How long to expect to receive a response from NI Support?

smsmart · 2023-01-17T02:35:43+00:00

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I purchased a new Komplete Kontrol S61 keyboard from Native Instruments during the recent Cyber Season sale, and to my disappointment the keyboard I received came DOA -- it does not turn at all, whether plugged in via USB, via power supply, or both. I've tried using different cables and it still won't turn on. Since there doesn't appear to be any way to call customer support at NI and the chat feature is turned off, I filed a ticket with NI support to try and request a exchange or refund for the the keyboard. However, it's been a week since I filed the ticket and I still haven't received a response. Is that normal?? How long does it typically take to receive a response from support?

I realize that NI support might be overloaded (as per the notice on the website), but c'mon, it shouldn't take this long. I don't want to end up paying for a broken device.

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Matt_NI

It definitely shouldn't take this long. As far as I can see, our teams handle the majority of tickets within 48 hours and I'm not too sure why your request was still open. I sincerely apologies for the delay and I escalated it just now. The product team will do a quick check with you now to make sure the product is in fact DOA before exchanging it.

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JesterMgee

I'd say an average is about a week for support but have heard some people waiting for weeks without a reply and numerous acknowledgments around here that tickets appear to have "fallen through the cracks". Honestly, a week these days IMO is still far too long for genuine support requests...

Support has been an issue for years and the current situations of covid or the current season are just convenient scapegoats. Support for 90% of queries could easily be done via remote workers, I personally handle technical software support for a company based in Los Angeles as one of my freelance jobs and I am in Australia and so far, 100% of cases have been handled/resolved in 3 years with 98% of first contact within 24-48 hours (I work even when away due to the convenience of mobile tech...).

If it takes their support team more than a week to answer a ticket that isn't a failure to RTFM, either support is severely lacking for the size of the userbase or the products are generating far too many support requests meaning the products have serious issues or lack of decent documentation. At the least they should be feeling disappointed as a company to have their customers waiting that damn long for an answer as it is not a good feeling as a customer to be left in the dark with an issue for an expensive purchase.

If you purchased the keyboard from NI direct, yes they should be on to you within a week I would expect, any longer than that I would lookup the mods on the forum here and politely ask them to follow up for you, usually does the trick. If you purchased from a retailer i'd be taking it back there and having them do this legwork. In Australia we are protected by law to be able to take faults back to the retailer for replacement or refund which makes buying local far better for support needs. Not all countries have this tho and will force you to deal with the manufacturer direct!

Try ping @Matt_NI or @Jeremy_NI as they are usually pretty responsive and I am sure they can help get you on the fast track since a DOA keyboard is pretty unusual.

Matt_NI

smsmart

Thank you for the insight @JesterMgee and thanks @Matt_NI for looking into and escalating my ticket with NI. I was finally able to get a response from Customer Support. I ran the support tool like they suggested, and it was determined that my issue is indeed hardware related. My ticket has now been routed to the hardware department -- hopefully I'll be able to get prompt response from them and get a new keyboard soon 🤞🏼

Agreed that receiving a DOA product is pretty unusual, I don't think that's ever happened to me. Hopefully this will be the one and only time!

smsmart

Just wanted to follow about this issue and say that this continues to be a frustrating experience. I regret purchasing this Komplete Kontrol keyboard directly through NI, because trying to get an exchange for a new unit is taking waaaay to long. If I had purchased this keyboard through any other retailer in the US, I likely would have already received a brand new unit by now.

Instead, two weeks after receiving and identifying the keyboard as DOA, I'm still waiting to hear back from customer support just to get a shipping label to send the unit back. Even then though, I've been told that it will take another 2-3 weeks to receive a new (or refurbished?? That part is unclear) unit, because I'll have to wait for the defective unit to reach the repair center, wait for them to test and diagnose the defective unit, and then wait another week or so to receive a unit back. So in total, I'll be waiting 5-6 weeks to receive a working keyboard!!

What am I supposed to be doing in the meantime?? I bought this keyboard with the intention to be able to start using it the minute I received it, but instead I have a 61-key brick sitting in the corner of my office that I'm on the hook for for $699.

Speaking of price, I'm also pretty peeved about how NI conducts its pricing practices. I bought the keyboard during the Cyber Season sale with the understanding that the S61 was being discounted $100 off of a list price of $799. Well, turns out I actually only saved $50, because NI lowered the regular price for the S61 on their website to $749 right after the sale!!! C'mon really?? The frustrating customer service experience isn't really worth a $100 discount, and certainly not the measly $50 discount that I'm actually getting. It feels deceptive at best and like a bait and switch at worst!

smsmart

@Matt_NI As you can probably tell from my message above, I got pretty frustrated with the lack of response from NI's customer service. Is there anything I can do to get a response from them? At this point I'm still waiting for a shipping label from the hardware department to send the unit back, but I've been waiting well over a week now after I confirmed my shipping address and device info. And it's going to be almost a month since I first received the keyboard. I tried following up but still haven't gotten a reply. I don't understand what the hold-up is just to get the label created...

I would still like to resolve this issue with NI if possible, but at this point I'm starting to think about what my next steps are on how I can get my money back for this broken unit, if I can't get an exchange for a new one.

Matt_NI

I have messaged the team to ask what's happening here. I'm not too sure why it would take this long but I do know that some recent internal changes means that we're a bit behind with requests.

I'll send you a DM so we can keep in touch and do something for you once this has been handled.

DevinCReilly

Hi there,

Pretty much the exact same thing just happened to me. Ordered a new S61 two weeks ago. Arrived with a loose piece rolling around inside and several functionality issues (Controller Editor doesn't recognize it when connected, extreme MIDI latency, sustain pedal doesn't work, surface controls unresponsive, surface screen frozen, key lights only half lit). Filed a support ticket day of receipt. Heard nothing. Filed another last week. Nothing. Finally filed a return/refund request yesterday. This is my last day to return under the policy and frankly I've been really disappointed in the response so far. If @Matt_NI or any other NI employees are monitoring, can someone please respond to my support ticket? Thanks!

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