Has N-I EVER responded to ANYONE when their products simply don't work?

Gipper17 · 2024-10-17T18:05:56+00:00

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I used Kontakt 6 exclusively for 3rd party software. I just moved to a new computer, downloaded my Kontakt 6 from the site, and it will not open, just crashes.

I've now sent a dozen e-mails over the past 2 days and NOBODY can be bothered to respond to me. I have every other one of my programs up and running, but KONTAKT is preventing me from making music.

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Jeremy_NI

@Gipper17 I see that you are in contact with my colleagues regarding your issues so that should answer your initial question. Of course we have a dedicated customer support and I'm sure my colleagues will walk you through the solution to your problem.

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Gipper17

This post, plus 3 more e-mails and………. NOTHING.

I have no idea where they are, or in what time zone, but I've sent e-mails morning, afternoon, evening, and in the middle of the night. It is truly a "dead letter box"

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/37432/has-n-i-ever-responded-to-anyone-when-their-products-simply-dont-work

I've now sent a dozen e-mails over the past 2 days and NOBODY can be bothered to respond to me.

There is more things wrong here :

You have to open a support ticket. N.I. does not have an email address that they respond to and does not offer end-user phone support either.
Sending dozen of emails doesn't work and doesn't help , and in case of creating tickets then creating more tickets than one does not help to get your tickets answered it only serves to create confusion.
You have to give N.I. sufficient time to respond after creating a support ticket. Expect an answer within a normal work week , response time always depending on the present load on support.
N.I. normally always responds to properly created support tickets unless you have given serious reason not to or if you did not respond yourself , or if there has been a mishap so that the support ticket got lost or never got made.

As for the Kontakt 6 then you didn't mention your OS which you didn't tell what is. One reason for your experience could be that Kontakt 6 does not support your OS , another could be that you need to make or change some settings in the OS (e.g. on Mac)

Otherwise then you need to contact support if you need/want their help , e.g. N.I. Kontakt Support

Please check the new KB article on How to get support through the link here

Gipper17

Thank you, but this started off with a support ticket. And the only way I was able to send a dozen or more e-mails was because after I'd opened the ticket someone from N-I sent me an e-mail saying: "You're very important to us so I'm escalating this and you will hear back shortly" (which I never did).

As for OS and the other things you've said……… great, that might be the case. So why then can't THEY tell me this? They've already got my money, so why waste their time on me?

A WEEK???? What universe do you live in? I happened to contact the 3rd party supplier to check and see if they work with Kontakt 8 in case N-I forces me to cough up more money. Though they are 6 time zones from me I got a response in an hour. A WEEK?????????????????????????

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/184922#Comment_184922

A WEEK???? What universe do you live in? I happened to contact the 3rd party supplier to check and see if they work with Kontakt 8 in case N-I forces me to cough up more money. Though they are 6 time zones from me I got a response in an hour. A WEEK?????????????????????????

I am not a N.I. employee and I do not make the rules here , I can only advice you how stuff works here. Besides that then what you describe here is extremely unusual in any "normal universe". A response time of within a week I think is not unusual , also I think that usually N.I. responds within a few days.

As for OS and the other things you've said……… great, that might be the case. So why then can't THEY tell me this? They've already got my money, so why waste their time on me?

I am sure that your assumption here is wrong , of course they want to help if they can within what N.I. considers reason.

Thank you, but this started off with a support ticket. And the only way I was able to send a dozen or more e-mails was because after I'd opened the ticket someone from N-I sent me an e-mail saying: "You're very important to us so I'm escalating this and you will hear back shortly" (which I never did).

Quote : "which I never did" , If you by "which I never did" are referring to you not getting your answer within a few hours or within two days (if N.I. workload is high) then sure it could be that N.I. "never returned to you', but if you gave them sufficient time to respond and they didn't then maybe the email were lost in your end or shot down on the way, I don't know.

What I can do for you is to alert N.I. forum Customer Care of the situation and then hopefully you will at least get a response here with respect to what is the line of events here seen from N.I. perspective. Jeremy_NI will most likely respond tomorrow if he is at work that day (he most likely is) (Also then N.I. support and Customer Care do not work weekends)

@Jeremy_NI , Could you please assist Gipper17 here by looking into the state of the support case made ?

Vocalpoint

"As for OS and the other things you've said - great, that might be the case. So why then can't THEY tell me this? They've already got my money, so why waste their time on me?

Totally understand the frustration.

But I cannot speak for NIs ability to get back to you on a cadence that would be more attractive to you. NI has a lot going on right now on several fronts - October was a huge release month.

It should also be noted (unfortunately) that Kontakt 6 has been retired for a long while and is officially unsupported.

Hard to determine what OS you are running as it was never mentioned but if you have moved to a "new" computer - there is strong likelihood that is the reason for what you are seeing.

Gipper17

FYI the version of Kontakt I downloaded is 6.8. The OS is Windows 11. N-I website confirms compatibility.

Regarding "expectations", iLok has the slogan "zero downtime" for a reason. They understand the importance of customers being fully supported.

I am not a professional composer, but if I were, time would not just be frustration, but it would be money.

Akessio Maria

I don't think that kind of behaviour is something that can help you to solve your problem.

By the way, there is many way to make your music done.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/184930#Comment_184930

Cool - the OS should be OK. Maybe post up some screencaps of the errors and maybe one of us can assist.

Gipper17

Thank you Vocalpoint. I mentioned above that I did not try to transport an old version, rather I downloaded a brand new version from Native Access of 6.8 which the N-I website says is compatible with Windows 11.

Whether the produce is out of production is irrelevant. If you sell a product to someone which will become obsolete and no longer usable (with whatever technology changes happen), then if you care at all about your customer you either forewarn them (this will last 3 years max), you ensure compatibility with the technology change, or you offer a free upgrade. The company I used to work for (not software) would literally create replacement parts for customers with decades old product if it was no longer available or compatible.

As for how "busy" they are, I am now retired, but not so long that I've forgotten that our customer service department was not at all involved in new product introduction. As such, the workload of Customer Service was unaffected by that of new releases.

Gipper17

Akessio Maria: I am not sure what you're referring to as far as "behavior".

As to "many ways to produce music", of course this is true, but for the many hundreds of dollars of software I have from 3rd party vendors which requires Kontakt, this is not true.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/184930#Comment_184930

FYI the version of Kontakt I downloaded is 6.8. The OS is Windows 11. N-I website confirms compatibility.

You stating OS , at least increase the probability of someone giving you any useful advice .

downloaded my Kontakt 6 from the site, and it will not open, just crashes.

It would be great if you could also decipher that :

"downloaded my Kontakt 6 from the site" ? Is that your way of telling that you downloaded the latest version of Native Access for your OS and then installed Kontakt 6 using N.A. ? Or what ?

and it will not open, just crashes

Is this happening running Kontakt 6 as a stand-alone app or in a DAW ?

Do you use any custom settings for installation paths ? , if so then what ?

Have you checked Windows for e.g. system files errors ? or checked for any Kontakt 6 dependencies ?

Did you try running Kontakt 6 stand-alone as an Admin ? just to check if that made any difference ?

Are there any errors given when Kontakt 6 crash ? if so then could we please get a screenshot of the error message ? Or exact quote of error message ?

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/184934#Comment_184934

Can't speak to any other vendors or your chosen line of work or your idea of customer service - but for every single application or plugin that I use (or have used) - as soon as a new version of a major product arrives - the old one is instantly retired. Been this way with software for decades.

Upgrades are available of course - but in this case - not free.

If you cannot post up a screen cap or two so we might be able to assist - it will be up to NI to decide if they will help you on K6

To be honest - this whole post is kinda "strong" - if you know what I mean. Not a good look.

Gipper17

Poorfellow: Downloaded latest version of Native Access, then downloaded 6.8 from my library in Native Access.

This is in standalone (but also in Cubase Artist 11)

No custom anything. Brand new computer and no other programs had problems.

Screenshot attached. Also, in the first (and only) e-mail (boilerplate) from N-I they told me to run some kind of software (they sent me a link) which was supposed to help in debugging, and I was to send that file to them (which I did)

I did run Kontakt Standalone as Administrator and I got the same error.

I know that this community is loyal to N-I, and perhaps for good reason, but I can assure you that, although my computer skills are poor, I believe I have done everything I can think of, and everything they asked (running that error checking program). And I also know that cultures are such that in some places a delay of one week is acceptable, for most in the U.S. it is not. I had a good friend from The Netherlands who often commented about how very different expectations are in the U.S. If this is not the way N-I operates that is fine, but when you sell a product into a different culture you need to be mindful of the expectations of that culture regarding customer service.

Screenshot 2024-10-17 142245.png

Gipper17

Vocalpoint: I do know what you mean. My apologies if I've offended anyone. However I just spent a bunch of money on a new computer and now some $700 worth of 3rd party vendor software is useless to me. If I had a response from N-I saying: "We are out of the office until the 21st but we will contact you when we return" that would be fine. But to not answer tickets or e-mails? Sorry, what should I make of that?

Gipper17

Vocalpoint: One other comment about obsolescence. IF I knew for certain that I could pay $100 to upgrade to Kontakt 8 and it would definitely work, I would do that (I wouldn't be happy, but as of right now I have no other choice in order to run my 3rd party software), but I don't. So even if N-I had sent me an e-mail saying: "That won't work on Windows 11, you must upgrade", I would be upset, but at least I would have confidence that after dropping another $100 the problem would go away. But in the roaring silence I have no such assurance, hence the anger and frustration.

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