NI Customer Service NON-EXISTENT?

JTBanks
JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member
edited October 22 in Komplete General

Last night I attempted to purchase an S-61 Black Friday deal. First Attempt failed after second attempt succeeded, my order history showed that BOTH orders went through. After not finding a Customer Support phone number, I finally researched the corporate number whose recorded line is UNINTELLIGIBLE> I had to listen 3 times to get the "Support" number which is not in service. Customer Service is totally non-existent. Anybody having the same issues? I sent a "Support Ticket" to just cancel ALL ORDERS. Really seriously disappointed with NI.

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Comments

  • Patrick Dunn
    Patrick Dunn Member Posts: 4 Member

    This is really concerning when a technology company of any kind divorces themselves from human interaction with a glass ceiling for their customers that makes it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to speak to anybody at the Company.

    im currently trying to buy Komplet 14 Ultimate. Ollie for sedition , but can’t figure out if NI is giving me the right quote and checkout price based on my account and products owned. I don’t feel like ordering it, finding out that my multiple KoNtakt, ABSYNTH, and a few others qualify me for the $249.99 price that it has quoted on the checkout page.

    Noone to call. They’ve gone completely dark on personal communications which is a really bad idea from a business perspective. They’re led to believe that they’re saving money this way,……. Statistical results estimate that of the companies that take this route ALSO lose 10-15% of their current customer base, and a whopping 35-43% of NEW BUSINESS because people are so sick of the “Not being able to get a hold anybody” syndrome that companies have allowed themselves to be lured into.

    I think their CEO and his compatriots ought to take a quick business 101 refresher course, which would clearly indicate the above to them. I am ambivalent about dealing with them for much longer under their current customer service blackout. Yet we are almost ALL held hostage because they own “Kontakt”……… Too bad Giga -Studio isn’t still up and running. It was a much better piece of software that by now would be mind blowing if left in the right hands . All the “ Block stylie” fonts and obtuse layout style are difficult to “feel” and take a lot eye strain and frustration to follow your creative aspirations. Monopolies have a bad habit of acting like tyrants once they know that no one is about to clip their wings with a better product and better more human oriented customer service….. Ugh !!! 😩

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    NI Customer Support does not even rise to the level of Warm Dog Poop 💩

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    The NI online order system errantly processed two orders for one purchase, thereby overbilling my credit card. Can I reach customer service before they ship the duplicate items? Nooooooo! Why? No Customer Support Available. So because of their error, I have to wait for delivery and ship it back to them, because they are too cheap to hire a REAL CUSTOMNER SERVICE team? No way. I am cancelling BOTH Keyboards and an Upgrade to Collector's Edition. No more Native Instruments for me, and I am going to scream from the rooftops how poor this company is and to avoid them at all costs, because it may just cost you a great deal of Money, Time, AND AGGRAVATION!

  • Ojustaboo
    Ojustaboo Member Posts: 332 Advisor
    edited November 2023

    While I know it’s frustrating when companies don’t have a human to talk to and while I would be just as annoyed as you if I needed to speak in person,


    in June I needed to contact them about registering Maschine mk3, I did it via their support page, they got back to me the following morning asking if I could send them the receipt, I emailed it straight away, within the hour they got back to me telling me I should now be able to register it fine, and it worked.

    Likewise, as my S61 mk1 is no longer going to be supported, I found a good deal for the mk2 on eBay, it was delivered Tuesday afternoon (this week) couldn’t register it as it was still registered to the previous owner, I emailed them at 17:41, Wednesday morning at 8:54 they asked if I could send them one other thing which I did straight away, Wednesday morning at 9:15 I received an email from them , saying it had been deregistered and I could now register it.


    I appreciate some times we need to speak to a human, but I can’t fault their support both times I’ve had to use it in the past few months, in my particular situation, email was better as I needed to send various docs anyway.

    If they had a phone number for their cyber sales, I guarantee most people would be waiting hours to get through as they would be inundated with questions and people trying to get different deals.

    Again, sometimes we need to talk to a human and nothing worse than companies making it impossible.


    I just upgraded from k14 ultimate to collectors edition, it can seem a bit confusing as the offers page shows all updates we can buy, and as in addition to k14, I own a load of other stuff including a few Komplete selects, it shows me deals for upgrading the select editions as well as the ultimate editions.


    if I go on their Komplete ultimate page now, logged in as me, after I’ve already upgraded from ultimate to Collectors, it’s telling me I can:

    buy full version for $599.50

    upgrade Komplete 13 select for $499.50


    It also has some greyed out prices, if I click on them, it says

    Upgrade from Komplete Ultimate 8 - 13 for $199.50

    Upgrade from Komplete 8 - 14 for $299.5

    and tells me I won’t be able to install if I do buy them as don’t have the qualifying products.

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    I solved that issue by purchasing the Ultimate along with an S61 MK3, loaded Ultimate on Native Access, then it allowed me to upgrade to Collector's addition. But that aside, I am returning EVERYTHING, because of poor customer service. If they were not able to get back to me within an hour to stop an errant duplicate order before shipping and before my credit card company processed the transaction, then I want nothing to do with NI.

  • Vocalpoint
    Vocalpoint Member Posts: 2,648 Expert

    And I see you are now posting your experience multiple times?

    VP

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    I will scream from a mountain top to get NI to respond, but news flash: It has been more than 24 hours, and ... crickets from NI.

  • Vocalpoint
    Vocalpoint Member Posts: 2,648 Expert
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/108032#Comment_108032

    Well, I do not think anyone promised a 24-hr support turnaround here. But I see the concern.

    And NI is in Germany - that may be a factor.

    VP

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    Having really ****** customer service is not how you build good will in your customer base.

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    Under most circumstances where somebody can wait for a license issue or something like that, a 24-hour turnaround might be fine. But when you are selling actual physical hardware for which people are being duplicate billed by thousands of dollars, a company this size should have Active Customer Support.

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    I have disputed the charges with my financial institution, but this will take probably the rest of the month to resolve, ONLY because no customer service rep was available through "Support Ticket" submission to cancel the first errant order that NI's system caused. So now, I have to take delivery of Two keyboards which I shall swiftly return unopened. Had they been available to cancel the errant duplication, this would not be an issue. I tried to call corporate offices this morning - system won't take your call. Tried to call the support number as their own corporate answering machine (which is totally unintelligible - this from an audio company) provided the Customer Support number that is supposed to be open at 12PM. That number has been disconnected. So, how do you think a customer feels, not being able to go home for the holidays because some corporation is sitting on YOUR money? By the way, I STILL have heard NOTHING from the company.

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    Another 24 Hours and I've heard nothing from Customer Support. Crickets....

  • Patrick Dunn
    Patrick Dunn Member Posts: 4 Member
    Answer ✓

    This is all making me more and more apprehensive. They hold all of my licenses captive. YET they are nowhere to be found. I think it’s time to sell my NI Licenses and transfer them to someone who has way more faith in them than I do that they’ll have some sort of positive experience ( or any experience at all) with them. I think it’s time to start really holding these companies accountable for their products, their customer support and reasonable good will in General.

    As things stand now, I think I’m going to pair back my purchase and upgrade of software VSTi’s etc. to only those companies that actually stand behind their products with PEOPLE when answers cannot otherwise be easily answered by these F’ing time wasting and endlessly infuriating chat bots that these companies are DUMB enough to have purchased from someone.

    We all know that NOBODY likes being ignored regarding the spending of their hard earned dollars by a company that’s brazen enough to be willing to alienate their own customers.

    CONCLUDING QUESTION : ….Would ANYBODY ( from CEO to janitor) at NI allow themselves to get caught up in, and be okay with this kind of contemptuous treatment by any company who’s support resembles their own support model, …. Especially regarding any of their own “higher end purchases” of whatever product?

    Somehow,… I THINK NOT! ……That being the case,…… why would or should we somehow be expected to be Okay with it?

    BOTTOM LINE: I’ve never seen a company survive that has tried to go all in on the Zero Human contact model. If they believe otherwise, I’d just as soon spend my musical resources with companies that have management more amenable to the realities of how their customers ( actual people) think and reason around such vacuous customer service policies.

    ***** And this isn’t even a tech support issue. I’m just tying to make a purchase…… you know,… “ give them my money” in e change for a product they are trying to sell?

    Honestly,….the “Information Age” has been a disaster for how people treat each other in general and the constellation of endless misinformation and propagandized ideologies that we are subjecting ourselves to by having gotten sucked into it.

    Personally, I’ve bought my last iPhone…… I am cutting the “ disinformation and ****** customer service” cord and buying a “flip phone” I don’t need to have my every move tracked by companies who are so egregiously ontemptous of their own customers wanting to be treated simply and respectfully as ……. human beings……… who’ve taken the time to try to understand what it is that they’re selling , and then try to make a purchase.

  • Patrick Dunn
    Patrick Dunn Member Posts: 4 Member

    Am I simply on the wrong board here?,….. or does it blow on all the other areas of the interest on their community forum?

    Despite it says I’m a “new customer” of NI,…. I’ve been a customer of theirs for almost 20 years…..ugh!

  • JTBanks
    JTBanks Member Posts: 25 Member

    Another 24 hours has passed... No Response from NI support on why their system double billed me almost $1,500...crickets. I give up. I had to give up going to my see family for the holiday because they ate up all my available credit limit. NI should just let brick and mortar retailers sell their gear, and stick with selling and servicing software where submitting a "Support Ticket" and waiting a week works. The only entity I have faith in, at this point, is my credit card company.

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