How would you make Stanton / NI better?

OK this is it. This is the thread where you get to say whats wrong with them. Please be as specific as possible. Please dont post garbage like "they suck!", how about something like "I tried to email stanton and didn't get a response".

I'll make sure Stanton and NI check out this thread. So please keep it civil and to the point. Try to talk about the problems you encountered not heard from someone else and explain how you would fix it or how they could be a better company.


How about I start first:
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Well I order an FS2 amp... and guess what it came faulty. Days and days of testing on PC and Mac and still no luck. Hobbes and Mastermix helped me test and test.. and even after that I still did more tests...still no luck.

So I contacted stanton. They said mail it to them and they will check it out and either repair it or replace it. Ok so I asked "Are you guys going to pay for shipping" and they said "we dont pay for you to ship it here"... I'm thinking What the hell... I paid for a working product and its not working so shouldnt they pay for it to get fix.. but nope they didnt pay. They will pay to ship it from their place to mine but still not only did I have to pay to ship this from NY to TO but from TO to Florida....

I think stanton should have paid for this, that would have made me happy.

Ohh what pisses me off even more is I know they paid for someone else's FS1 amp to get fixed in the past... WTF?

 

Simple instructions to improve NI/Stanton:

1. Direct browser to www.scratchlive.net/forum

2. Read.

3. Read again, noting posts from Rane and Serato.

4. Read again, and repeat until the concept of CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS gets into your thick heads.

5. Come back here and apologise.

 

I think in the faulty scratch amp situation they really need to make a cross ship plan. Where you can pay for one via credit card over night and ship yours back to them.... I think NI/Staton whoever is running the show needs to switch gears from being a product company to a more service oriented company. This is what Serato is doing, they may not have a better product as far as the hardware goes but they're providing sservice to their customers, and I can tell you right now that sells to a professional alot more than all the bells and whistles. I must say I've thought about jumping ship.

 

"I think NI/Staton whoever is running the show needs to switch gears from being a product company to a more service oriented company. This is what Serato is doing, they may not have a better product as far as the hardware goes but they're providing sservice to their customers, and I can tell you right now that sells to a professional alot more than all the bells and whistles. I must say I've thought about jumping ship."


I'd hardly call NI a product company they havent released an update to 2.5.3 in over a year. Service, HA, NI is getting their asses handed to them by more than just Rane/Serato. Serato's issue is not hardware the hardware kicks FS to the curb it's Serato's software interface that leaves most ppl cold and once the 1.5 update is released all bets are off because I've been told it is to address this very issue. little birdies tell me the mod's and developers from Rane/Serato often browse these boards and are making huge improvement so that they can hammer more nails into the NI coffin. I wonder if NI developers and product managers check out the competitions boards I mean hell it seems they hardly check or participate in their own boards here.

Oh yeah wait a min better keep this on topic so the queen of thread locking doesnt come along and hand out another one of those yellow cards and locks the thread. How to make improvements When a release schedual is posted on the company website for $%^$# sakes STICK WITH IT and STOP MOVE'N the damn thing further and further back. And more frequent updates please, unless it's rock solid stable and 99.9 bug free, a update fix more than once a freaking year would be welcomed:schimpfen

 

1. Stanton/NI (SNI from now on) - STOP BEING PARANOID !!!, once you buy a product you have to authoise it,after you authorised it you'll need a password to get updated, if you lost your password you can wait weeks for e-mail to give you a new one - while you can't use the product you paid for. - SNI - If you didn't realised it so far let me tell you : FS can't be used if you don't have the hardware !' i mean' i can download Serato, every version that i want' i cant use' why ? BECAUSE I DON'T OWN THE HARDWARE !!!.

2.Read djHSL reply, he phrased it better than i can.

3.SSL is working fine on USB, FS2 still doesn't work o.k even you switched to Firewire - what does that mean ?
Stop blame the USB interface for your faults, fix your bugs without giving your costumers spend more money on useless Firewire cards (and now not every firewire card is ok ha?).

4.TDJFS is a mean , mean program, you are just keep on tryin' to leeche your costumers, i promised myself that i won't spend even one dollar more than the cost of SSL for the complete FS2, it costs 900$ ? - i won't pay it , i will go to SSL where my $'s worth much more (ah.. and it works...).
It seems that everyone around knows that SSL is far much better deal than FS, everyone but you, i said it before - you can fool some people some time but you can't fool all the people all the time. Get this in your head SSL IS BEHIND YOU !!!

5.The trade-in program is about to end while you can't actually buy FS2 all over the world (2 pieces per store - that's what i've heard). this mean that you never intended to give your rebate or to actually trade-in your old FS1 SA's.
It was just an empty commercial trick tryin' to fool the costumers, i believe that the day the "trade - in" program will end will be the day that SSL will be installed on many computers of FS1.5 users. i think you'll better call it the "cross-grade program" 'cause thats what you gonna cause.

6.If you noticed (if you have been reading this at all) i haven't said even one word about any technical issue. it doesn't mean there isn't , there's no perfect software not even SSL, the thing is that most of the people are mad at you because of the way you act, like there's no one better in the world, like you are the only product there is, like you earned enough money that you can afford yourself spitting in your costumers faces.
If you were'nt that vain, if you just got in here once in a week to see and talk to people who give you the money to bring paychecks at the end of the month - any technical issue is very small compare to this, that is why most of SSL users going on with smiles on their faces, they know they have where to go in a case of a problem and that is also why we get mad when we have technical issue - we depend on ....ourselves.

i'm not trying to threat anyone by saying this but i'm weeks before i switch to SSL,if you'll be able to keep me as your costumer you'll be able to keep many, just try.

 

I'll tell you how:

Open the beta testing to real users who are interested in helping. Propellerheads and Ableton do this. And their products rock.

Having this resource available is invaluable. AND it keeps the customer service quotient up because dialog can take place. Open a special place on the board for beta version feedback.

Hello.

I like NI products, but the fact that it doesn't do the above is a serious miscalculation on their part.

rob.

 

Give me a product that works "As Advertised" out of the box and I mean in all aspects that are advertised and test it and test it under many scenerios not just in a lab. Take it out live, in the back yard, to the park, to your room, even to grandma's house to make sure it is put thru all the steps with many systems out there and products alike. Just take a look at how many different specs (puters) and DJ equipment everyone uses here.

Make the damn friggen CD work! Test them with all 4 major players out there. I believe this is a MAJOR FLAW that has gone with out a fix for far too long...since the introduction of FS2.....not acceptable under any conditions!

Answer my email with in 24 - 48 hours.

Participate in your own forum. You may take heat, but that is the nature of the job. One person I respect for this very much is the Denon National Product Manager - Sylvio Z. He takes a lot of **** from people at the Denon Forum but he continues to offer service and support no matter what.

Offer a 24-72 hour TAT (turn around time) on repairs/replacements with free shipping ( to/from)

Fix your customer relations and offer updates for bugs in a timely manner and you will have a great following.

I dont care how many big name DJ's use your product or anyone elses.....I have more respect for a newbie trying your product for the 1st time and saying "this is the ****, I had no problems installing and it is working exactly as advertised!"

Above all:
"Put the Human aspect back into Business Philosophy!"

 

Very well said. I remember the admin of the old forum (you all know who I mean, its NOT hobbes and none of the current admins) was bragging how superiour firewire is compared to USB. And now look at the mess many people are experiencing with firewire and FS2.

 

I totally agree with all of the comments posted so far and I have to say that I think they are very well reasoned and constructive. I especially agree with the beta testing suggestion.

My suggestion is simple: start treating Traktor like it's a serious product.

First, I think NI needs to remember what Traktor's market niche is--the professional, performance DJ. Not some kid in his bedroom making mixes with kazza MP3s. Moreover, in terms of competition, I would say that more people in this forum would be inclined to move to Live than to PCDJ. Once Nl recognizes that they need to apply that realization to drive the direction of the product. For example, if you're DJing in a club you probably don't need or want Icecast, you want stability and you may want VST plugins. For PCDJ (which IMHO is more of a prosumer product for mobile DJs) internet streaming might be fine, but for Traktor, stability is KEY so don't add crap that doesn't benefit your core users.

Second, understand that as professional users we expect a PROFESSIONAL quality product and we will pay for it. I bring this up because, as usual, I was bitching about the update the other day and NativeGirl came in and gave me crap because, in her words the update was going to be "free" (as if that was a defense for it being four months late). My response was that I would have GLADLY paid $50 for the update if it were released when it was supposed to be. I mean, my average gig makes me $600-1000, I for one can afford $50 for an update to one of the most important components of my system. And, I don't think I'm alone here. Does NI really believe that people are willing to pay $600 for a scratch amp (which is really only useful if you ALREADY own about $1000-2000 worth of hardware, i.e. Turntables and a mixer, not to mention a computer), but they won't pay for an incremental update? COME ON, Pioneer and Dennon sell $1000+ CD decks and people buy them like crazy, Live costs what $300-400 and it's huge, the bottom line is that there is a very viable market for serious pro products, and that's where Traktor needs to be. But, by the same token, if NI is going to charge like a pro product, they need to SUPPORT it like a pro product.

Also, I'm tired of hearing how NI is a small company, has limited resources, etc. Get some more programmers, dedicate some resources to Traktor, and start making a return on your investment. The demand IS there, it's the supply that's lacking. I KNOW I wouldn't be the only one out ther who would/will buy Traktor 3.0 on the day its released. Moreover, if NI is such a small company with limited resources, how is it that they've released two, three, four, completely new products since the last MINOR Traktor update? The problem here isn't that NI is small, it's that NI doesn't make Traktor a priority.

Of course, maybe NI feels it can't make a significant amount of money on Traktor no matter how it supports it. That's fine, but if that's the case, I would BEG and PLEAD that NI sell Traktor to another developer NOW. Go to Ableton, M-Audio, Apple (please!) and tell them that you want to unload it because you can't support it. Don't just let it languish while we all sit here and hope that, someday, NI will really exploit the potential that Traktor has.

In any case, that's my two cents. l know I'm preaching to the choir in this forum, but I REALLY hope that the stuff in this thread doesn't all fall on deaf ears...

 

that is a very astute observation, especially in my case, that Final Scratch users are more apt to migrate to Live.

Secondly, I believe that you are absolutely right about FS being a serious professional product that we would all gladly pay for updates (especially if they contributed to bottom line benefits: Stability, performance enhancements, MIDI clock out for integration with other apps/devices, and effect chain plug ins a la Audio Units/VSTs).

This is where the real opportunity lies with Final Scratch and users like us who are actually selling the product everytime someone comes to a club and sees us using it.



rob.