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February 13, 2016 editorial: comments

  • 26 replies
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Topic February 13, 2016 editorial: comments

Too Big to Not Fail?

A few weeks ago I wrote here about the technical issues I was having with Pro Tools and that I'd finally decided I had no other option but to pay for the annual service plan. (Paying for the right to talk to technical support, how messed up is that?) 

Although it didn’t totally fix all my issues, the advice I got from the outsourced Avid support engineer did help to some degree. Everything was going along relatively swimmingly until a couple of days ago, when I got an email from PayPal telling me that they’d just charged my account for an Avid Pro Tools 12 Subscription. This had nothing to do with the service plan, which I’d paid for a month ago. Apparently, some computer at Avid got its wires crossed and randomly billed me $99, as if I were an annual subscriber for the software, which I most definitely am not! (If you’ve read my past columns on software subscriptions, you’ll know why.)

Trying to get this mistake rectified has been a comedy of errors more reminiscent of dealing with a giant health insurance or cable company than a music software developer. Has Avid become that bureaucratic? The answer, at least based on my experience so far, is “yes.” I’ve had dealings with a lot of music gear and software manufacturers over the years, but never, ever before, have I felt like a number, not a person — until now.

Here’s how it went down: I called Avid support and was asked by an automated voice to enter system ID (a number you’re assigned with your Pro Tools license or support license without which you can’t even get a live person to speak to you). I entered it and somebody answered after only a few seconds. So far, so good. 

He, too, asked me for my system ID. I explained the problem and he told me that I had to speak with the “Registration Department,” and that he’d transfer me, which he did. I soon heard another recording asking for my system ID, which I entered (again). 

After a few minutes more on hold, an agent answered and asked for my system ID. His voice sounded familiar. It was the first guy again. He seemed surprised that my call had been routed back to him. He then told me I should call a different number. Ugh. 

So I did, and after a few minutes on hold (and thankfully, no requests for my system ID), I explained the problem again, and he put me on hold for another few minutes. He then came back and said he’d looked up my records and found no evidence that Avid had charged me for anything. This was rather frustrating to hear, and I gave him the PayPal transaction ID. He said he had to send it up the line to another person to deal with, and that I’d hear back from them later in the day.

Later, I got an email saying that according to their records I didn't even have a Pro Tools license. I discovered that, even though I’d given them the correct email address, they’d used the wrong one, which was associated with a different, but inactive, user account I’d once set up. For once, I wished they had asked for my system ID, perhaps then they would have pulled up the correct information. I emailed them screenshots from my bank and PayPal accounts both of which clearly show the transaction. Now I guess I’ll have to wait until next week to see whether they credit me or whether I have to keep burrowing deeper into the bureaucratic morass. 

I’m starting to regret my decision to stay with Pro Tools. I still love the software, but the company, not so much.

View this discussion’s subject
11
Quote:
It's obvious that you've had a great history with Pro Tools. However, ask yourself the question, "Is it worth it... now?" As in any relationship, sometimes the current aggravation outweighs the former good times.

Good advice, for sure, and yes, I am having that conversation with myself right now.
12
Quote:
it amazes me with all the other choices for stable DAWs out there that PT still remains an industry standard. Although, I give exceptional credit to their marketing department for keeping the dinosaur alive..

As I mentioned in an earlier response, I think the industry standard thing isn't going to change until the big time engineers and producers switch away from it. That doesn't strike me as too likely, as they've all worked most of their careers on it, and would be seriously slowed down by moving to another DAW. That's only my opinion, of course, and perhaps there's more dissatisfaction about it in the pro audio community than I'm hearing.
13
Quote:
I can understand your point completely and sympathize you…:oo: ! They believe that you do not have the strength to change DAW, especially if you are a professional user, due to the fact that you actually invested valuable time and money.

That has been the dilemma for me. It would be throwing out a lot of time and energy spent learning PT, and going to another DAW would slow me down big time. Then again, experiences such as I described in the newsletter do make the idea of switching tempting.
14
Mike, You should just cancel the PayPal transaction. Screw them.
15
Quote:
Mike, You should just cancel the PayPal transaction. Screw them.

I tried, but PayPal wouldn't let me just cancel it. I had to initiate an official dispute of the payment with PayPal, and so far, nothing has happened with that. I might have to do an editorial about PayPal in the near future. ;)
16
Mr.Levine,

Finally! Many thanks to you and those who responded to the inequity that is the very snobbish "industry standard" Pro Tools. I loaded Pro Tools First into my Mac and what a disaster! Their, I'm sorry to say second rateness laid siege to my Mac with all the logging in just use a very basic and very limiting (virtually no plugins, save 3 projects in a cloud) piece of software. What? Are you kidding me? Give it to me or don't. I don't want 1/2 give with some maybe and here your hands are tied. I'll buy the full version if it's good as you say. I have in the past. There are way better Daw's out there with 1/1000 the hassles per ratio of satisfaction. My Mac froze up on several occasions dealing with the "industry standard" and I will never, ever be a Pro Tools user again. What a nightmare! Personally, I use Cubase and I absolutely love it and the same goes for Logic Pro X. Pro Tools has only has only angered me and within 2 weeks of downloading Pro Tools First I deleted it from my beautiful and now bug free Mac. I've seen many giants fall for this very same reason and as far as I'm concerned their demise is imminent. Pro Tools is only creating enemies and not customers. Conceit is never a good thing, the same goes for greed and mixture of the two with a little dash of intitlement only gets a backlash. Pro Tools can kiss my be....!
17
Quote:
I will never, ever be a Pro Tools user again.

Don't hold back, tell us what you really think. ;) Seriously, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with PT. And you're correct that Avid's attitude towards its customers is what causes a lot of the problems people have with the program.
18
...and that's why it sometimes referred to as ..."Blow Tools...
19
Have a look at Sibelius.
It became the industry standard scoring program, battling it out with Finale as the twins that wrote it made it better and better.
Avid bought it then fired all the developers and let it languish and made a bundle by doing nothing until they faced a huge amount of backlash.

At one point I had heard that the twins even wanted to buy it back. I'm not sure what state it is in now as I faced the pain and changed scoring software to both Finale and Notion (Prosonus).

I find that Notion is much better for sketching and Finale better for final scores.

Speed of production is about the same as it was now. Having two programs that I am familiar with means I am less likely to get caught again. Similarly, my main DAW for years has been Sonar, but I became familiar with Reaper as there was so much enthusiasm for it. So I have spent a bit of time working out how to move from one to the other.

I now feel quite wise not going near PT. 8)

Oh 'Industry Standard' . How many times have we heard this.
All because a few people get hits using certain gear and software doesn't mean any one with the same stuff will get a hit too. It is still hard to convince a lot of people of this.

The only time you need 'industry standard' anything is if you are moving your music from one studio to another. (or you are working in the film industry)
If you need to do this this often then you need to take the time to work out how to quickly transfer it to and from your DAW. That's all. Better to become an expert in file transfer, because the standard today will not be the standard tomorrow.

The other thing is, each program is better at doing different things. If it is easy to swap between them then you get a super DAW and perhaps it isn't necessary to upgrade so often.

Mike perhaps its time to add a new DAW to your arsenal and work out a way to swap between them (before you have an important session, that is )

All the best
Royce
20
Hey Mike,

I have been a diehard Cakewalk user for over 30 years and have always been very satisfied with their tech support team. I am currently at Sonar Producer X3 and have no plans on upgrading to their new rental/subscription model. I prefer owning over renting every time.

AVID on the other hand, has been a bureaucratic nightmare for over 8 years. I noticed it when I was a user of Avid Liquid Pro and then Media Composer. I eventually got out of the video production field, but have had similar experiences with AVID where I recently had to deploy Pro Tools 11 into a digital music lab at a school where I work.

It's always the same old story when trying to get ahold of a real person there; you don't get a real person unless you have a system ID. If you don't have one, the voice phone tree just hangs up on you. Hope things get better for you, Mike.

PS: Check out my DAW here! http://warpdriveprod.com/studio_tour.htm

Sincerely,

Marc Levinson
President,
Warp Drive Productions
http://warpdriveprod.com/
Aliso Viejo, CA

Authorized sE electronics & Clearsonic dealer.

[ Post last edited on 02/13/2016 at 20:17:27 ]