First purchase (S61): How do I reach NI?‼️

Wondering

Two days ago I purchased an S61 MK3 from the native-instruments website. I was excited about the purchase. Unfortunately, I now am very concerned that I should never have done so.

Although the site told me “ships within 1-2 days”, here it is two days later and I haven’t even received an order confirmation despite my credit card having been charged in full. Instead, I received this cryptic message after purchasing:

“Thank you for contacting Native Instruments.

Your request has been received and is being reviewed by our support staff.”

So to get some clarification, I have attempted to contact their support. First I tried their online chatbot and after several tries got to the point where it supposedly “creates a ticket”. However, instead of creating a ticket, I was shown a spinner that spun indefinitely (I let it spin for about 10 minutes before giving up).

I then found their phone number from my credit card activity and called it. It greeted me with a message that told me to enter an extension, which I don’t have, dial 0 for the operator, which I did, but it just took me back to the automated greeting again, or to call a different customer support number at 323-870-8217. Incidentally, the connection was really riddled static and cutouts and it is most definitely on their end.

I called the 323 number and go ahead and try it yourself. It is just a bunch of static.

At this point I am really concerned about my purchase and the lack of support both now and what I might receive (or more accurately the support that I will likely NOT receive), should there be any problem with the keyboard.

Is this a unique experience? Can anybody help me out or give me any suggestions?

Thank you!

JesterMgee

It's to be expected.

The holdup is if you used a credit card there will be some kind of manual check/confirmation someone needs to do or your bank applied a temp freeze on the transaction likely due to the countries. This is why I always do things via PayPal.

Usually you wont get any update until the shipping is done and that can sometimes take a week.

As for ongoing support, the mods on the forum are responsive, jury is out if the process of having to send back/exchange anything is reliable or efficient, I see a lot of complaints still around that area and personally I never buy hardware like music gear from vendors outside Australia because of import taxes and the fact in Australia our warranties cover the product to be replaced by the dealer so for any kind of fault, take it back to the store and get a replacement and let them deal with the return process

GhostriderGlenn

I will be worth the wait! High probability that you will receive your item the first of the year. That being said by Friday you will notice an “ in progress “ status update. You will also receive a complimentary software pass for 30 days to try the software. If you don’t already have an input source you can still play around with it using your computer keyboard. It is frustrating and there is no simple answer. It’s a lot of money upfront. You have to be serious if you want serious equipment. Good luck

Wondering

First off, I want to say thank you to JesterMgee and GhostriderGlenn for your quick responses. You did not have to take the time out of your day to do so, so I want you to know it is really appreciated.

While both of you have tried to ease my mind in reassuring me that this is not unusual, I do wonder how something like this has been accepted by the community. I don't care how big or small a company is - customer service is really important.

Also, I am sure that the vast majority of customers have not had a problem with customer service, but only because they have never had to use it. I am guessing that the vast majority of S** owners have never had a problem their keyboard and are quite pleased with it, and by association NI, as a result. However, my concern remains that if anything were to ever go wrong with my purchase, my experience and the experience of many many others I have read about, lead me to believe that I will either never get resolution to whatever issues I may experience or if I do get resolution, I can expect to wait weeks or even months for a proper response. This again is totally unacceptable to me.

Also, JesterMgee, I too used PayPal, which is where I found their phone number (PayPal is hooked up to my credit card, so I was just being brief). So, I do not think that is the problem, based on what you have stated.