The Grand 3 upgrade or why Steinberg Support is beyond bad

[mrtomcat]

I haven't been on a rant in a while....actually my first on cubendo...

so I'm trying to upgrade my Grand 1 to the Grand 3. Online sales states I have to call...I did, they told me I have to email Steinberg support so that they issue me an upgrade key and then purchase the upgrade...
I sent Steinberg Support the email, got a receipt back saying Email Deleted without reading...
I then went online and placed a ticket...no response.
Then I wrote another email this time telling them in polite words that they are just horrible and stated the point that I am trying to give them money and that I have been a steinberg user for well over 20 years...This time I got a read receipt but still no answer.
So now I called Steinberg sales again told them the situation, they said: here is the number call them right now.
I did, got a guy on the phone who told me I have to mail them the original Grand 1 CD, they then email steinberg germany who will then issue the code and they will email it back to me. After that I can purchase the upgrade.

HOLY CRAP!!!! These people are on crack. You would think that between a german and japanese company they would have a concept of process...on top of that I registered my Grand 1 way back with them, so I am now beeing punished because I have been a loyal client?

Needles to say I'm going to look for a different piano package, even though I was really psyched about the CP80 samples which I have been searching for forever, but oh well

allright I'm done ranting, hope you other grand 1 users have more luck

[kdm]

Wow - that is a serious run-around. Sorry you had so much trouble. I would do as you are, find another VSTi - no telling what kind of hassle you would run into if you ever had to reinstall/license The Grand 3 again down the line.

[D]

I don't know whether to laugh or to laugh really hard... :rotfl:

Pathetic it is. :eusa_whistle:

[LEX]

And steinberg wonders why they are losing customers hand over fist.

Get another Piano library. At least upgrading and functionality will work.

I am sure the support will be better too.

LEX

[TAFKAT]

Hey Tom,

Man what a PITA !

Why would you need to mail back CD1 , what on GOD's green earth would that accomplish, as you have already registered the package, they should have a record , you would think..., oh hang on.., come to think of it, its because The Grand 1 did not require a syncro key, CD 1 is the keydisk , so they are basically saying, hey, you want TG3 , you will loose TG1.. WTF !

:willy_nilly:

Tell them to take a long jump off a short pier.. !!

[HowlingUlf]

:doh-1: :icon_sad:

[LEX]

You'd probably have to mail them a set of you house keys to buy and operate The Grand 3.

Should rename it.

The Grand Ripoff.

LEX

[mrtomcat]

Interestingly enough they fnally replied to my email from last friday today giving me the same instructions again...

it's just sad, but I am leaning more and more towards giving up on Steinberg and moving over to the evil empire that is protools hd, between the fact that it's almost impossible to get work in LA unless you use PT, the lack of updates and the horrific customer support... I wish they would finally wake up and support their products therefore their customers that keep on hanging in there after all these years

[Mikem]

Hey Tom,

Man what a PITA !

Why would you need to mail back CD1 , what on GOD's green earth would that accomplish, as you have already registered the package, they should have a record , you would think..., oh hang on.., come to think of it, its because The Grand 1 did not require a syncro key, CD 1 is the keydisk , so they are basically saying, hey, you want TG3 , you will loose TG1.. WTF !

:willy_nilly:

Tell them to take a long jump off a short pier.. !!

I jumped through these hoops and had similar problems, even getting conflicting instructions from USA Steinberg Upgrades.

I, too, registered my Grand 1 when I bought it. WTF is the purpose of registering if it's not deemed sufficient enough proof of purchase for upgrading and they still need you to mail in the CDs? The idiot who came up with that upgrade scheme should be canned.

[LEX]

Interestingly enough they fnally replied to my email from last friday today giving me the same instructions again...

it's just sad, but I am leaning more and more towards giving up on Steinberg and moving over to the evil empire that is protools hd, between the fact that it's almost impossible to get work in LA unless you use PT, the lack of updates and the horrific customer support... I wish they would finally wake up and support their products therefore their customers that keep on hanging in there after all these years

Tom, I honestly don't blame you one bit. I've moved off of Steinberg several months ago and haven't looked back.

Honestly, it was the best decision I made. More work, less headaches, less money lost in down time.

Steinberg will never support their products properly. IMO, their take on it is "this is what you get. We don't care if you have problems or not. Deal with it".

You've seen the attitude on both forums from their Reps like Fredo and Chris B. That's pretty much the attitude overall from the company and I don't ever see it changing unless they fire everyone and start over.

I'm still on Nuendo 3 for midi, though I am currently searching for other options like Logic and even DP because eventually, Nuendo 3 will be just too old for newer OS's and computers.
The Multi core problems already eliminate it for an 8 core system.

I'm using PT and Reaper for audio. the further I get into Reaper the more I'll use it for work.

Steinberg is probably the worst run DAW company there is. All I see is frustrated users in the future.

While Nuendo has and had soo much potential, that potential is negated by the attitude of the company and massive amount of problems even simple tasks bring.

LEX

[LEX]

I jumped through these hoops and had similar problems, even getting conflicting instructions from USA Steinberg Upgrades.

I, too, registered my Grand 1 when I bought it. WTF is the purpose of registering if it's not deemed sufficient enough proof of purchase for upgrading and they still need you to mail in the CDs? The idiot who came up with that upgrade scheme should be canned.

Honestly, it sounds like they are on a 30 year old business model, and don't know how to adapt to the changes in technology and modify its business model to new and more efficient ways that improve customer communication, not hurt it.

There slogan should really be:

Steinberg. We screw customers.

LEX

[TAFKAT]

I jumped through these hoops and had similar problems, even getting conflicting instructions from USA Steinberg Upgrades.

Hey Mike,

It must be a global phenomenon.. :-(

I'll recite a past incident with a good client of mine.. , client accidentally bends his Nuendo dongle while toying with laptop on a flight home from the U.K, gotta love it, editing sessions in flight, anyhow, gets back and calls the local reps as he is worried that the dongle could break and he will loose the licence. Asks advice on getting a new dongle while the original is still alive and kicking. Reps response, can't help you unless you buy a N4 upgrade, ( client was still on N3 ).

Now there are 2 things seriously wrong with this scenario, and I think most here know where I am going.

So the client calls me , extremely frustrated , but willing to buy the N4 upgrade, even tho he had no intention of using N4 at the time. I listen to the client recount the whole incident and burst out laughing, he says , whats so farking funny ?

Now this client has been with me for many many years, so I can get away with bursting out laughing listening to his pain.. :-)

Anyhow,

In between stifling laughs, I explain that -

1: The N4 Upgrade doesn't come with a replacement dongle.

2: I will send him a new blank replacement Syncrosoft key , and that he can transfer the licence using the LCC .

3: There are monkeys running the asylum at Steinberg.

I send client new dongle, he transfers licence, client does not buy N4 upgrade, client vows to never call Steinberg again , client now lives in U.K, and still uses me as a first call for anything to do with Steini support..!

Moral of the story , I don't have one past don't bother expecting service past what you received from Steinberg, sad , isn't it ?

I wonder if Brian has anything to add here , as both cases are in the U.S ?

Brian ?

[ibmcgovern]

Hey Lex, aren't you giving Cubase 5 a try?

Vin, if this truly is a US customer, he should have called US support at 714-228-3301 for that is where he is registered for phone support. If he was truly instructed the need to buy the N4 upgrade to correct the issue, you are absolutely right that is incorrect. The solution was as you stated, transfer to a a different Syncrosoft key. Now, if the key was damaged, we would come to a different solution.

[LEX]

Yes.

I was trying out C5 until they disabled the automation. First it didn't work right.
I even responded to Chris B's request to give reasons why certain automation features weren't "post only" features to no avail.
Then shortly after I posted it, my account was deleted from c.net.

Guess Chris B. doesn't like to be wrong. I think we've all come to realize that if you speak, your gone over there.
Anyway,

The automation is basically worthless now which would have been one of my main reasons for moving to C5. It is basically the same as N3, minus the "fancy panel". All they needed to do was add fill <- ->, and it would have been worth it.

I figured by now, solo/mute and the video issues would have been fixed in C5, but they are not, so at this point, it makes more sense for me to stick with nuendo 3 for midi since everything works as it should.

The N4 upgrade was tempting, but corrupting issues, NI issues, ect that some users are reporting really make it difficult to justify the expense at this time.

I'm also hesitant to make a complete switch over at this point that would require me to rebuild my template for a 3rd time with seq5 eventually hitting the streets, which in someways I feel is going to happen.

So for now, C5 is just in "fool around mode".
There is definately some cool things in there that maybe one day we'll all get to experience once everything works.

LEX

[TAFKAT]

Hey Lex, aren't you giving Cubase 5 a try?

Vin, if this truly is a US customer, he should have called US support at 714-228-3301 for that is where he is registered for phone support. If he was truly instructed the need to buy the N4 upgrade to correct the issue, you are absolutely right that is incorrect. The solution was as you stated, transfer to a a different Syncrosoft key. Now, if the key was damaged, we would come to a different solution.

Brian,

I said he is one of my clients, and local support , for want of a better word, is not in the US .. :wink:

The client is now in London, as I mentioned, so if he is going to make an international call, I'd suggest he would call me before you.., no offense.

BTW: Whats with this "truly" stuff, are you insinuating I just made that story up, actually, you couldn't make this shite up.. !!

I have plenty more, some directly from the US , the switch off Hyperthreading being a blanket solution is a great one , especially when the 2 systems in question didn't have HT, and even better still, one was an AMD system.... :eusa_whistle:

[Sam]

Hey Brian,

I think Vin was referring to the two previous people experiences before his own being from the US....

i think...

[D]

Guess Chris B. doesn't like to be wrong. I think we've all come to realize that if you speak, your gone over there.

Chris B might be banning people because he's a lazy SOB. Fewer "troublemakers", less work for him to do.

[TAFKAT]

Hey Brian,

I think Vin was referring to the two previous people experiences before his own being from the US....

i think...

Correct, must be the accent thats throwing him... Maaate... !!

:D

[LEX]

Chris B might be banning people because he's a lazy SOB. Fewer "troublemakers", less work for him to do.

I never made any trouble at C.net. I had 38 posts total over there.

Chris B. is a whinny SOB and knows I can prove him wrong everytime.

He thought he was being clever when he "dared" people to tell him why those other automation features were needed outside of Post.

Idiot.

LEX

[D]

I never made any trouble at C.net. I had 38 posts total over there.

Chris B. is a whinny SOB and knows I can prove him wrong everytime.

He thought he was being clever when he "dared" people to tell him why those other automation features were needed outside of Post.

Idiot.

LEX

I was simply playing devils advocate. I was banned for having an argument with an SOB (OnkelGrusome) who broke into a thread to start trouble, and I gave it to him.

So, I am on your side here.

[TAFKAT]

I was banned for....., hmmm, actually I have no idea, I hadn't posted there in many months, and had never addressed any comments to C.B . I simply navigated there one day and my account was locked.

I digress,

Where were we, oh yeh.., Steini support.

Carry on.. :wink:

[The Guru]

It appears more support e-mails have gone missing in the past. Seems to be a trend. Doesn't look good for USA support. :eusa_eh:

http://cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=891618#891618

[ibmcgovern]

What I meant by truly was he lives or lived in the US, purchased here and registered as a US customer. Nothing more.

Onto Nate's post, if "emails have gone missing" I need to know what this means, why it is happening and look into it. The direct email address to our US support staff is steinbergussupport@yamaha.com.

Have a great day.

[The Guru]

Well, judging by my dealings with American support, it's my opinion they weren't lost but deleted.

I say this because the first question they ask, no matter what the problem, is what OS you run. This is so that they can blame an unsupported OS for any issue under the sun and not deal with it.

I'd like a hidden camera shot of Brian asking how they got deleted. I'm seeing a "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" chimp pose by the support team. :D

[Daryl]

Nate, if you're using an unsupported OS, you can't expect them to troubleshoot it for you. I agree the line has to be drawn somewhere, and as I am someone who is also using an unsupported OS, I think that I have as much an axe to grind as you do. However, my axe is to do with the fact that they don't support XP64 in the first place.

FWIW any 3rd party developer will give a list of supported hosts, and if your weapon of choice is not named, then you won't get any help from them either.

D

[The Guru]

Nate, if you're using an unsupported OS, you can't expect them to troubleshoot it for you. I agree the line has to be drawn somewhere, and as I am someone who is also using an unsupported OS, I think that I have as much an axe to grind as you do. However, my axe is to do with the fact that they don't support XP64 in the first place.

FWIW any 3rd party developer will give a list of supported hosts, and if your weapon of choice is not named, then you won't get any help from them either.

D

Well, seeing I run LE1, LE4, SX3, and C4 all on XP MCE with absolutely no issues other than the known ones, and have never seen an issue that could be attributed to that OS in the all the posts I've read and answered (in the thousands), and can't nail SBNA to give one example of said issues
with that OS then I stand by my statements.

Stone Mountain has said it over and over, unsupported only means not tested.

Asking a question of how to enter something in the Key Editor and being told you can't because your OS is not supported is what happens.

I was told I didn't have a VST2 folder because I ran MCE when it was they who told me VST2 instead of VSTPlugins. I knew right away what they meant, but they'd have none of it. It was the OS and that was that.

From what I'm seeing of SBNA, I think that house should be cleaned, also. :icon_twisted:

[TAFKAT]

What I meant by truly was he lives or lived in the US, purchased here and registered as a US customer. Nothing more.

You have lost me Mate.

There was never any mention of the US ?

[ibmcgovern]

Sorry, I must have misread UK :(

As far as Nate's question, If I am correct you were mistaken thinking a free audio plug in was a midi plug in. And, we spoke personally and together we resolved your issue? I stand by our SNA support staff any and every day. They may have simply misspoke VST2 vs. VST Plugins folder. They take hundreds of calls a day and yes, we all do make mistakes at times. If your issue with this specific case is still unresolved , please let me know.

Oh, I brought in 2 cameras for a multi-shot :)

Have a great day.

[Sound Drifter]

Well, judging by my dealings with American support, it's my opinion they weren't lost but deleted.

I say this because the first question they ask, no matter what the problem, is what OS you run. This is so that they can blame an unsupported OS for any issue under the sun and not deal with it.

I'd like a hidden camera shot of Brian asking how they got deleted. I'm seeing a "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" chimp pose by the support team. :D

Fresh of the presses:
http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=902098#902098

[The Guru]

Fresh of the presses:
http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=902098#902098


Oh shit, it's catchy! :icon_eek3:

[mrtomcat]

Quick update:

I just had a very good phone conversation with Brian and we resolved my issue with the upgrade.

I believe him to be sincere in trying to make US SB support to be more succesful/helpful so based on that I for one will give this another shot and see where it leads.

Thomas

[The Guru]

Well, did you have to send the disks? :eusa_eh:

[mrtomcat]

nope, looks like they are going to change the process

[The Guru]

Cool, chalk one up for Brian. :icon_cool:

Just remember though, it takes a quadruple number attaboys to erase a given number of aw shits. There's still a long row to hoe! :D

[mrtomcat]

I definetely agree, but sometimes it just takes one dedicated person to rattle up the system and to make a change for the better. So if we all give him the benefit of a doubt we might all get a bit closer to what we are looking for in Steinberg support.
Let's see how things play out

[The Guru]

Well, he'll only get extra credit if SB Germany changes its policy, also. :D