Whoops

There is a third business model for handling product technical support; third party sales vendors. Online vendors like Guitar Center, Sam Ash, American Musical Supply and Sweetwater sometimes have in house product experts to provide support for the products they sell.  These experts will work to develop back door channels so they can obtain answers beyond their knowledge base.
 
This was explained to me by an online vendor when I asked why they sold Sonar Artist but did not sell Music Creator.  Sonar Artist is a professional grade product which requires professional grade support.  Music Creator was a consumer grade product so professional grade support was not necessary.  Music Creator support was handled by email.
 
Most of the online vendors I've dealt with are proud of the service they provide to their customers.  Most will support any product they sell for as long as the product is in use by the original owner.
 
With this information in mind, when I do upgrade my DAW I will likely purchase it through a music store, not Cakewalk so I will be assured of receiving the level of support I desire.
 
I think it would greatly benefit Cakewalk to consider steps that would drive customers to vendors and minimize direct customer sales.

michaelnuzum
I think I have to agree with Anderton on that last bit (paid support model) with the one caveat:  if support finds the problem is inherent to the software and not user error, the support charge would be waived for that one instance.  Otherwise, I am happy to pay for support. 

Waiving charges for warranty work and the like is much more common in this industry than you might think. When I was consulting to Alesis many years ago, their warranty expressly said that repairs would be free within the first 90 days, assuming there wasn't outright abuse of the gear. But the reality was that at that time, they NEVER charged anyone for repairs. 
 
I asked why they didn't mention that more prominently, because it seemed like a real selling point - free warranties for life! The answer was "keeps out the riffraff." They would rather have people think they'd have to pay something, then find out that there was no charge. This was even for things that were clearly the customer's fault.

I don't think a "Paid Support" model after a certain timeframe is unreasonable at all. I read a lot of posts here that could've been solved by simply looking at the extensive documentation provided with the program, or doing a forum search for previously answered questions. I'm in the IT support business myself and can't begin to tell you how many calls I get from users who could have helped themselves by simply RTFM. For folks who have legitimate issues like account / command center, or activation problems, then a call for support is warranted. There might even be the opportunity to have a paid express lane for the users who have businesses / critical applications to support via Cakewalk software. But any reasonable person has got to realize that my Sonar 8.5 32 bit running on Windows XP isn't making any money for CW and can't reasonably be expected to be supported in the same way as a current SPLAT user. After all, CW has to pay all of the support people somehow.

EdOak
Couldn't agree more. I have been waiting for weeks to get an issue resolved through support and haven't heard a word other than a computer generated acknowledgement that my initial request was received.

What's the issue?

michaelnuzum
Hey Starise- I really need to pop in and correct you.  I am the OP.  You are making a few assumptions here.
 
You say:"We know that support still exists. Alex has said they are looking into this problem which btw probably isn't expedited by a nasty post. " 
 
Not true.  I did not know one way or the other, hence the post.  I made a support request and never heard back from a human being.  After three weeks of not hearing back, and having no other channels or means with which to directly contact Cakewalk and ask if something had changed, I asked the question here of the community.  Legit request for info.  (And by the way, I have now heard from support.  So my request actually did get expedited because of my "nasty post" as you'd like to call it.)
 
Also, somehow you have assumed I am on X3.  I never said that, don't know how you came to that conclusion.  In another thread which I posted in problem reports, asking for help there, I have a detailed account of what I am using.  But I never mentioned it in this thread.  So, sorry, but I have the top of the line, all the bells and whistles (plus lots of extras) and completely up to date (as of yesterday) version of platinum producer.  No need to upgrade/update/rescan.  (Lance's post had a link to an old problem in X3, but that's not what I am using, so any help given there isn't currently applicable, unfortunately).  And yes, I should expect it to be supported if the product website has an option for such, which it currently does.
 
Also, I did not get any acknowledgement (until I posted my "nasty post"), or suggestions about fixing the problem.  I was asked "had I tried....(fill in the blank)" and the answer has always been yes.  So no progress yet on that front.
 
I also agree the console emulation should be fixed.  Problem is, it has happened to me before, maybe three years ago, and that's when Cake acknowledged it was an internal error in the software and gave the 64 bit precision engine/ mono-stereo interleave workaround.  That was several years ago I got that help. This is now a new iteration of pretty much the same behavior.  That's great for you if you've never had it happen, but it's annoying.  It means I have to go back and spend a few wasted hours remixing the project if the only solution is to turn the emulators off.  I was hoping to avoid that, but I guess I have now wasted that and more needing to re-explain myself a few times over.  Oh well.
 
This thread was a legit request for the current status of something that had been a value in the past and now seems inaccessible in a timely manner.  Nothing nasty about wanting to know what the reality of that situation is.  Maybe a little testy and frustrated at being ignored, but not nasty.
 
And the fact that this thread has been viewed 1800+ times in four days tells me I am not alone in feeling that way.

I mean't they are looking into the support problem, not your problem in particular, although I'm sure Cake wants to address your issue as well.
 
I am guessing here in saying I think the underlying code in X3 has enough similarity to make the comparison. I didn't know what you were using and I did jump to that conclusion. Even so, there seems to be a common thread there to this problem and it only seems to affect some setups. Not all by far. A bug is still a bug. I'm sure you understand that the larger more pervasive bugs are addressed first. I know that sucks, but your problem has been seen to.
 
I guess we can call it a nasty post or a cry for help using another way to get a problem solved. I get that. The whole squeaky wheel thing. The squeaky wheel gets oiled first, or so we've been told. 
 
As someone in the tech end of service, I see genuine attempts to a solution as legitimate. In the mind of the customer, multiple vain tries equals zero effect and deserves a tongue lashing. Still someone was in your court doing their best to solve your problem. I feel for those sitting behind a desk with a pile of unanswered emails and a boss who is probably cracking the whip.
 
I agree that  a company who offers support should not be overly ambitious in their promises to the customer.Probably better to be cautious. Management historically tends to over rate the capabilities of his/her dept. usually to look good to upper management, or they think that making lofty goals will "squeeze" just a little bit more out of the worker ants. When the techs can't deliver, they get blamed. Ever since I've been involved in customer service there has been this disconnect between management and those actually doing the work. It's very rare to find a shirt that really understands a dept. and has a realistic set of goals. They get paid to squeeze the maximum out of the dept. Upper management doesn't usually care how they do that. I can't say Cake is similar. I do believe they do their best. It isn't in their interest to let customers down. Maybe it's time to rethink the message customers are getting.
 
On paid customer service- I believe the upper end product is already priced at the higher ranges for the prosumer user which is what I believe the base primarily is. To have multiple sales (like Waves) tends to devalue the perception of the product over time.A sale isn't really a sale when you have one every week. Why not simply price the product into a range that sits well with the majority of users? This isn't to say we can't take advantage of those "sales" and save money in upgrades. I just see companies having sales all the time as a ploy. They figure a few will buy at full retail and they will get the rest with periodic discount incentives. This only partially works IMHO.
 
This is why I think a paid customer service plan wouldn't work very well in the long haul. The prosumer already thinks he paid enough. I tend to agree when comparing other daws.
 
I can understand frustration in not having a problem resolved. Especially if the problem is keeping a money producing studio from making money. This is seldom the case. Any decent establishment has some kind of redundancy if they're smart.
 
The 1800 views in four days doesn't mean they all agree with you or have a problem :)
 

OK imagine the position is posted and you take that job. The heat is on now. You can't go to bed until you solve the problem = you won't ever sleep. If money is involved in having decent customer service the demands are now much much higher.............kind of like guaranteeing an update every month, plus a few other goodies occasionally.Or saying you might develop for Mac. I see this as another can of worms JMO.
 
The concept is nice. An advertised concept must be delivered or you have more p***ed off customers.

also, surely the real question is "why are there so many support requests?"

Resonant Serpent These two statements are contradictory.

yes, like this schroedinger's forum here - is it a peer-to-peer forum or is it an official bug-reporting place?
 
as for drug tests, you're clearly giving them the wrong tests, or why test at all if they can do the job?

Thanks for replying Anderson. I have copied my email to Cakewalk and pasted it below. Cheers.
 Hello Ed,
 
  Thank you for contacting Cakewalk! We look forward to being able to assist   you.
 
  Your case number is 358753. For your records, your   inquiry is copied below:
 
  Hello.   I have a very strange problem here. When I install Melodyne as a region   effect in a clip, a lot of times I cannot monitor the audio of the blobs when   I am editing them. All I get is silence. I have enabled blob monitoring in   Melodyne. I seem to be getting audio signal because in the Melodyne window,   there is a meter by the "Compare" button that displays signal when   I am on a blob. I have contacted Melodyne and they say this a problem within   the DAW. I should mention that this problem only occurs in ARA mode. If I   install Melodyne as a channel effect and then transfer audio into Melodyne it   works fine. Very frustrating. Please help. Thank you.
 
  If you have additional details you would like to provide, respond directly to   this email without changing this subject.

EdOak
Thanks for replying Anderson. I have copied my email to Cakewalk and pasted it below. Cheers.
 
Hello Ed,

Thank you for contacting Cakewalk! We look forward to being able to assist   you.

Your case number is 358753. For your records, your   inquiry is copied below:

Hello.   I have a very strange problem here. When I install Melodyne as a region   effect in a clip, a lot of times I cannot monitor the audio of the blobs when   I am editing them. All I get is silence. I have enabled blob monitoring in   Melodyne. I seem to be getting audio signal because in the Melodyne window,   there is a meter by the "Compare" button that displays signal when   I am on a blob. I have contacted Melodyne and they say this a problem within   the DAW. I should mention that this problem only occurs in ARA mode. If I   install Melodyne as a channel effect and then transfer audio into Melodyne it   works fine. Very frustrating. Please help. Thank you.

If you have additional details you would like to provide, respond directly to   this email without changing this subject.

Are you doing it like this



 
And what audio interface are you using ?