why ABLETON support sucks?

Discuss anything related to audio or music production.
aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by aklisiewicz » Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:32 pm

I'm using Live for almost 2 years, and so far I was patient,..but this time I decided to share it, so those of you considering the product or thinking about an update will have a picture. The picture presents an excellent product with the poor support. Why? Simply, because while Ableton is growing in products, add-ons, hardware etc. their customer support downgrades. I remember when I started with Live4 I was very happy. For the last year I have contacted Ableton number of times and NEVER got a straight timed response. They always have some kind of excuse. Several times I was told I have sent an email to the wrong address (while this was an address given in a Live HELP, right on the screen). Usually it takes me to send at least 2-3 messages to get someone respond to my requests. This time I need simply to re-activate Live7. Due to computer crash I had to reinstall the OS and Live7. I tried this on-line and I was given a message I exceeded number of activations.
I had send an email asking to reset the counter 2 days ago and still I'm not able to use the product, simply because I WAS IGNORED, and no one even bothered to do something. If this had happened one time only I would just think they had a bad day, but putting simply this had happened to me at least 10 times within a year.
I can say Ableton customer support SUCKS! Perhaps other people have more luck, but I am ready to ask Ableton for a refund, because believe - for around $1000 I paid for the product I'm entitled to fair support without being stuck for number of days with no help. I'm using WindowsXP and in about month or two I plan to switch to Win7, so perhaps even if I get granted access to activate product one more time today, I will be going through this pain again in a two months. This perspective makes me think if I have picked right product, or perhaps I should become a hacker(?)

Consider this when you plan to buy LIVE or if you are existing user, help me and ask Ableton for better technical/customer support.

At this point my only choice (and it is against my ethics) is go on-line and search for crack

Arthur Klisiewicz
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

macmurphy
Posts: 1431
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2004 7:21 am
Location: Emneth,Norfolk, UK

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by macmurphy » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:01 pm

I know how annoying it can be when you are having problems with a product and the the companies support doesn't appear to be doing it's job. I know it's frustrating and i feel for you, i really do. However, just to give a balanced picture here to any prospective purchasers (as this is who you appear to be aiming your comments towards) i have been using Live since v3 and have no complaints at all about their support. In fact i have found them to be one of the more friendly and efficient support teams around.
Just my experience.

Neil.

LoopStationZebra
Posts: 10586
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:57 pm
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by LoopStationZebra » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:05 pm

What did you do to piss them off? :P
I came for the :lol:
But stayed for the :x

dj donnyman
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:54 pm

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by dj donnyman » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:15 pm

aklisiewicz wrote:I'm using Live for almost 2 years, and so far I was patient,..but this time I decided to share it, so those of you considering the product or thinking about an update will have a picture. The picture presents an excellent product with the poor support. Why? Simply, because while Ableton is growing in products, add-ons, hardware etc. their customer support downgrades. I remember when I started with Live4 I was very happy. For the last year I have contacted Ableton number of times and NEVER got a straight timed response. They always have some kind of excuse. Several times I was told I have sent an email to the wrong address (while this was an address given in a Live HELP, right on the screen). Usually it takes me to send at least 2-3 messages to get someone respond to my requests. This time I need simply to re-activate Live7. Due to computer crash I had to reinstall the OS and Live7. I tried this on-line and I was given a message I exceeded number of activations.
I had send an email asking to reset the counter 2 days ago and still I'm not able to use the product, simply because I WAS IGNORED, and no one even bothered to do something. If this had happened one time only I would just think they had a bad day, but putting simply this had happened to me at least 10 times within a year.
I can say Ableton customer support SUCKS! Perhaps other people have more luck, but I am ready to ask Ableton for a refund, because believe - for around $1000 I paid for the product I'm entitled to fair support without being stuck for number of days with no help. I'm using WindowsXP and in about month or two I plan to switch to Win7, so perhaps even if I get granted access to activate product one more time today, I will be going through this pain again in a two months. This perspective makes me think if I have picked right product, or perhaps I should become a hacker(?)

Consider this when you plan to buy LIVE or if you are existing user, help me and ask Ableton for better technical/customer support.

At this point my only choice (and it is against my ethics) is go on-line and search for crack

Arthur Klisiewicz
Your only choice??? Is it your only choice to go looking for a nasty virus or Trojan, or for some crack site to gain access to your computer because you have been dumb enough to visit their site and download their cracks which happen to have a nasty backdoor trojan attached that slips past your security software. I dont know what your problem is but if you put your point across in a more friendly and constructive manner, maybe someone may be able to give you some good advice, as it seems like you will need it if you are considering downloading cracks.

kleine
Posts: 1854
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2001 11:46 am
Location: ableton
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by kleine » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:22 pm

Hello aklisiewicz,

I´m sorry to hear about your frustration. It seems you are dissatisfied with our copy protection scheme.
If you reach your unlock limit on a friday night, one has unfortunately to wait until the next business day to get this resolved.
We are aware that this can cause in some cases inconveniences and we thought of some strategies to prevent this:
- whenever you use your last authorization, you get a reply with exactly this information,
so that you can authorize your machine and have time to write us about future unlocks.
Eventually you changed your e-mail address and this automatic message did not reach you?
- if there´s really the unfortunate situation and you don´t have any authorization during a weekend,
you can still load an play your sets in demo mode (important if you are using Live on stage etc.)
Some might argue that a hardware protection (e.g. a dongle etc.) might prevent such a scenario but if you think about it,
there are other problems attached to it.
We´re doing our best to minimize any problems for our users, be it for the copy protection or anything else.

If, for any reason, you do not get an appropriate answer in an timely matter for a request,
please give us a quick call or resend your e-mail.

Best,
Christian

Pasha
Posts: 3328
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:45 pm
Location: Lost Island
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by Pasha » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:28 pm

^^
Don't ever think of an hardware protection!!! :twisted:
Live protection is ok as it is.
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

smutek
Posts: 4489
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 3:30 pm
Location: Baltimore,United States

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by smutek » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:41 pm

Over the last few years I've become disillusioned with Abletons business model and consequently have lost most of the faith, loyalty and respect I once had for the product and the brand.

However, I don't know how things are today but on the few occasions I have had to contact them over the past 7 years I would be a liar if I said that Ableton's support has been anything but prompt, professional and courteous.

I have no complaints with Ableton support based on my own experiences as a customer since 2003.

davepermen
Posts: 2198
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:38 pm
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by davepermen » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:49 pm

i sure had about 10 resets for new activations of live in the last year (tested win7 on different machines, sometimes live betas messed the activation). they where always very quick at resetting it.

and yes, if all else fails, demo mode still works to rock out on a show.

so no, not anything of the kind of "ableton support sucks"

but i love (as in, i hate) the posts of "proof that ableton sucks" in any form.

it's a language-form that i learned to never use against someone who at least tries. and ableton tries, as we all know, to help in all kind of situations. they even in public state that they do have issues right now and they have highest priority.
http://davepermen.net my tiny webpage, including link to bandcamp.

john doe by choice
Posts: 1085
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 4:21 am

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by john doe by choice » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:07 pm

Actually, I'm all for hardware protection. If hardware protection would allow for issues like this to go away, as well as get the crack users to find help among themselves instead of support being wasted on people who aren't even paying for the product, then bring it on - all the complaints on this forum about Live 8, and no one considers that keeping the product secure and viable is a constant battle, wasting precious development time that could be used to improve all the other real problems, instead of constantly changing up the inner workings of the software to make sure that crack users don't have access to the latest and greatest version/features. And yeah, I know that there are a lot of people who have had problems with synchrosoft and Pace, but that's because those companies don't really give a shit about the end user. If ableton were to come up with a hardware protection setup that would be non-invasive (by this, I mean doing nothing but validating your abelton license) and be handled by abe support instead of some third party software, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.

EDIT: Also, never had a problem with abe support, and have been a loyal user for years (although, I'm not interested in the issues involved with early adoption - still on 7.)

davepermen
Posts: 2198
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:38 pm
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by davepermen » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:12 pm

well, all goes well till the hw dongle fails. which they do from time to time. and then, sir, have fun. (because most of the time, software is made to not work at all if there is no working dongle).

the way it works now is fine. the only thign would be to be able to edit the activations on your own on the homepage. so if you know you will switch to new hw, you can deactivate the old one, f.e. then it would be perfect.
http://davepermen.net my tiny webpage, including link to bandcamp.

Pasha
Posts: 3328
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:45 pm
Location: Lost Island
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by Pasha » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:20 pm

john doe by choice wrote:Actually, I'm all for hardware protection. If hardware protection would allow for issues like this to go away, as well as get the crack users to find help among themselves instead of support being wasted on people who aren't even paying for the product, then bring it on - all the complaints on this forum about Live 8, and no one considers that keeping the product secure and viable is a constant battle, wasting precious development time that could be used to improve all the other real problems, instead of constantly changing up the inner workings of the software to make sure that crack users don't have access to the latest and greatest version/features. And yeah, I know that there are a lot of people who have had problems with synchrosoft and Pace, but that's because those companies don't really give a shit about the end user. If ableton were to come up with a hardware protection setup that would be non-invasive (by this, I mean doing nothing but validating your abelton license) and be handled by abe support instead of some third party software, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.

EDIT: Also, never had a problem with abe support, and have been a loyal user for years (although, I'm not interested in the issues involved with early adoption - still on 7.)
-1 for having a dongle sucking 1 usb port. Sorry.
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

Pasha
Posts: 3328
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:45 pm
Location: Lost Island
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by Pasha » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:23 pm

davepermen wrote:well, all goes well till the hw dongle fails. which they do from time to time. and then, sir, have fun. (because most of the time, software is made to not work at all if there is no working dongle).

the way it works now is fine. the only thign would be to be able to edit the activations on your own on the homepage. so if you know you will switch to new hw, you can deactivate the old one, f.e. then it would be perfect.
+1 for software protection. I can't imagine people with problems due to a 'virtual' dongle...
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

davepermen
Posts: 2198
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:38 pm
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by davepermen » Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:24 pm

Pasha wrote:
john doe by choice wrote:Actually, I'm all for hardware protection. If hardware protection would allow for issues like this to go away, as well as get the crack users to find help among themselves instead of support being wasted on people who aren't even paying for the product, then bring it on - all the complaints on this forum about Live 8, and no one considers that keeping the product secure and viable is a constant battle, wasting precious development time that could be used to improve all the other real problems, instead of constantly changing up the inner workings of the software to make sure that crack users don't have access to the latest and greatest version/features. And yeah, I know that there are a lot of people who have had problems with synchrosoft and Pace, but that's because those companies don't really give a shit about the end user. If ableton were to come up with a hardware protection setup that would be non-invasive (by this, I mean doing nothing but validating your abelton license) and be handled by abe support instead of some third party software, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.

EDIT: Also, never had a problem with abe support, and have been a loyal user for years (although, I'm not interested in the issues involved with early adoption - still on 7.)
-1 for having a dongle sucking 1 usb port. Sorry.
oh, yeah, -2. i only have two usb ports. riht now that's soundcard, launchpad, lemur at the network port, and the soundcard has a midi port to chain two faderfoxies.

don't take away the space for the precious usb ports!! :) (they could build it as a tiny hub-like device so you plug it BETWEEN something else, and the laptop, though..

still, hating it :)
http://davepermen.net my tiny webpage, including link to bandcamp.

Bizon
Posts: 345
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:51 pm
Location: Calgary

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by Bizon » Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:21 pm

aklisiewicz wrote:I'm using Live for almost 2 years, and so far I was patient,..but this time I decided to share it, so those of you considering the product or thinking about an update will have a picture. The picture presents an excellent product with the poor support. Why? Simply, because while Ableton is growing in products, add-ons, hardware etc. their customer support downgrades. I remember when I started with Live4 I was very happy. For the last year I have contacted Ableton number of times and NEVER got a straight timed response. They always have some kind of excuse. Several times I was told I have sent an email to the wrong address (while this was an address given in a Live HELP, right on the screen). Usually it takes me to send at least 2-3 messages to get someone respond to my requests. This time I need simply to re-activate Live7. Due to computer crash I had to reinstall the OS and Live7. I tried this on-line and I was given a message I exceeded number of activations.
I had send an email asking to reset the counter 2 days ago and still I'm not able to use the product, simply because I WAS IGNORED, and no one even bothered to do something. If this had happened one time only I would just think they had a bad day, but putting simply this had happened to me at least 10 times within a year.
I can say Ableton customer support SUCKS! Perhaps other people have more luck, but I am ready to ask Ableton for a refund, because believe - for around $1000 I paid for the product I'm entitled to fair support without being stuck for number of days with no help. I'm using WindowsXP and in about month or two I plan to switch to Win7, so perhaps even if I get granted access to activate product one more time today, I will be going through this pain again in a two months. This perspective makes me think if I have picked right product, or perhaps I should become a hacker(?)

Consider this when you plan to buy LIVE or if you are existing user, help me and ask Ableton for better technical/customer support.

At this point my only choice (and it is against my ethics) is go on-line and search for crack

Arthur Klisiewicz

You paid $1000+ for the product?

You realize there is cheaper ways to get it right? Like get light with some random hardware and upgrade, or wait for when they offer deals, etc...

john doe by choice
Posts: 1085
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 4:21 am

Re: why ABLETON support sucks?

Post by john doe by choice » Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:43 pm

davepermen wrote:
Pasha wrote:
john doe by choice wrote:Actually, I'm all for hardware protection. If hardware protection would allow for issues like this to go away, as well as get the crack users to find help among themselves instead of support being wasted on people who aren't even paying for the product, then bring it on - all the complaints on this forum about Live 8, and no one considers that keeping the product secure and viable is a constant battle, wasting precious development time that could be used to improve all the other real problems, instead of constantly changing up the inner workings of the software to make sure that crack users don't have access to the latest and greatest version/features. And yeah, I know that there are a lot of people who have had problems with synchrosoft and Pace, but that's because those companies don't really give a shit about the end user. If ableton were to come up with a hardware protection setup that would be non-invasive (by this, I mean doing nothing but validating your abelton license) and be handled by abe support instead of some third party software, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.

EDIT: Also, never had a problem with abe support, and have been a loyal user for years (although, I'm not interested in the issues involved with early adoption - still on 7.)
-1 for having a dongle sucking 1 usb port. Sorry.
oh, yeah, -2. i only have two usb ports. riht now that's soundcard, launchpad, lemur at the network port, and the soundcard has a midi port to chain two faderfoxies.

don't take away the space for the precious usb ports!! :) (they could build it as a tiny hub-like device so you plug it BETWEEN something else, and the laptop, though..

still, hating it :)
Meh - hubs are cheap and reliable, work for tons of people just fine. Something that a lot of controller manufacturers also have never considered is putting a USB slave port in their controllers, specifically for dongle use (dongles don't require that much power, either). Another idea (only a speculative idea at best, criticize if you want): An ableton-made dongle, with an option in the software to remove the dongle after the software has booted up, or an option that would give the user the ability to authorize full use of the software for 24 hours from the time the dongle was accessed, without requiring reauthorization for that period. I mean, it's just an idea, and with the right setup, it could work great, and allow developers the time to work on something more important to paying users than authorization and security issues (I'd bet that a fair amount of bug fixes have a lot to do with new exploits in security coming from new features introduced into the software). Instead of just shooting the idea down, why not look at it for its positives and then come up with suggestions that will make it work? In the long run, worrying about security is only taking precious time away from improving the software, and I'd bet that no one on this forum who doesn't work for ableton can honestly tell me how much time is wasted on just that. Constant bug fixes, new file formats...they may have their place and be identified as necessary for the software to progress, but it would be naive to think that there aren't underlying security issues being addressed with many of the improvements we see.

Post Reply