Buyer beware!

[bigboi]

To pay this kind of money for a synth and have NO phone support for US customers is absurd.  It's funny that there are no phone numbers listed AT ALL.  I actually found the U.S.  distributor number and called them because I need help.  I have emailed Arturia and received no response.  The distributor in CA told me that they do not offer any phone tech support for customers.

Just a fair warning to anyone thinking of buying this unit.  It sounds great, but it has serious connectivity issues, and does not perform as advertised.  I bought it because it was listed on their website to have a vst DAW plugin.  It does not.  I can not even get the origin update to connect with it.

By the way... I am not working out of a bedroom or basement.  I have a preproduction studio in Atlanta where I have worked with some big names.  As a matter of fact, one of them is a rapper that EVERYONE would recognize.  He loved the way the Origin looked in the studio and asked me to use it on a demo for one of his artists.  I politely refused, telling him that I did not feel comfortable because of the issues I was having with it.  His labelmate wanted to buy this rapper an origin for his birthday, but I talked him out o it.  Without some kind of tech support, dont bother.

[Antoine]

Hi bigboi,

We do not provide a direct phone tech support service, neither from France or USA, for several reasons:

_ A phone call can take up to 40 minutes with a passionate user (oh yeah really), and we could process sooo much inquiries by mail during this time. We have no army of technicians that can promptly take phone calls. These will be mobilized once we are a big corporation with numerous subsidiaries on all continents. But you (the musician) must first buy tons of Origin to achieve that. 

_ Email correspondence implies rationalization of the communication: the user must precisely describe the problem, he/she can paste numbers & codes, include screenshots, etc. The phone does not allow this data exchange, or with lesser accuracy.

_ Our headquarters are in France, and through the phone the spoken language can be a strong barrier on fine technical subjects, leading to severe misunderstandings, or even the feeling of "poor support" from the user point of view (even if the problem was solved). This can be avoided, or at least reduced, with email communication.

In an ideal world we would have 20+ high-profile technicians spread on the 5 continents, allowing a 24h-a-day phone support.
In the real world we are really less, and provide as-fast-as-possible email tech support.

We do not claim it is the best solution in the world.
We claim it is what we can offer, and so we offer it.

As described in the Support page, please connect under your account and fill a Tech Support Inquiry. We will process it in a timely manner.
_{By the way, I could not find any inquiry from you at the Tech Support desk yet; where did you post it?}


Keep up the good vibrations,

Antoine.

[bigboi]

I filled out a tech support form 3 days ago Antoine.

[Antoine]

OK, you may have posted with another email address, so I cannot trace it. Please forward me the case number (5-digit) assigned to your correspondence, through private message, I check what is going on.

[holografique]

Hi bigboi,

We do not provide a direct phone tech support service, neither from France or USA, for several reasons:

_ A phone call can take up to 40 minutes with a passionate user (oh yeah really), and we could process sooo much inquiries by mail during this time. We have no army of technicians that can promptly take phone calls. These will be mobilized once we are a big corporation with numerous subsidiaries on all continents. But you (the musician) must first buy tons of Origin to achieve that. 

_ Email correspondence implies rationalization of the communication: the user must precisely describe the problem, he/she can paste numbers & codes, include screenshots, etc. The phone does not allow this data exchange, or with lesser accuracy.

_ Our headquarters are in France, and through the phone the spoken language can be a strong barrier on fine technical subjects, leading to severe misunderstandings, or even the feeling of "poor support" from the user point of view (even if the problem was solved). This can be avoided, or at least reduced, with email communication.

In an ideal world we would have 20+ high-profile technicians spread on the 5 continents, allowing a 24h-a-day phone support.
In the real world we are really less, and provide as-fast-as-possible email tech support.

We do not claim it is the best solution in the world.
We claim it is what we can offer, and so we offer it.

As described in the Support page, please connect under your account and fill a Tech Support Inquiry. We will process it in a timely manner.
_{By the way, I could not find any inquiry from you at the Tech Support desk yet; where did you post it?}


Keep up the good vibrations,

Antoine.

Antoine...

May I offer a bit of perspective here coming from someone who has quite a bit of experience with this.

I worked for Native Instruments many years ago, actually the first person to start the US office for them and was the single sole source of tech support and sales in the US for many months prior to finally building a team. One person, I handled hundreds of calls and emails. The one comment I always got was how nice it was to talk someone who understood the product and was ready and willing to help them out.

The BIGGEST thing I helped the company slowly learn to understand is that: Here in the US, customers are accustomed to SPEAKING to someone. It carries a sense of personal attention and care that they are used to in our economy. Regardless of how overly passionate a customer can get (and I know, trust me), or how in-efficient phone support may seem...it goes a looooooong way in making your customers feel like they have a connection to the company and that the company actually cares about their problem. In the US, to pay $2000+ for a product it is to be EXPECTED that at the very least the customer gets solid, reliable and personal support. For your software products it is a bit more flexible. Look around at any of the US companies that sell musical products for that price and you'll see, even the small ones at the very least offer the ability to pick up the phone and talk to someone....

I leave it that, and hope that this can prove some insight to how Arturia thinks about the future of it's customer support....

cheers and keep up the good work.

[synthguy99]

Quite honestly, unless I bought something from a store, I never called any company for person to person help.  I've always gone the email/website route.  It has served me well so far, no complaints from me. 

Maybe I'm easy to please, or gullible, but frankly, I think the human race is afflicted with a severe case of the whines.  And it doesn't bode well for the history of our planet if we constantly expect to have the world sold to us in a teacup for pennies, no problems, and a female tech on hand wearing very little.  If that...

[holografique]

whining? seriously? maybe $2000 is a drop in the bucket for you. but for a lot of people that is a pretty SIGNIFICANT financial investment for them. I could buy my daughter a car for that money. damn right they are entitled to whine. it's called "customer satisfaction"...for "quality products"...something I think anyone spending this kind of money is entitled to.

no one is discounting the advantages of web/email...it's about giving all customers the options to use a method they are most comfortable with when they need help. Sometimes all it takes is 5min on a phone to ask a question, instantly know what's wrong, fix it, and be done. Yet somehow countless back-n-forth emails/posts is supposed to be better?  :|

[Antoine]

@holografique
I share most of your views, and as you mentioned this is not the question to be pro or against email support. My purpose was to explain why, at this point, we do not publicly promote the phone support.

However, and to be fully clear, even if we do not print our phone numbers on the website, we do have phone lines (of course), and a quick search in any phone book will ineluctably return our number. Calling this number will drive the user to several choices, and direct access to the Technical Support desk is one of these, and there is always someone (mostly me) who will take the call, at least within French business hours.

I receive calls everyday, and handle users who are grateful for that.
The point is that most of them do not come here nor post a message saying: "great, my problem was solved in 2mn, this company rules!", which is generally the reality. Same for the emailed-handled users.
The hard law of forums is that mostly dissatisfied users do post, and the vast majority of satisfied users merely never do. I know this law, hopefully most of you share this wisdom as well.

[holografique]

The hard law of forums is that mostly dissatisfied users do post, and the vast majority of satisfied users merely never do. I know this law, hopefully most of you share this wisdom as well.

ahh, how I know this law all too well my friend...

I know you guys put your heart and soul into this stuff and the products. Personally I love the Origin and get excited at any thought of what you guys have in store down the road with the platform. The JP-8 is simply superb and just love how good all the modules sound. My only challenge now is finding more time to use it :|

kudos to you guys...and please...get me that damn Arp2600 reverb module in there...