Big Companies That Get It Right

[Local Man]

I had to deal with Izotope's support a couple of times recently and they were super quick and very helpful. In general I feel their policies are good, their prices and marketing strategies are fair and they have some really good products.
It got me thinking about how so many of the large plugin companies like Waves, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Plugin Alliance, Slate Digital and others get a lot of grief on this forum, and rightfully so (not to mention the parasites of the industry like Pace, Gobbler, and others). It seems like the larger a company is, the more difficult it is for them to maintain a good and fair relationship with all of their users.
I just wanted to try to balance out some of the negativity here by recognizing one large company that I thing gets things right.

[c0nan]

I never had a single issue with Waves and PA. They always answered within 24 hours, even on weekends. The same goes for XLN. The only company giving me headache with support was Steinberg, because that took forever.

[Local Man]

I never had a single issue with Waves and PA. They always answered within 24 hours, even on weekends. The same goes for XLN. The only company giving me headache with support was Steinberg, because that took forever.

My main issue with Waves and PA is their somewhat disingenuous marketing strategies.
"Plugin X normally costs 1 billion US dollars. But this hour only, we'll let you have it for about 50 cents. [good news, our special one hour only sale has been extended for a 47th consecutive time, act now!]"

That said, I do like their products and their real prices. I must admit that Waves gets far too much grief these days.

[ictools]

Can you imagine the hundreds if not thousands a day of operator errors that get filtered through their customer service? I'm surprised they still have time left in the day to actually tackle real issues and bugs.

It must be a tough job working with people who don't even put in the effort to resolve the issues themselves, that are usually well documented on their website or user manuals.

It must get exhausting hearing the same complaints like a viral video, instead of watching a video that walks them through the process.

I guess we live in a world where want to be engineers need their hands held to solve issues. But, under those circumstances, I believe big companies are doing the best they can.

[lwj]

My main issue with Waves and PA is their somewhat disingenuous marketing strategies.
"Plugin X normally costs 1 billion US dollars. But this hour only, we'll let you have it for about 50 cents. [good news, our special one hour only sale has been extended for a 47th consecutive time, act now!]"

That said, I do like their products and their real prices. I must admit that Waves gets far too much grief these days.

Hehe it is somewhat ridiculous. I think it's mostly a result of the extreme oversaturation in the plug-in market though. I kinda get the dilemma: mark down your products significantly and risk the ire of your existing customers and getting a 'cheap' image... which will hurt sales? How do you distinguish your (good) plug-in from all the the other 30-50 dollar ones that are crap? Once you start doing it, you can't really turn it back around... and just gotta make sure you have enough sales, hah.

I've actually only had positive experiences with the companies I've bought plug-ins from. NI and PA have both been excellent for me. Softube too, never had an issue with iLok (and they no longer use gobbler). Had an issue with a purchase last week and it was literally solved within minutes. Compared to customer service in pretty much every other industry, I think they do it quite well.

[chk071]

NI: Best company in the biz.

[JunSev]

My main issue with Waves and PA is their somewhat disingenuous marketing strategies.
"Plugin X normally costs 1 billion US dollars. But this hour only, we'll let you have it for about 50 cents. [good news, our special one hour only sale has been extended for a 47th consecutive time, act now!]"

That said, I do like their products and their real prices. I must admit that Waves gets far too much grief these days.

... never had an issue with iLok (and they no longer use gobbler). Had an issue with a purchase last week and it was literally solved within minutes. Compared to customer service in pretty much every other industry, I think they do it quite well.

Oh yeah they are doing very well, suggesting a yearly Fee in order to protect "your licenses" and making the product you paid for a matter of dependency to them = the product is yours only as long as the company is there; and if you don't have the plan, you're screwed. Yeah how right is that...

[Teksonik]

The companies that "get it right" are the ones where you rarely need any service at all.

[lwj]

What fee are you talking about? Also, I just said I haven't had an issue with iLok.. which I just use for my Softube licenses. I've been trading them, moving them across systems.. it's been fine. The transfer fee is a bit shit.. but it's not like transfer fee's are so unique. The issue I had was on Softube's end (their new installer) and they were right on top of it.

[Local Man]

The companies that "get it right" are the ones where you rarely need any service at all.

Bingo.

To be fair, I am talking about more than just support here. I am talking about the whole package. Companies with scrupulous business practices that offer great products/services and treat their customers with respect.
It's kind of funny that that total package is somewhat a rarity with larger companies, but I guess once you grow to a certain size you can take things for granted and still get by.

[Local Man]

NI: Best company in the biz.

I have a lot of respect for NI and I think they have an amazing product line. I don't think they are that great at listening to customer feedback and improving their products based on it (judging at the very least from their Komplete Kontrol line). But that is 100% their perogative.

I only mentioned them above because I see a lot of griping around here about them so that was in reference to the general perception I get. I don't have any personal beef at all. Quite the contrary.

[chk071]

Never "underestimate" the common user. I'm sure it doesn't matter which company, they always have loads of support requests. So, i would say that support definitely matters.

NI: Best company in the biz.

I have a lot of respect for NI and I think they have an amazing product line. I don't think they are that great at listening to customer feedback and improving their products based on it (judging at the very least from their Komplete Kontrol line). But that is 100% their perogative.

I would say this is quite a oxymoron. They wouldn't be that big if they didn't cater to what most people want. Whether or not that is what YOU want is a different question.

[Local Man]

How do you distinguish your (good) plug-in from all the the other 30-50 dollar ones that are crap? Once you start doing it, you can't really turn it back around... and just gotta make sure you have enough sales, hah.

In a way, the 'high list price, but everyone knows you can get it at $29 if you wait a little' model that Waves created is pretty brilliant. It broadens their customer base to include tons of people that would otherwise be excluded because of the high prices (mostly hobbyists and aspiring young people), but in theory they're still able to fetch high prices from professionals that can't afford to wait, and to whom the money isn't a huge issue because they are going to make it back (and they can potentially wrote it off their taxes anyway).

But a much more simple and honest way to achieve the same result would be to have separate pricing for commercial and personal use, like Reaper for example.
Charge the bedroom producers who are either not making any money or very little from music one price ($29), and charge the studios and inviduals making a living from music production another price (list price with reasonable discounts here and there).
I bet you they'd have a much better reputation with both professionals and amateurs with such a structure.

[lwj]

Yeah I agree, but then you need to start policing whether professionals aren't misusing personal licenses.. and hire two extra support guys to debate customers on what a 'bedroom professional' is. I mean, nowadays some bedroom producers pull down more money than some big studios, so that line is pretty hard to draw.

I think fabfilter is an example how to do it right. Products, pricing, support. But they're not a big company. I also appreciate ValhallaDSP's approach where it's just a flat, reasonable fee.. and that's it, no gimmicks. Again, far from a big company.

I suspect the fake high list price model started more as a temporary measure. Maybe it started with Waves hoping they could undercut newcomers that way, and return to 'normal' prices once they all went out of business?

[waltercruz]

NI: Best company in the biz.

Did you mean U-he?

Just kidding, nothing against NI.

And really, never had problems with Waves, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Plugin Alliance or Slate Digital. Waves, IK Multimedia and PA have some marketing strategies that I don't like 100%, but it's not a huge problem to me.