Is NI customer support this bad?

Chazfilez
Chazfilez Member Posts: 3 Newcomer
edited October 22 in Kontakt
I ma having issues with instruments/libraries installing. Some have no issue, some say, "could not load plugin" or "ensemble not found." In Native Access some instruments show up after installation, others do not. I submitted a support ticket with full description and images/screenshots and I got what seems like a nonsensical response with a link to download Abelton Live with no mention of my issue whatsoever. I replied asking why they responded this way and got no response. Is NI support this bad????

Comments

  • Monochrome
    Monochrome Member Posts: 1,316 Expert
  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 3,884 mod

    Hello,

    start kontakt, komplete kontrol and so on, stand alone first in order to be able to build up the databases. Then check what's working in stand alone. I guess in your case maybe something got mixed up and that can happen.

  • PulseCode
    PulseCode Member Posts: 132 Helper

    I would not call it bad, I would call it disconnected,... as it's just via email and webform...

    there is no live chat or phone etc...

  • Ojustaboo
    Ojustaboo Member Posts: 313 Advisor

    I know I’m going to sound like an NI fanboy etc but I’m not at all, just saying what my experience has been.

    Bearing in mind I always contact them through their support system I can’t see it’s anything to do with what country I’m in etc.

    I’ve contacted them various times over the past year and can’t think of once where it took them more than 24 hours to respond.

    This week I reinstalled windows then reinstalled Komplete 14 CE, everything installed fine except for Scarbee Jay-Bass.

    I contacted them yesterday evening at 16:58


    I got up this morning and they had already answered me with a direct link to download it. Time of their answer (in UK) 01:40 am, eight hours and forty mins later

    Here’s the email from 01:40 this morning


  • reffahcs
    reffahcs Member Posts: 848 Guru

    I've had more luck with this forum than support. When I tried to contact NI support for a now known issue where some monitors cause Kontakt to crash on a Mac Studio, I finally got some troubleshooting tips after several back and forth emails.... for Windows.

    I love my MK3 and I've defended NI in this forum, but I gotta say, when I spend close to an hour looking up every detail of my operating system, exact sub versions of software, running diagnostic programs... and the help desk comes back with a solution for a different operating system... I was deflated and utterly disappointed.

    Thankfully this forum has been very helpful and I've had the chance to help out several users and save them from having to deal with the same frustration I went through. Overall I'd say I'm a satisfied customer.

  • MK_EDITING
    MK_EDITING Member Posts: 2 Newcomer

    I really love the products, and have bought a tonne of instruments and expansions etc. But I generally feel that every attempt to contact customer services has been dismissed or has been left unresolved.

    On one occasion, explaining an issue with the file registry on the Maschine + memory card causing the file system to crash whilst browsing user content had the case closed without resolution.

    Also, I have found the store doesn't accurately assess which products you own whilst attempting to sell you the same product again.

    Its quite frustrating as I feel unable to utilise the products to their full potential and that there is fear of admission of fault from NI themselves. And avoiding the problem rather than solving it seems to be the MO.

    Like I say, I really enjoy the products, and the brand overall, but I think they could learn something from a company such as Apple regarding customer service, as it feels like they have the same approach in a lot of other ways.

  • Ojustaboo
    Ojustaboo Member Posts: 313 Advisor
    edited July 18

    Also, I have found the store doesn't accurately assess which products you own whilst attempting to sell you the same product again.

    @MK_EDITING Yes that is annoying.

    Sometimes it gets confused when you have say more than one bit of hardware that comes with Komplete Select.

    Say you bought two bits of their hardware, when you register them, you end up with two different Komplete Select” versions registered to your account, each with a different serial number.

    If you upgrade one all the way to collectors edition, as far as their software is concerned, you still have another that can be updated, hence you get offers to upgrade when you already have the Collectors edition.

    If it was a bit more intelligent, there would be either some sort of option to stop this, I can’t think of any reason why most home users would ever want more than one license.


    The other annoying one is their individual instruments and expansions, I believe it was this site where I sometimes found a toggle to hide products I all ready owned, it never worked for me.


    I’ve been lucky the times I’ve contacted support, although I’ve never needed to contact them about crashing etc, my support requests have mainly been about the odd instrument failing to download. But enough people give their experiences on here and elsewhere to know they need to greatly improve.

    Not got a clue how a in-house support team works. Can imagine most of the time they only need a few people, but at sale time or major new version/instrument time, those support requests are going to go through the roof.


    Not really sure of the solution. If they employ more support staff, on non sale and non new upgrade/product weeks, they will have nothing to do.

    Of course they could always temporarily move staff from their other departments (departments that know how to use the software), but then those departments suffer, and while in an ideal world everyone would get paid a fortune, I suspect the people who write this software earn a lot more than the people who respond to our support requests, companies generally don’t want their higher paid staff doing jobs that lower paid staff could do.

    They could employ temporary staff, but they wouldn’t have a clue about the software and contacting them would be like contacting a large call center, they would only be able to read the script from the computer hence won’t be able to help in loads of situations.


    There are helpful people on this forum and a few NI staff are active]

    I rarely give reviews on trustpilot or Amazon. If a company sells 10,000 of a product and 9,999 worked fine, sure the actual product deserves top marks.
    ]

    But to me, the sign of a good company, a company that I’m happy to give my money to in the future, and the only time I give those sort of reviews, is a company that knows how to act when things go wrong, actually listening (or reading) to the customers problem, goes a long way, nothing worse than getting a cut and paste response where it’s obvious they didn’t read your complaint.

    Twice this year I’ve had problems with products from other companies, one was for a SoundBar that I got through Amazon but was sold by Ultimea, wasn’t expecting top quality as it was only £70, I also wasn’t expecting a used one which this obviously was. I would have kept it if it worked for what I wanted, but it didn’t, not a fault their end. So I returned it, I was honest, said it didn’t work for what I wanted, I also said that it was a used product.

    Amazon refunded me in full, a few days later Ultimea emailed me to apologise, saying they never send out used products but have no control over Amazon if they mistake do. They went on to say that they know I’ve had a refund, but they stand by their products and are sending me out a better version free of charge.

    A couple of weeks later a much better model arrived, even came with a subwoofer. It’s now in my bedroom, much better sound than my TV.


    The other was speakers from Presonus. All done via an online ticket system. I’ve contacted Presonus before with a problem with their Studio One software, they were superb, chats going back and forth for days solving it, very impressed.

    These speakers have a grounding problem, we discussed and tried a few things, they then said that I need replacements, and I had a choice.

    Wait a couple of weeks and they will send out replacements and pick the old ones up at door when they drop new ones off, or send them back to Amazon and get replacements sent.

    They said if I return them to Amazon, Amazon will bin them but they really want them back for their technicians to inspect to see what went wrong during manufacturing (they still worked)

    I chose the latter, I’ve just been asked for my address so they can send new ones out.


    That to me is good service. A company that’s actually interested to see the faulty product, finding out what caused their customer problems


    sorry everyone, just realised I’m rambling on again, must try to shorten my replies


  • Ojustaboo
    Ojustaboo Member Posts: 313 Advisor

    Mind you, Arturia are no different.

    When they released their SQ80 I purchased it (Dec 2021), I already owned their V collection version 8

    Upgraded the V collection to version X in June this year.

    Just logged in and there’s an offer for me to upgrade my SQ80 to the V collection X

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