't back up your libraries as strongly suggested in the email you get which alerts you to the time frame in which you should download your purchased libraries and that you should definitely back them up? OK. Thanks for letting us know.

This is, as explained in the past, due to offering a high-availability, secure and high-performance download solution which is far from free (yet even the redownload credit - which unlocks ALL of your sound libraries with one credit - is cheaper than online backup solutions if you specifically choose not to back up your libraries locally). Instead of hosting it in the basement of a one-man shop or (as actually suggested by some) using an "unlimited" shared hosting plan or other cheapo/crap-o solution.

Also, if you have special circumstances where you have backed up your libraries or something similar yet you run into unforeseeable issues the IK support team is available to hear your case/request. Thank you.

Are you seriously suggesting that customers have not paid you enough during purchase to have a perma download solution available like EVERY other software supplier on the planet.

ontol · Post by **ontol** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 1:26 am

VitaminD · Post by **VitaminD** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 2:19 am

Agreed.. just because we don't like a particular part of the company's policy doesn't mean we need to be labeled 'enemy' and then blasted.

Instead, perhaps you should 'hear' him out and understand why he doesn't like the current policy. Perhaps some changes or considerations can be made as a result.

For instance, if IKM is adamant on giving us only 180 days to download the libraries, then perhaps a meet-in-the-middle situation would be to break the 180 days into 30 day segments and then give us those five 30-day segments to activate individually. Then technically we'd get 5x to download our libraries before needing to buy a token.

Though, it seems it would just be easier to allot us infinite downloads of the software whenever we want it and skip the tokens entirely. That is why I mentioned the XLN Audio setup.. they have very fast servers and an installer that will auto download ALL owned software (via checkboxes) and install it. Plus it is part of a cloud system that backs up user presets. So we never have to worry about losing anything if moving from one computer to another. There is a level of confidence and satisfaction knowing, even if my system tanks tonight, I don't have to worry about finding backups or losing anything. The company has me covered. Less hassle, Less stress.

Regardless if it somehow costs too much for IKM to do the same, the current token system just feels like they are nickle and dimeing us.

bungle · Post by **bungle** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:44 am

It is impossible for it to cost IKM too much, they are not charged more than any other company to set this stuff up, and if we are to believe them, they are a successful company, there is no reason for any of this.
Coming up with 5x this or change it slightly here or there is playing their game, speak with your wallet and refuse to buy until they learn.

basslinemaster · Post by **basslinemaster** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:51 am

Peter - IK Multimedia wrote:
rasmusklump wrote:I for one don't buy anything at all from that company for that reason
Because you don't back up your libraries as strongly suggested in the email you get which alerts you to the time frame in which you should download your purchased libraries and that you should definitely back them up? OK. Thanks for letting us know.

This is, as explained in the past, due to offering a high-availability, secure and high-performance download solution which is far from free (yet even the redownload credit - which unlocks ALL of your sound libraries with one credit - is cheaper than online backup solutions if you specifically choose not to back up your libraries locally). Instead of hosting it in the basement of a one-man shop or (as actually suggested by some) using an "unlimited" shared hosting plan or other cheapo/crap-o solution.

Also, if you have special circumstances where you have backed up your libraries or something similar yet you run into unforeseeable issues the IK support team is available to hear your case/request. Thank you.

How do you still have your job, Peter? I am constantly amazed at what you write on a public forum, as a 'customer care' representative of a company. When I first started reading the above post, I presumed it was from anybody but you, due to its paranoid and defensive tone. You have never explained why you charge for redownloading - because it's apparently a 'business secret'... We all know how much hosting costs, we can go on Google and find fifty hosting companies and their costs in one minute. Most people are not going to be redownloading, most of the time. Like 99.9999% of the time. But if you didn't charge us, then poor IKM might lose a few bucks and we can't have that. What exactly is a "cheapo/crap-o solution"?

As I already showed, Image Line have thousands of downloads of FL Studio every day (I can't remember the exact number, I'll try to find it), which comes to FAR more than the amount of re-downloads you would experience in a given day, and that's for mainly demo versions of FL Studio, for people who aren't even customers of Image Line. How come they can manage it and you can't? Because they aren't out to screw every penny they can out of their customers, that's why.

If you have another explanation, let's hear it... Perhaps you should ask Image Line what hosting company they use...

basslinemaster · Post by **basslinemaster** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:53 am

braj wrote:
VitaminD wrote:XLN Audio does a good job and doesn't charge extra to re-download.. I wish IKM would do the same.
+1 I don't believe storage or bandwidth is as expensive as it was when IK started thier current policy, it may have made financial sense then, but I think offering a solution like XLN is the better business decision now, IK may not think so, but this is a huge thorn in many people's paws and does cost them business.

They would rather go bust than admit they are wrong about anything at all. Rather like Microsoft lost hundreds of millions of dollars with Windows 8, because they couldn't admit they were wrong with 'Metro'. The average person in the street would never be that stupid and arrogant - they know how important it is to make as much money as possible by giving your customers what they want, yet we have some of the largest companies in the world effectively saying "Screw you" to their customers, and then taking huge losses because of their fragile egos.