Help! Native instruments are driving me mental

Hello. Let me start by saying that I am now 6 weeks into my ordeal and am very very stressed out by all of this.

My Audio 8 box stopped working 6 weeks ago. Still in warranty.
Took 2 weeks for NI to eliminate every possible reason why it wasn’t working.
NI Agreed to repair it.

So I sent the audio8 to their address on 7TH JULY.
Initially I rang them every few days to see what was happening. Then everyday.
Now 4 weeks later I have just about had enough.

My phone bill is huge as I spend between 30-40 mins on the phone to them every day. 20mins of this is just waiting to get through or on hold.

When I do speak to them they don’t know what’s going on. One person told me that they had received the box and it was being processed. They said they would call me back, they didn’t. I rang back 2 days later to be told that in fact it had not arrived.
Up until now I have seen my Royal Mail tracking status as 'Frankfurt'. So I presumed it had got to them.

What has actually happened is:

7th I sent it
8th Dispatched
8th Frankfurt
11th Attempted delivery (FAILED)
11th Returned to local sorting office (Notice left)
12th Awaiting collection
25th Returned to Frankfurt
29th Dispatched from overseas
3rd AUGUST arrived in Belfast

Now that broken audio 8 I sent a month ago is on its way back to me after sitting in their local sorting office for 2 weeks!

After finding that they had refused my delivery, and left it in their sorting office awaiting collection I rang them again. DAILY.

I have been lied to, left on hold and hung up on. RINGING GERMANY IS NOT CHEAP!

I have lost money in posting this to Germany for them to ignore, I have lost money on a massive phone bill and I have lost money because I have had to turn down work.

I have however found one person who has tried to help and actually has returned one of my calls.

After losing my temper on the phone and demanding to speak to a manager I was put on the phone to Florian. Now I have no idea if he is a manager or not but he has helped.
Florian accepted that all of this was unfair and that they could send me out a replacement audio 8 box without having my original one as long as I sent him a copy of Royal Mails postage log.

I emailed it to him and Florian replied saying that:

Hello ***** ******,



Thanks for sending the shipping details, we decided to send you an Audio Dj right

away.



Our sales team will ship a replacement to you as soon as possible.



If you have questions regarding the shipment, please respond to this mail or

contact us by phone under:



Tel: +49.30.61 10 35-1300

Fax: +49.30.61 10 35-2300

Hours of business: Monday through Friday, 10:00 - 17:00 CET



Best regards

Florian, Native Instruments Support Team



So I rang the sales number and yes they have one being 'processed' for me, so I asked when it will be sent.
Today is Friday 5th August they told me that they cannot post it until FRIDAY 12th AUGUST. That’s a week, and then it’s going to have to get from Germany to the UK so it could be 2 weeks further until I get it, and that’s if I'm not being lied to again.

I asked if they could send it sooner as I really really need it. They told me no. When I asked why, I was told that they didn’t have any.
Then I was told that they do actually have some but not at the same warehouse. IT DOES NOT TAKE A WEEK TO PUT A BOX IN THE POST!

When I asked if they could ring the other warehouse and get them to post it I was told no again, so I asked why and the lady told me that she was not allowed to give me any further information!.
I asked to speak to someone who could tell me more and actually knows how to get this in the post before next Friday, she told me no.

So then I asked to speak to someone who could arrange with a dealer in the UK that I pick up a replacement unit from over here, because this whole thing was getting ridiculous.

And then she HUNG UP ON ME!

So now I’m here.

I have all emails if anyone from NI is interested.

 

ticket number?

 

The support/repair is very bad and very slow ( i am sorry for saying that but its true ! ) .
Especially these products are made for the professionals (djs etc..) so... every day/week of delay costs a lot of money for a owner (dj etc) being without working and phoning trying to find one responsible person in NI to him whats going on and especially the date of repair !
I had the same problem like you (one channel of my audio8 died ) and then when i found out that NI has a very bad support of service... then i bought the new Audio10 as a backup of audio8. ( audio10 costs me less than the phones waiting in line... and listening.... all the cds of NI of the phone)
I love NI but in these case .... you know... it sucks.
I am so sorry for saying that but this is a fact !

 

usually all support requests are done within 2-3 working days. if you didnt receive an answer within this timeframe, please let me (or any other moderator) know the ticket number and we'll happily escalate.

my experience is that 90% of this is due to an email lost in one or the other spam folder.