$25 Voucher and Customer Service

SamNI

Hi All. Last week I purchased Komplete 15 Collector’s Edition 15 as an upgrade from K14CUE. An hour after purchase I saw a coupon for an additional $25 on the site that I missed and didn’t apply. I wrote to Customer Support, received standard “we’ll reply soon…” I followed up a few days later. Still nothing. This morning I received my Komplete 15 registration and along with that a $25 voucher. I’ve been trying to purchase another instrument and use the voucher but I keep getting the error message that the voucher is not valid even though I’ve cut and pasted it and copied it and typed it repeatedly. It seems Email and standard Customer Service isn’t going to yield any results. Does anyone have any ideas how to get Support to apply to purchase issues? Thanks.

SamNI

Good morning all. I want to apologize to all for taking the discussion where it didn't need to be. It was a result of my frustration with multiple past attempts to have NI reply to any of my support requests (this was my first one re vouchers but previously there have been tech questions that still remain unanswered to this day and I'm sure you can identify with how frustrating those can be) along with my dismay that private equity companies have been buying up some of my favorite music companies (like this one, and then adding Izotope and Plugin Alliance to their portfolio as well) with the goal that all private equities share and it often does not align with artists. In any case, my apologies again if any of my comments were unnecessary and out of line.

PK The DJ

Did you read the terms & conditions of the voucher? What product are you trying to use it on? You say "another instrument" which doesn't tell us much.

SamNI

I’m trying to purchase Session Guitarist Electric Storm Deluxe (it’s regular price is $149 and currently is listed at $129.) Of course there’s a whole list of exclusions, but I don’t think I fall under them. In any case, thinking that might be the case I then tried a different instrument that wasn’t on any kind of sale or any kind of offer and I still got the “This voucher is not valid” message. And unanswered email from last week still exists on a different issue.

PK The DJ

Well if it's being discounted already then it doesn't qualify (as per terms and conditions).

What was the "different instrument" you tried?

As for support not answering, we've just had xmas and new year. Many people are off work during that time, including NI staff.

Then obviously, when they do return, they will have to wade through all the messages people have sent (often multiple times) over the holidays expecting a reply.

SamNI

Age other instrument I tried was RSI 1, which shows no offer/discount attached. And to leave no stone unturned, if you go to that page, at the top it offers another voucher entirely (HOLIDAY24-USD), which also shows up as "not valid."

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/nks-partners/10-phantom-rooms/rsi-1/

Monochrome

RSI 1 is a NKS Partners product. E-Vouchers generally do not work for those.

• https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000292818-I-Have-Issues-with-My-E-Voucher

But also, the Terms and Conditions on the Holiday Season 2024 page explicitly state:

*The e-voucher is valid on all Native Instruments software downloads of products with a respective minimum price of 49,00 € available at the NI Online Shop. It is NOT valid on updates, upgrades, crossgrades, edu licenses, hardware, NKS partner products, or products that are part of a special offer.

SamNI

Right. It's the standard "50% off everything" (excluding products with letters "e", "a", "i" and "k through w" in the name and anything purchased on a day of the week with the letter "y" in it). I have spent thousands on their products. So for their extra $25, they want to put us through this.

JesterMgee

Quick tip: The vouchers are mostly just smoke and mirrors. They seldom work with anything other than Maschine expansions. Most useful thing for them most of the time is to line the bottom of your trash can…

gee2803

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/201861#Comment_201861

unfortunately so true… we have tons of gigabytes on instruments but there is always one missing that you can purchase but - oh no - it's a partner product.

PK The DJ

I've never had any issues using vouchers when they've been offered to me. It's just a case of paying attention to the T&Cs and choosing appropriately. Any kind of discount voucher usually has terms and conditions - Native Instruments are not alone in this.

SamNI

No, but as virtual instruments’ newest monopoly (Izotope, Plugin Alliance) NI could afford to reward instead of nickel and dime their customers. But then again, that’s the problem with monopolies, isn’t it? No need to compete when there’s no one to compete with. Do you work for Native Instruments? So far you’ve defended their lack of customer service (still no reply from them on my first inquiries and to be quite frank over the years I’ve sent them multiple requests for support and few if any have ever been answered — compared with UVI and others — and if you review some of the community posts, you’ll see that’s not the rarity but rather the norm). And you’re still defending them regarding their small print and other things they do that they really don’t need to. I feel like you might have an interest in the company that you haven’t disclosed. Is that true?

PK The DJ

I'm not defending Native Instruments. Still waiting here for the long promised update to the Maschine+ which has not materialised, despite them saying it's "coming soon".

What I'm saying is… people complaining about not being able to use vouchers on X, Y or Z is ridiculous when the terms and conditions are right there and easy to understand.

Also complaints about not getting a reply from support over xmas and the new year….. honestly? Pretty much every non essential business shuts down over that period. How can people not realise that, or think that NI employees should be working 24/7 and be exempt from the holidays?

Monochrome

Oh well. Calling NI a monopoly was in itself ridiculous already, but to allege that other users may be NI staff in disguise is seriously a different kind of low.

Perhaps, at this point, it would make sense to lock this discussion for good. Everything important has been already said/addressed. It's only downhill from here.

SamNI

Good morning all. I want to apologize to all for taking the discussion where it didn't need to be. It was a result of my frustration with multiple past attempts to have NI reply to any of my support requests (this was my first one re vouchers but previously there have been tech questions that still remain unanswered to this day and I'm sure you can identify with how frustrating those can be) along with my dismay that private equity companies have been buying up some of my favorite music companies (like this one, and then adding Izotope and Plugin Alliance to their portfolio as well) with the goal that all private equities share and it often does not align with artists. In any case, my apologies again if any of my comments were unnecessary and out of line.

BIF

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/202091#Comment_202091

Well, I appreciate your apology.

I don't mind that NI team members get time off. In fact, as a manager, I'm in favor of it because I can see how much the rest and family time does for team members who work hard all the rest of the year.

But having said that, I think NI needs to think about ways to make things a lot easier on their support staff (and on our volunteers here in the forums) by saying UP FRONT when there's going to be a long period of time with slower support.

It should be on the website and it should be here on the forum. And it should come with a date when somebody opens a support ticket. Maybe use phrasing along the lines of this:

"Your ticket 12345k6 has been opened. Our support staff is on extended leave until after January 6th. While you are waiting for the support team to come back after the holidays, you might want to visit our community forums, and see if your fellow end-users might be able to assist you in the meantime."

But whatever. Hopefully you are getting assistance now, and the Support team will get you going very quickly. Best of luck!

LostInFoundation

Difference in Vouchers perception between users and NI:

Users: let’s see what I can get for free (or very little)

NI: let’s see if we can convince them to buy an expensive instrument offering them a little discount

When it comes to me, 95% of the vouchers I received during all these years has not been used.

Edit: I edit my post to correct an error of which I’m not sure, so maybe someone English native speaking can help me. Last phrase: the verb must be “has” because the subject is “95%” or “have”, following the plural of vouchers? ☺️