Has anyone been able to get support from Audio Damage lately?

[damoog]

Just to add my voice - i emailed them twice about a 32 bit version of one of their plugins that wasn't recognised in 32 bit reaper(probably about a year ago now) and i never got a reply. Since then i've been using the 64 bit version in 64 bit reaper, which works fine, but i wasn't very happy that there wasn't even acknowledgement from them.

i parted with audio damage a while ago,their plug ins are amazing but there customer support as been pretty bad i have to say,they have been a little too arrogant a few to many times with me regarding transfers and the like,they did transfer but not without some smart ass comments

[thecontrolcentre]

I have several AD plugs in my account that do not have the transfer option. I emailed them in February about this. No reply.

[do_androids_dream]

Just a quick email of acknowledgement would have been all that i needed - even if it was to tell me that they don't know what the problem is or whatever. At least i would have some information.

[FreddyBLNG]

Nice, so in reality you get "no replies" instead of "no questions" asked refund -.- I wouldn't have buyed if I had knewn that beforehand.

[masterhiggins]

Try twitter - he's very active there.
https://twitter.com/Chris_Randall

Yeah I guess he is too busy say shit and f**k a thousand times.

Yeah I was kind of surprised how inappropriate his comments were. I don't have a problem with that in general, but not when you're the face of a company and a good number of your followers are customers. A lot of customers sign up for product/support/announcements, not pointless jejune comments.

-Sam

[ATS]

Try twitter - he's very active there.
https://twitter.com/Chris_Randall

Yeah I guess he is too busy say shit and f**k a thousand times.

Yeah I was kind of surprised how inappropriate his comments were. I don't have a problem with that in general, but not when you're the face of a company and a good number of your followers are customers. A lot of customers sign up for product/support/announcements, not pointless jejune comments.

-Sam

Well I thought about this after I said it, I really shouldn't judge about that. Just was sort of surprised I guess.
I am no angel when it comes to language but on the web I don't cuss.

[sinkmusic]

In the end, did anyone managed to get any support from them ?
I sent them an e-mail yesterday, from their website (claiming "we will give you an answer in less than 24h), and i still didn't get a reply (for the 4th time) !?

[antithesist]

CR is/was at NAMM... smokin', cursin' and puttin' up some funny "psht" Vine vids.

See Tweeter, Analog Industries, etc.

[Integratron]

Yea - I got support from them. They told me to pick door #4.

[kääriäinen]

I´ve sent 4 emails lately and no reply.

[Brittlestem]

CR is/was at NAMM... smokin', cursin' and puttin' up some funny "psht" Vine vids.

See Tweeter, Analog Industries, etc.

They've gone on to my "don't touch with a bargepole" along with Arts Acoustic, Crysonic, EnergyXT etc etc.
I don't care if someone has utter disdain for their customers as long as it doesn't inconvenience me in any way.
No support=inconvenient=f**k off.

[KrisM]

This troubles me as I love AD products, and a few years ago I never had issues getting a hold of them. I used to bs with Chris on twitter a lot, too.

Kind of has me rethinking my Kombinat dva purchase I've been planning.

[DJMashbot]

I'm in a similar boat at this point. I've had some positive and negative experiences with AD, but the way things have gone lately makes me hesitant to purchase more from them.

[codec_spurt]

This troubles me as I love AD products, and a few years ago I never had issues getting a hold of them. I used to bs with Chris on twitter a lot, too.

Kinda of has me rethinking my Kombinat dva purchase I've been planning.

I'd say get it anyway. Chris Randall is turning into the Reggie Perrin of the plugin business. Expect them to change their name soon to Audio Grot or something.

Really, for the uniqueness and quality of the plugins and the low sale price, I'd say that not getting any customer support at all is mandatory. In fact, being insulted or mildly abused, I'd consider a bonus.

Seriously though, it's a pisser when it happens to you. It's nice to feel a bit of feedback from the folks that want us to do the right thing. Not looking for gratitude, after all it's a fair exchange, but it doesn't take a minute just to say, sorry, busy, or no can do, or later or whatever.

With a small operation like AD, things must be pretty tight to start with and then there's good and bad days. Over time a picture emerges and then people can decide whether they want to purchase depending on others experience.

In my experience, the bigger the company and the higher the turnover, the worse the support, because they can get away with it. A case in point - iZotope - the most arrogant and dismissive company I have ever dealt with, bar none. In a space of two emails they wiped out any respect I ever had or ever will have for the company. Over nothing really. I sorted myself out in the end. All it would have took was two lines of 'we're looking into it', or 'more info please' or 'we're sorry you're an asshole and you feel that way'.

I suppose by the end of it when I told them I would never buy another plugin off them ever again, I was so relieved to have fixed my corrupted system after using their installer, that I only expected them to ignore me, which they did. It must have been something I did, I'm sure it wasn't their fault, and I said as much.

All it takes is a bit of feedback and surely a company the size of iZotope have people that could take 30 seconds to keep a paying customer. But Audio Damage are a much tighter unit. I'm sure Chris has bad days and lazy days, and I forgive him that. I'm not paying hundreds of pounds for his plugins like the top dollar iZotope charge. Then again, I'm sure iZotope have great customer service and I just had a bad experience. I probably would buy a plugin off them again. I don't hold grudges, but lots of people do.

There is not ONE company that gets support right at that tier level. Which is ironic really seeing as they factor customer service into their business model. In fact, I notice a very distinct pattern - the bigger the company - the worse the support - seems to be the general rule of thumb.

I don't expect customer support. I expect to be ignored, lied to, treated with contempt and generally disrespected. And never valued. Everything else is a nice surprise. Bit like life I suppose.

I'm just about set up for life now with the amount of plugins I have. There are a few more I will buy even though I don't need them, but this year marks the beginning of a new phase for me - support the little guys. There are some absolutely under-rated and little known developers that need a bit more exposure and a bit more cash. The whole ethos of what they do and the value they provide, very often for free, to a broad spectrum of users, needs a bit more feedback and contributions from us, the end users who benefit. For too long have I said, Oh I will donate when I get some money, and then end up spending it on some over priced piece of averageness. I'm talking about people like Graham from GVST and RunBeerRun and Signal to Noise. They are going to be getting the cash from me this year that I won't be spending on iZotope or whoever.

I mean, you pay money FOR support. There are plugin makers like Bootsy - world class, that don't even accept donations - I imagine to absolve themselves totally of any responibility, implicit or explicit when it comes to the drag that is customer support. I might be wrong in Bootsy's case, I don't know. No plugin maker is above any other so much that they can afford to be that arrogant, yet most of them are. Bootsy as another case in point is humble, approachable and as generous of his time as he is his skills.

I couldn't take a chance on paying the full amount for a product like Ozone Advanced and them treating me in the way they have done so far. I would go ballistic. So it'll be secondhand stuff at bargain prices and maybe I'll swallow my pride if I ever get the cash together for Trash. I'm not going to get bent out of shape over something as trivial as music software. I know where they are coming from as a company now - their culture. I won't change that. So be it.

So, in all seriousness, I'm not belittling your experiences with Audio Damage. It's different when it happens to you. It's hard not to take it personally. But those guys make exceptionally individual plugins. Exceptionally stable. Visionary User interfaces. Excellent website and ecommerce (even though I made a twat of myself ranting about how stupid it was when I bought my first plug in from them and didn't realise how it worked). Almighty Cheese Crust! Imagine having to deal with people like me? Yikes...

So some companies I make an exception for. Audio Damage is one, but I've never needed any support anyway. They are even doing away with their current copy protection system. I wish them luck.

Do you know who really impressed me with their customer support? Aleksei from Voxengo. Why? Simple. When you take the time to say thank you to him, out of courtesy, without fail, he says 'You're welcome'. Am I that deranged and oddball that that means so much to me? Or is it a sad reflection of the world we now find ourselves in?

In fact, it is spreading over to the hardware world now as well, I see. I recently bought some stuff from one of the biggest and best known and oldest music retailers which shall remain anonymous because they finally sorted my order out. But boy, the attitude. It was like, oh do hurry up we haven't got all day. It was like they were doing me a massive favour. It was just all so much f**king trouble for them. And this is a company I buy off even if they are a couple of quid more expensive. I've been using them for a quarter of a century now. But no more. I've been a mug. A naive mug.

That's all changing this year. So I'll be in a better position to reward the little guys that do it for love. And if they are grumpy and tell me to shut up, that's ok too. At least they are real. Even when I've been a prick myself, when I've apologised, there isn't one who has held a grudge, I don't think. So it works both ways.

Sorry for the tl;dr, but I've wanted to get that little essay off my chest for some time now. Ahhhhhhhhh.. all better now.

As for Kombinat. Get it! It is one sick twisted indidvidual of a pluggy. It comes from plugin hell and will send you to plugin heaven. Your drums will thank you like they've never thanked you before. Then thank you some more. It's subtle. It's over the top. It's very easy to use. It's a nightmare to figure out for the first five minutes. I use it more for very quick subtle tonal adjustments to my drum bus. I'm even using it on stuff I don't even need to use it on, you know, just for fun! As is common amongst a lot of their other plugins, it is an Audio Sculpting Tool, that you are bound to find some 'off lablel' use for over time.

Audio Damage can expect me to buy every single thing they do. If they are nice to me or take the time, like I say, that will be one of life's unexpected treasures. But at those prices, for me personally, it's not necessary. I respect that others hold different points of view though.

See. I don't think I'm that unreasonable with my outlook and expectations from developers. But a word to the wise: A little arrogance can be endearing and go a long way. A touch too much, and you just end up being another one of those companies. But I'm sure if anyone knows what they are doing, it's Chris. He seems to know everything else!

[firepile]

Try twitter - he's very active there.

And here:

http://www.analogindustries.com/