The good & the bad customer service.

[jancivil]

i am leaving it in the hands of the paying customer to make an informed decision based on the information presented in front of them.

There's nothing objective to inform us. You have your personal anecdotal take and that's all it is.

[PsYAuM]

i am leaving it in the hands of the paying customer to make an informed decision based on the information presented in front of them.

There's nothing objective to inform us. You have your personal anecdotal take and that's all it is.

i completely agree. its only my experience. But if a company has a pattern of personal; experiences good or bad at least its in the open for all to see.
then they can either give themselves a pat on the back or go back to the drawing board and fix whatever problem is there.

[thecontrolcentre]

The trouble with that argument is that people who have a bad experience are more likely to post than those who have had no problems with support.

[yellowmix]

Am I a unicorn? I'm not always 100% happy with the answer but the few companies I've contacted always got back to me on reasonable support requests. Sometimes there isn't an immediate resolution, sometimes it's the company's position I simply disagree with, but I've never had "bad" customer service (e.g., Bastard Operator From Hell).

I'm sure it's out there and people can have a bad day, but I don't consider OP's primary example as "bad". They gave a response with instructions, OP decided not to follow the procedure, there's nothing more to say. There's a certain amount of cooperation needed by both parties!

[PsYAuM]

The trouble with that argument is that people who have a bad experience are more likely to post than those who have had no problems with support.

there is a saying
"no news is good news"
probably very relevant on a thread like this but i would hope that should someone post a negative review they back it up with reasoning and they also had the decency to share there positive experiences.

[an-electric-heart]

Why have you needed so much support? That's the bizarre part. In about 15 years of using computers for music production, I've probably needed to contact company's support twice.

[jancivil]

I only once needed technical support, in the beginning I had problems with a Cubase SX1 installation. I got someone on the phone in Indiana and he sorted me, very nice person. I had a broken dongle sorted miraculously same day when the phones weren't being answered because it was the eve of some holiday, or I'll have been in a world of hurt with an unregistered dongle. I had my account hijacked and I couldn't get ANYBODY to listen to me except one person via chat but the decision above him was essentially f**k off.

NI, I got into a situation once when they restricted your auths to 3, I f**ked it up and they were pretty good. I've sold many things, mostly very prompt but not lately.
I got someone kind of stupid the most recent time.

People are human beings and you can't abuse them and expect them to be saints, either.

Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances in this world.

[PsYAuM]

Why have you needed so much support? That's the bizarre part. In about 15 years of using computers for music production, I've probably needed to contact company's support twice.

For help, clarification, to report an issue, transfer ownership & request download links again. I think that covers them all but if you want me to be more specific with any particular software company them tell me which ones and I'll elaborate more.

[jancivil]

I mean the idea of dissuading people from buying what they want to use because support is shitty in one individual's experience isn't really going far I don't reckon.

Big axe to grind, why do we trust someone we don't know anyway.
nothing personal, just sayin'

[PsYAuM]

I mean the idea of dissuading people from buying what they want to use because support is shitty in one individual's experience isn't really going far I don't reckon.

Big axe to grind, why do we trust someone we don't know anyway.
nothing personal, just sayin'

I hear you and understand what you are saying. I would hope that others would share there experiences so that if the same issue pops up people are informed. So then it's not just one person's word it becomes a trend.
If I was to say that this company or that company is rubbish but give no specific outline about the communication then it would be fair to say that I was talking sh*t but that's not the case. I have offered full transparency.

[chk071]

Steinberg for example: my experience ranges from stellar, something virtually unbelievable to abysmal.

Yep, same here. And i made the same experience with other companies support as well.

This is just my opinion, but, i wouldn't waste time on such a topic. Chances are good that you never even will be in need support. And, to be honest, i'm old enough to remember the times where you could be lucky when you were even able to return products, or get any kind of support. We live in Edenic conditions nowadays, and, there's even a place where we can complain every time we want to, and people will even listen and chime in.

I have another great example, by the way: Novation. While i'm quite happy with the way support handled my support requests (had to return my Impulse keyboard 2 times, and they even sent me new keyboards 2 times...), i can't really say that i'm happy with the way they support the Automap software. So, i've had good and bad experiences. Enough to never consider products of them again? Hardly. You know, it's a tough market. Not much money to be made, many enthusiasts in the business, who don't really earn a lot of money, so, you gotta stay realistic, i guess. I don't know a single audio software or hardware company which has a perfect service, development, and support. So what? In most cases, the products and software is usable, so, not really much i could complain about. There are 1 or 2 companies i'd really not buy a product from, but, i won't name them, and i surely won't complain about it, because it is my personal choice.

[PsYAuM]

Steinberg for example: my experience ranges from stellar, something virtually unbelievable to abysmal.

We live in Edenic conditions nowadays, and, there's even a place where we can complain every time we want to, and people will even listen and chime in.

I'd have said Orwellian not hedonistic
Many chime in but more often than not its just drivel . People see what they want to see and correspond accordingly. Strange how most just see the negatives instead of the positives and instead choose to bad mouth, pick a part or generally shoot people down as opposed to recognizing or even praising others when they have a valid point aimed at a Dev or in the hope of helping the community.
If someone doesn't agree just let it be. don't throw a load of negative energy in to it. Whats that going to achieve? Nothing but more negative energy but still people unload.
It says a lot about the world around us doesn't it

[PsYAuM]

* double post

[PsYAuM]

Never did get my head around the quote system.
probably explains why i contact customer service so much

[Aloysius]

ɥɔnɯ os ǝɔᴉʌɹǝs ɹǝɯoʇsnɔ ʇɔɐʇuoɔ ᴉ ʎɥʍ suᴉɐldxǝ ʎlqɐqoɹd
˙ɯǝʇsʎs ǝʇonb ǝɥʇ punoɹɐ pɐǝɥ ʎɯ ʇǝƃ pᴉp ɹǝʌǝN