NI Customer Service -- or lack thereof

On May 3 (one week ago) I placed an order online at the NI website for the Kontakt 2 upgrade (from Kontakt player 1.5.x). A few days before, while making the final decision on whether to go this route, I spoke with a Sales Associate in the California NI office who said that "the product is in stock and shipping from our Gilroy, CA fulfillment center and any order received ships the next day".

Shortly after hitting all the sales confirmation buttons, on the same day I received a confirming email (from NI Berlin) stating "You´ll receive delivery of the products in approximately 2 days.". One week (5 business days) later, the product has not arrived. Yesterday, I filled out the online Inquiry form requesting an update on when I might expect to receive the order.

It is now one week since placing the order and I have received NO further communication about the status of the order. Yesterday, I tried in vain to reach a human and ask about the order status and the lines in California for NI rang busy ALL of the day. Today, I got through to the "answering droid" and punched the right numbers and then got "there is no one to answer that [department] now, press 1 to leave a message" (which I have).

It seems to me that NI might "take a page" from other online merchants who [1] take the order, [2] send and initial confirmation (same as NI), [3] send a "shipment confirmation" email when the order leaves their fulfillment center OR [4] sends a "informational delay" if the order does not depart their fulfillment center in a timely fashion.

Saying NOTHING is NOT the way, folks!

Color me disgruntled about NI methods (but enthusiastic about the products!).

KevinKauai

 

Cancel the order. I paid for a 2 day delivery direct from NI.
It did'nt arrive , even after 15 days. Luckly I paid w/AMEX [they'l get my credit back, I fact they hav'nt gotten thru to NI]. Cancelled
the order , bought 25$ cheaper at Guitar Centre . I'm glad it did'nt arrive
from NI.
Cool Program, Some Bugs to figure ways around , but its gonna be a monster.
Good Luck, DG

 

Thanks for the tip, DG!

Unfortunately, this upgrade (from an existing Kontakt "player" -- such as that supplied with GPO or other player versions) is ONLY available from Native Instruments directly. None of the usual vendors that I deal with even have it in their catalog.

I finally got through to a real human today in the Southern California office. After explaining my "tale of woe" he acknowledged that the fulfillment center had temporarily run out of this (odd) Upgrade but that he would check on it and get back to me by telephone. He took the necessary information (on paper!).

About 90 minutes later, he called back to say that "yes, the fulfillment center had been out of the item but that it is shipping TODAY'. I made my point that other folks who take online orders do a heck of a better job of communication, rather than just leaving the customer IN LIMBO and that I was getting ever so much more frustrated when calling his office resulted in continual busy signals for TWO DAYS. I made the point that there are lot of GOOD order processing methods out there today and that simply taking the order and shipping it when they got around to it (without any interim notice) was just not cutting it. (He allowed as to how that is true and that NI should certainly be addressing this and catching up to other online order processing such as Amazon, Drugstore.com and practically everyone else who takes orders.) Apparently it is not even routine for their fulfillment center to send a confirming email when the product ships with a Tracking Number. (Out here in the almost middle of the Pacific, it's frequently necessary to give additional delivery instructions, given that my delivery address is on a private road 2 blocks off the main street, and another block away once you enter the property.)

Anyway, the customer service reps' name is Shayne Almeida and I am sending him an email with this "successful closing" update (albeit still needing some major system improvement!) so he can share it with his office.

Can you tell that I'm really itching to get onto full Kontakt 2 and all those 15 gigs of new content? (More like lusting!)

all's well ... KevinKauai

 

BUMP!

Are there any NI moderators around? In case you've not noticed this thread has gotten 116 views (as of Thursday afternoon, Hawaii time). I'm surprised that an NI representative has not stopped by to offer any advice and/or promising words.

just my 1/50th of a (US) dollar ... KevinKauai

 

YES

As I stated in another thread, NI sent (I must admit: very rapidly) my order, but they sent to me K2 update in place of K2 upgrade (I was charged for K2 upgrade on my credit card), which means that I can install and use it, but the register machine denies authorization. So every day I can see that the program (which is so beautiful) will soon definitely stop. A little bit frustrating, isn't it ?

Two emails to registration support remain without any response for a week now. Still 3 weeks to play and shut down.

Dominique

 

Gee! 202 Views by us ordinary Customer-types and still now response from any of the OFFICIAL Moderators? Does anyone in Native Instruments actually CARE about this problem?

Coming up on TWO WEEKS since the order and still not a confirming message (or UPS tracking number) as to whether the product is on the way or not!

Inquiring minds want to know! KevinKauai

 

Is there no way to get a UPS Tracking number?

Hello Im new here btw...its unfortunate that this is my first post but Im having similiat problems

 

Diazo --

If you're in the U.S., then contact their Customer Service directly on the telephone numbers they provide. (Be aware that they've got an announcer voice with a peculiar accent, so determine what the bleep she's trying to say can be a challenge.)

Once I reached actual HUMANS (they were having horrid telephone problems right at the time of my order and attempts to contact them for 2 or 3 days went for naught) they were fairly expedient in getting the process completed, Like, __, though, their fulfillment group shipped an "Update" rather than and "Upgrade" (they are physically the same product, but the "Upgrade" complains that you are not updating this from a previous 'full' installation). Fortunately, once telephone support was indeed reachable, this was a trivial problem to correct (with a correct Upgrade serial number instead of an Update serial number, which they provided in the telephone call).

I have to now say that their telephone support folks are, in fact, STELLAR! I am 100% satisfied with their knowledge and support!

KevinKauai

 

The last time I heard from a Kontakt moderator was on the kvraudio.com forum!

 

Same problems here, I upgraded from GPO to Kontakt 2 and received it alright but could not register and I followed the instructions to a tee on how to add another authorization to my account. E-mailed NI support for well over a week with no reply and just holding a ticket number. I finaly called there support line and got to speak to someone and I was fixed up in minutes. I asked what was the problem with not been able to register my update and was told it was a glicth of some type. So this means if your working on a paying project for a band and something goes wrong and you need support, your done like dinner and your paying project get delayed for week's and you dont look to good to your customer. How they can ignore this is beyond me, they have a great product but refuse to support it in a timely fashion. I not sure the people a the top end of this company know's of this problem we are all having and this is what I am working on to get a message to them. If you look at there job page you'll notice quite a few job vacancy and that may be part of the problem or it's something bigger going on. All the best to you people that are having problem's such as support.


mandoman

 

I disagree, mandoman!

I am happy to report a complete turn-around in my attitude about NI and their support. Since my original "cries for help" here on this Forum, I've been a total squeaky wheel. Unfortunately, there was a period where NI's Southern California office telephone were in complete disarray and the phone lines (both free and toll area codes) would just ring busy. In my initial order confusion (which was THEIR confusion -- not mine) after I got through to a "supervisor" (one Tom Watters, by name, who hold the lofty title of "National Sales Manager") good things started to happen.

By the following business day, he was able to determine that the product WAS shipping and provide a UPS tracking number.

TRUE, their fulfillment group (which I'm assuming is probably an outsourced operation) did ship the Update rather than the Upgrade/Crossgrade, but we can probably chalk that up to and initial confusion. When I tried the online "ticket" approach, I, like others have reported have gotten NOWHERE and that is LAMENTABLE, for sure. So until then, I have their Southern California support number in my phone dialer and I will bug the pateient and helpful support group there if I am "dead in the water".

I guess the MAJOR QUESTION for Native Instrument headquarters here is:

[size=+2]IS ANYONE MONITORING THIS BOARD?[/size]

It's such a good-looking Forum -- it would be a pity if NI didn't invest the Monitors to make is truly useful!

my $0.02 ... KevinKauai

[see my first "donated" draft Tutorial on making customized KeySwitch combos -- here: http://www.kevintweedy.net/K2T/K2_KeySwitch.htm ]

 

Good job, Kevin. I doubt I'd find any errors or omissions.
I don't like keyswitches and use separate articulations/MIDI tracks. But that's just me.

 

One of the reasons that I'm now UP on KeySwitches is that I've finally been pointed to a way of letting the KeySwitch triggers co-exist with my scoring needs -- mainly through the device of pulling a duplicate of the channel with the KeySwitch (out of range) notes and dropping them (for the score version).

The other primary reason I like KeySwitches is that having one line for three articulations of (say) violins just makes more sense to my (addled) brain than having three.

Anyway, it's a matter of personal preference, but it's nice to have the "mechanism" working so that you construct these things relatively easily should you need them!

my $0.02 ... KevinKauai

 

Similar experience here. I got the e-mail saying Kontakt 2 would be shipping soon. After a month I called the LA office and they did send me the program disk which I was able to register. However, they omitted the library disks. I called them back about a week ago and was told they would ship the disks out from a California location and to expect them in about 10 days.

 

Sorry to read about all your problems, guys. From my experience trying just to register software with this company, I have to say it's about the worst service I've encountered online, which is unfortunate since the Kontakt player seems to be finding its way into more plugin packages, ie: the Garritan Personal Orchestra. Interestingly enough, I ordered that title online, they never notified me when it shipped and I didn't even know until I checked my account how much they actually charged me.
By the way, how do I find the phone number for customer service in the states ..... I'm starting to feel doubtful that a registration issue I'm dealing with will be resolved any other way. What BS .....

 

Southern California phone # is 323-467-5260

 

wow,

thank god its not just me. I love ni products, but without a doubt the worst customer service out of any software I have. When I first bought NI komplete 2, I had problems registering. I waited over an hour on hold and finally gave up, the whole time, I had to keep pressing a button to continue waiting on hold. It was driving me insane. I wrote an email which was never responded to , finally I figured it out on my own. It also bothers me that NI doesnt even look at the forums or doesnt appear to invest alot of time into customer service. Its a shame the software can be so great and everything else you get the shaft.