Customer Service ?

[mintjamman]

Reading through a large number of questions placed by Arturia's customers it appears many receive no reply from Arturia, for any company to survive and maintain the jobs of the staff how can it be conducive or of any value for a company like Arturia who lets face it operate in a niche market to ignore its customers. Customers = INCOME and Income pays the bills and wages !

Lets see Arturia's Customer support improve in the new year for the benefit of all

Happy New Year

[gregorius]

Interesting to read this, eight years on I can only say it hasn't improved.

I've been in discussion with Arturia support for 3 weeks about getting a replacement controller. They agreed that the controller needs replacing and suggested that I go back to the dealer whence I bought it. Upon telling them that I had bought the controller from their website, they have been non-responsive and even claiming their responses have ended in my spam folder (which was quite empty). The last interaction (without a response) was asking for proof of purchase details even though they have the order number from their own website!

Incredible bad experience. For anyone buying Arturia equipment: just hope it doesn't break because customer support isn't their thing.

Just as a clarification: I won't mind waiting 3 weeks if they simply told me what was going on, e.g. no stock anymore, or covid has destroyed their supply chain, or no more cardboard boxes to send packages. But they simply don't respond. Ignoring customers is worse than just being honest and saying they have too many complaints from customers and no customer support people, IMHO.

[MajorFubar]

Personally, I think they have a portfolio of too many products now, to manage them all effectively.
I know that doesn't directly excuse what you consider to be poor customer service, but I think it partly explains it.
You only have to read through the pages of people wanting firmware updates for their particular piece of hardware, or asking when is 'X' software instrument going to have an update to remove the bugs, to realise they have irons in way too many fires, and everybody expects their ask to be given priority.

Not Arturia specific, but I really miss the days when, if you had a query or a problem, you phoned a human being and they personally dealt with it. Radio silence was not an option.

[DrJustice]

This isn't a large enough sample size to condemn Arturia, IMNSHO. The word is that both products and customer service have improved a lot since the early days. Of course there's always an outlier or an unfortunate incident. However, they're are known for being helpful an following through. Even GS (the fire and brimstone gear site) is of that perception now.

[gregorius]

@MajorFubar

I think you point out something important there. Many companies don't realise is that they come into a situation where they have X versions of the firmware for Y products so that you end up with X times Y different combinations of problems. Then the software solutions that they offer and the different versions of hardware ...

For companies it becomes a balance between making customers happy with good products with many feature updates versus how many are upset by bad customer support because support becomes so difficult.

In my experience, there is a lot that you can solved by having a well organised knowledge management system for customer support, identifying those top X% questions and having FAQs or template responses for those, or forums like these were users can help each other.

And above all, just be honest with the customer - customer have far more sympathy and patience if they know what's going on, rather than an organisation attempting to hide their deficiencies.

@DrJustice

A sample size of one is only large enough if the population is one - true!

I'm not condemning them for their product, nor for the good software - impressed by both.

Instead for their honesty: just tell me what the next steps are and I'm fine with it. If there is a delay then tell me that. And maybe I'm that 0.001% of people that has a bad experience with customer support but what else should I do? If I get little or no response from the customer support, then of course I will ask others if this is outlier or typical for Arturia.

[DrJustice]

...
Instead for their honesty: just tell me what the next steps are and I'm fine with it. If there is a delay then tell me that. And maybe I'm that 0.001% of people that has a bad experience with customer support but what else should I do? If I get little or no response from the customer support, then of course I will ask others if this is outlier or typical for Arturia.

I agree, it's certainly not fun if your case somehow gets stuck/fumbled/or-what-have-you. Hopefuly it'll be resolved soon - I'll ping support. Crossing my fingers for you!

[gregorius]

While the sleepy town of Arturia Customer Support slumbered, the Elves began their work. It was deep in the night, bitterly cold in the sleepy old town of Arturia Customer Support.

The Elves nonetheless plied their trade and built, working hard deep into the night, facing the cold snowy nights with stoic certainty of success. For the sleepy town of Arturia Customer Support had fallen into a very deep slumber.

For the sleepy town of Arturia Customer Support had eaten from the poisonous golden apple Success. It was laced with the putrid essence of arrogance and bad-will. Disconnected from the joyous Elves, from the sunshine of the green fields, the sleepy old town of Arturia Customer Support slept and slept. Soon the deep tones of snoozing filled the night air and the air became toxic with the stench of putrid laziness and disinterest, as the town snoozed.

Then one day the Elves completed their work, they had fulfilled their dreams and created something of precious marvel and beauty. It was the most marvellous article of loveliness that the world had ever adored. And the bringers of success left the town of Arturia Customer Support to follow the Elves to their new and wonderfully pleasurable land of honesty and goodwill.

The sleepy old town of Arturia Customer Support awoke, the town awoke not to the sunshine and green-golden fields of success, no here was another land, a different land. A land filled with putrid smells and desert sands. The town of Arturia Customer Support saw no one, heard no one, they had all gone, they who had brought success, had taken it away again.

And the moral of the story? There is no moral in an immoral world.

[gregorius]

After four months of Kafkaesque discussions, I've given up on Arturia support. I've come to accept my defective dial No. 14!

The final straw came with their promise of sending me a new controller. They would get back to me with a tracking number once it was sent. They never got back to me with a tracking number, instead ten days later, I receive an email:

Your support request number (8xxxxxx5) is now pending for 10 days.

We yet received no news from your side, and may need your feedback to resolve your request.

Can you please get back to us as soon as you can?

/!\ After 20 days pending, your case will be considered as solved and automatically closed.

I have no idea what they want from me, I wrote them that, and they have - surprise, surprise - not responded.

I congratulate Arturia for their grinding skills, they have ground me down into an Kafkaesquian squishy (perhaps greenish?) pulp, much as my opinion of them. I have written a longer account for those interested in never-ending sagas --> https://millieons.org/reviews/arturia

[Merlin]

Not Arturia specific, but I really miss the days when, if you had a query or a problem, you phoned a human being and they personally dealt with it. Radio silence was not an option.

It doesn't sound as if you were around before that.  Once 'support' were often mostly completely absent.   The best you could hope for were the existence of something called a BBS (Bulletin board system and they were few and far between)  which required that you somehow had the telephone number and a telephone modem and communication software and then if lucky either the BBS would serve the public or someone had given you the password so that you could 'sponge' of this extreme benefit of being able to download a driver or something for something that you had acquired !
If you had tried that then you most certainly would not miss those days.
The best of days were when Creative Labs ruled and you got the impression that they earned money by the truck load (which of course they didn't but their European support were really that great !).
But having people doing nothing sitting all day other than talking in telephone with you costs a lot of money and requires a huge profit margin where many companies these days more struggle to survive if they do not have something close to a monopoly on something like e.g. Micro$oft had for decades !

After four months of Kafkaesque discussions, I've given up on Arturia support. I've come to accept my defective dial No. 14!
<----SNIP----->
 I have written a longer account for those interested in never-ending sagas --> https://millieons.org/reviews/arturia

So ! you are not going to be happy with this !
But in short , I took a look at your own description of your 'case'  and I find your capacity for self deceit amazing !
You largely denies playing by the rules and when stuff goes wrong then it's everybody else's fault than your own !
You buy the product in one name (apparently your given) and then when registering that which for you is something where support is so important then you register in a fictitious name !   I mean what is wrong with you if you can not see that that is a NO NO !
You casually just write that off as your habit !?
You even try to make it sound as if it is poor that Arturia can not magically find out by themselves that you bought it from them even when you didn't tell them from the start :
Quote :
04.08.2022:
Registered controller using a artistic pseudonym as name. It is a habit of mine to have an artist pseudonym and a birth certificate name.
Quote :
14.10.2022:
Pointed out to Arturia support that I purchased the controller not from a reseller, but from their website under a different name. Explained to them that I used two different names: one for purchasing and one for registering the controller. Their assumption that there is an reseller is wrong.
Then when you *finally* get support to agree to repair the unit and they ask you to return it to them for repair then your reaction is 'Sorry can't do that' !  Even though that you must know that most often that is procedure that things are repaired rather than replaced with new , you even claim that other places you would get better treatment.  These days you can not expect companies to have the money to send you a new units for no good reason other than you would prefer them to send a new unit instead of you having to wait to get your own unit fixed !
(And what the hell do you expect them to do with the fixed one ?  Like you would have accepted yourself to get another used one sent as replacement with scratches or whatever)
Quote :
08.12.2022
Arturia support sent me UPS shipment labels to send my broken unit in. Obviously the prospect of sending them the controller that I am using and then having to wait for months for a return, did not fill me with joy. So I replied that I would prefer that they send me a replacement and I would send back the broken unit using the packaging of the new controller.
Also you apparently confuses automated emails with that they read forum posts because you are such an important person using fictitious names (or however it is to you !)   (it is very much the standard that automated emails are sent to people , also in cases concerning warranty questions)

Surely it's annoying that you have to wait from 23.10.2022 until 08.12.2022 for them to process things and send you shipment label but you all the way through screw up everything only to afterwards turn around and say that none of this is your fault !  (dates referred to are from when Arturia seemingly has dug through you phony registration crap til you receive the label) (extra time may still be because you made it impossible for internal company automation to work by using phony registration)
Also you even write that you sent them a 'fairytale' , expecting that a mix of fiction and complex irony is the way to go ! :
Quote :
On 4.11.2022 I even sent Arturia Support a fairytale:

My advice is , crawl back to Arturia support on your knees and beg forgiveness for acting as such a butt all the way through and ask them to send you a new return label so that you can return the unit so that they can fix your unit for you.

I have no intention of being rude though I am sure that what I wrote will be considered as such !  But it surely looks like if you need a serious wake-up call .  So wake Up ! Please ! 

[gregorius]

You comments are a different perspective, thank you for that!

Perhaps the main reason for my frustration was the repetitive nature of their responses, details that I had already told them were forgotten. The final straw was the please respond else we close the ticket even though there was nothing to respond to! Of course I behaved childish, of course I come across as that child that has thrown themselves on the floor and is scream his head off. However that was not my intention, my intention was not to experience all this. All I wanted was a replacement dial to replace a broken one.

However how else does one deal with a faceless company when there is only email contact via customer support and they stop communicating with one? If you can provide an alternative approach, I would be happy to try that out the next time.

Ok perhaps I could have simply have waited and waited longer, of course, that would also have been alternative.

Even though that you must know that most often that is procedure that things are repaired rather than replaced with new , you even claim that other places you would get better treatment.

Must things are now produced in China and are simply trashed if returned. For a reference:

- https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-massive-returns-problem.html
- https://www.greenmatters.com/p/what-happens-amazon-returns
- https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/5/22611017/amazon-resell-overstock-returns-warehouse-waste

It would be nice to think that things are actually repaired, I doubt very much that the controller would be repaired (having had a look inside, it seems to be very much integrated). Ironically my initial inquiry was: send me some new dials and I'll solder them in. But they told me to go to my reseller. I would have repaired it myself, but that wasn't an option.

I claim that I would have been given better treatment had there be a larger platform involved, i.e., Amazon. I did not claim that I would get a better treatment generally. The point being that if a company has an incentive to be nice, they will be - as many humans will also.

These days you can not expect companies to have the money to send you a new units for no good reason other than you would prefer them to send a new unit instead of you having to wait to get your own unit fixed !

Here the point is that yes, most companies expect return first however I was not sure that Arturias support would respond that quickly and that I would be without a controller for month(s). Today they sent me a new unit. I am happy to send back the old unit (I still have the return labels) but they already said there is no need to return the old.

[Merlin]

You comments are a different perspective, thank you for that!

And *thank you* for receiving my comments in such a nice manner !   These days that's not what you expect, one expects more that people fly off the handle and stuff !  But thank *you* very much !

Here the point is that yes, most companies expect return first however I was not sure that Arturias support would respond that quickly and that I would be without a controller for month(s).

Problem is that these days it is not just about 'expecting return' (profit) but more about long term survival of companies and workplaces !  And as for the long time it took then as I wrote in my initial comment then I think that you yourself has caused a lot of that.  Also , and this is important to always remember , most companies these days do not have infinite resources, so any company these days needs to try to 'automate' as much as possible to conserve manpower so when you yourself make it difficult to process your request then likelihood is that you are going to see some kind of 'congestion' .

Today they sent me a new unit. I am happy to send back the old unit (I still have the return labels) but they already said there is no need to return the old.

Congratulations with that ! 
I am happy for you !
Now you just need to find 'a replacement dial' then you have two units  (These days when I open electronics and peek inside I get the urge to quickly put the lid back on because it looks like most of it is not easy to fix for common folks like me)

As for the 'what happens to stuff returned for repairs' then that is part of basic modern  'rule book' , that it is the company's prerogative to decide if they think the unit worth fixing or if they prefer to rather just send you a new one after inspecting the old.
Though of-course you are so right that it's so wrong that stuff can not be fixed one way or the other and everything is just thrown into the trash !

I hope that you will be happy with your Arturia stuff.  I am with mine ! , I only recently got my first Arturia software and I am very happy with it and hope that I will one day get the money to buy some of their hardware also (Keyboard and/or Synth)

[MajorFubar]

Not Arturia specific, but I really miss the days when, if you had a query or a problem, you phoned a human being and they personally dealt with it. Radio silence was not an option.

It doesn't sound as if you were around before that.  Once 'support' were often mostly completely absent.   The best you could hope for were the existence of something called a BBS (Bulletin board system and they were few and far between)

Dude, I predate BBS's by about 30 years. I'm talking about the time when computers were something with lots of flashing lights and big reels of tape we only saw on TV, and when we phoned a helpline for something, we talked to a real human being in our own country who could understand our language who and dealt with our query there and then. Seems to be you who is too young to remember, not me. 

[Merlin]

Dude, I predate BBS's by about 30 years. I'm talking about the time when computers were something with lots of flashing lights and big reels of tape we only saw on TV, and when we phoned a helpline for something, we talked to a real human being in our own country who could understand our language who and dealt with our query there and then.

That makes you 'sound' as someone for whom your native language is English , could also be German or French but really makes you sound as English speaking, and would in particular fit the profile of an American (again not necessarily so). 
And really makes me think of the movie "The Glass Bottom Boat" Starring Doris Day & Rod Taylor and other (earlier?) movies using tech references in same manner...
Not all of 'us' are from huge countries where experiences generally were the same at that time ! 

Seems to be you who is too young to remember, not me. 

Don't think so , but I'll gladly accept that you maybe predates me....

Ref.:
Quote : "MajorFubar"  : "Dude, I predate BBS's by about 30 years."
Quote Wikipedia :
1) : "A precursor to the public bulletin board system was Community Memory, started in August 1973 in Berkeley, California. "
2) : "The first public dial-up BBS was developed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange (CACHE). According to an early interview, when Chicago was snowed under during the Great Blizzard of 1978, "

(Which would make "MajorFubar" a Fubar model 43 or a Fubar model 48 )

(Anyway , "MajorFubar"  doesn't appear that fubar to me   )