Do you think Ableton Support sucks ?

[aklisiewicz]

I wonder how is your Ableton turnover replies to your requests and tickets ?

I am so disappointed . I use Live since version 3 and ABLETON support went from being excellent to being one of the worst. The worst part is the delay I have to wait for initial response. Within last year I have created several tickets and cannot get anybody to talk or reply even within 2 weeks. The most recent ticket I created was from 10 days ago and still have no contact despite this wasn't even technical support, but an issue related to the licensing and purchase.

I would like to know if the other user have the same experience, because it is becoming so frustrating that I am about switching to another DAW.
On top of that I have one technical issue which I struggle for years, and they still were not able to help me to fix it. The wait time is forever,....

[Tarekith]

You do realize we are in the middle of a global pandemic and not everything is functioning as normal, don't you?

[aklisiewicz]

pandemic is only in your mind - for me it does not exist. Yes I see government restrictions and business suffers from that but quality of the support deteriorated for last few years so it is not only 2020/2021 thing, besides these days millions of people work from home and this is really not an excuse. Ableton is not a restaurant, club, theater etc, it is a digital company so they should be able to handle everything..

[jestermgee]

I certainly feel some things on this planet suck....

pandemic is only in your mind - for me it does not exist.

Firstly, that is rubbish. It is a virus and it exists and is a cause of problems widespread. Try tell that argument to the millions of people that have died because of it, rather a disrespectful and completely unfounded statement TBH, irrespective of your own belief, you obviously do not work in areas that require dealing with people on a daily basis and the effects of this problem on a global scale. You certainly do not work for a multinational corporate company or you would have some idea of the logistical issues around this kind of thing.

Did you ever consider that things like the pandemic don't just affect how/where the employees of Ableton work, but maybe also there are now millions of people either off work, sick at home or unable to travel and are now stuck at home and maybe using Live more so from 200 support tickets daily, there may now be 4000 daily? Did you also consider many of these are simpletons that cannot read manuals or sort out issues for themselves... and they all feel they are the most important person so they clog up the channels so the rest of us have to also suffer?

Maybe they have a flashing light that alerts them of users that have proven to be problematic in the past and so their requests get bumped down.

Could be many reasons, often I have found crying out that everything/everyone sux doesn't really help gather traction with things as much as you may feel it does.

There are so much more appropriate ways to get a delayed ticket looked at

[[jur]]

for me it does not exist.

You should really stop thinking you're the only person on the planet dude.

Oh, and also try a touch of humility when you talk to support...

[aklisiewicz]

I will not go into discussing virus and related topics because some of the statements made by some users are a plain joke or proof of ignorance. IT seems to be same kind of discussion as trying to prove the earth is flat. There are those who believe it and I'm OK with that.

This forum is about creating music and not the virus. I simply stated that the deteriorating support takes place for many years and not from the time when (so called) "plandemia" has exploded. No matter what kind of problem it is they will always ask me for the report file. They provide a server address to uploaded it - but it never works. Then when I complain they ask me to create some cloud account so I can dump the huge report file for them (and I do not use or will use cloud services). Instead Ableton should provide working FTP server or find some other method.

In this case report file (they asking me) is absolutely irrelevant to the problem. Their requests are probably generated by some script), but my last 3-4 cases did not get reply for weeks.

I simply posted an issue to the billing/license department and I cannot imagine how after almost 2 weeks I still have no answer.
2 Years ago when I created a ticket it has been no different (and there was no Covid). Ableton simply has not enough staff to take care of the users and that is something that bothers me a lot because often I'm stuck and in cases like this one (I have some problems with payment processing) there is nothing I can do. It is not a matter of reading manual or getting my Pc fixed. The reason I posted the message was to find out if other people experience delays and how big...
or perhaps I am the only one

[[jur]]

or perhaps I am the only one

No, that's what we reapeted you several times.

[Mark Williams]

or perhaps I am the only one

Your previous attitude here, will also play a part, in the past you have been rude & aggressive.
Now when you want help , no one will help, and I cant blame them.

As regarding the rest of your wild statements, it is irrelevant what you believe, the facts are there for all too see.

[aklisiewicz]

I stated clearly that Ableton from 10 years ago is not the same company and the support is below my expectations, despite it was great back then.
OK, I guess it is only me, I must have been a victim of Ableton ignorance and everybody else is happy. Perhaps it is time to switch the DAW and luckily there is plenty to choose from.

[Mark Williams]

Don't let door hit you on way out.

[jestermgee]

I will not go into discussing virus and related topics because some of the statements I made are a plain joke and proof of ignorance.

Fixed that one up for ya.

Not that there is any point trying to help you understand because you never do but we are not in the same times as 10/20 years ago. People need to understand that while there may have been a time where there was a direct bat phone to the desk of the guy who actually programs the software, 20 years ago there were 1/100th of the users actually using the software. Hell, many did not have computers.

Now not only do you have almost every kid with a dream and money to burn, but these kids are having gear dropped in their lap and haven't done the time to learn this stuff so there are now 100 people daily asking "uh, how do I plug this into my thing and make trax that are bangin". The number of users is increasing and at the same time, the level of self help and patience to figure out things or even read the manual has declined, everyone wants things to "just work" and NOW!!!

Many companies have had to pull the more direct avenues of support because it is simply not possible to expand support for the RTFM noobs at the same rate so there are channels now which have priorities for questions and as I have explained to you in the past, as someone who works in these support channels (in other areas, not at Ableton), we place priority on customers based on importance of the issue and how the customer is interacting. There are always improvements to be made and no company likes leaving people hanging especially when some have a living to make but you want to help the ones that appreciate it more, that's human nature.

Some tips for others:
- Submit a ticket with all the details that will matter about the issue and nothing that doesn't
- Keep your feelings, frustrations and beliefs out of the equation. If it wont help your case, just leave it out)!
- Have some patience as yes things can take some time.
- If you feel the issue is taking too long, there are mods who have access to the support team on this forum, who may in fact offer chase up a ticket is asked nicely, tho that depends on the ticket and the user, but you can also send follow-ups and there is also a phone you can call, not always convenient but is there.

You have a license issue... this would probably be sorted in a single call easily

[aklisiewicz]

I worked with Ableton for so many years, and while getting results every year there was more and more frustration build up because of support. In many aspects the software is great, but I cannot afford to wait 2-3 weeks for someone to respond to my issue. This is completely apart from the details of what kind of issue. One of the problems I reported was with the license and upgrade and after almost two weeks I get no response. I will not even mention that if this will not get resolved then Ableton simply loose $$. Also billing and license issues should be taken care ASAP because they do not require high technical knowledge, so there is no excuse for such delays.

To be honest I almost decided to switch to another DAW although probably keep Live10 for some time for backup compatibility with my old projects. At the moment it is just a matter of research what would I use instead.
I also (probably for the first time for many years started researching other products like Cubase, Studio One and Bitwig and I see that Live is not as great as I thought (comparing to other product features). Yes it has some unique features but for my type of production they are not crucial. Probably will be missing Session View and that might be the only one thing. Of course it all depends on what kind of production we do.

While technical problems can be often resolved with the help of the forum, billing and license issues cannot. This is for me pretty much a deal breaker. I used to do programming (different area) but if my customers would not get god enough support from me they would simply go with another product or company. What bothers me is that so many companies, once they grow big loose their sense of interaction with the real customer. Ableton is a pure example of that. It seems that their support department does not grow proportionally to the growth of the customer base.

Today I can pay $100 more (than Live11 upgrade and get PreSonus Studio One). I'm not sure it is better or not for my needs and I'm not sure how their customer support is but that is something I am going to research because for me it is important (despite I only have had 4-5 tickets in 202). The main problem I reported in 2019/2020 is still unresolved. Requested remote access few times and it never worked.
As comparison I I have had some issues with SPECTRASONICS and they were resolved in a few days. Their response time is also way much quicker.

[The_Subject]

Whilst I have been with you most of the argument, I think support has deteriorated somewhat, although I've not opened so many tickets, and yes a digital company where people can work from home should be impacted less by a pandemic, I think you lost me at the two admissions:

1 - you don't believe in the coronavirus
2 - you don't believe in use of cloud data.

Unfortunately, these two facts render you in the group of people who are: blindly/deliberately/misguidedly (take your pick really, the list goes on and on and gets less polite) choosing to give a big middle finger to the world around you; where it is headed; the people in it etc. - and whilst I refuse to get facebook, and certainly have my concerns at the dystopian future I think we're headed to - it is reality. If you actively choose to raise said middle finger to reality, unfortunately there is a tendency for reality to not give a....

To paraphrase Nietzsche, if thou ignore long the abyss, the abyss will also ignore thee.

[Scoox]

You do realize we are in the middle of a global pandemic and not everything is functioning as normal, don't you?

Many software companies' employees are able to work from home, particularly customer/tech support personnel. We've all used the pandemic as an excuse to explain why we did or didn't do something...

[stringtapper]

pandemic is only in your mind - for me it does not exist.

Well, that explains a lot.